billrquimby

My list for an elk hunt is short, and I can't remember when I've forgotten anything: Camo clothing appropriate for weather, rifle, ammo, binoculars, knife, 6x8' tarp, meat saw, hatchet, chain hoist, rope, game bags, case of bottled water, cell phone, license, tag, reservation at closest motel, American Express card. Bill Quimby

The SCI record book lists the range of desert mule deer in Arizona as: South of Highway 68 from Davis Dam on Lake Mohave eastward to Kingman on Interstate 40, then south of Interstate 40 between Kingman and the intersection with Hwy 93, then southwest of Hwy 93 southward between Kingman and Wickenburg, then south of latitude 34°N eastward between Wickenburg and Carrizo on Hwy 60, then west of Hwy 60 southward between between Carrizo and Globe on Hwy 70, then south of Hwy 70 between Globe and Safford, then south of Hwys 191 and 78 from Safford to the New Mexico border. Mule deer taken north of that line are listed as Rocky Mountain mule deer in the club's record book. Bill Quimby

Many years ago, AGFD opened a feed store in the Phoenix area at a time when Arizona's mines had laid off hundreds of workers, which happened a lot in those days. The first thing the store's "clerks" did was to hint to certain customers that they would buy game meat and trophy antlers, horns and capes year around. Undercover agents also hung around Ajo, Clifton, Morenci, Globe, San Manuel, and Tucson and offered to buy fresh deer, elk, antelope, and javelina carcasses. I don't remember what they offered for the other species, but they were paying $50 for one javelina. The agents operated their sting for several months before they cited their suppliers in a much-publicized statewide "bust." I got some flack over a column I wrote for the Tucson Citizen saying the sting was entrapment because no market existed for Arizona game meat, especially javelina, before the agents created one. As I remember it, most of the perps entered guilty pleas. My critics who wrote letters to the editor claimed the guys who hunted out of season and sold game meat and parts were poachers who deserved to be hung from their thumbs and toes (or other peripheral appendages) and there could be no valid excuse for poaching. Period. I still think I was right. It was unfair to offer cash -- no questions asked -- to out-of-work people, some of whom were having trouble feeding their families and facing a very real threat of losing their homes and vehicles. Bill Quimby

Forty to fifty years ago when I did a lot of varmint calling, I went through a period when all I called in were coatis. If I wanted to hunt them today, I'd head for the oak zone of any southeastern Arizona mountain and look for a steep slope with shale (coatis turn rocks over to eat the things they find under them) and start calling. (I have no idea why my computer is adding numbers to my text.) Bill Quimby

When a similar issue involving access to state trust lands arose in Arizona in the early 1970s, then-attorney general Bruce Babbitt issued an opinion that said purchasing hunting or fishing licenses from a state agency guaranteed sportsmen and women access to these lands. I've been told that Arizona and New Mexico have identical "enabling acts," the legislation that gave our states statehood. Perhaps a lawyer in New Mexico may want to look at that ruling. Bill Quimby

I called in two different lions and was unable to shoot either one many years ago. I used a mouth-blown wood call for both. It was made in Tucson by a typewriter repairman who also made and sold calls in the 1970s. As Lark said, the call isn't as important as calling from a place where there are lions. Based on my extremely limited knowledge of lion behavior gained in following the hounds of three different lion hunters all over southern Arizona, I would look at a mountain from a distance and locate a major saddle, then concentrate on calling from a place where you can "cover" that saddle. Such saddles were where the dogs often found lion "scratches." They're not hard to see when a lion is using an area and you know what to look for. Bill Quimby

Edge: It was sometime in the mid- to late-1970s, as many as 40 years ago. Bill Quimby

As always, I agree with Lark on the miserable misuse of the words "monsoon" and "haboob." When I first saw monsoon used in print in a Tucson Citizen article about our summer thunderstorms, I went to the reporter who had written the front-page story and complained. The guy was a self-centered know-it-all from Michigan who a year later was named the paper's city editor. He shrugged and said it was a perfectly good word and walked away. I'm convinced his article led to the word being used by nearly everyone in Tucson's media and eventually spread to that place I won't name up the road. As for haboob, it started being used long after I left newspapering. A better word for an Arizona duststorm, if one is needed (which it isn't), would be scirrocco. Haboobs originate in the Sudan, which has a lot of tropical vegetation. Scirroccos are hot, dusty (or rainy) winds that blow across North Africa, which is more like Arizona than the Sudan. Bill Quimby

I've flown Southwest only once, and will never fly it again. It does not reserve seats and it believes every passenger has a smart phone with 24/7 access to the internet. I do not, and I am willing to pay baggage fees to get an aisle seat near the front of the plane. Bill Quimby

"the maroons. and bill's knowledge of eastern whitetail. Lark." Thank you, Lark, but I must yield to your infinite wisdom in all things. Bill Quimby

"wouldn't it be cool if elk still had big ol' sabre tooth lookin' tusks? Lark" ,,,,,,,,,,,, Lark: Don't know if you've noticed it, but all species of deer (except caribou) have small dark marks on their lower jaws that I like to think are holdovers from the time when they had tusks. Water deer, musk deer and some muntjacs still have tusks. Bill Quimby

Happy birthday, Chef. I hope our paths cross someday because I'd like to shake your hand. I've enjoyed reading your posts for so long that I have come to think I know you. Bill Quimby

Thank you, everyone. Birthdays are terrible things, especially when they make you realize you're just 52 weeks on this side of 80 and you can't stop thinking about how many of your friends who are gone. I truly appreciate your kind words. As for the aspens in Greer, those in my yard still had green leaves when I left the cabin Tuesday and drove to Tucson for a doctor's appointment. About half of the aspens between Pole Knoll and McNary were yellow, and some already had lost their leaves. The elk were bugling in the canyon above the cabin and in the meadow across the road every night. I love this time of year and can't wait to get back up to God's Country. Bill Quimby

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/24/peta_sues_photographer_macaque_selfie/ Take this to where PETA intends to take it: If PETA wins, it has established that animals can own property. If animals can own property, they have rights, just like people. If animals are like people, hunters and everyone involved in the meat industry are murderers, and all who eat meat are parties to murder. Remember the guy who told businesspeople they didn't start their businesses? Crazy world, isn't it? Bill Quimby

PETA and HSUS don't expect major victories, or even a victory, with each lawsuit they file. They expect to change public opinion by dribbles and drops. So far, it looks like they have been winning. HSUS's Wayne Pacelle, one of the leaders of the radical animal rights movement, was introduced as "the CEO of the Humane Society" on Fox News the other day and treated as if he were the voice of reason. Never mind that the Humane Society of the United States operates no animal shelters (the American Humane Society does that) and spends very little of its huge warchest on animal welfare, Pacelle is a clean-cut and well-spoken man who knows how to get media attention. Unfortunately, I don't see any spokesman for our side with similar attributes. Bill Quimby

Elk were bugling on the hill above my cabin when I went outside at 4:30 this morning to get something out of my truck. At about the same time last week a couple of wolves were howling by Badger Pond, just below where the elk were this morning. It's a great time of year. A few aspens are starting to turn to yellow, and now that the summer crowds are gone, we're seeing elk and deer all over Greer. Bill Quimby

In my humble opinion the best venison by far comes from the little whitetails in the Texas Hill Country. I think it's because the ranches I've hunted put out supplemental food for cattle, and the deer eat it, too. In second place would be a fallow deer from the same region. The venison from a Coues deer is excellent, but it is not the very best. Bill Quimby

When burglars stole 35 rifles and shotguns from me a few years ago, I was covered for $1,000 under my homeowners policy and $16,000 under a rider I had purchased many years earlier. What I failed to do was increase the rider as my guns appreciated in value and I added new ones. Even the insurance appraiser said the value of my guns and scopes totaled more than $42,000. Unfortunately, the check I got to replace my loss was for only $17,000. Bill Quimby

Do you plan to compete in benchrest shooting matches or will you be hunting one of Arizona's ten big game species? 1.5-inch groups won't get you a plaque or a brass trophy, but they can consistently send you home with horns, hides and meat. Half-minute-of-angle or less isn't needed unless you think you might want to shoot at game at ridiculously long distances. In that case, pretend you're a bowhunter and get closer. Literally tons of game have been killed with iron-sighted .30-30 carbines that may or may not produce three-inch groups. Bill Quimby

I've done many of the things you younger guys have on your bucket lists, so my list is different. I look forward to: 1. Waking up tomorrow. 2. Celebrating seventy-five years (just fifteen years to go) with the girl of my dreams. 3. Seeing our daughter and two adult grandkids achieve all they desire. Bill Quimby

As do Lark and lancetkenyan, I bore sight first. Then I do what my South African friends do. I shoot a round at 25 meters, adjust as needed and fire one more shot at the same distance. Depending on the caliber and load, if the round prints 2.5 inches high at 25 meters, it usually will shoot to the same height on a target at 100 and be in a deer's kill zone out to 300 yards. Bill Quimby

I have a cow tag for 2B and had a small herd patterned a week before the hunt. Went out the night before the season and found muzzleloader antelope hunters on ATVs had run them out of the country. Haven't seen an elk since then. If you don't mind crowds, try the juniper thickets in the extreme southeast corner of the unit along the New Mexico border. It has most of the elk in the unit, but it's also where everyone and his brother hunts. This unit is aptly named a "limited opportunity" hunt. It has elk, but not many, and (as you've learned) they are hard to find. Bill Quimby

Lark: When SCI opened its museum years ago, they hired a couple of guys to wear French Foreign Legion uniforms and ride camels (they furnished them) around the parking lot. I never knew where they came from, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone near Portal had them. People keep all kinds of exotics. I saw elk in a high wire enclosure near Willcox a few years ago, and south of Tucson in the early 1990s we were driving a 4x4 two-track to see where it went and wound up at a pen with four or five large dog-like critters that looked like wolves to me in it. I've forgotten exactly where it was. The house and outbuildings looked like they belonged in Dogpatch. Bill Quimby

It's a shame the videographer didn't show closeups of those spears. They are made using primitive forges from any scrap of any metal the local "blacksmith" can find, and shaped by pounding the white-hot metal on rocks because few have anvils. I brought two of them, as well as an axe made from a car spring and a hardwood root, home from Zambia many years ago. Every time I look at them I am amazed at how anyone could make such effective killing tools from virtually nothing. Lots of shops in Africa sell replica spears to tourists, but they are made to sell to unknowing folks, and not to kill. They are nothing like the real thing. Just holding one of my spears makes me want to take it hunting. Bill Quimby