billrquimby

This may be the dumbest question of the year, but how do you tell a feral hog from some farmer's pig? Bill Quimby

Thanks, Eric, but about $50 is all I want to spend. I don't care how long the battery lasts because I'm going to set it up on an elk path in my yard in Greer, and will be pulling photos (I hope) daily. I want it to be digital, but it doesn't need to be high pixel quality because I have no need to reproduce the photos. I just want to see what we have walking past the cabin after dark. Also, I only want still photos, not videos. There are at least three Wildview cameras ranging from $49.99 to about $56 that seem to do what I want. Does anyone have any recommendations about model numbers?. Bill Quimby

Which model number for the Wildview trail camera do you recommend for someone who wants to spend only about $50? I did a Google search and found several models in that range. Bill Quimby

I disagree about using a turkey. It's a good marketing strategy to feature whatever season is coming up. I like the site's format. Bill Quimby

Don't know about the ranch in New Mexico, but the "other guy" whose name I won't mention still had his ranch outside Willcox last year. I suppose he still does. I used to hunt mule deer on the place until it was posted about 15 years or more ago. You are right about that first family. The letter its patriarch sent to the BLM, State Land Department and Forest Service about the family owning "from the center of the earth to high in the heavens" all the land they were leasing from the government led to the only seizure I've ever heard of for grazing more cows than allotted on public land in Arizona. It didn't help that they earlier had erected a barbed wire fence right across a paved state road. I knew a couple of the guys who rounded up the trespassing cattle and they claimed they kept looking over their shoulders, expecting a gunbattle to break out at any second. There were law enforcement guys from every imaginable state and federal agency involved, and they all went in armed to the teeth. Bill Quimby

We have 30-40 elk walk past our cabin in Greer almost every night during the summer. They've made deep trails, but only rarely do we see them in daylight. We see mule deer out the window regularly at all times of day, but the deer and elk ignore our salt and mineral blocks. Is there anything that will get elk to come around earlier and leave later? Their bedding area is about a half mile up our canyon. I've thought about setting out a couple of bales of alfalfa, but with all the rain we get it wouldn't be long before they soured. Any ideas? We'd like to see more of our four-footed "neighbors." Bill Quimby

Doug: I have never planted anything in my life, and it's too late to start now. You are correct about trying to change their nocturnal pattern. All I really want, though, is to get them to come around maybe 30 minutes earlier and stay 30 minutes later. Someone else in the area apparently has salt and mineral blocks out because the squirrels and chipmonks are the only creatures that visit my blocks. Bill Quimby

Like I said, our deer and elk have repeatedly ignored our salt and mineral blocks. We already use corn to feed our squirrels (and the darned blue jays) but I think I need to buy a Texas-style corn feeder that only dribbles it out at the hours we want. Otherwise the squirrels and jays would eat us into the poor house. Bill Quimby

The Klump jaguar story reportedly began with a wild jaguar that he was supposed to have killed while hunting mountain lions in the Dos Cabezas, I think it was. A taxidermist in Tucson apparently illegally mounted it for him, along with an ocelot that Klump had killed or acquired somewhere out of the country. There could have been a marguay, too, but I don’t remember hearing about it. There were rumors about a dead jaguar being brought to Tucson in the back of an open pickup truck and shown to several people. At any rate, word about the cat eventually got to someone at Game and Fish, who got a search warrant and searched Klump’s place but could not find the cat. So AZGFD got two undercover guys on loan from the Colorado Division of Wildlife, one of them of Asian descent. They hired Klump and one of his friends for a bear hunt and then told him they wanted to buy bear gall bladders, which they eventually did. Over the next year or so, the agents killed a javelina, bear and a desert sheep ... all out of season and without permits ...with Klump and his friend so they could get “close” to them. The agents eventually got Klump to agree to sell his jaguar and ocelot mounts to them. To bring in the feds, the money and mounts were scheduled to be swapped at a motel across the border in New Mexico, and that's where Klump and his friend were busted. Arizona’s jaguars were not federally protected at the time, because there weren’t supposed to be any here, so they needed to get their suspects to cross a state border to charge them with a Lacey Act violation. When they went to count, the judge was angry about all the critters the agents had killed, especially the bighorn, and compared them to out-of-control undercover DEA guys killing people to get inside the mafia. I had thought he dismissed the case because of this, but a year or so ago one of the game department guys who had been involved in the case said Klump and his buddy were indeed found guilty. I don't know what the penalty was or what the charge was. Bill Quimby

Two years ago, I had a gobbler coming to me when two guys hunting sheds drove past and spooked the bird. Why not wait until after the turkey hunts? Bill Quimby

Thank you. The little knowledge I may have acquired is one of the few good things about living long enough to become a certified old geezer. Bill Quimby

It must have been someone else then, because I know the incident did happen. I'm sure it happened, Tony, and it could have been what led to the undercover investigation and eventual bust of Prock for canned hunting. I just don't remember that particular incident. It probably is safe to say that even though it wasn't legal, even then, that houndsmen other than Prock may have used captive animals, including mountain lions, to train their hounds. Prock's crime was in selling "hunts" for caged animals to his unsuspecting clients. It was fraud, pure and simple. And to commit it, he broke a bunch of federal and state wildlife laws. The amazing thing to me was that after he was banned from guiding in Arizona, he did the same thing in other states. I know two of his clients who were on canned hunts in New Mexico with him (they were mentioned in the Sports Illustrated article on this thread), and they obviously had not heard about his problems over here. Bill Quimby

Could have been, but I don't remember that incident, Tony. As I remember Prock's bust, Game and Fish used an undercover agent and busted him for staging a phony hunt with a bear he had bought from a roadside zoo as well as the jaguar he smuggled into the state and George Herter shot near Pena Blanca lake. He was convicted on both state and federal charges. Bill Quimby

It’s been said that 20 foot pounds of recoil energy is about the maximum an adult can shoot frequently without developing a flinch, and that most adults find 15 pounds of recoil to be their “comfortable” maximum limit. Some young people are comfortable with higher recoil levels than others, but if I were buying a young shooter his first rifle, I would try to keep the recoil energy to 12 pounds or less. This would rule out the .270, 7 mm RM, .308 Win., .30-06, etc. I cannot vouch for accuracy of the data below that I found on the internet, but it appears to me that a .257 Roberts, .25-06 or 7mm-08 Rem, all shooting 120-grain bullets, would be good choices for an elk gun for young people. Remember: recoil levels increase when rifle weight is decreased. Bill Quimby Cartridge, bullet, velocity............rifle weight lbs.....recoil ft. lbs .243 Win. (95 gr. @ 3100 fps)............7.25..................11.0 .243 Win. (100 gr @ 2960 fps) .........7.50...................8.8 257 Roberts (100 gr @ 3000 fps).......7.50...................9.3 .257 Roberts (120 gr @ 2800 fps).....8.00.................10.7 .25-06 Rem. (100 gr @ 3230 fps)......8.00.................11.0 .25-06 Rem. (120 at 3000.................8.0...................12.5 7mm-08 Rem. (120 gr @ 3000 fps) ..7.50.................12.1 7mm-08 Rem. (140 gr @ 2860 fps)...8.00.................12.6 .308 Win. (150 gr @ 2800 fps)...........7.50.................15.8 .308 Win. (165 gr @ 2700 fps)...........7.50.................18.1 .308 Win. (180 gr @ 2610 fps) .........8.00.................17.5

If it tasted like an old goat, it could be because aoudads are more closely related to goats than sheep. As proof of that, "Barbary sheep" can hybridize with goats, but not with sheep. Bill Quimby

Lark, are you back from Nova Scotia? Prock was convicted in Arizona, New Mexico and another state for conducting fraudulent hunts, but he also caught a lot of wild lions and bears for his clients and had a good reputation among Arizona trophy hunters in the 1950s and early 1960s. After it was known that he had released jaguars and at least one zoo bear, every animal he had ever caught for a client came under suspicion. I was interviewed about a year ago by someone who is doing a report for the Cattle Growers Association about jaguars in Arizona, and when I mentioned Prock and the jaguars he had released, she said she had spoken with him a few days earlier. I think she said he was living with a family member in Gilbert, or Eloy. Don't remember for sure. Bill Quimby

I now have a white background, and would be happy as a pup if I also had a place to look to see if I have a new PM. There probably is one, but darned if I could find it. Bill Quimby Bill, if you look at where your user name shows in the upper right corner of the forum, you will see a white arrow on the right side of your name. Click on the little arrow to open the drop down menu. You will see several choices, one will say Messenger. That's how you look at PMs. In addition to that, before you even open the drop down menu, look at the little blue box just right of your name. You will see a 0 and a small white arrow. That is where you can see if you have any notifications (like a PM). If you have a PM, the number will not be 0, it will show how many you have. And if you click the little arrow it will drop down a menu to tell you what the notifications are about. This way as soon as you log in you can look at the notification area and see if it's a 0 or not and that will tell you if you have a PM or some other notification that you should look at. Thanks, Amanda. I'm happy as a pup now. Bill Quimby

I now have a white background, and would be happy as a pup if I also had a place to look to see if I have a new PM. There probably is one, but darned if I could find it. Bill Quimby

If we must change, please keep it easy to read. This blue is tough for old folks. I like white backgrounds most. They load faster and are more readable. I also want buttons for new posts and PMs. Bill Quimby

I'm among those who resist change. I liked the old site, where I went to http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php and then clicked on that little box on the upper right hand side and saw every post that was new that day. I had to hunt all over the place until I found a "today's active topic" button a few minutes ago. I don't have the slightest idea where to go to learn if I have a new PM. Email notices telling me that I have one still are going to my old ISP, which soon will be disconnected. Guess the cold I returned from Reno with has made me grumpier than usual. Bill Quimby

I have never set a trap for anything, but it seems to me that you have this bobcat conditioned to find and eat rabbits at this site. Why not try hanging a dead rabbit above your trap, say 36 inches or so above the ground, or whatever you estimate is just high enough that the cat would have to stretch to get it? Bill Quimby

Tony: I know exactly how awful you feel about your loss. Jean and I have had many dogs over the 55 years of our marriage, and their deaths affected us deeply. Our last dog, Merlin, died of old age in Jean's arms while I was alone in Greer three years ago. I immediately returned to Tucson to bury him. We still get tears in our eyes whenever something reminds us of him, such as your tragic story. Merlin was our friend and family member for 18 years, and even his end of life maladies -- incontinence, blindness, deafness, and the dog equivalent of Alzheimer's disease -- did not lessen our love for him. We vowed to never again have another dog because it hurts too much when they die. So far, we have not. Bill Quimby

Aaaaargh! By that way of thinking, I also would have a "Big 11," because I've taken both desert and Rocky Mountain mule deer in addition to the nine other Arizona big game animals. But, once again, there are only ten SPECIES classified as big game in Arizona, although several species here have multiple subspecies. A Big 10 hunter could collect a Rio Grande turkey in addition to his/her Merriams and Goulds turkeys and would not have taken 12 species. He/she still would have taken only one species of turkey and ten species in all. The same with bighorns. We have Rocky Mountain and desert sheep, but they are merely subspecies of just one species, Ovis canadensis or bighorn. The same with mule deer, black bear, mountain lion, etc., etc. Once again, there are only ten species of big game in Arizona. Just ten species .... Here is what the dictionary says about subspecies: "A taxonomic category that ranks below species, usually a fairly permanent geographically isolated race. Subspecies are designated by a Latin trinomial," For example, let's break down the scientific name for our Coues deer, Odocoileus virgiianus couesi. Odocoileus The first word denotes the genus or family of the animal, in this case: the family of North American deer that also includes mule deer. virginianus The second word is the species name, in this case: white-tailed deer (mule deer are a different species and have a different binomial or scientific name). couesi The third word (trinomial) is the subspecies name, in this case, the race of whitetail that we call the Coues white-tailed deer. Once again, there are only ten SPECIES of big game animals in Arizona, but some species also have multiple SUBSPECIES. I haven't done the research, but if all the subspecies of all the species in Arizona were counted, we might need a Big 15 or 16 Award. If you are still with me, you also need to know that the words species and subspecies are both singular and plural and always refer to animals and plants. The word "specie" always refers to coins. You also may be interested in knowing that many scientists do not recognize subspecies. Bill Quimby

If you mean the Curtis Prock who was accused of conducting canned hunts for jaguars and black bears in Arizona in the 1960s, I understand he is living somewhere in Maricopa County. I'd heard that he operated for a while in New Mexico and Idaho, I think it was, after leaving Arizona. (New Mexico also found him guilty of operating canned hunts.) He reportedly also ran some jaguar hunts in central or South America for a while. These probably were legitimate hunts because Prock actually was a good houndsman with lots of success on lions and bears before he turned outlaw. Interestingly, Bob Hernbrode Sr. (father of our recent game commissioner) was the AZGFD officer who busted him. Prock guided at least two prominent people to jaguars in Southern Arizona. George Herter of the Herter's mail order catalog company was one of them, and he went on to write and publish a book on how to hunt jaguars. This was before Prock was cited for releasing caged cats and bears in front of his hounds, of course. To answer your question, you might want to ask Bob Hernbrode, Jr., about what he remembers his father telling him. I don't know of any books or magazine articles, though. Outdoor Writer may be able to add something, too. There also is some info about Prock at the tail end of the pinned thread on the Big Ten Award. Bill Quimby

Welcome to the club, Geno. Hunting is neither a sport nor an avocation; it is an obsession that is planted deep within our genes. Although you obviously are one of us, it just took you longer than most to realize it. Bill Quimby