Shallow-Water Ducks

Shallow-Water Ducks

When the ducks come—splayed feet anticipating a frigid plunge into shallows; wings cupped, rocking in a jerky side-to-side; keen eyes scanning—there is no finer experience in the hunting world. Oh, there is the enhanced palpitation of heart when distant leaf crunch...
Neglected Birds

Neglected Birds

Responses vary greatly when someone hears the unexpected. There may be a blank stare or emphatic sigh or even a look of mild alarm.  There may be the sudden gasp accentuated with a rhetorical, “Really?” This is not so much a question as it is spontaneous disbelief. Or...
The Declination of a Bowhunter

The Declination of a Bowhunter

For any hunter, fancies flip and flop and morph. Change seems a common entity. As a bowhunter, my lifelong hunting journey was no exception. A green vine, thumb-sized and flexible, served well for the bow – in those tender years of boyhood. A three-day life maximum...
The Day I Found Myself – A Wood Duck Hunt

The Day I Found Myself – A Wood Duck Hunt

The day I found myself, the wood duck came full-speed. From upriver and darting among cypress and willows — spilling air from his wings. Things had not been going particularly well, one single and specific vehicle of distress difficult to identify. Perhaps it was...
New England Woodcock and Storied Shotguns

New England Woodcock and Storied Shotguns

Storied is not exclusive to price tag or class. Occasionally the twain rub shoulders and have a bountiful supply of tales to tell, but there are no guarantees. This Purdey, however, had it all. Scratches and dings and rubbed-smooth spots. Cost? Likely something...
Flooded-Timber Mallards

Flooded-Timber Mallards

Daylight promised its coming in typical Delta fashion. Scudding clouds that produced off-and-on splatters of heavy, iced rain drops riding a north wind that hardly qualified as gusts. Still, that wind was more than ample to toy with denuded oaks, easily making eager...
Admiration On a Distant Continent

Admiration On a Distant Continent

The 10 years or so of acquaintance with these two have left a powerful impression. My admiration remains. Pieter still wears the same hat he was wearing when I first met him quite a few years back. But as for that, so do I. I suppose we both discovered that a good...
History from A Duck Blind

History from A Duck Blind

Nash Buckingham (1880-1971) was, in his day and still now, one of the most renowned and best-loved outdoor writers to ever ply the trade. The Limb Dodger was overdue. Concern mounted, and talk had already turned to possible causes of why the train had not bumped and...

Hunting of Old – Lonely Journey Backward

Tony Kinton details the ups and downs, reliefs and frustrations and the total fulfilment of experience that comes with the hunting of old. Obstinacy is considered poor taste. But fracturing protocol and proper behavior were not my intent. Rather, I was simply curious...
An Old Man’s Memories of August

An Old Man’s Memories of August

This fisherman’s fairytale is far from folklore… A true story of giants, fairies, heroism and romance stay alive in an old man’s memories. Once upon a time long ago and far, far away, there was a boy. “Wait,” someone will shout. “That sounds like an...