Keeping Things Wild
There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot . . . This is a story for those who cannot. In 1927 Crazy Ernie, Kid Al and my dad won a hunting shack in a poker game and lost their hearts to a swamp. In a remote northwoods clearing stood a...
Attacked By a Grizzly
A veteran prospector, Hatheway was heading out from camp to stir something up for the pot. It had somehow become his task to put food on the table at the small mining camp. He was the oldest and felt somewhat responsible to use his shooting skills to keep the stewpot...
Swarovski Optik Special Offer Extended
SPONSORED CONTENT Swarovski Optik has extended its special offer for SLC and EL binoculars. Now through the end of December, you can save $277 on an SLC 15x56 and up to $445 on an EL 8.5x42 or 10x42. When hunting, the smallest details are crucial and hunters around...
Wren & Ivy 2023 Collection
As the amber leaves of autumn cascade, so does Wren & Ivy’s newest collection. Discover products crafted with passion, echoing the elegance of yesteryears while embracing the conveniences of today. Just like those cherished moments before dawn on a hunt, this...
Spirits of the Forest
The bull appears to be staring straight through me. I can smell his muskiness, and I’m thinking that he must be able to smell me too. He continues to walk toward me as if he is going to greet me and introduce me to his herd. He’s bigger than I ever imagined and walks...
Venison Osso Buco Recipe
This venison osso buco recipe is a new, tasty way to prepare tender venison hams without having to grind or cube the meat. While my preferences when it comes to venison tend to run to cube steak, backstrap (too bad the whole deer isn’t backstrap) and ground meat,...
The First Time it Comes for You
Oh, man, it was big. Actually, he was big, a mature, bull Cape buffalo. If you knocked off the tickbirds and caught him as he stepped out of the shower, he was a light heavyweight of 1,800 pounds. That number hadn’t really meant anything to me until I’d beheld him...
High Peril on Polychrome Mountain
For two bone-chilling days, he pursued the rams unrelentingly, from dawn to dark, scaling precipitous cliffs, inching across narrow ledges and sliding down icy slopes. March 9. While climbing the mountains the past few days, I had been uncomfortable because of warmer...
Ghosts in the Ravine
I'm not a superstitious man. I’m not afraid of ghosts. It’s just a skull I tell myself, but contemplate my pale, frail host. Author's Note: While it appeared in the fall 2020 Guns & Hunting issue of Sporting Classics magazine, I wrote this little poem/story for...
Roosevelt the Rifleman
With horse and rifle he explored frontiers, indulging a lust that would transcend politics. “Every sense keyed up...I pushed forward the safety of the double-barreled Holland rifle. As I stepped to one side [to aim], the rhino saw me and jumped to his feet with the...