A Week Before Christmas

A Week Before Christmas

One morning, a December long-ago, a week before Christmas, Bob walked into a local store in Millerton, New York. The owner, Phil, a friend, was behind the counter taking care of a customer as Bob came in from the cold. “Late night, Bob,” he said. That wasn’t a...
A Christmas Eve Swan Shoot

A Christmas Eve Swan Shoot

Two old renegades pull off an illegal nighttime hunt, despite a surprise collision and dunking. Shooting swan by night may seem hardly the correct thing in the estimation of many, but we fowlers of the wild and “feathery” West occasionally obtain under cover of the...
One American’s Dream

One American’s Dream

Even as a Marine stationed in Afghanistan, Alex Russo never stopped dreaming of becoming a waterfowl guide. If there are any two places on our diverse planet more dissimilar than Kabul, Afghanistan, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, I can’t imagine where they could be. The...
Roland Clark The Varied Artist

Roland Clark The Varied Artist

Roland Clark’s love of excellence extended beyond duck portraiture. More than other hunters, waterfowlers are men sustained by memory and promise. In the icy silence of the marsh, when a world of water and sky hangs suspended between darkness and daylight, a man...

Hunting Gear – Ode to Old Ways

We all know the type. Maybe it’s you, most likely it’s your old man or, perhaps, a grandfather. The one who is stuck in the “good old days.” “God almighty this is heavy,” doing my best impression of Atlas carrying what only could have amounted to the weight of the...