Thirty shooting stories in pursuit of pheasant, mallard, geese, hares, mink, even an old wild goat, these modern tales involve bi-lingual dogs, an ignominious goose, red-letter days and disappointments, days on boglands, grouse moors, smart shoots and estuaries.

Punt gunning, rough shooting and wildfowling, dawns and dusks and assorted brushes with ecstasy and near-death. Douglas Butler has an ear for a good shooting story and, as an inveterate shooter himself, knows just what curious, unexpected, dramatic things can sometimes happen when out in the fields, woods and marshes with fellow guns and dogs.