Hunting

Dressed to the nines and sporting a license to confound canines, the rooster pheasant is the James Bond of the outdoor world. Just when you think you and your German shorthair know exactly where he’s cloaked, the old boy breaks from distant cover and throws out resonating cackles as he...

I remember where I was when I heard the mind-boggling news: after a searing September day in Comanche County, one of those that makes you wonder how much hotter it can actually get, I found myself among a group of happy dove hunters shooting the breeze as the sun...

The annual shakedown cruise at the family deer lease was running smoother than ever. Family commitments and other September items on the agenda in 2000 had made the yearly run to our time-honored hunting spot south of San Angelo to inventory and to check stands and feeders a one-day marathon...

Christmas in Texas is a time for family and for the outdoors. Sometimes the latter is the best excuse to get away from the former. However, the most fruitful of days involve both, bringing together those whom you most emulate and the joy of a shared pursuit that’s as much an...

The slow morning turned to afternoon as I flipped a dark spinner bait into the shimmering distance on Lake Meredith in the Texas Panhandle. Like so many previous retrieves from the bank, I brought my lure back without even a nibble from a hungry largemouth or smallmouth bass and stepped...

Texas' war on feral hogs is a never-ending battle. However, recent legislation signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott is loosening the regulations currently on the books, allowing hunters to take the invasive species without a hunting license beginning Sept. 1. On May 31, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill...

The most dangerous game in Texas doesn’t have menacing claws, sweeping tusks or broad headgear. It isn’t a predator, it isn’t a carnivore, and in fact, it doesn’t even have teeth. It’s a 5-ounce bird (give or take, based on what species you're hunting -- mourning doves, whitewings or Eurasian collared...

The Federal Duck Stamp Act of 2014, bipartisan legislation that would raise the price of the annual stamp to $25 from $15, has been introduced into each chamber of Congress. It has been 24 years since the last duck stamp increase, which raised the price to $15 -- the longest...

Texas waterfowl hunters -- and by and large most duck, goose and sandhill crane hunters -- are birds of a different feather. Rising long before the sun hints at making a rosy appearance to typically slog around in muck fit for a water buffalo while hauling around a gaggle of...