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...
Love Gloves
Never underestimate the power of suggestion, especially from a crafty old codger with a bird dog.
Arriving in Tinkhamtown
“He was going back to Tinkhamtown. It was a long way, but he knew where he was going. He would follow the road through the woods and over the crest of a hill and down the hill to the stream, and cross the sagging timbers of the bridge, and on the other side would be the place called Tinkhamtown. He was going back to Tinkhamtown.”
The Tail of the Mangy Mutt
It was my very first hunt with Lacie, and I said to the plantation manager, “Could you please put out twelve quail, two chukars and two pheasants, and all as singles in a small field.” He replied, “We have a small training field that is planted with sorghum. But you...
Getting Socrates Drunk
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....
Hunting Retriever Club: Celebrating 40 Years
Happy 40th Birthday HRC! I rolled down the window when I saw the cloud of smoke billowing out from behind the food truck. It didn’t matter that there weren’t many restaurants in Bono, Arkansas, ’cause this one smelled great. There was a man sitting at a picnic table...
Hall of Fame Trainer Billy Wunderlich
As good with people as he was with dogs.
Dog Eyes: Windows to the Soul
Gaze into the eyes of a dog. When they are deep and clear, when they pulse for the hunt like bellowed coals and the reflections in them flash like lightning with the restless lights of life on fire. And where do you find tranquility? A restoration of spirit, a calming...
Weep No More, My Lady
A most unlikely bird dog lifts a boy to the cusp of manhood.
The Meat Dog
“Any dog courageous enough to bust himself up to point a bird for me earns my respect. And it is for their tireless and gritty hard work that I am forever grateful.”