Being as stealthy as possible while moving through hunting grounds is essential. If you're still trying to hunt through potential bedding areas, closing in on game you spotted from afar, trying to sneak to your tree stand for a sit, or you're tracking bucks as they do in New England, every noise you make is too much.

They start from the base, rising with bumps, bruises, and little rings. At last, they turn back, bending to form a bow. With their thick bases, a pair of them sits atop a white face with dark, lengthwise stripes. Every European mountain hunter dreams of this trophy -- the horns of a chamois.

Mr. Bruun doesn’t pull any punches about the current lack of outdoor stories of yesteryear. “I was and still am thinking about all that wonderful writing that used to come tumbling out of the Madison Avenue produced pure outdoor magazines.” I agree. I was part of that era of classic outdoor literature no longer published by outdoor magazines. Why has this happened?

Baffin Island in the Northwest Territories can be downright mean to hunters. It’s cold, windy, and wet. Campfires are a luxury on Baffin. There are no trees, and the only vegetation is lichen and moss. The shoreline is a maze of ankle-twisting rocks. But the caribou hunting more than made up for the aches and pains in my body when I hunted there years ago.

Unfortunately, the recent black bear attack in northern New Jersey and the first fatal bear attack in about 150 years is an example of what happens when people panic and run scared. Perhaps this deadly attack might not have happened if the young hiker had been more knowledgeable about the dangers of encountering a wild animal.

It’s been a long cold winter, but it’s almost over, and it’s time to start thinking about trout fishing. I love trout fishing with flies, but if history repeats itself and you want to take home a limit of trout, you might have to change your tactics. In all probability, your favorite stream will be high, fast, and muddy.

I’ve always been a firm believer that a big 10- to 12–inch shiner is one of the most effective ways to catch big bass. Unfortunately, your first problem may be finding such big shiners in your local bait shop. You may have to catch them yourself. You can chum for shiners with oatmeal and bread crumbs and catch them with doughballs on a No. 12 or 14 hook. The best way to fish live shiners is to cast them along shorelines or floating vegetation.

“This was not the way it was supposed to happen. I hit the Cape buffalo squarely in the chest with a .375 Holland & Holland, a cartridge the size of a banana. Nyati was supposed to go down. He didn’t even flinch! In fact, the bull trotted off with his buddies.