CategoryReal Hunting Tales | The Consummate Outdoorsman, Gary Lewis, Shares His Insights

Safari Post 6: Little Women, Big Impala

Mika already could read the track of the leopard from the back of the safari vehicle and knew enough to tell a kudu track from a waterbuck’s. Now it was the last day of our safari and the little girl who had been so shy the first couple of days was teaching us Afrikaans while […]

Safari Post 5: Dances with Snakes

Some people are afraid to go on safari because of the snakes and the bugs. I used to laugh at that. I like to plan my trips for July. On my first two safaris I saw no snakes and very few bugs. On the third trip, I chopped the head off a black mamba. On […]

Safari Post 3: A Poor Man’s Leopard Hunt

If you want to hunt the Big 5 but can’t afford the cost of a leopard or a lion hunt, hunt bushpig. This is exactly the position I found myself in on this safari. The bushpig is a worthy adversary and a challenge, it is a seldom-seen animal that makes its living at night. It […]

Encounters with Critters Enrich our Outdoor Experiences

Once I carried a bow to the top of my favorite ridge, finding fresh deer beds in a marshy area, grass still springing up in them when I arrived. The only thing still grazing in that little meadow was the large hump-backed rodent we call a porcupine. The sun was slipping beneath the hills to […]

A Tale of Two Bullets

“What kind of bullet are you shooting out of your muzzleloader?” That was Tim McLagan, my taxidermist, on the other end of the line. I had dropped my buck off at his shop earlier in the day. And now he was asking about a bullet he’d found beneath the hide. A bullet I hadn’t put […]