Hunting guides see a lot of shots at game. Mostly, they keep their opinions to themselves, perhaps permitting themselves a mumbled “Good show” or “Well done”. In my 40 years of guided hunting, I’ve been pleased to receive many compliments on my shooting, ranging from a slap on the back to a heartfelt “Good shot!”

The bobwhite quail is a gentleman. He’s polite; he goes by the rules and plays fair. The scaled quail (AKA “blue quail” or “cottontop”) of south Texas doesn‘t know the word “fair;” his keyword is “survive,” and he’ll do anything to accomplish that.

It's funny how an odor, a sound, or the ghost of a flavor can instantly transport one back to some earlier, fondly-remembered time. A few bars of some popular song from your highschool days can suddenly bring rushing back all the emotions, hopes, and sensations of your dating days.

He was born in 1875 in Houston County, Texas, the son of a circuit-riding Methodist preacher. He was named Robert Joseph Spence, but everybody except family called him “Mister Bob.” Sometime during the first World War, he was elected sheriff of Houston County, an office he held into the socalled Roaring Twenties.

An aspect of African hunting you’ve probably never heard of is the so-called little antelopes. When you see the word Africa, you rightly enough expect lions and leopards, buffalo and elephants, or maybe the big, glamorous antelopes – kudu, sable, oryx and such.

Gzing upon the athetic wreckage fa full-grown moose surrounded by giant paw prints in the snow, the quotation, "What manner of beast do I pursue?" ran through my thoughts. It was April, springtime in the brooding, eerie, icy Bendeleben Mountains 50 miles north of Nome, Alaska.

Watch small whitetail twin fawns at play and you’ll likely observe that one is not only slightly larger but that he (it will invariably be a “he”) is also bolder and more alert, more aggressive in nursing and quicker to sample unknown foods. He’ll seem spookier and more curious, and will venture farther from his mother’s side.

Since trophy hunters seem to be in low esteem among uninformed non-hunters, I cannot so identify myself without a word of explanation. First, true trophy-deer hunters are highly selective, discriminating and skilled hunters who kill very seldom and who help keep the age and sex ratios in a whitetail population as much like an unhunted herd as possible.

As this hunting season unfolds, hunters with a little imagination can amuse themselves on slow days by mentally cataloging the variety of antler shapes, sizes and variations of whitetail bucks.

Elephants are so familiar – as symbols, in cartoons, comics, advertisements, etc. – that they may seem unsuitable subjects for this series. But when you first find yourself in the presence of live wild elephants with nothing between you and these monsters but clear African air, I guarantee you’ll be shocked by their otherworldly-ness.