Night of the Leopard
As night fell, a dense bank of fog from the Indian Ocean pushed inland over the Mozambique coast, blocking the moonlight and cloaking the forest in darkness. Condensation that had formed high in the jungle canopy literally rained down onto the leaf litter below. Just...
Hunting is Like Work
I may need to charge overtime. Treats and a half, Mike! I wrote recently that fishing is like work, and I’m here to tell you that hunting is like real work. I have to climb mountains, trek down valleys, wade or swim across rivers and struggle and muscle my way through...
The Phantom Setter
Originally published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1961, this story is one of the finest ever written about gundogs and grouse hunting. It is certainly the most chilling.
The Old Man’s Leopard and the Omen
It had to be an evil omen. The first glow of the sun eased out the night and pinked the peaks of the majestic Water Berg Range. Towering mountains, like a series of huge waves about to crash onto the land below and a crumbling old stone house guarded by flat-topped...
Report from the Field
Hunting season is here! Time to find birds! These are the days all hunting dogs live for. Hunting season is underway and once that calendar rolled over and spotted September on the exposed page, I dashed to the truck and dove in. My days now are spent sniffing about...
First Season Expectations
SPONSORED CONTENT: You’ve built up to your pup’s first hunting season — but what should you expect from your young dog? The experts weigh in. Every sporting dog owner has high expectations for their dog. Social media is flooded with beautiful images of dogs on point...
Joshua Spies the Wide World
For Joshua Spies, it's about payback. Across the lonesome, windblown prairie of northern mid-America, locals know him simply as "the kid." On this morning, the prodigal artistic son of Watertown, South Dakota, stands in his studio surrounded by six easel paintings,...
Night Sweats
It is important for a man to do a thing well, even if it is killing. The honor of a feat is the measure of how you do it...And what was the truth of me? To hell with Bob Ruark. To blazes with Hemingway, Capstick, Percival, Boddington, the whole and bunch of them. It's...
The Trespasser
"That's a very sad story,” said Austin. "It gets worse," said Ray. Passing through the ranch gate and driving down the tree-lined gravel lane toward the log house seemed like going back in time. The little English setter, asleep in the passenger seat for the past...
The Price Per Pound
The other day I was eating a pheasant breast Mike had grilled when he said, “Cameron, slow down gobbling on that thing, it is very expensive per pound.” Well, how dare him tell me how to eat. I descended from wolves and know about eating meat of all types. Now I was...