Mule Deer is really named John Barsness. I only came up with the Internet name because I lurked here for six months or so before finally deciding to post something.
Like Tom Turpin, I started hunting as soon as possible in my native Montana. I also decided to be a writer very early in life, but didn't figure out I could combine the two until about age 20, when I sold an article on flyfishing in the winter to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. During my 20's and early 30's I held some other jobs from time to time, including several years on a summer wheat-harvest crew, two full years for an archeaological and historical research firm, and a few seasons as a hunting guide. I also went to the University of Montana, majoring in biology. (This took a while. The school was on the quarter system, and I took fall quarter off to hunt, and only went half-time in spring in order to fish.)
I spent the first 20 years of my writing career mostly publishing articles and books about fishing, hunting and Western history, but started writing a lot more about sporting firearms at about age 40. I'm now 53 and write about firearms, handloading, optics, etc. about 2/3 of the time, and hunting about 1/3 of the time. Unfortunately, I just don't have time to write about fishing anymore, but still do it when I can.
This lucky choice of a career has allowed me to shoot and hunt a lot. For about 20 years now I've been hunting several states and one or two foreign countries each year. While I write more about big game than anything, I love upland bird hunting just as much, so still write about that and shotguns some as well.
I've written for every major hunting and shooting magazine in the business, several as a staffer, and also edited GRAY'S SPORTRING JOURNAL for a while--the magazine where I published my first hunting article, back in 1977. These days I write exclusively for Wolfe Publishing's RIFLE, HANDLOADER and SUCCESSFUL HUNTER magazines.
