It’s Black Friday, the national holiday of acquisition and consumption. I bet attendees of the original Thanksgiving set about finding and collecting assorted provisions after their feast too. It was called hunting back then. Team STS may find time for some old-school shopping this afternoon, but first we need to finish counting our blessings., Read More

Filled with energy and as stubborn as her mother, she used to have a motor that never quit. She’s helped raise two kids and has pointed birds for over a dozen years. I didn’t know her in the early days, but as a grey faced elder she’s hard not to love. A few weeks ago, Read More

Noses down, tails cracking in the cool morning air, the dogs worked in-between the Russian Olives. As the tails moved faster their pace became more methodical. The morning had been kind already, and with a limit in the truck I was able to focus solely on handling the dogs. My friend was one shy, Read More

To a Lab nothing else matters once the smell of a rooster fills their nostrils. These majestic birds display colors that are almost other worldly. The bird is reward enough but a little petting is always appreciated. All the attention goes to the head, but the subtle shades of turquoise and silver on the, Read More

Over the years I’ve done a handful of european mounts myself. It’s always tedious and doesn’t turn out as well as it would if done by a professional. But I like the process and often don’t want to throw down the money to have a taxidermist do the job. This year I had decent, Read More

My attention ebbs and flows. A month ago I had almost no interest in hunting, I was immersed in fishing. There were years where my focus was waterfowl, then it switched to upland birds for the last couple. While introduced early, passions for fishing and bird hunting came later to me. Big game hunting, Read More

The air is getting cooler. A few trees are starting to turn. Many folks are thinking about fall fishing. Aggressive browns, big streamers, you name it. We love to fish, we’ll probably still fish this fall. But something else is underfoot. It’s hunting season. Some folks are already going full tilt. Archery seasons have, Read More

I’ve got a garage full of gear. Enough to outfit a small army for anything from mountaineering to horsepacking, canoeing to big wall climbing, not to mention hunting and fishing. Despite the raw volume of stuff, that at times is overwhelming and probably warrants a garage sale, there are a few pieces of gear, Read More

This summer our dogs have been neglected. It’s a crazy time for our family. My wife and I both travel a fair bit for work. Family comes to visit. We try to get into the mountains as much as possible. The dogs have been deprioritized. As pups, I would spend an hour a day all, Read More

My lungs were about to explode, which masked the burning in my quads. The terrain was unforgiving. So were the birds. We had been in birds all day, but it was the last day of the season and they were onto us. Only minutes prior I had managed to scratch down my first chukar, Read More