billrquimby

Scottyboy: If impala turn you on you will absolutely flip for bushbuck. I can think of no other antelope in southern Africa that is as difficult to hunt or have actions that remind me more of whitetails. Impalas generally are found in herds of six to 300 animals. Bushuck rams generally are solitary and stick to the thickest riverine habitat in an area. I've taken the Chobe, Limpopo and South African varieties in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and each was more intelligent and harder to hunt than the other. Bill

!]I buy drinks and first class upgrades on DELTA... jason" I just checked Orbitz.com. There are less expensive ways to get to Johannesburg than the fares listed for Delta, but here's what I found. First Class Delta Tucson to Johannesburg ...... $11,654 Coach Delta Tucson to Johannesburg............ 2,496 That's a difference of $9,158 -- for just one traveler. You can buy two multilple-species South African bowhunts for that and have some money left over. BillQuimby

Jason, the last I checked a first class upgrade on any airline serving South Africa was a lot more than the cost of a 10-day, five animal bowhunt on your typical South African game farm. If the offer to upgrade to a first class ticket on Delta still applies, and if you can wait, I'm planning my next (and last) trip to Africa in June 2007 to visit friends in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana. It won't be an organized safari, per se, but you should be able to meet some interesting people, fling arrows at some of their animals, and see a variety of places and game along the way. If you've already booked your hunt, do yourself a favor and refuse to shoot antelope that are not indigenous to the area you're hunting (get a guidebook). It really bothers me when I see where friends have shot common nyalas these days. These beautiful antelope are indigenous only to wetlands along the Indian Ocean and offering hunts for them in arid Namibia and South Africa's Northwestern (Limpopo) Province should be a crime. Virtually all Nyala on farms in northwestern South Africa and Namibia were drugged, trucked there in a trailer and released sometime before "hunters" arrived. Shooting a nyala away from its habitat is like shooting an elk behind wire in Louisiana. It's bad enough that there are Texas-style high fences literally everywhere in South Africa, but it is downright sinful when someone isn't told he's shot an "exotic" in an enclosure. Take impala and springbuck, for example. Generally speaking, these two antelopes do not occur in the same places. If your farm offers both on the same property, something usually smells. As with here in North America, different animals have different habitat needs. South Africa has extensive game animal auctions where a farmer can buy any type of wild animal and have it delivered live to his property. Try to realize that a 2,000-hectare (about 5,000 acres) game farm cannot produce 50 to 60 greater kudu bulls, each with 50-inch-plus horns, year after year for all their clients, any more than 5,000 acres in Santa Cruz County could produce 50 to 60 100-point Coues bucks year after year. Hunting is an industry in South Africa, and there is a lot of put-and-take shooting by unsuspecting clients going on down there. Also, Jason, if you can wrangle first-class upgrades for yourself, be sure to do it. Believe me, 19 1/2 straight hours in coach in a 747 was awful in the old days. In an Airbus, which many airlines are using now, it is pure heck. I know. I've flown first class (once) to Africa, business class (twice), and coach a whole bunch of times. I'll take first class every time. BillQ

Thank you for thinking of me also. I was nominated last year, but the Hall's judges inducted Pete Cowgill, the Arizona Daily Star's retired hiking editor, instead. Bill Quimby

I bought a mule after that particular elk hunt, just so I could hunt that country. That winter kill I described really knocked the deer population down for three or four years, however, but they rebounded after a big fire north of Rose Peak. I shot a couple of elk in there and lost a black bear. I never shot a deer there, though. I loved that country, too. It was as if we had the whole world to ourselves. I'm sorry to hear that it's getting hit hard. Funny thing, one of the few people we saw there in those days was a wildlife manager who was surprised when we told him we were scouting for elk during the band-tailed pigeon hunt. He said we needed to look for elk on top, and that it took a lot of snow to push elk off the rim. My friend and I came close to giggling. We'd not only seen two or three big bulls in velvet an hour or so earlier, but the guy also was standing near what my friend Bill Mattausch calls an elk's "whooping tree." BillQ

I found a boneyard like that about 1967 or 1968, except we found heads and not sheds. We were elk hunting on horseback along the Strayhorse-Chitty Creek-Crabtree Creek trails below Hannagan Meadow and Baldy Bill Point. There had been a record snowfall the previous year and we found remains of Coues deer and mule deer every couple hundred yards just about everywhere we rode. One of the mule deer heads I found scored more than 180 B&C net points and is now in the Arizona record book as a pickup. I had been carrying a Coues deer head that may have scored more than 125 points, but I couldn't carry both. I had to make a choice and the mule deer head was more impressive. I'm ashamed to say now that I left the big whitetail head in a tree. As a side note, Rolfe Hoyer, whom the forest service later named a campground in Greer after, was with us. He was killed in a wildfire not long after our hunt. BillQ

I have read that crocodiles kill someone somewhere in Africa each day. That doesn't count all the people stomped, gored, bitten, torn apart and stung by elephants, lions, hippos, rhinos, leopards, buffalo, several types of mambas, cobras, adders and vipers, baboons and hyenas.

Definitely a 3x3 mule deer.

I like the RCBS for rifle. I have a very old Dillion for my handgun ammo, but I don't shoot pistols much and haven't used it for years. The Lee and Lyman presses used to be less rugged than RCBS, but I don't know about their new presses. You can't go wrong with RCBS, though. BillQ

I've forgotten, but I think he died in 1996 or 1997. He was scheduled to speak at the SCI convention, but had a heart complication that put him in a Reno hospital that night. His wife, Fiona, also an author and a great speaker, did his speech then flew him back to South Africa, where he died after heart surgery. I spent only a few minutes with him at the convention that year. BillQ

Yes. Have fun, and load safely.

I like the 2-book Hornady set because it is loaded with info. I especially like the bulllet drop info on book 2. Nosler's is good, too, but if I were starting out I'd buy the Hornady set, as well as a book from the maker of whatever bullets you'll be loading. BillQ

I totally agree with you. We cringe when we see snow coming. Up until then, no one is around much and we prefer to hunt the dirt. Our dogs do really poorly in snow. Most of them had never seen the snow until a few days ago. We could barely get them to run the track; totally clueless. That's why they call catching lions on the dirt, "honest lions". ha If you are hunting a lion and it snows there, you have to go ahead whatever conditions you got. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Isn't snow also harder on your dogs' feet? I've seen hounds leave bloody tracks after eight or ten hours of hunting in snow. BillQ

"It was their lucky day. We don't kill all the lions we catch. In fact, very few of them. We love to hunt them and they have their place. " Dogman68: Good for you! Mountain lions are wonderful game animals that, as you've said, definitely have their place. I've taken only one, and that is enough for my lifetime. It would be our loss if we lost them. I've known a few good lion hunters and every one of them -- as you do -- released more lions than they killed. It takes more than good hounds to be a good lion hunter. It takes much effort and dedication to get to your skill level, where you can catch lions regularly. BillQ

"I have read Capstick's, "Death in the Tall Grass", that I am sure you are familiar with, Bill. Every chapter a collection of stories of mortal encounters with Africa's various dangerous animals; elephants, buffalo, crocks, and the cat stories are especially frightening - lions taking people from their tents as they sleep?!!!" Yes, I'm familiar with Capstick's books. He was a friend, and he was quite a guy. He was born to a family of means in New Jersey, and worked briefly as a stock broker on Wall Street after graduation from college. He then became a jaguar guide in Brazil before moving on to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to become a professional hunter, and eventually an outdoor writer and author living in South Africa. His early death shocked a lot of us. Although Peter has been accused of gross exaggeration, he was the real thing -- and man could he write! His style is unmatched. I was deeply honored when his widow, Fiona, presented me the 2003 Peter Hathaway Capstick Literary Award for the books I've been writing about and for noted international big game hunters. BillQ

I've never added up the price of components as you've done, but that works out to $0.66 per round if you have the brass, so it's economically worthwhile as well as fun. Wonder why more people don't reload? BillQ

Coosefan: I'd never thought of trying it on anything other than those caribou. I can't wait to play some games with the elk around my cabin in Greer this year. BillQ

"Bill I've never sold any stories but I've had a couple published over the years. I do enjoy it." Josh: You write well enough to make a few bucks from it. The secret is to take a lot of photos, develop contacts among the people who might buy your work, and never, never, never give it away. BillQ

My friend and I did it about 20 years ago with our rifles, and it brought a herd of Central Canada barren ground caribou right back to us. I suppose it would work even better with bows. I think the thing with moose and caribou is that most of them live and die without ever seeing a human. As a fan and student of the world's 40 deer species I'd hate to think that any member of the family was less than intelligent. BillQ

My friend and I did it about 20 years ago with our rifles, and it brought a herd of Central Canada barren ground caribou right back to us. I suppose it would work even better with bows. I think the thing with moose and caribou is that most of them live and die without ever seeing a human. As a fan and student of the world's 40 deer species I'd hate to think that any member of the family was less than intelligent. BillQ

Coosefan: Do me a favor after you've shot your caribou. Caribou aren't that smart and chances are its buddies won't run far before they stop and look back at you. When they do, I'd appreciate it if you and your friend would take your rifles and hold them over your heads with both hands and wander slowly around in separate circles as if you were a couple of feeding caribou and your rifles were your antlers. I'm not pulling your leg. We did this in the Northwest Territories on my last caribou hunt after I shot a bull and we lured a its herd right back to us, and my partner shot another from the same bunch. I'm curious as to whether our experience was a fluke, or if this might work regularly. I've not heard of anyone else doing it. Thanks, Bill Quimby

I can't remember when I fired factory ammo out of one of my rifles. I don't know or care what the cost-effectiveness might be, but I like to fool myself into thinking that reloaded ammo costs me less than $1.00 per round. I think I'm safe in saying I save a bunch of money when I reload for the .375 and .458, even including the cost of the new brass. I reload because I enjoy doing it, and I get atisfaction in taking an animal with one of my "home-mades." There's something else about reloading many people forget. You will do a lot more shooting when you load 50-100 rounds at a time as opposed to forking over hard cash for boxes of 20 store-boughts ... and the more shooting you do the better you'll be. Bill

Josh, that was a great tale and well told. Have you thought about selling any of your stories? Also, do you and your dad do all of your hunts on foot? BillQ

Jim: How do you plan to get your meat home? I've never found a way that is cost-effective so I always gave my meat to outfitters to distribute to needy people as they saw fit. Moose meat is the best game meat on this continent and I would have liked to have taken some home. BillQ

Sorry, but I couldn't post the drawing for some reason. But take my word for it, the moose of Alaska and the Yukon are huge. They make the Shiras moose of the lower 48 look like runts. BillQ