With Mrs. Wootters’ blessing, we’re bringing selected works of John Wootters together in a new Gun Tales book. Now you can have John Wootters back in your hands—and help make sure his work stays there for the next generation.

The 308 Winchester has been the parent case for a lot of good rounds since its inception in 1952, including the 243 Winchester, 260 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, 338 Federal, and 358 Winchester. There isn’t much a true hunter can’t bag with this assortment of cartridges pushing good bullets designed for penetration. We’ve used the 308 Winchester and 7mm-08 Remington to hunt a variety of critters at home in Texas and in South Africa.

“The Land of Thirst,” better known as the Karoo, sits in the southern region of South Africa. It’s amazing how so much of this country near Cradock reminds me of my home in far West Texas. Steep desert mountains, rock-littered ground, red soil, and thorny vegetation. If the acacia trees were replaced with mesquites, you’d hardly notice the difference.

A fellow once told me that, regarding feral hogs, there are two kinds of places...them that’s got ‘em and them that’s gonna get ‘em. Feral hogs, if they are anything, are adaptive. We even have them out here in this high, dry desert country of the Texas Big Bend. They are tough, prolific, and destructive...oh, and they’re really fun to hunt.

It’s no secret that my Huntress loves big bull elk. Her first bull fell to my 7mm Remington Magnum several years ago on a private ranch near Angel Fire, New Mexico. That was a great hunt, and the bulls were bugling and herding cows in a chaotic melee of swarming elk numbering over eighty in one bunch.

I have some scoped handguns chambered in rifle cartridges that are occasionally hauled to the field, and I suspect any notoriety I might have in the writing world, albeit minor, is associated with revolvers. I don’t mind this, as it is largely true that I do like and use them. However, in my beating heart rests a soft spot for fine rifles of blued steel and figured walnut, as well as a deep interest for the iconic lever action rifle. One of my all-time favorite rifles is the

I was just a big kid, horseback near the Nueces River, the first time I got a really close look at javalinas. I rounded a bend in the...