Ruffed Grouse Are Not Gentlemen

Ruffed Grouse Are Not Gentlemen

by | Jul 23, 2024 | , ,

Ruffed grouse are survivalists, like anything wild. Keen masters of escape, Houdini had nothing on them. I’ve had them use the back door too many times to think it’s chance. And when that door is covered, they fly out the side window. I am convinced they thumb their...

Getting Socrates Drunk

Getting Socrates Drunk

by | Jul 23, 2024 | , , ,

Stuck for a name, we had it when Uncle Harry christened the stray pup “Socrates,” given his proclivity to poison himself. Worse than a baby in a bathroom cabinet, right from the git-go he liked stuff he shouldn’t and revealed a fatal attraction for everything liquid....

Mr. Detwiler: A Ghostly Grouse Hunt

Mr. Detwiler: A Ghostly Grouse Hunt

by | Jul 22, 2024 | , ,

Who was this strange old man who handled a shotgun like no one I'd ever seen? When I first saw him, I tried to duck back into the pines, but he raised his hand in greeting and I was stuck. All the while he was coming on over through the hawthorns, I cussed under my...

Birds on the Wing

Birds on the Wing

by | Jul 21, 2024 | , ,

“When you have shot one bird flying, you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.” Before I was old enough to own a gun, wild game came to me via a boyhood...

Hunting with Babe Ruth

Hunting with Babe Ruth

by | Jul 10, 2024 | , ,

One word said it all — the greatest baseball player ever, a man who batted big and lived bigger. Babe combined incredible charisma with athletic genius. He hit like a dreadnought, was outspoken, uninhibited, profane, occasionally arrogant to teammates, often unruly...