Jane Mason: Hemingway’s Femme Fatale
Among the most accomplished outdoorswomen of her day, gorgeous Jane Mason inspired Hemingway’s nastiest femmes fatales.
The Irish Setter: A Victim of Its Own Beauty
Askew’s Carolina Lady was, and is, the foundation female—the Eve, if you will—of the field-type Irish setter as we know it today. One day a friend of Ned LeGrande’s stopped by to visit him at his Willow Winds Farm, near Douglassville in southeastern Pennsylvania. At...
Immortal Dogs: The Sporting Art of J.M. Tracy
Before there was an Eldridge Hardie, a Tom Quinn or a Bob Abbett; before there was a William Harnden Foster or a Percival Rosseau; even before there was an Edmund Osthaus or a Gustav Muss-Arnolt, there was John Martin Tracy. And J.M. Tracy, to use the name he signed...
September’s Lessons
It was the kind of heat that has weight—like an enormous hand pressing down. Every so often a puffy cloud would pass, obscuring the sun and providing a few moments of blessed relief. But then the sky would clear, the sun’s unblinking gaze would hammer down once again,...
The Opening Weekend Tragedy
This October marks the 21st anniversary of one of the most tragic events in the history of upland bird hunting: opening weekend of the 2003 South Dakota pheasant season. Over the horrifying course of those two days, more than 100 gundogs (no one knows the exact...
Requiem for a Peregrine
Everything about the peregrine falcon is spectacular — even in death. “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” – Aldo Leopold Early one evening toward the end of April, my English setter, Tina, and I...
Canine Myths and Misconceptions
I used to think that everyone who’s ever owned a dog considers him- or herself an expert on canine behavior. Upon further review, however, I’ve amended that opinion. I now think that everyone who’s ever been around a dog considers him- or herself an expert on canine...
Lost, Alone and Fighting to Survive
Troy Galow hadn’t planned to hunt that January day a few years back. But a friend of a friend was looking to shoot a “cull buck”—a nice but non-trophy animal, basically—and Galow, who makes his home in Liberty Hill, Texas, and has a deer lease on a ranch in the South...
Never Give Up
Feather serves as an object lesson in the art of not only living with a disability, but achieving goals that the rest of the world tries to tell you are unattainable.
