Category Archives: Talegate
Awash
Nearly half a year of memories wash over me. Five months of following a fleet of setters across the hills and fields. Five long months of birds before the gun on some days, and no birds anywhere on others. These … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Knowing It’s There
I could go on about how the season came and went too quickly, although now that I think about it, a lot has come and gone since it began last September. I could lament not having gotten out more, though … Continue reading
Filed under Reloading, Surviving the off season, Talegate
One more round
January wilts and the wind whips. It is cold and dry and barren as an old cow. No winter really, or no snow that is. Doug fir pops in the wood stove and piles of gear lie around the shop, … Continue reading
Filed under Chukar, Talegate, Undaunted by Futility
Raw
It is the land. This place of bitter winds west, then north, then south, then east. This place of sagebrush taller than the running lights on a diesel one-ton. This place of clattering shale. This place of cold stream in … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Beware the bird
Before you grab it from the mouth of the dog, make sure it’s dead.
Filed under Ditch Parrots, Talegate
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
Hunishment
There is a game I play not far from where I lay my head each night. The game is the game of dogs and birds and big canvas. It is a game of otherworldly noses that belong to some higher … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Coverage
We do this dance each year and not often enough: a trio of gaited fast-moving horses, a brace of gun dogs, a sprawl of wide country. Shotguns in scabbards, bird dogs out in it, horses mounted. We ride. The first … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Questions
Why have I developed a callus on the index finger I use to operate my e-collar transmitter? How do Huns absolutely vanish without a trace, even when you and the dog saw exactly where they went down? Why do they … Continue reading
Filed under Fodder, Reloading, Talegate, We might have been jrunk.
Pre-Game Strategies
They are out there, even as we speak, going over the playbooks. Refining tactics. Brainstorming new evasive maneuvers. Reviewing the videos from last season. Running scrimmage. But that’s ok. We’ve been doing the same. The one thing you can count … Continue reading
Filed under Ditch Parrots, Glutton For Punishment, Talegate
The Quiet Road
Evening is the quiet road. The hunt is squeezed by daylight, the ridge has been climbed in a frenzy of pumping heart and heaving lung. The shotgun has barked, once, twice. Fresh dog work for the young Griffon, old hat … Continue reading
Filed under Talegate
Smithhammer
Tom Reed
Tosh Brown
Matt Crawford
Greg McReynolds
Chad Love
