billrquimby

" if you hunt for reasons other than the love of hunting and enjoying the outdoors and wildlife and plants and country, with folks you care about, then you're part of the problem. Lark." As always, Lark is right on., although I am convinced it is more than just part of the problem. Hunters who judge the quality of hunting with tape measures will be the death of our heritage. Bill Quimby The worst thing about growing old is knowing the condition is temporary. BQ

Yep. Pretty and dumb. Actually, pretty dumb. Bill Quimby

Lark: I grew up watching desert sheep around Yuma during and after World War II, and it is my humble opinion that the dumbest javelina is smarter than a desert sheep. I've never kicked one, but I've been close enough to a lot of desert sheep that I could have hit them with rocks if I were a better pitcher. When I was a kid in the 1940s and 1950s, we'd drive up to rams in that nasty desert around Welton, Mohawk, Dateland and Tacna, miles from any type of hill and decades before the farms popped up, and they'd come running to us when they saw our vehicles. I even know guys who filled their tags when rams run off ridges straight down to them to be shot. A lot of hunters get all wrapped up in the "romance" of sheep hunting and will talk for hours about "magnificent" rams and "wild" scenery and "difficult" terrain, but I've never heard anyone who has hunted all of the world's various Ovis species ever call any sheep "wary" or "smart." My personal experience with other types of sheep is limited to Dall sheep, Rocky Mountain bighorns and European mouflon seen while hunting other game in Canada, Wyoming and Spain, but I saw nothing that improved my opinion of their intelligence. Trophy-class Dall rams for example, trotted up to our horses every day while we hunted moose in the Yukon. The Sinks Canyon gun range outside Lander, Wyoming, is used mainly for team members to sight in their rifles during the September One Shot Antelope Hunt, but it is not uncommon for Rocky Mountain rams to wander through its parking lot when it is full of cars, trucks and people, apparently because they are curious about the shooting that is going on. As for shooting a sheep, Lark, keep applying for a permit. It took me 39 years to draw my tag, so it's possible. As for the difficulty in hunting them, one look at the hunter success rate should tell you all you need to know. Bill Quimby

Ditto on the rut getting stronger. I went outside the cabin today at 8:30 a.m. to get something from my truck and bulls were squealing and bugling all around me. They've been active every night for a week, but today was the first time I've heard them during the day. Hope Amanda scores. Bill Quimby

Nope. In fact, after losing (the same year) the only elk and the mule deer I ever shot with arrows I limited my bowhunting to javelinas under eight yards and never again bowhunted for elk and deer. This was before compound bows and modern arrows and broadheads. We shot our recurve bows instinctively because no one had thought of putting sights on bows yet. Bill Quimby

A friend says he saw a herd of ewes. lambs and small Rocky Mountain bighorn rams along the rim west of Hanagan Meadow last week, which brings me to my question: Does anyone know if sheep still are hanging around the campgrounds along the river near Diamond Rock? A neighbor recently said he had never seen a live wild sheep and I foolishly volunteered to show him some next weekend. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Bill Quimby

It's not surprising that deer will occasionally, albeit rarely, have canines. The ancestors of most of the 40 or so species of deer found around the world actually had fangs! A holdover from those prehistoric times are the dark vertical marks on each side of a deer's lower jaws. The only deer I've encountered that didn't have these marks were caribou, but then they're unique among all deer in that the females also have antlers. There are at least two Asian deer species that still do have long canine teeth -- the muntjac and the water deer. The muntjac has antlers; the water deer does not. Bill Quimby

"Biologists have been collaring and following and studying lions for plenty of years now and have found that is just not the case. The numbers are more like 10-12 large mammals a year a lion will take. The rest of the time they are catching rabbits, skunks, rats, turkeys, squirrels, coyotes, scavenging dead animals, and whatever else they come across." ... and that includes other lions. Back when I hunted them in the 1970s, we found two examples where big toms had killed and eaten young male lions. Lark is correct, as usual. A hunter should consider himself fortunate to see one that wasn't pushed up a tree with hounds. In my humble opinion, the mountain lion is Arizona's premier game animal ... ranking even above elk, sheep and our beloved Coues deer ... so count me among those who hope that we will always have lions in our mountains. Bill Quimby

"but deer and elk are a lot smarter than rockies from what i've seen." Lark: From what I've seen, deer and elk are a million times smarter than any wild sheep. C.J. McElroy, the founder of SCI who hunted almost every species of sheep known, would say the same thing if he were still alive. Bill Quimby

Doug: These are not just photos. They're fine art. You need to contact a gallery. At the very least, please show Arizona Highways magazine's editor your portfolio and get on his "want list." Bill Quimby

My neighbors and I went looking for sheep on Tuesday. As others have said on this thread, the road past Diamond Rock where I've seen sheep several times in the past remains closed, so we tried looking along Beaver Creek and along the rim. Although we saw none, we had a great day and enjoyed meeting the Wiltbanks at Sprucedale. What surprised me was that we left at 4:45 a.m. and drove from Greer to Sheep's Crossing, Big Lake, Buffalo Crossing, Sprucedale, Hannagan and Alpine and on to Eagar, then returned to Greer by 11 a.m. without seeing one elk! I would have bet my next Social Security check that this would be impossible. We did see maybe two dozen deer and two antelope. Bill Quimby

My neighbors and I went looking for sheep on Tuesday. As others have said on this thread, the road past Diamond Rock where I've seen sheep several times in the past remains closed, so we tried looking along Beaver Creek and along the rim. Although we saw none, we had a great day and enjoyed meeting the Wiltbanks at Sprucedale. What surprised me was that we left at 4:45 a.m. and drove from Greer to Sheep's Crossing, Big Lake, Buffalo Crossing, Sprucedale, Hannagan and Alpine and on to Eagar, then returned to Greer by 11 a.m. without seeing one elk! I would have bet my next Social Security check that this would be impossible. We did see maybe two dozen deer and two antelope. Bill Quimby

Congratulations to the young man. My guess is that "scruff" came when the buck crawled through a fence. Bill Quimby

I'm a wimp when it comes to recoil also. That's why I shoot a 7 mm Remington Magnum with 175-grain Nosler Partition handloads for everything except African dangerous game. Bill Quimby

Leave the .357 at home and take the larger handgun if you're worried about encountering an aggressive grizzly bear. I've witnessed two botched attempts to kill treed black bears with the .357, and have nothing but contempt for that caliber on bears. A friend shot one of those bears 12 times with a .357 before it dropped; as for the other bear, I fired five shots into its chest with a .357 at 40 feet with no effect before literally literally knocking it out of the tree with one shot from the guide's .44 magnum. Bill Quimby

Can't say that I hate them, Tony, but anonymous "handles" do bother me. I figure if someone types something the entire world can read, the world should know who wrote it. Bill Quimby

Big Moqui: As someone from the generation you’ve knocked, let me say that I read “Silent Spring” when it first came out in 1962. That’s a half century ago, so forgive me when I say what little I remember about Carlson’s book was that it attacked the widespread use of DDT because of its effect on the eggs of certain birds (especially bald eagles) and that the book eventually led to President Richard Nixon's executive order banning that pesticide and the launch of the so-called “environmental movement.” There were plenty of critics of her conclusions at the time, and there still are. I don’t know enough about pesticides to comment, but I do know that DDT was being used everywhere to control mosquitoes and other insects that feed on humans and carry diseases such as malaria. I also remember being covered with the stuff on one of my many high-school jobs whenever I rode in the hopper of a cropduster’s Stearman biplane to and from the farms in the Gila and Welton/Mohawk valleys to “flag the rows” being dusted. I also remember that every “mojado” the U.S. Border Patrol picked up was regularly dusted with DDT before being sent home. I also remember that Carlson was not alone in her concern about the excesses of those times. David Brower (then director of the Sierra Club) was talking about overpopulation of “spaceship earth.” Other concerned people, including sportsmen's groups, were voicing concern and building support for legislation to protect endangered species, wilderness and our other natural resources. Unfortunately, some of the support groups that feed on such legislation today have lost sight of the original goals of those landmark laws. Neither Brower nor Carlson were whacko environmentalists, but the downside of the movement they both inspired soon got out of hand. It led to dozens of organizations using phony science and preying on emotions of the uninformed to collect funds from well-meaning people, as well as groups that deserve the terrorist label the Department of Justice has given them. It also led to the present "green movement, "much of which would be hilarious if so many people did not believe every cockeyed proposal it generates. Just one case in point was the actress who claimed the planet could survive only if everyone were limited to just one square of toilet tissue per bowel movement! There is an upside, though. Our rivers and air are cleaner and fewer species of wildlife are on the brink of extinction than when I enrolled at the UA in September 1954. What I lament is that, within my lifetime, the broad public perception of hunters and anglers has gone from revered conservationists to our being viewed as everything from anachronisms to downright threats to the world's wildlife. With luck I won’t live to see our tradition legislatively eliminated, which it surely will be if we cannot stop the steady decline in our numbers. Bill Quimby

Actually, Ed Stockwell's record antlers were mounted on many capes over the years. It was remounted every few years at no cost to Ed by taxidermist John Doyle, using capes from his shop. Steinfeld's department store in Tucson had a major gun show every fall, and Stockwell's buck, along with firearms and other big game mounts would be on display in the store's window at Stone and Pennington to promote the show. Doyle felt the B&C record Coues deer deserved the best mount possible. I used a photo I took of Ed with his record buck when I sketched the line drawing Amanda uses at the top of this forum. If anything, the antlers of Ed's buck were even heavier than I drew them. Bill Quimby

Reminds me of my growing up in Yuma, except there was no television at all in our home before I left for college in 1954. A television station had started broadcasting a couple of years earlier, but I didn't know anyone who owned a TV. When I got to Tucson that September, my future wife's family had one and I got addicted to watching the roller derbies, American Bandstand and the Hit Parade. Bill Quimby

Dustin: Lynton McKenzie, whose work I'm sure you know, was a friend and hunting partner of mine. Your scrollwork reminds me of his. If Lynton were still alive I'm sure he would praise your work. Good job. Bill Quimby

A steady decline in mule deer over the past 15-20 years is not unique to Arizona. It has been happening in nearly every state where mule deer occur. Lots of people smarter than I have been trying to learn why and still have no clue. As for reducing permit numbers, AZGFD has been doing that gradually over the past 40 years. From more than 100,000 tags sold over-the-counter in 1969 and about 70,000 in 1970 (the first year for the permit lottery) to about 40,000 (plus or minus) now. Please don't try to blame lower deer numbers on habitat loss from our increased human population. More than 80% of our state still is in some form of public ownership. It still is undeveloped and is likely to remain that way long after we are gone. What we choose to not admit is that we hunters and fishermen are our own worst enemies when we try to influence wildlife managers. Data clearly show that the highest harvests occur on opening weekends. So what do we do in our infinite wisdom? We lobby for "stratified" seasons with multiple opening weekends to reduce "hunter congestion" in our favorite hunting units. Go figure. Also, there's a saying that 90% of all fish caught are caught by 10% of anglers, and something similar certainly can be applied to hunting. Strangely, that small group of successful sportsmen invariably demands more restrictions on limits and methods for themselves as well as the vast majority who seldom kill a deer or catch a limit of fish. Go figure. On a brighter note, although mule deer numbers still are way below the number we used to see up here in the 1960s and 1970s, the forest thinning done after the Rodeo-Chedeski fire in 2002 -- in my opinion -- has increased the number of deer on "my" side of the White Mountains. I don't know, but I would guess that fire also increased deer numbers on the Show Low side, too. Before the thinning up here, I used to see very few deer on my twice-weekly drives to check out the elk around Greer. Now, I rarely drive anywhere without seeing two or more deer. Some of the deer herds I've seen the last two summers have had up to two dozen does and yearlings in them. Earlier this year, we had as many as 14 deer in our yard at one time. A day seldom goes by when we don't see at least one from our cabin's windows. That's a huge change from the pre-thinning days when deer numbers were so low we'd call our daughter in Tucson to report one of the rare sightings on our property. Mark my words -- if I'm right -- this mountain's deer and elk herds will explode over the next three or four years because of the thinning created by the Wallow Fire. Bill Quimby

I used Rusty's last month to hang my cow elk until my son-in-law could drive up from Tucson to pick it up. He charged $7.50 a day, plus $50 to skin it and cut it up so it would fit in my son-in-law's ice chests. I'll use Rusty's again if I ever draw another tag. Bill Quimby

Bowsniper Jr.: Congratulations to you on your deer and kudos to your father for his encouragement. He must be very proud of you. You may not realize it yet, but you have a talent for writing, far beyond your years. Don't stop. Bill Quimby

Congratulations on your great trophies. I'm especially envious of your bushpig. They are rarely seen during the day, and I still have to kill my first after at least a dozen nights of hunting them. Bill Quimby

AHB: Thought you would like to know: CITES is the acronym for the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna. It is a treaty and not a document. Although CITES sets quotas and restrictions on the taking of species internationally, it usually does not issue permits per se. These usually are issued by the conservation authority of the country from which a species is taken. Hunters who travel to Africa, for example, must obtain export permits for certain species (such as elephant, lion, leopard, bontebok, etc.) from the wildlife department of the country they hunted, as well as import permits from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Although a CITES export permit for certain species may be issued by a country (such as a cheetah trophy from Namibia), the USFWS will not allow it to be imported. Bill Quimby