Monarchs with the Curling Horns

Monarchs with the Curling Horns

“Ram!” It kicks you in the heart when you hear it hissed by your guide, or better yet, when you whisper it to yourself on a solo hunt. They surely do have a hold me, those monarchs with the curling horns. Always have, at least since I can remember. Over...
Texas Treasure: The Axis Deer

Texas Treasure: The Axis Deer

With their magnificent antlers and beautiful dappled coats, axis deer have become one of the Lone Star State’s most coveted trophy animals. A good hunt lingers in memory with more satisfaction than nearly all other sweet reminisces. I recall hunts with friends – the...
Vermont Moose Hunting Permit Applications Open

Vermont Moose Hunting Permit Applications Open

The deadline to apply for a Vermont moose hunting permit is July 8. Moose permit applications are available on the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department’s website for the hunt limited to Vermont’s Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) E in the northeastern corner of the...
Heidi, The Record-Breaking Retriever

Heidi, The Record-Breaking Retriever

No dog, to anybody’s knowledge, has done what Heidi did and racked up all the upland birds and all the migratory birds. In the late 1990s, on a beach in Vancouver, British Columbia, George Calef’s eye was caught by a smallish chocolate Lab. The dog was...
The Mountains Are Calling

The Mountains Are Calling

Calling to a gobbler is a way to try your hand, or mouth, at a bit of magic. I always have to convince myself that the first gobbler I hear in the spring was really a gobbler. It wasn’t a woodpecker hammering on a hickory, or a distant dog barking. It was a turkey....
Perks of a Pudelpointer

Perks of a Pudelpointer

If you want a gundog that can do everything very well in open field or woodland or water, and then be a mellow member of the household, consider the pudelpointer. The revolutions of 1848 were a series of spontaneous and uncoordinated uprisings that began in France and...
One Big Bull Elk, No Rifle

One Big Bull Elk, No Rifle

I’m still not sure who was more startled when our trails suddenly crossed, that big bull elk or me. Bear Canyon. Iron Springs. The Beaver Slide. Cañones Creek, Grouse Mesa, Bandit Peak, and the great Poso Valley—all names of places I have come to treasure over the...