True Blue

True Blue

Grandma’s farm consisted of five acres, mostly wooded except for a half-acre garden loaded with berries and vegetables. Out back stood a shed stuffed with old rakes and spades and other hand tools. Mason jars were scattered among bushel and berry baskets filled with...

The Bond Between Hunter and Dog

The Bond Between Hunter and Dog

The guy’s name was Charlie, I think. The one time I met him, at the now long-defunct Gustav Pabst Invitational Hungarian Partridge Shoot, he showed up in a Jaguar sedan with his German short-haired pointer riding shotgun. That was pretty cool, but what made an even...

The Real Deal

The Real Deal

Without the ordinary, there would be no extraordinary. If there were no karaoke, how would we recognize the spine-tingling excellence of Pavarotti or Bocelli? How would we recognize the genius of Einstein or Hawking if there were no ordinary thinkers? And who would...

Bob White The Story of a Quail

Bob White The Story of a Quail

The nest, with its precious contents of 16 little eggs, occupied a snug corner of the old rail fence, hidden amongst the tall rank grass from the sharp eye of marauding crow or pirate hawk. Mr. and Mrs. Bob White were very proud of their treasures, and Mr. Bob would...

Gang-bustin’ Game  Warden

Gang-bustin’ Game Warden

The young game warden had known what he was going to find ever since he first spotted the big Lincoln in the forest clearing and saw the machine gun lying across the back seat. After glancing quickly around him, he had moved quietly and carefully through the woods...

Sanctity of Sanctuary Ranch

Sanctity of Sanctuary Ranch

The words “sanctity” and “sanctuary” both have Latin roots. Sanctity, from sanctus, defined as “sacred or holy,” and sanctuary from sanctuarium, “a sacred or private place.” These words both define in totality the experience at Pat Bollman’s and his family’s whitetail...

On the Spoor of a Spiral Horn

On the Spoor of a Spiral Horn

If I was going to take a shot at the kudu we’d been hunting all day, it would have to be now. And it would be like threading a needle. If I was going to take a shot at the spiral horned kudu we’d been hunting and tracking all day, it would have to be now. And it was...