Dreams of Duxbak Days
There’s wisdom aplenty in his words, and as I become increasingly long of tooth and sparse of hackle fond memories of youth’s halcyon days seem to grow in importance. That’s a common human trait and likely always will be. Most of these dreams of yester-youth are...
Man Is The Prey
James Clarke has lived in Africa since his early 20s and was news editor of The Star in Johannesburg when his book, Man Is the Prey, was published in 1969. Clarke leads us on an investigation into the curious and unpredictable actions and motives of the leopard,...
Oneida Moccasin
Famous for its use between WWI and WWI with the U.S. Army to build dirigibles for early warning against German subs, the Russell Moccasin Oneida continues to have a strong fan base today. The smooth but tough molded leather outsoles were essential to prevent any tears...
In the Field Trial Kingdom, Labs Rule
The Labrador retriever’s distinctions are many. If there’s one arena in which the Lab is utterly and incontrovertibly dominant, it’s retriever field trials. The most popular purebred dog in America; the most popular gundog, too: the Labrador retriever’s distinctions...
Bullets, Birds, and the Blessing of Saint Expedite
Shooting trip of a lifetime, Delta Flight 101 out of Hartsfield, non-stop to Buenos Aires. Easy flight, eat supper, stretch out, drift off, wake up speaking Spanish. Five thousand some-odd miles at 700 some-odd miles-per-hour at 26,000 some-odd feet. But it’s hard...
The Firing Line
Last November in Scotland, a line of seven friends spaced 20 yards apart marched across a harvested field in pursuit of pheasant. On that misty morning, hunters, dogs and gamekeepers were eager to find birds and almost immediately they did. A brightly feathered...
Ducks Down Under
The author would enjoy many pleasant surprises during his week of waterfowling in Australia.
This Old House
When the old house was occupied, its splintering walls were stout, its diminutive shelter a fortress of good spirits, its heartwood hale and its ambiance light with ale. Way long ago now, in the antediluvian and simplistic age in which I knew boyhood, circa. 1954,...
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
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...