Author Archives: Greg McReynolds
Beware the bird
Before you grab it from the mouth of the dog, make sure it’s dead.
Filed under Ditch Parrots, Talegate
Better days
Sometimes, they let us down. At the end of a season, half-a-dozen years in, you expert a certain level of professionalism. Mostly you get it. Then there are the days like Thursday. Her blood was up. After a series of … Continue reading
This is it
I hang a left at the stop sign and skid sideways in a little November fishtail. Visibility is down to beer-can-chucking distance. I aim for the tire tracks in the snow and goose it before I get run down by … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Pheasant on steroids?
If you want to get straight to the meat of the thing, just fast forward to 4 minutes in.
Filed under Fodder
Less than ideal
This is not the cover photo from a $9 upland hunting magazine. Red, high-brass 12 gauge hulls litter the ground, always three together – as in BANG, BANG, BANG. There are no Land Cruisers or Range Rovers parked in golden … Continue reading
Filed under Ditch Parrots, Dogs, Ill-mannered Jackals, Undaunted by Futility
We’re coming for you
I packed the dry box already. A month from now, the bottom will be filled with empty hulls, spilled dog food and an indiscernible assortment of shotgun shells, granola bars, trash, mud, blood and feathers. Now though, it’s neatly packed … Continue reading
Filed under Grouses
A hunting song
There aren’t a hell of a lot of hunting themed songs out there. Even in the catalogs of the less-than-famous troubadours of rural America that I prefer, hunting is a topic not often broached. One of my favorite fall disks … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Dirt road soundtrack
Dirt roads traveled in the company of bird dogs and dog-eared maps deserve their own soundtrack. The season is still somewhere ahead, but the road begins to beckon. The first trips are for mountain grouse, so September is for driving. … Continue reading
Burden of legacy
Where chickens boom in golden grass A faithful friend and I hold mass Set out to hunt and death impart We find not endings, but only starts From us, this place soon shall pass Alone, not I, nor would I … Continue reading
Filed under Bobwhites, Conservation and legacy, Giving thanks
Avocation
A bird scented. The world compressed into a moment of single moment of sure as hell, not-a-second of doubt this-is-what-I-do confidence. All is as it should be. To be a dog in tall grass… GM
Rain
They were waiting for the rain, but the rains came late. Instead of wetting the ground and bringing shoots and bugs and cover that just hatched quail so badly need, the monsoon came when the chicks were on the ground. … Continue reading
Wall tents
In the age of high-tech fabrics and two-man tents that require you to spoon your hunting dog and leave your boots out in the rain, I had a revelation. Wall tents are awesome. The Romans knew it. And the Souix, … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Bloody hands on the wheel
It’s only after I have been through the drive through, paid and taken the heart attack in a paper sack from the teenage boy at the window that I notice my hands are covered in blood. It’s only pheasant blood, … Continue reading
Filed under Road Tales, Talegate
Smithhammer
Tom Reed
Tosh Brown
Matt Crawford
Greg McReynolds
Chad Love
