Gary Oberg grew up in Minnesota hunting and fishing, and has continued to do so for seventy years — mostly for fun, but sometimes for business as he was also a mechanical engineer who designed reels and other sporting equipment. Here he shares forty stories of his adventures in the wild, set mostly in Minnesota and Canada but reaching Alaska, too. While I was expecting something like Giant Whitetails, this was more about mishaps and adventures Oberg and his friends got into while hunting and fishing. Moose appears to be Oberg’s prey of choice, at least in this collection: he and his friends are constantly making deep treks into the wilderness to find and shoot them. There are are fishing stories, too, both on land and sea and sometimes on ice: Oberg has special passions for walleye and halibut. Not all of the stories actually involve hunting and fishing: he includes, for instance, his memories of biking to Alaska with his wife on the Alaskan Highway, or the ALCAN. If you aren’t remotely interested in hunting or the outdoors, there are still amusing stories here — like Oberg doing some night fishing, and then being startled by the sight of a human head breaking the surface. Turns out a resident on the lake liked night swims and was curious about his floating neighbor! Another one sees Oberg and his hunting party arguing over whether they should duct-tape a failing part on their moose-meat wagon: Oberg and a friend make a trek to the nearest city, only for the mechanic to say, “Ehhh, duct tape would work, my welding options for this are pretty dismal.” All in all, an enjoyable if not memorable collection.

Related:
The Other Side of Selma, Dickie Williams. Many hunting stories mixed in with the “Selma in the 1960s” stories.
Giant Whitetails, Mark and Terry Drury