Steve Grooms, Russ Sewell, and Dave Nomsen, Ringneck (Lyons Press, 2000) — Book Review

16 February 2013

Out of print, high quality hardcover — with 200 pages of often full page color photographs and pheasant-praising writing

This qualifies as a coffee table picture book. It is exceptional in having an unusually high proportion of outstanding photographs of pheasants, habitat, hunters and hunting dogs in action.

You can still buy copes of Ringneck from some of Amazon’s affiliated sellers, here.

Book’s text

The text is not a “how to.” Instead, it is aimed at reminding readers of the life-long memories one gets in seeking pheasants.

Consider co-author Steve Grooms’ recollection:

I remember a December hunt in Iowa after a blizzard. The storm deposited banks of snow mounded as high as our armpits. At times we go hopelessly stuck in the deep powder and could only escape by lying flat and rolling to freedom over the tops of the drifts.

Other hunts were memorable for winds that snatched the caps from our heads. On several occasions I have hunted in winds that rushed over the land with the force of a river in flood. A man can lean into a wind like that without falling down.

[F]ew hunters can swing a shotgun briskly enough to get a lead on a rooster riding a fifty-mile-an-hour gale.

The volume’s formatting also contains separately laid out selections taken from earlier works from other authors:

Nowhere is the wizard among game birds more at home than on the rolling prairies, where he can stretch his legs — and yours — to the next horizon. He says, simply, “Catch me if you can,” and sometimes we do — but not enough times to take the luster from the thrill.

Recommended, without qualification — to out of season pheasant hunters, who want to be reminded of what’s coming the next (painfully enjoyable) time around

Ringneck’s outstanding color photographs put you “there”.

PeteFree.com

Steve Grooms, Russ Sewell, and Dave Nomsen, Ringneck (Lyons Press, 2000) — Book Review