billrquimby

There probably will be enough cabins to rent before Memorial Day. However, I suggest everyone who plans to stay in Greer between Memorial and Labor days make their reservations now. About half of the village's rental cabins are involved in a bankruptcy and the investors who buy them in the foreclosure auctions starting next month may take a while to get up to speed. === Bill Quimby

Check the forums on www.accuratereloading.com and www.24hourcampfire.com Non-residents who have hunted in Colorado for years are urging others to boycott the state to protest its governor recently signing several anti-gun measures into law. The Outdoor Channel also has announced that it will stop filming hunts in Colorado because of those laws. Colorado's resident hunters are saying that the state's politics are dominated by liberals who live along the front range after moving there from California over the past few decades. I find it interesting that Colorado is like Arizona in that most of its people reside in urban areas and that rural residents have little say over their destinies. Fortunately for those who think as we do, conservatives still control our legislature. We can expect that to change as more people from blue states, Mexico, and Central America move to our urban areas. Bill Quimby

Marion Morrison, aka John "Duke" Wayne, was born in 1907, which means he would be 106 if he were still alive. As tough as he was, we probably need someone a tad younger to do our snot kicking. Bill Quimby

Coach: I've shot a few replica and original black powder rifles and shotguns, but never tried shooting shot in a rifle. Don't try it based on what I'm about to say, but it seems to me that it would be safe as long as the weight of the shot did not exceed that of the bullets or balls that you normally shoot. As to whether it would throw enough shot to kill a turkey, or even produce a pattern tight enough to just hit one, I have no idea. Your main problem could be in finding .50-caliber wads. You might want to check some muzzleloading sites on the inernet. Bill Quimby

Looks like you shot a very big boar. I have two or three skulls like it. One of the animals was so old its tusks had been worn down to small lumps.--- Bill Quimby

Out to 75 yards or so, patched round balls fired from barrels with slow twists and iron sights are more accurate than my aged eyes allow me to shoot now. I killed a few Texas Hill Country whitetails and a couple of Arizona javelinas with them when I was younger, though. Bill Quimby

Twowindy: You have a nice rifle at a fair price, but it's a "working" piece compared to the highly decorated rifles that were built for wealthy buyers before the Civil War. Best guns from that period had decorative brass or silver inlays, stocks with carved designs and engraved patchboxes. I can't tell for sure from the photos, but there seems to be a wide gap in the stock around the top of the lock. If so, it's possible that there may have been a caplock with a larger plate installed there at one time. If your rifle began its life as a caplock, it probably was built between 1820 (when percussion caps first came into wide use) and the late 1860s- early 1870s (when rear-loading rifles shooting metallic cartridges became available). However, many older guns began life as a flintlock and were converted to caplock after the advent of percussion caps. Later, as flintlock firearms became more desirable to collectors, some were returned to flintlocks. (I fitted both styles of locks with matching plates to one of the Kentucky/Pennsylvania-style long rifles I built years ago so that I could switch from caplock to flintlock and vice versa, depending upon how I wanted to hunt. Switching involved only removing the lock and installing or removing the "drum" and "nipple" or the flash-hole insert. Sure wish I still had that rifle and the jerks who stole it were behind bars--or worse.) It's also possible that your rifle had a full-length stock at one time. I say this because the rib that the "thimbles" (the small tubes that hold the ramrod) doesn't extend to the end of the barrel. (I've never seen an original half-stock rifle with such a short rib.) There is no way of telling from the photographs, but your rifle also could have been built from replica or original parts AFTER the Civil War. Lots of amateur and professional gunsmiths have built "period" rifles over the last 70 years or so. I built three such rifles myself and I did my best to make them look and function like those built in the 1700s and early 1800s. At any rate, it's a good-looking muzzleloader. If it were mine, I'd want to check it out to see if I could hunt with it. Bill Quimby

Slow-cooked in a mesquite-fired pit is the only way I've been able to eat javelina, desert bighorn and bear. It's not because I don't take care in handling, skinning or butchering them -- I simply don't like the flavor of their meat. Bill Quimby

I haven't decided yet but the first hunter to use a tape measure to "score" his "trophy" or determine the "quality" of his hunt either will be beheaded or drawn and quartered when I am king. Bill Quimby

One thing to remember is that our deer population is significantly lower than Mississippi's. In the beginning, don't get discouraged if you can't find a deer -- even a doe -- every day you go out. Also, while glassing definitely is the No. 1 way to hunt our deer, there are a great many good places where it does not work. In such places the techniques you learned "back home" could prove useful. There also are days when deer simply do not move out of cover so they can be seen by someone sitting on high point a half mile or more away. Windy days come to mind. When I was younger and fitter, I would slowly and quietly move upwind just below the highest main ridge of a mountain on such days and toss little rocks into brushy areas at the heads of little canyons that might hide a buck, always trying to stay in position and ready to shoot whenever one jumped up below or across from me. I smile when I see posts by forum members saying disparaging things about those who hunt this way because I know it works when spending the day behind binoculars might not. Bill Quimby

Congratulations on your successful hunt. I misread the thread's title, thinking you had used a .458 Winchester Magnum! I used my .458 on a javelina in the mid-1980s just to do it. It was surprising how little meat it damaged. That javelina and a Cape buffalo are the only animals I ever shot with that rifle. Wish I still had it, but it was one of 35 long guns that were stolen this year. Bill Quimby

"I read a book about newzeeland and they have some cool sounding multi species hunts over there but I think most are backpack and really rough terrain. Sounded like some real adventure. I am not sure on a dream hunt though." Wilderness hunting in New Zealand today does not involve what most American hunters would call "camping" and "backpacking." Locals charter helicopters to transport them and their gear and food at huts the government has built for hunters in remote areas. If you are from ":overseas" and hire an outfitter, you'll be put up in a lodge below the mountains and flown in a helicopter to and from the hunting areas each day for tahr and chamois. For red, sika and fallow deer, as well as feral goat and wild boar you more often than not will hunt on a high-fenced "estate." Bill Quimby

I've done both, more than once. Wilderness camping is wonderful when you're young. I speak with authority in saying it can be tough on old geezers. As for my dream hunt: Twenty one days in Tanzania for elephant, gerenuk and lesser kudu. Bill Quimby

Concentrate on the areas where you've seen herds in the past. If you know a herd's feeding and bedding areas, you task is half over. A herd will use those places again and again, year after year. I'm convinced javelinas have small territories, probably no more than a square mile. That 640- acre-home range sometimes may consist of just one very long canyon, though. Also, if you can find fresh rooting, check out other spots with the same type of food. Bill Quimby

I'm interested in the Marlin .22 if the rifle in good shape. Where are you? I'm in Tucson. Where can I meet you to see it? Bill Quimby

I hope your illness is not serious and that they release you early, Tony. Hospitals are no fun. Bill Quimby

Hi Amanda: Any chance you could have the logo on the "carmel" color caps printed in brown instead of white when you reorder? Bill Quimby

I witnessed three near-total fish-killing drawdowns at San Carlos Lake in the 1970s and early 1980s. Each time, the bass and crappies returned without restocking, and fishing for 2-pound bass was excellent within three years. Fisheries experts I interviewed claimed that the brush that grew up while the lake was down created spawning shelters and food for fish. Bill Quimby

Little Creek Calls: Any chance of holding a similar seminar in Tucson? Bill Quimby

I wonder how (and if) they factored in the fact that Boone & Crockett raised minimums several times for the most-hunted animals over that 108-year study period -- or even if it would make a difference that "trophies" in the early years would not be worthy of listing today? There is no doubt that there has been an increased emphasis on hunting for "trophies." Few were obsessed with this foolishness before the early 1960s. Bill Quimby

Actually, a 2% reduction over 108 years is insignificant, especially when you consider the early records might be or, more likely, probably are inaccurate. Bill Quimby

I need only look all around me to realize that there is a certain orderliness to this world and everything on it, as well as to the entire universe, and that this order could not happen randomly. Bill Quimby

"I would say it was a safe bet to say the Az deer herd is not a fraction of what it was say 50 years ago.We could ride our ranch-10 sections,and see 100 deer a day.Now we ride many days,and see no deer.I have a copy of the hunting regulations of Az,1957.There were 4000 any deer permits on Kaibab from Oct 25-30,and 4000 more any deer permits from Nov 15-24.Hunting license was 4.00,javelina,deer tag was 1.00,antelope tag was 10.00,elk was 15.00,and bighorn was 50.00.My how things have changed!!!!" Yes, things have changed, but we're talking drastically different dollars. I graduated from UA in 1958 and took a job in advertising that paid $10,000 a year. This was a lot of money at a time when union tradesmen were making $6,000 to $7,000 year. We bought a new 2,800 sq. ft. home on an acre in the foothills above Tucson for $21,500, put in a swimming pool for $2,500 and ordered a new Chevy station wagon for $2,000. Gasoline was 19 cents a gallon, and cigarettes cost less than $2 per carton. I have a box of Winchester-Western .270 Silver Tip ammo I bought at the long-gone Steinfeld's Department Store. There is a $4.49 sticker on it. Bill Quimby

"DEER HEARD SHRINKING?" As I approach 77, I find that every time I go out I see more deer than I did when I was 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60. And that's with mild cataracts. With luck in the tag lottery and God willing, I will have hunted in this state for 65 years before 2013 ends, and the only two things I can say for certain on this subject are: 1. the mule deer herd in White Mountains is rebounding. 2. human ears are incapable of hearing a deer shrinking. Bill Quimby

Nice photos. Most Arizona Coues deer hunters would call your buck a 3x3 or three-pointer, but no matter. It's a great trophy with bow or rifle. Congratulations. Bill Quimby