Grizzly Hunt – Fear in Fairyland

Soon I found a path which led me over a deep gouge in a log. I realized, this was a bear path! I’d followed deer trails, but never had I walked a path used only by bears. Roland Burrows turned his boat out to sea and said, “I’ll be back tonight at...

Jay Kemp Swinging for the Fence

“I don’t want to bunt every time. I’m going to swing for the fence.” Jay Kemp is explaining how his most successful painting came to life. He wanted to paint a big bull elk, he says, running a hand through his hair, green eyes looking beyond...
10 Best Hunting States Ranked

10 Best Hunting States Ranked

Fresh off my annual multi-state fall hunting tour — part of the occupational hazard of being an outdoor television host, former magazine editor and book author (I know, it’s a dirty job…) — it seems an opportune time to assess the state of hunting. That is, with more...

Blacktail Bait with Wine Grapes

Blacktail hunting in California vineyards is an uncommon pursuit because California vineyard blacktails are an uncommon animal. Texans have a saying. Don’t Californicate Texas. Keep your ground hugging Ferraris, man buns and cappuccinos on the Left Coast. Texas is the...

Argentina Big Game – Beautifully Weird

On a mixed-bag Argentina big game hunt, the author experiences an entirely new continent and its game.  It was evident when I met Gaucho the houndsman that he either did not speak English or didn’t choose to around me. When I shook his hand after my hunting guide and...

Best Little Aoudad Hunt, Texas

Wild sheep and sheep country have inspired a rich tradition of longing, struggle and adventure, perhaps a richer tapestry of hunting lore and literature. Some of it even true. Bighorns. Dall’s. Stone’s. Desert. Argalis. Snow sheep. These are the regal rams of fevered...

Lessons Handed Down to a Son – The Borrowed Gun

Peter Ryan on lessons handed down to a son. Our son, Jamie, is 10 years old. Today, after much pleading, he is with me at a cabin on the South Island of New Zealand, a long way from anywhere. There at the head of the valley the snow looms high overhead, waterfalls...

Old Flintlock: A Sporting Scribe for the Ages

No writer has sung the South’s sporting song with the same alluring sweetness as Archibald Hamilton Rutledge. Known to family and friends as “Old Flintlock,” he was a proud son of the southern soil with roots that reached deep into the Carolina Lowcountry’s past. His...

Hunting of Old – Lonely Journey Backward

Tony Kinton details the ups and downs, reliefs and frustrations and the total fulfilment of experience that comes with the hunting of old. Obstinacy is considered poor taste. But fracturing protocol and proper behavior were not my intent. Rather, I was simply curious...