The Making of a Literary Sportsman Whether you admire him for his prose or the adventurous lifestyle he led, vilify him for his philandering or even pity him for his untimely and ignoble ending, Ernest Hemingway nonetheless remains one of the most influential literary...
Standing before an audience seated around him in an open field was a stout middle-aged man wearing a shooting vest and a white flat cap emblazoned with a big red “W.” In his left hand he held a Winchester Model 63 autoloader .22 rifle and in his right hand, a small...
Despite the promise of great upland and waterfowl hunting, dear friends and a place where Ernest could escape fame and work without interruption, Mary and Papa Hemingway did not return to Idaho until the fall of 1958. During the intervening decade, Ernest spent...
Ernest Hemingway is inextricably linked to both Sun Valley and the nearby town of Ketchum, Idaho. He had a special affinity for the countryside with its backdrop of the Sawtooth Mountains, which reminded him of Spain, for the excellent bird hunting he found there and...
The tendency for male dogs to mark their territory is pretty well known, but these competitive Labs take it to the next level…literally. Anyone who has owned dogs for a long enough period of time has had to deal with such things as snatched food (AKA counter...
Purchasing a hunting puppy is typically a joyous occasion for a family…but it should automatically come with a few additional items as a standard package. Not long after my wife Kat and I became the proud new owners of an 8-week-old Labrador retriever puppy...
Treat the earth well; it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. The woods are mostly silent now. As the old man’s boots disturbed the dry autumn...
A collective group of gun-smuggling savants advise a young, newly wed husband on plausible strategies for sneaking guns past his wife. I was at my local sportsman’s club recently, a friendly neighborhood place where threadbear flannel or last year’s camo pattern are...
If you have been around firearms long enough, the chances are good that you have witnessed, committed or even been the unlucky recipient of unsafe hunting practices or careless firearm handling. The cottontail rabbit zig-zagged toward me across the freshly powdered...
When hunting above 8,000 feet, be sure to add time in your travel schedule to acclimatize for several days, especially if you are coming from sea level. I had just finished graduate school and, as a gift to myself, I had arranged to meet with friends in Colorado for...
