It was an embarrassing moment to say the least. I, an experienced wildlife biologist, lifelong hunter, had pointed toward three animals on a broad open New Mexico plain north of Roswell and proclaimed them pronghorn antelope. “I don’t think so!” said my wife. “I think they’re woolly sheep!” “Hmph!” I replied, irked at being questioned. She simply smiled. Then, as we got closer I realized I had been wrong, they indeed were sheep, domestic sheep. It was bad enough that I had mi

“Do you carry?” asked a friend while I was in the company of Rick Lambert and Jim Zumbo. I glanced at Lambert, a former Dallas Police Officer, under-cover narcotics officer, and long a private detective involved in some truly high profile cases. A sly smile crossed his face. “Occasionally… If you’re addressing handguns! But, when in the presence of my smiling compadre here, I generally do not because I know he’s carrying enough firepower for all of us.” I quipped. “Me? I’m pr

“Tell you what…I’ll stop by the ranch’s headquarters this afternoon to see if I can get us permission in case we shoot him on our side of the ranch and he goes onto their’s.” announced my friend. Later that afternoon… “She came to the door wearing a partially buttoned full-length bobcat hide coat. Most of her auburn locks were hidden under a brown western felt!” said my starry-eyed friend. He hesitated, “Not sure she was wearing much else!” “She had an ancient mother of pearl

“Lairr, Tom and Mike Snyder want the The Three Amigos to come to Port Mansfield the first week of August to fish for snapper, sheephead and trout.” Before I could answer Rick Lambert continued, “I’ve already talked to Zumbo. He’s in. What’s your schedule in early August?” Rick made the call from across the hall at the 2026 DSC Summer Expo, where he was my guest, but also a great supporter of DSC and the DSC Foundation. I am certain Rick already knew my answer. Any time the th

Many years ago western States had spring black bear hunting seasons. Then things changed. The only time black bear could be hunted in most States was during “the season of the painted leaves”. My first real fall bear hunt took place on the Bachelor Ranch near Ruidoso, New Mexico back in the late 1970’s. Back then my dad, Lester, and our cousin Crockett Leyendecker owned some mighty fine ‘coon hounds. They were mostly black & tans, blueticks, and treeing walkers. To prepar

Recently I was asked to do a podcast episode with John McAdams for his popular “The Big Game Hunting Podcast”. John does a fabulous job with his podcast and covers much ground, based on personal experiences including his years with the military, and having grown up in a hunting family, as has often been the case with Texas residents, and helping set up hunts for others. Like his many expert guests and obviously his listeners, John loves hunting, learning and talking about gun

Our discussion started after inviting three individuals I had met through our DSC Summer Expo to visit my office. They were impressed by the taxidermy mounts on the walls of my small office. I explained the majority of my mounts from throughout the world, including full-body mounts an African lion, Vancouver Island black bear, desert bighorn from Mexico and a monstrous Alaskan brown bear were all on display at the Scheels store in The Colony, just north of Dallas, Texas. “Bef

Heading into the upcoming hunting season, one where I hope to do a “fair amount” of handgun hunting, I have been thinking seriously about what my choices. There are in those decisions two “constants”: Taurus revolvers and Hornady ammo. I have come to rely heavily on both. The reason for doing so is both have proven they are as the Hornady tagline states, “Accurate, Deadly, Dependable!” Life is full of choices! Some are easy, some not quite so. However all are important. As a

“What do you mean he was a ghost deer?” Asked TC. Before Roberto could answer, “Did you shoot at him and he disappeared when you thought the bullet should have hit him?” “Noooo! You weren’t listening were you? I said I watched him come out of the brushy draw over in the Saladia Pasture. I was sitting about half way up the old windmill tower where I could cover a bunch of country. Had not been seeing much of anything, just a couple of coyotes, a bobcat, two does and a fawn. Wa

I could hardly believe it. Finally! I had been hunting morning and evening, at every opportunity since our Texas whitetail deer season opened almost six weeks ago. Four days of the season remained and I finally get to see a buck. He came from my extreme right. I shot right-handed. Try as I might I could not turn or shift far enough to the right to take a shot with my dad’s .30-30. Totally frustrated, I watched the 8-point walk into the brush. He was gone! I was certain my ina

Our trotline was stretched across Cummins Creek, tied to willow trees on opposite bank. For four days our usually slow-moving creek had been on a “rise”. Flood water had finally started subsiding. Flooding run-off had not only covered the entire bottom of my grandfather’s property, water backed up from where the creek flowed into the Colorado River. Said Grampa Aschenbeck in German, loosely translated to, “When the creek rises, big long-whiskered yellow catfish and gaspergoo

No sooner had I begun blowing my Burnham Brothers jackrabbit in distress call than a coyote charged out of the underbrush heading directly toward me! I jerked my father’s Model 94 .30- 30 lever action to my shoulder, pointed it in the general direction of the coyote then wildly fired all seven rounds. The coyote left unscathed. A few moments later, hunting knife in my right hand, just in case the “wolf” decided to attack, and my empty rifle in my left hand I headed home anxio

“Did you see anything yesterday afternoon?” questioned a camo-dressed hunter, as I was filling my pickup with gas. Before I could respond he added. “I didn’t go out. It was just simply too hot! Deer probably weren’t moving. Weather is supposed to be cold now, at least cool. I hate hot temperatures during the hunting season and would rather stay in camp and watch football.” “Should have gone hunting! I saw seven bucks and three does including a monstrous ten point. It may be h

I was hunting roe deer in Europe, “Come by to do the paperwork and pick it the Taurus Deputy single-action revolver that just came in, when you can.” Read the text message from Charles Schubert with Schubert’s Firearms. I knew where I would be as soon as I got back home to Texas. I have long been a fan of and handgun hunter with both double and single-action revolvers. For the past few years I have been shooting and hunting with Taurus Raging Hunters chambered in .44 Rem Mag,

Stefan Bengtsson and I were sitting in his DSC Atlanta booth looking at photos of the roe deer his clients had taken during the last couple of years. “We’ve had a couple of really good years when it comes to roe bucks.” Commented my friend who with his gracious and beautiful wife, Sofia owns Scandinavian Prohunters. “Stefan, from what I remember and what I’ve seen y’all have great years every year when it comes to roe deer, but also the myriad of other European big game, game

When Scandinavian Prohunters’ Stefan Bengtsson told me Scotland would be the third leg of the three-nations roe deer hunt they were donating to the DSC Foundation Gala’s auction and they wanted me to host that hunt, I was thrilled beyond words and could hardly wait for our adventure to begin. In the past I had been on several highly successful hunts with both Stefan and Sofia Bengtsson in England, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Scotland, and Norway. I knew they provided extremely

“Planes, trains and automobiles!” said Mark Little with a broad smile as we boarded the train in Malmo, Sweden in route to the Copenhagen airport to continue to the second leg of our Scandinavian Prohunters’ three-nation roe deer hunt. Both Carol Little and I had taken really nice roe bucks in Sweden, she a gold medal buck and me a uniquely long-beamed buck. Mark had not hunted in Sweden but would be doing so in Poland. Stefan Bengtsson, Carol, Mark and I boarded our plane to

It was during the waning moments of the 2026 DSC Outdoor Expo and Convention in Atlanta I again stopped by Stefan and Sofia Bengtsson’s Scandinavian Prohunter’s booth this time to confirm the June dates we, Mark and Carol Little and I, would be headed to Sweden to hunt roe deer. I drooled over the photos Stefan showed me of bucks his hunters had harvested since I had last hunted roe deer with him. On my initial Swedish roe deer hunt, Stefan and I stalked a gold medal buck in

Long and sharp toothed wild boars excite me… I felt an ever so light tap on my left shoulder. Something had to be really close otherwise Jeff would have whispered. Problem was, I was unsure which direction to look. I knew whatever Jeff Rice had seen was not in front of us. It had to be either to our extreme left, right or behind us. I slowly turned to my extreme left. Nothing there, for which I was truly thankful. What little breeze there drifted our scent from right to left.

“Just had a call from Striper Express. Bill said he had an unexpected opening if we wanted to come fish. Said they’ve been catching limits every time out, nothing huge but truly great fish and perfect eaters. They’re down near the bottom but once they find the schools the catching is as Bill said is, plentiful.” Said Luke Clayton. “If you have any room in your freezer, I suspect this will be a good way to fill that empty space with striper fillets.” “As a matter of fact, I do