This Hunting Life

This Hunting Life

We were learning the world. It is that learning I speak of as hunting. In the house I rent hangs a photo of me taken as a teenager. I’m lying next to my dog in some tall reeds by a river. For a long time I wondered what made me frame that picture and hang it....
Ruark On Safari: Politics

Ruark On Safari: Politics

An excerpt from Ruark Remembered by Alan Ritchie who served as Ruark’s personal secretary for 12 years. Up until the last year or so of Bob’s life, there was always a great urgency in his writing, an impatience in his attitude toward his work, and the desire to...
Parker Whedon: The Last Of The Old-Time Turkey Hunters

Parker Whedon: The Last Of The Old-Time Turkey Hunters

When Parker Whedon died on March 16, 2012 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease and the myriad complications associated with the illness, the world of turkey hunting lost perhaps its final direct link to the sport’s great names of yesteryear.  From the time...
Fangs!

Fangs!

“Now that one’s interesting! Looks like a saber-tooth cat crossed with a teddy bear!” said a DSC Convention attendee as she passed by the photo of a Chinese water deer on display in the Scandinavian Prohunters booth. In the booth, John Langraf and I were visiting with...
A Camouflage Calamity

A Camouflage Calamity

I’m gonna have to have a little talk with that Toxey Haas fellow. You know, he’s the one who makes Mossy Oak camo. Way back in the ’80s when he started making camo, one of the first patterns he invented was Bottomland. Since I’m an old Southern turkey hunter who likes...
Watch: The King

Watch: The King

In the spring woods, everything revolves around one bird. The Eastern Wild Turkey. Not just because he gobbles. Because he decides the game. Where he roosts. Where he walks. When he talks. When he disappears. Every move we make in turkey hunting starts with...
The Price of a Dog: Part 3 of 3

The Price of a Dog: Part 3 of 3

Part Three: The Devil’s Money Click Here to Read Part Two When I arrived home, I was excited to tell Mother about the double and, of course, the twelve-hundred dollars. I removed the rubber band and began counting the money onto the kitchen table. “…eight-hundred,...
Elgin Gates: A Legendary Big Game Hunter

Elgin Gates: A Legendary Big Game Hunter

Mention the word “legendary” in connection with big game hunters and hunting literature, and thoughts of most serious readers likely turn in one of two distinct directions. Most will look back to the wealth of books produced by the pioneers who sampled and savored the...