Hunting & Fishing

First published on The Upland Soul on 11/25/2025. As everyone has heard, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.” While there’s some obvious comedic value to this aphorism when looking back on an unsuccesful hunt, its roots run deeper — as deep as you’d like them to

First published on The Upland Soul on 7/1/2025. “Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.“ I am not sure where I first heard this quote by Alexis Carrel, but as I ripped the fourth or fifth tick of the trip off me with my trusty Leatherman this

First published on The Upland Soul on May 20, 2025. I did some spring cleaning recently. A primary objective was to clear out an old dresser in the spare room that had been serving as storage for all of the orphaned cruft that collects throughout a person’s life. Things that you don’t necessarily want to

First published on The Upland Soul. The Ford V-8. The Dust Bowl. Hiroshima and the atom bomb. The birth of rock and roll and the death of The King. Vietnam. Watergate. Punk rock. Desert storm.The dot-com bubble. The Bugatti Veyron. 9/11 and GWOT. This unassuming shotgun has borne witness to all of these pivotal events

First published on The Upland Soul. March and April are weird months for me in general. Nothing going on, really. Bird season is over and I’m fresh off our annual javelina hunt. Most days, it’s usually cool enough to run the dog, even if the relentless summer sun is beginning to turn up the thermostat.

First Published on The Upland Soul. Back in the good old days, perhaps around ten years ago, you could walk around any gun show in America and have your pick of Remington 870 Wingmasters for around $100. This never really made any sense to me considering both this classic shotgun’s intended position in the market

First published on The Upland Soul on March 27, 2025. I’ve written previously about my love for bombing around the bajadas of the Sonoran desert in a clapped-out old Toyota in pursuit of the mysterious and, thankfully, largely under-appreciated skunk pig. The javelina. I think that any hunt can be what you make it. Easy,

First published on The Upland Soul. I made my first camp at the trailhead 100 yards from an abandoned mining cabin in the national forest. It was a beautiful Great Basin Halloween night as the flicker from the palletwood fire licked the sagebrush around the trailhead. I fell asleep to the trickle of flowing water,

First published on The Upland Soul. When I moved to the wild and woolly West after a childhood on the East Coast, I had precious little understanding of the way that the world words in this area of the country. Forty-degree temperature swings on the daily, vastness that knows no bounds, and huge variances in