Our Mission
Since 2012, our mission at The Big Game Hunting Blog has been to provide detailed and unbiased information on cartridge comparisons, cartridge profiles, gear reviews and recommendations, and stories about hunting adventures that occur both in exotic destinations as well as those that take place closer to home.
No matter who you are, where you live, or what you’re most passionate about hunting, we strive to deliver the necessary information to help you be more successful afield so that you can better provide for and protect your family and to promote sustainable, conservation based hunting.
What We Do
We comprehensively research, test out, and recommend a broad range of hunting and shooting products in order to provide a curated list of recommendations from writers with subject-matter expertise.
Our team is obsessive about updating articles and keeping our existing recommendations accurate, up to date, and as helpful as possible. To that end, we do our best to recommend products at various price levels, designed for different use cases, and provided by multiple different brands.
Why You Should Trust Us
This platform is built on a foundation of audience trust and realize that trust can never be regained if lost.
For this reason, our team at The Big Game Hunting Blog never lets retailers, manufacturers, public relations firms, or salespeople dictate our content and product coverage.
Some articles on this site include affiliate links. This means we earn a commission if you make a purchase at a retailer site after clicking on a link from this site. This commission comes at no extra cost to you and some of those links are even paired with discounts or promotions for readers of this site.
All articles with affiliate links on this site include a disclosure statement near the beginning of the page.
Likewise, advertisements from various retailers also appear on this site from time to time. Advertisers never have sway over editorial content.
Bottom line: we recommend the products we think are best and will not hesitate to share what we like and do not like about a product, regardless of whether or not a company advertises on our site and/or an affiliate relationship we may or may not have with a manufacturer.
How We Test Products
We believe in using gear just like you would—at the range, in your deer stand, up in the mountains, etc.—in real-world scenarios settings that truly put them through their paces.
We buy the majority of the products that we test through regular channels. That said, sometimes we will accept review models of products, especially for those that are not available for the general public to purchase (like a new or soon to be announced rifle and/or ammunition line).
In those cases, we offer to return products to manufacturers after testing and review when possible.
Regardless of what we’re reviewing and how we actually obtain that gear, we do not charge for reviews and we never alter our articles at the behest of the manufacturer unless we made a factual error.
The basic guideline we use for whether or not we’d recommend something is: “Would we recommend this item to one of our friends or family members?“
If the answer is no, then we won’t recommend it to you either.
We realize that different pieces of gear may excel under some situations, but not perform as well under others. At the same time, there are also other items (like lead core ammunition) that are legal to hunt with in some places, but are prohibited in other areas.
In each case, we do our best to make these distinctions clear and to recommend items to our audience that are both legal to use and well suited for the specific situations they plan on going afield under.
We typically like to include at least five products (and more if possible) in each product comparison in order to give you real insights into how different brands and models measure up against each other in different fields.
We want to ensure we provide our audience with the most accurate and unbiased information and recommendations as possible.
Our writers are also committed to delivering the most accurate and up-to-date analysis and recommendations possible to our audience. Every article we publish receives a thorough fact checking and an independent fact-checker will even verify the information in certain articles as necessary.
We also believe in showing our work. Our writers are diligent about using and citing appropriate outside sources in our articles. If possible, we provide a link back to the original source of that information, either in the body of the article or at the very end.
As careful as we are in our work, we recognize that errors sometimes happen. When a reader points out an issue with an article we’ve published, the editor-in-chief will review the complaint. If necessary, we’ll update the relevant portions of the article.
Our Editorial Team
The Big Game Hunting Blog is led by founder and editor-in-chief John McAdams and a team of writers who live all over the world and specialize in a variety of outdoor pursuits. Our writers have served their communities and nations in Armed Forces and/or in law enforcement, have participated in shooting matches, and have hunted a tremendous variety of big game all over the world.
John McAdams is the founder and editor and chief of The Big Game Hunting Blog. He started the site in 2012, has written the vast majority of the articles on the blog, and exercises editorial control over all pieces submitted by other writers.
He graduated with a B.S. in History from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2007 and received a commission as an Armor officer in the United States Army.
During his time in the Army, he deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and served as a Tank Platoon Leader, Mortar Platoon Leader, Brigade Plans Officer, Cavalry Troop Commander, Officer Candidate School Instructor, and Battalion Operations Officer.
John is an experienced shooter and long time hunter who has pursued big game in 8 different countries on 3 separate continents. In addition to extensive experience hunting North American big game like whitetail deer, black bear, mule deer, pronghorn, and elk, John has also pursued a wide variety of African plains game, has successfully taken 2 of the African Big 5, and even harvested a Himalayan Tahr in New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
John is a gun and ballistics nerd of the first degree and is passionate about ballistics and sharing what does (and doesn’t) work with our readers.
He currently lives in Texas with his wife and two children.
Contact Us
If you have questions, comments, or opinions you’d like to share with us, please feel free to contact us here.
