LAMAR UNDERWOOD is a former editor-in-chief of Sports Afield and Outdoor Life magazines. He has edited The Greatest Fishing Stories Ever Told, Man Eaters, The Bass Almanac, and The Quotable Soldier. He is the author of the novel, On Dangerous Ground. He lives in Pennington, New Jersey.

"Few would quarrel with the selection of any of the 29 writers included as among the best in the game. ...The stories tell about the planning, the quests, the challenges, and the experiences that make hunting what it is. Hunters will find many passages that bring back recollections of their treasured moments in camp with good friends. Other stories may take readers to place and times they will visit only in their dreams" -- The Conservationist

• (vii) INTRODUCTION by Lamar Underwood, (1) LAST SHELL IN THE RIFLE by Ben East, (2) THE DAWN FLIGHTING by Patrick O'Brian, (3) THE HEART OF THE GAME by Thomas McGuane, (4) IN FIELDS NEAR HOME by Vance Bourjaily, (5) RACE AT MORNING by William Faulkner, (6) SPIRIT OF THE NORTH by Thomas McIntyre, (7) MISTER HOWARD WAS A REAL GENT by Robert C. Ruark, (8) SLIM BOGGINS' MISTAKE by Havilah Babcock, (9) THE BLACK DEATH by Peter Hathaway Capstick, (10) OUT ON THE LAND by Charles Fergus, (10) THE NINETY-SEVEN by John Barsness, (11) TO THE OPEN WATER by Jesse Hill Ford, (12) PHEASANTS BEYOND AUTUMN by John Madson, (13) TRACKS TO REMEMBER by Tom Hennessey, (14) REMEMBERING SHOOTING-FLYING: A KEY WEST L0ETTER by Ernest Hemingway, (15) A BEARDED LEGEND:MY BEST ALL-TIME TROPHY by Charles Elliot, (16) THE WINGS OF DAWN by George Reiger, (17) SUSITNA MOOSE HUNT byRussell Annabel, (18) GREAT MORNING by Gene Hill, (19) DOG UPON THE WATERS by John Taintor Foote, (20) THE GAME OF THE HIGH PEAKS: THE WHITE GOAT by Theodore Roosevelt, (21) FORTY-CROOK BRANCH by Tom Kelly, (22) "POTHOLE GUYS, FRIZ OUT" by Gordon MacQuarrie, (23) THE FOREST AND THE STEPPE by Ivan Turgenev, (24) BOB WHITE, DOWN'T ABERDEEN by Nash Buckingham, (25) RAMS IN THE SNOW by Jack O'Connor, (26) ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT? by Robert F. Jones, (27) THE THAK MAN-EATER by Jim Corbett, (28) A MIXED BAG OF ZERN by Ed Zern