billrquimby

I have no idea, TJ, but I believe my pick-up head would be grandfathered and exempt if we have such a law today. I found it near a tinaja while hunting burros 59 years ago, when there was no law prohibiting keeping found wildlife parts. (To protect sheep habitat, AZGFD and land management agencies encouraged hunters to shoot every feral burro on sight. The Yuma Rod and Gun Club even held an annual wild burro barbecue.) My guess is that there aren't many such heads waiting to be found. Very few people got into the Mohawks or any of the mountains in that part of the state in the early 1950s compared to the number of people running around all year around just about everywhere now. Legal or not, I doubt that few people would leave a sheep head where they found it. If there is no law that prohibits keeping them, a good place to look for sheep heads might be the Kofas, where mountain lions decimated its sheep herd over the past decade or so. I imagine the refuge people, guides and guys who drew sheep tags in that unit have already found the easily accessible ones, though. Bill Quimby

The last one that sold in 2005 sold for... PS... Can i get a loan??? $31,000.00 it might have been because of the high rollers going at it but that was the amount... For CWT members, I'm offering a 15% discount on my pick-up desert sheep head and will accept payments: $26,350 cash or $734 month for 36 months. Certified checks required. Bill Quimby

$31,000 for a pick-up head is mind-blowing. Some people have more money than sense. Be sure to post what NMGFD gets for those eight heads. Bill Quimby

I hunt because I must, and I will hunt until I can't. Bill Quimby

I have a twin to the one shown on that website. Found it in the Mohawks in about 1953 or 54. The skull on mine is in better shape, though. Will be interesting to know what New Mexico will sell those for. Bill Quimby

I've stumbled upon a lot of elk and deer sheds over the years, but never when I tried to seriously search for them. Perhaps the secret is to just walk around, glass and enjoy being out in good elk and deer country. Bill Quimby

There definitely is an organized campaign to end trophy hunting of lions, even though as you say others kill more lions than trophy hunters, and will continue to do so even after trophy hunting ends. The National Geographic Wild "documentaries" seldom tell an unbiased story. Accuratereloading.com covered the shooting of Robin Hurt's PH well when it happened. Scary. $8,000 sounds "reasonable" for a trophy fee in Tanzania at first glance, but add the $63,000 for a $3,000 daily rate for 21 days, and a lion hunt in Zimbabwe is less expensive, even with a $20,000 trophy fee. Bill Quimby

Looks like my info is more than a tad out of date. Daily rates in Tanzania have always been Africa's most expensive but its trophy fees used to be lower than others. I doubt that the TV guys are limiting exposure because they're worried about bunny huggers. Bill Quimby

Congratulations to kids and dads. Your story and photos made me want to hunt a javelina again. Maybe next year, if I can find someone in Tucson who wants the meat. Bill Quimby

Savants, and each sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period? Lark, I thought I would never see the day. I've circled February 6, 2012, on my calendar! Bill Quimby

Snapshot: It's probably because of what Robert Ruark called "the high cost of lions." A hunt for free-ranging lions in Zambia (where I shot mine), Zimbabwe, Mozambique or Tanzania will run as much as $1,500 per day for a minimum of 21 days, plus a very expensive trophy fee when a lion is killed or wounded. It is not unusual for hunters to pay $50,000 to $70,000 for a mature male lion. Most TV shows simply don't have that type of budget. I was lucky to have taken mine in 1993, before lion hunt prices went out of sight. I don't watch hunting videos or hunting TV shows, but I understand that videos of lion hunts in South Africa have been shown from time to time. What the producers won't tell you is that most lion hunts in that country are conducted behind high wire, and that most of those lions were born and raised on lion farms and taken to where they are "hunted." A few lions from South Africa and Namibia are not "canned," but most are. That's why SCI lists lions from those two countries in a separate category in its record books. Bill Quimby

"So these jobs numbers that people keep spouting off, are not counting all of the jobs that will be created that support the mine." This was what I was trying to say in another thread when I talked about direct and indirect benefits from a single new job. Rosemont estimates that the mine will create about 400 new jobs (direct) and about 1,700 new jobs in peripheral industries. 2,100 new jobs is not insignificant. At an average of just $47,000 per year per worker, that's close to $100 million a year in new revenue that this mine will add to southern Arizona's economy. But it doesn't stop there. All that extra money circulating will create jobs for dentists, carpenters, auto mechanics, shoe repairmen, grocery store clerks, insurance salesmen, school teachers, home builders and virtually everyone else. I will hate to see the scars on that side of the Santa Ritas (I have hunted that area since 1953), but it is a necessary evil. Growth and change are inevitable without some type of population control -- and no one wants to see that. My birth certificate says I was born "on September 30, 1936, in Pima County, about three miles east of Tucson." The city ended at Campbell then, and the little house where I was born still stands. It is about a block south of Speedway between Country Club and Alvernon. While attending the UA, I shot quail in the foothills above town where I now live, and bowhunted mule deer and javelinas in the Tucson Mountains near where Pima College now is. I could lament that Tucson has spread like cancer for many miles in every direction across this valley during my lifetime, but I also must remind myself that growth and its resulting habitat loss fed me and my family and gave us opportunities enjoyed by very few ordinary citizens around the world. Bill Quimby

We had bought about $400 worth of frozen vegetables, beef, pork and chicken on sale in Round Valley just before the Wallow Fire began, and the power company turned off the electricity to Greer immediately after we were evacuated. We returned three weeks later to find a stinking mess -- at least 100 pounds of stuff rotting in three inches of bloody water in the bottom of the freezer.! Even so, we were thankful that the fire spared our cabin. We were not the only cabin owners to lose everything in their freezers. After we were allowed to return, there was a long line of cars for three days at the dumpster the fire department provided for dumping spoiled foods. The amazing thing to me was that although it could be smelled from a mile away downwind, I found no bear tracks around it. Bill Quimby

Don't plan on anything "soon." The lakes near Greer can have ice as late as late March, but it depends on the year. Bill Quimby

Unfortunately, win or lose, the lawyers for these groups will be paid with taxpayer dollars because their lawsuit was "in the public's interest." Bill Quimby

Isn't it great to look out a window and see them? We have similar visitors at our cabin every summer in Greer. Our record number for mule deer visiting at one time was 17 does and yearlings. For elk, it was 34 cows and calves. For black bear, two was the most we've seen at one time. We've also seen two wolves near our gate. This is all in daylight. More come around at night. The deer and elk have a deep trail next to the cabin that they use at night to reach a meadow across the road from us. Bill Quimby

According to everything I have read in regards to hybrids only 100% Mule deer can Stot or Pogo. I found a great write up years back, Actually a Thesis by Roy Lopez if you want to read about the genetics of Coues and hybrids( chapter 2 ) here is the link .... My link Another good source of information on hybrids, as well as anything else you may want to know about deer, is "Deer Of The World" by Valerius Geust. It's pricey, but there are used copies on the internet from time to time. Bill Quimby

Thanks, TJ, for responding. Wish we had someone like him down here in the hinterlands or up on the mountain. Bill Quimby

Does he make boots, or just sell them? If he makes them to order, what do they cost? Bill Quimby

Thanks, WHT-MTNMAN. Call me when you know you'll be in Greer next summer (we're in the book) and we can shake hands over coffee or lunch. Bill Quimby

WHT-MTNMAN: I apologize for my uncalled-for comment. It seems I get grumpier as the years zip by. Although I am no way comparing myself to him, I am reminded of Jack O'Connor who would "be stricken with the vapors" upon seeing "muley" used for mule deer. Even he could not stem the tide. Again, if you want to call a taxidermist and his art "taxi" or a javelina a "javi," you should be able to do so without suffering criticism from this grumpy old man. Bill Quimby

You would lose that bet, doctor. Bill Quimby

Nice job. But must the taxidermist responsible for such beautiful work be disparaged by calling him a "taxi?" It would be like calling a businessman a "bus," or a carpenter a "carp." First guy who calls me an "auth" will find his name on my short list with a line through it. Bill Quimby

"On that note Bill how far do you think an ethical 12gauge #4 buck shot would be for a big Puma? " I have no experience with #4 buckshot. I would suppose that a mountain lion would be no more difficult to kill than a whitetail, and there are lots of them killed with buckshot in the midwest and east. Try Googling something like "using No. 4 buckshot on white-tailed deer" to see what hunters there say about it. Bill Quimby Bill Quimby

Does it have a wood or Tupperware stock? Is it push feed or controlled-round feed? Bill Quimby