billrquimby

Your dad and I swapped a lot of stories when we both worked at SCI's museum. Please say hello to him for me. Bill Quimby

Biker: You won't look twice at 'roo meat after eating an African antelope, especially eland, kudu, springbok, impala or bushbuck. Bill Quimby

I built my own super-size ice chest to haul the frozen packages of a bison I shot in northern Colorado many years ago, and my son-in-law and his friends are still using it to haul their meat home. It takes two men to load it into the back of a pickup truck when it is empty, but it absolutely keeps large quantities of meat frozen for several days. Here's a materials list: Two sheets of 3/4-inch particle board . Two sheets of 2-inch stiff foam insulation, Bottle of white glue One tube clear caulking. Couple dozen 2-inch drywall screws. 12x16-foot plastic tarp. Roll of duct tape. White (it deflects heat) latex paint. Cut one sheet of particle board into four pieces: Two will be 24 inches by 48 inches, two will be 22 1/2 inches x 48 inches. These will be the sides of your freezer box. Cut the other sheet of particle board into two 4x4-foot pieces. These will be the lid and bottom of the box. Assemble bottom and sides of the box with glue and screws, caulk all seams on the inside, and paint the box and lid inside and out with two coats of white latex paint. Insulate the box by cutting the foam to line the inside of the top, bottom and sides of your box. Do this carefully because you want the pieces to fit tightly without gaps. (Gaps are your enemy.) When you're ready to load your box with meat, place the tarp inside the box, load the frozen meat on it and place 30-40 pounds of dry ice inside, fold the tarp around and over the meat to make a "package" inside the box and seal it with duct tape, then place your "lid foam" over the package and screw down the particle board lid. Do not open until you reach your destination, except to add more dry ice if you think it is needed. My wife and I spent the night in Santa Fe and did some shopping on our trip home with that buffalo meat in my box in the back of my open pickup truck in late July, and every package still was rock-hard when we got to Tucson close to 40 hours after leaving the butcher shop in Colorado. You should be able to haul an entire moose back from Alberta if you do something similar, especially if you cut up a second sheet of foam insulation and stagger the seams to get four inches of insulation, then stop about midway in the trip down and add more dry ice. The cost of a such a box" should be a lot less than a comparable number of cubic feet of store-bought ice chests. I used particle board because it was cheaper and more dense than plywood. I never figured that my son-in-law would still be using it thirty-five years later. With the lid screwed down, the box also makes a relatively safe place to store your gear on your way to your destination. Bill Quimby

You've written an interesting, easy-to-read article with great photos. I don't mean this as a criticism, but if you decide to submit it to a magazine you should check how the name of your quarry is spelled. Bill Quimby

You saw ghosts of seasons past. There are virtually no deer, elk or turkeys remaining in Unit One. Everything left the unit and moved years ago to 27 and 3. The only elk left are in a small, very spooky, remnant herd that hangs around our cabin and never leaves the 1/4-mile no-hunt zone. Honest. Bill Quimby

I sure like the logo that frog is sitting on. Bill Quimby

I'm selling my father's deer rifle, a Model 64 Winchester in .30 WCF (.30-30) that he bought new before joining the Seabees at the start of WWII. He killed more than 40 deer, dozens of javelinas, a couple of elk and one bear with this rifle. If you have read my book you will know that this is all that I received from his estate. You also will know why it has no sentimental value for me. In fact, my wife has always told me she didn't want it in the house because of who had owned it. For those who are unfamiliar with the Model 64, it looks a lot like the familiar Model 94 carbine, except that it has a pistol grip and a long barrel. There were two versions: a deluxe model with checkering and sling swivel studs, and the regular model without checkering and studs. This is the regular model. A total of 66,783 were manufactured from 1933 to 1957. It was reintroduced in 1972 and discontinued in 1973 after 8,259 were manufactured. In terms of Winchester rifles, those numbers are not great. It was never a safe queen. It is in good condition and was regularly maintained, but it also has all the dings and scratches of a rifle that was carried and used every year for decades. I will take $900 for it. Bill Quimby

Back to the top. Surely someone is interested in this rifle at $850. Bill Quimby

For every man comes a time to rid himself of stuff. I've reached that time, and this is the first of many guns that I intend to sell during the next 24 months. I bought this pre-64 .30-06 many years ago and have never fired it. It seems to have only minor hunting wear and no extra holes or major dings. Unfortunately, the previous owner installed a recoil pad and shortened the length of pull slightly. It is fitted with a vintage 4X J.C. Higgins scope and Weaver-type mounts. A Winchester website indicates this rifle was manufactured in 1948. I want $975 for the rifle and scope. Bill Quimby

Anyone interested in this Model 64 at $850? Bill Quimby

Sorry, Lark. Both are .303 Savages. I also have a Model 99 in 25-35 that someone boogered with a hacksaw, trying to make a youth rifle. Bill Quimby

I mounted this scope on a Remington 700, sighted it in with fewer than ten shots, then used it to kill a mule deer opening morning before removing it. I found I prefer heavy duplex reticles over fine crosshairs for the way I hunt. Others may like them, though. Unfortunately, I threw the box away after installing it. The scope still is as new, as far as I can see. I have not removed the Weaver-type rings that I installed, however, so I don't know if the rings left any marks. I want $400 for the scope and rings, shipping included. Bill Quimby

1 inch. Bill Quimby

Hi TJ: It was something else to wake up and see nothing but white out our windows this late in May, but I'm also glad it didn't last long. I drove past the lodge this morning, and the place still was smoldering while a crew of investigators poked around what was cool enough to poke. As for my elk hunt, I've driven the only road open to vehicles in the 12 square-mile area that comprises my "hunt unit." I've spent some time glassing Flat Top from various sites at mid-day, trying to figure which routes the elk might take when leaving and entering Round Valley. I've also stopped by the AZGFD's Pinetop office to get the email and phone numbers of the local wildlife manager, and will invite him to lunch, if that's allowed. So far, though, I've seen more elk in my yard in the last three weeks we've been up here than in that little hunt area. It's still a couple of months before my three-day hunt opens August 5, so I'm not worried. I will use my self-stocked 7 RM with its 3x9X Leupold and 175-grain Nosler Partition handloads. The combination has served me well on everything from 10-pound grysbok to 1,500-pound eland and moose. Bill Quimby

It started snowing heavily about 4:30 p.m. yesterday and continued until after dark at our cabin in Greer yesterday. About 2 1/2 inches of snow covered the ground when I awoke at 6:30 this morning, but it all had melted by about 9. We had been worried about fire danger because everything has been so dry up here. This little storm will help lessen the threat a bit, I hope. Can't remember when it has snowed here this late in the spring, but I do remember a summer many years ago when we were camped in a tent at Government Springs and got hit by flurries on the July 4 weekend. Bill Quimby

It started snowing heavily about 4:30 p.m. yesterday and continued until after dark at our cabin in Greer yesterday. About 2 1/2 inches of snow covered the ground when I awoke at 6:30 this morning, but it all had melted by about 9. We had been worried about fire danger because everything has been so dry up here. This little storm will help lessen the threat a bit, I hope. Can't remember when it has snowed here this late in the spring, but I do remember a summer many years ago when we were camped in a tent at Government Springs and got hit by flurries on the July 4 weekend. Bill Quimby

It would have been worth several hundred dollars more if the previous owner had not cut the stock and installed a recoil pad. I have a couple of Model 99 Savage rifles that I had drilled and tapped for scopes fifty years ago. Judging by what I see on the internet, I figure the four holes on each rifle reduced the collector's value of those rifles by $100 to $125 per hole! The moral of this story is, if you have firearms you figure might someday be of interest to collectors, leave them as the factory made them. Bill Quimby

I've sold the pre-64 Model 70 pending funds. Bill Quimby

I have a Nikon Monarch 6.5x24x44 UCC scope that I had mounted for less than a month on a Remington Model 700 BDL in 6.5 RM. I fired fewer than 10 shots with it to sight in the rifle, and then fired one more shot to kill a small mule deer on opening morning. I did not like the scope's thin crosshairs, and replaced it after that hunt with a Redfield 3-9X with a duplex. My Nikon Monarch scope is like new, and I will sell it and its Weaver-type rings for $400. Bill Quimby

A heavy duplex that can be seen at dawn and dusk and other poor light conditions. Bill Quimby

Thanks, TJ. What is scary for us is that we heard nothing and slept right through it. If the firefighters hadn't been able to contain it to the lodge, we would never have known there was a fire in our little valley until it was too late to escape. Bill Quimby

I was told that there were only two guests staying the lodge and both got out safely. If it had been a weekend, the place would have been packed. The talk around the village is that workmen had been painting and varnishing inside the lodge yesterday and that people who ate there last night had noticed heavy paint and varnish fumes. Whether that contributed to the fire isn't known. Bill Quimby

Stray Horse -- Those who have read my book know that I gave away all my cameras when I retired from the Tucson Citizen in 1994. Having to take photos was the part of my job as an outdoor writer that I absolutely hated and I vowed to never again take another. I've kept that promise, except for when my grandson graduated from the UA last year and my daughter handed me her camera and demanded that I take some photos. I'd managed to escape that chore when my granddaughter graduated from ASU several years earlier, but there wasn't anyone to hand the darned thing to for my grandson's photos. Lark -- Were it only true that my owning something would make it more valuable. You're correct about Model 70s, though. This is the only pre-64 I own, but I do have four of the newer push-feed Super Grades (two of them are .375 H&Hs; one is a .458WM; the other is another .30-06). They are great guns. I've started my gun reduction with the pre-64 because I have never used it. Bill Quimby

Our cabin is about 1/2 mile from the lodge, and my wife and I slept through the excitement. We first learned of it when we turned on our satellite TV and got Phoenix Channel 3's news at 6:30 this morning. I drove up there about the same time news helicopters from Phoenix were arriving, but by then there was nothing left of the lodge but its fireplace. The fire began at about 4 a.m. from a still-unknown cause, We who live in Greer were lucky in that there was no wind last night or this morning and the fire did not spread to other structures. Yesterday, though, we'd had 50 mph winds. If the fire had erupted then and spread north through the canyon our entire village might have gone up in flames. Bill Quimby

If I were 30-40 years younger your mule would have a new home. Some of my best memories are of hunting from my jenny in the 1970s. Bill Quimby