billrquimby

Congratulations, Tony. Now for that bison tag . . . Bill Quimby

I shot 40-50 rounds a week for two months a year for three years when I competed in the silhouette leagues in Sonora in the late 1960s. Best I can figure, that amounts to 1.500 to 1,900 rounds. Before that, I suppose I'd fired another 200-300 rounds with that rifle. At any rate, one day my .270 could shoot a good group, and the next day it could not. Its ability to shoot accurately vanished virtually overnight. Bill Quimby

Heck, I'd love to be 61, or even 71 again ... Bill Quimby

If I had won, which I didn't, I would have chartered a big jet and taken a few close friends to Tanzania, where I'd hunt elephant and leopard. From there, we'd fly down to Namibia for a black rhino to complete my African Big Five. We'd lay over a few days on the trip down in Paris and Nairobi, and in Johannesburg, Buenos Aires and Hawaii on the way back. The total bill for all this wouldn't have put a dent in that jackpot. Bill Quimby

Your report is great, and so is your buck. Congratulations! Bill Quimby

"Way to go Bill! What kind of hunting was it? spot and stalk or sitting blinds?" The cover was too thick and the terrain too flat for spot and stalk. It was more like sneak or sit. Shots were from 25 to 250 yards. Our rancher friend had placed five or six ground blinds in various places on his 2,000-acre ranch, and we killed most of our deer from them. Two of my deer were killed while I sat on a folding chair I carried to a likely-looking opening. Bill Quimby

"I usually don't check every section." Try clicking on "View New Content" at the top of the page when you open the forum. It will show everything that has been posted since your last visit, allowing you to keep up on all the topics. Bill Quimby

Just returned from the Texas Hill Country where a friend, his son, my son-in-law, and I took seventeen whitetails in six days of hunting. The limit was five deer each. We easily could have used all twenty tags but we grew tired of skinning, butchering and wrapping meat and called it quits. Our ages? 50, 53, 70 and 76 (me). Even at my age, there still are a few more deer and elk hunts left in me. All I need is to draw the tags. Bill quimby

My thanks go to you, Ben. Although I knew it, for the life of me, I had a senior moment and could not remember the word "arrasta" when I described that huge stone I had found in the Baboquivaris what seems like 100 years ago. As you obviously know, arrastas were used to crush ore so that it could be more easily handled and smelted into bricks. Bill Quimby

For some reason, I've been unable to respond to posts on this forum lately. Here's what I would have liked to reply to Shawn's post asking for someone to identify the structure he found in a wash while hunting mule deer. I don't think it's a well, but it could be what's left of a primitive smelter for processing copper, gold or silver ore. If so,it might even date as far back as the time of the early Spanish exploration of our region. Don't know where Shawn found it, but there are a number of old Spanish mine sites near Arivaca. As a boy in about 1950 or so I found a site in the Baboquivaris where they had crushed ore with a huge donut-shaped rock, which they apparently had pulled by burros or oxen. When I returned a few years later, someone had somehow hauled that heavy rock out of there. I wouldn't have known a smelter if I'd seen one then, but I suspect there was one nearby. Bill Quimby

Years ago, I hauled shoulder mounts of an Alaskan-Yukon moose and my best elk in the bed of my pickup truck, using rope to keep them from sliding around and upright. I picked a day when good weather was forecast, and positioned the heads so the wind would not be against the "grain" of the hair. They made the trip from Tucson to Greer with no problem. (If I were to do it again, I'd wrap them in inexpensive painters' drop cloths from Home Depot.) Hauling those two mounts to our cabin in an open truck made for an interesting trip. People gawked when I drove past, and lots of drivers honked their horns when they saw them. Bill Quimby

A .270 was my first "modern" hunting rifle. With it, I shot seven of the Arizona Big Ten species in the late 1950s and early 1960s -- a half dozen Coues deer, a javelina every year, 3-4 mule deer, a couple of turkeys, an antelope, a buffalo and two elk, including my best-ever bull. I chose 130-grain bullets for everything because that's what everyone (especially my hero, Jack O'Connor) shot in their .270s in those days. I don't remember anyone feeling under-gunned because he didn't use 150-grain bullets. There were no "premium" bullets then, and I probably couldn't have afforded them if there had been. I bought "cull" (blemished) 130-grain .270 bullets by the pound for ridiculously low prices from the Arizona Bullet Company in Tucson, neck-sized my cases with a Lyman tong tool, and had no problems at all. As best as I can remember, those bullets were comparable to the boat-tail hunting bullets Speer sells today. If the @#$%@*&%! burglars who stole my guns in September had left me just one of my two .270s, I'd buy 130-grain Nosler Partitions and feel confident I could take anything that walks in North America if I put them where they should go. Bill Quimby

Prayers sent. Like Amanda, I also hope someone steps up to help your boys. Bill Quimby

Amanda. Obviously, I am able to reply to a post I created. With everything else, though, the area below the statement "reply to this topic" is frozen. I can't type anything in it. Bill

Looks like a pretty good Coues whitetail buck to me. The tails of mule deer are much thinner, and usually have black only on their tips. Many Coues deer have tails that are dark on top. The photo doesn't show what's underneath. In addition, the shape and coloration of this buck's body look nothing at all like a mature mule deer. Bill Quimby

This happened in our neighborhood. There apparently were two different couples hitting homes here last month. The other couple is younger, and was photographed by a homeowner's security camera before the male disabled it. They still are out there. I don't know which group hit our home and took our stuff. There could be other crooks "working" our area. Bill Quimby

It's a big brown-phase black bear that looks larger than it really is by posing the hunters behind the animal. Its short claws would give it away if we didn't know where it had been killed in Arizona. Bill Quimby

It's a great caliber for deer-size game. A 100-grain Nosler Partition would be my choice for anything that walks in Arizona. Bill Quimby

Thanks, everyone, for all the kind words. To answer Snapshot's question, I'm 76 today and planning another trip with friends to the Texas Hill Country. I'm told the limit on a friend's ranch this year is four deer and three turkeys! Bill Quimby

Is it a 12- or a 14-footer? Bill Quimby

I knew Peter Capstick and visited his home in South Africa several times. He was an extremely talented writer. Your recent find, "Something of Value," was among the several great books with African themes written by Robert Ruark. You may also enjoy his "Uhuru," which also covers Kenya's Mau Mau uprising, "Honey Badger," "Use Enough Gun" and "Poor No More." Unfortunately, the Africa that Ruark (and Hemingway) wrote about is long gone. Even Peter Capstick's Africa has changed since his death in 1996. Don't know much about "The African Queen" movie except that it was based on a novel by C.S. Forester. He may have had a real person in mind when he created his book's hero but, as far as I know, the events depicted in the book and movie were pure fiction. Bill Quimby

Check with Patrick Holahan. He builds beautiful rifles. Bill Quimby

I used rifles, muzzleloaders, handguns and bows to take my Big Ten, which I completed in 1993 after waiting 39 years to draw a sheep tag. The only game animals I've taken with a bow were javelinas and one mule deer. Bill Quimby Incidentally, taking four types of North American wild sheep is called a Grand Slam. A Super Slam includes the Grand Slam and a bunch of Asian sheep.

Thieves broke into our Tucson home this week and stole, among other things, 33 of my rifles and shotguns. Several are distinctive or rare. If you see them at a swap meet, gun store or yard sale, please call the police or sheriff's office: 1. A Ruger No. 1 in .270 Winchester. This is unfired, new in box, and just one of 50 adorned with a medallion on each side of the receiver. One side features the 100th anniversary of Wyoming statehood; the other features the 50th anniversary of the Lander, Wyoming, One Shot Antelope Hunt. 2. A Model 70 Super Grade .375 H&H. This was presented to me when I retired from SCI. The right side of the butt stock was professionally laser carved with my name and words commemorating my producing SCI's publications from 1983-1999. It also is unfired and new in box. 3. A Browning Citori 28 gauge in a black leatherette-covered Spanish-built take-down box. This little shotgun is like new, but has had about 100 rounds fired through it. 4. A Remington 700 BDL in 6.5mm Remington Magnum. It has a 3x9X scope with duplex reticle on it, but I've forgotten who made it. Most 6.5mm RM were made as carbines, and the 700 version is rare. 5. A custom Mannlicher .257 Roberts made on a Japanese Arisaka action, with the custom smith's name (Frank Wells) on the barrel. The stock is quite beat up. There is a receiver sight, but no scope. It was my saddle gun when I still had horses and a mule. 6. A flintlock .54 caliber early Kentucky-style muzzleloader. I built this rifle from parts and a chunk of Texas walnut. I carved the area around the cheekpiece with a floral design. 7. A half-stock muzzleloader with a pewter forend tip and walnut stock. I also built this rifle. There is a photo of it in my boook, Sixty Years A Hunter. 8. An original .45 caliber early Dixie percussion muzzleloading long rifle. Never fired. Its stock is stained a reddish color. 9. An early Belgium Browning 12 gauge superimposed shotgun. It was reblued, but the stock was never refinished. It was used extensively by a trapshooter before I bought it years ago, and it breaks open very easily. 10. An early .303 Savage model 99 Savage. I swapped its original curved buttstock for a straight butt and installed a scope and sling swivel. (The front swivel went on the barrel, but is missing now.) The other 23 firearms include a .257 Roberts tang safety Ruger 77; an old Savage pump 20 gauge shotgun, a new-looking side-by-side Spanish 12-gauge shotgun; a 16-gauge single shot Winchester shotgun that I had started to checker and quit; a Model 70 Super Grade .458 Win Mag rifle with a 4-power Leupold scope; a Remington 700 BDL .22/250 with 4-12X scope; a Model 70 pre-64 Winchester .458 WM; a post-64 .30-06 Super Grade Model 70 with a 3x9 Burris scope; an old S&W Smith & Wesson .38 special revolver; etc., etc. Also stolen were the bleached skulls of black bear, mountain lion, javelinas and African lion, and two authentic Massai spears. . Bill Quimby

The Arizona SCI chapters also issue a Big Ten Award, but it is for taking all ten animals with any method. I don't think they have a separate award for taking all ten animals with a bow. Bill Quimby