billrquimby

When I told my son-in-law about your post, he said that the government would not hire anyone over 35, or some such age, when wearing a sidearm is involved. Is that true? He's 51 years old. Bill Quimby

When they turn and run off, don't put the call away. More often than not they'll run a short distance, stop, turn around and come right back if you keep calling non-stop. Incidentally, have you tried hanging your hogs from their teeth? You don't need a rope. Just clamp their mouths over a small limb and their weight will do the work. Make sure it's a small branch, though. If you leave them hanging too long you'll need to cut or break the branch to free your pigs. Bill Quimby

I assume you're talking about my largest animal, so it would have to be a moose in the Yukon. (Mature bulls are said to weigh 1,800 pounds and are 7 feet at the top of their shoulders.) A Livingstone eland (Zimbabwe) at 1,500 pounds and 6 feet tall and a bison (Colorado) of about the same weight and height are tied for second. The moose was killed with two shots from a .30-06; the eland with one shot from a 7 mm Remington Magnum; and the bison with one 500-grain hardened-lead paper-patched bullet from a 160-year-old .45-caliber Scottish muzzleloader. Javelinas are the largest animals I've taken with bows. Bill Quimby

It's been about eight or nine years since I was last in Lander, but before that I attended the Lander One Shot Antelope Hunt and hunted there every year from about 1982 onward. Killing an antelope is not a problem in that region, and there is plenty of BLM and Forest Service land there. There were some private inholdings, though, and unlike Arizona, landowners are not required to post their land. I would suggest that you buy land ownership maps before you go. Some of the best horns come from the Red Desert, but that fact is well known and permits can be tough to draw. There is less public land in the eastern Wyoming units, I've been told. Buckhunter's suggestion to hunt in October is a good one. Opening weekend is a zoo, and it takes a couple of weeks for the herds to calm down. Late in the season you'll have your unit mostly all to yourself. It's been my experience that the average Wyoming pronghorn's horns are heavier but shorter than an average buck from Arizona and New Mexico, and will score better by the B&C method because their prongs typically are better developed than those on our antelope. One more thing: if you do draw near Lander and decide to hunt that first weekend and want a motel, start calling them as soon as you know you have a tag. The One Shot event is held the week of the third Saturday in September, and nearly all rooms are reserved at least a year in advance. Bill Quimby

Never saw anything as large as a baseball or even a golf ball, but it may be because I never messed with skinning very many jackrabbits. However, nearly all that I did skin had what I was told were "warbles," the larva of a fly. These were hard, dark-colored lumps (with holes in them) about the size of the end of my thumb. I never found warbles in a cottontail, but a certain percentage of the Texas whitetails my friends and I shot in the Texas Hill Country years ago also had them. More than a few also had strange-looking hard, white growths buried between their shoulders and ribs. Bill Quimby

I've not seen Arizona Highways this month. Did it really say "two species of whitetail?" Gosh! Not only is there just one type of whitetail in Arizona, there is only one species of white-tailed deer in the entire world. The thirty types of whitetails found across North and Central America and the nine types in South America are all subspecies of the single species, Odocoileus virginianus. Bill Quimby

Lark is right. If you reload, you eventually will have to remove a stuck case from a die. I have both types of pullers that he described, but I prefer to drill and tap the case. Bill Quimby

A great buck, and a well-written tale. Congratulations. Bill Quimby

Thanks, Doug. I intend to apply for it as my first choice, the muzzleloader hunt as second choice. Bill Quimby

3035 Dec 10 - Dec 16, 2010 Escudilla Hunt Area in Unit 1 Antlerless elk 75 permits 3036 Dec 3 - Dec 9, 2010 1 East Antlerless elk 75 3037 Dec 10 - Dec 16, 2010 1, 2B, and 2C Antlerless elk 300 3010 Nov 26 - Dec 2, 2010 1, 2B, and 2C Bull elk (rifle) 425 3103 Sep 24 - Sep 30, 2010 1, 2B, and 2C Bull elk (muzzleloader) 40 Thanks, Doug. Looks like I tune up my homemade .54 caliber flintlock if I want to hunt an elk near the cabin. Wish they'd keep us old guys in mind when they set these seasons. I don't need to be fighting snow at that elevation at age 74. Bill Quimby

I've been trying off and on to download the regs, but my dial-up modem is just too slow. Earlier, Doug had said some antlerless elk tags were added to the unit one hunts at the last commission meeting. Would someone check and see what the dates of that hunt will be? Thanks. I'm hoping they're in October while we're still in Greer. Bill Quimby

There are no elk left in unit one. I watched the last one cross into unit 27 before I closed the cabin in late October. There still were a couple left along the unit three boundary a week earlier, but I'm sure they left the unit also. There might be a few deer left along the reservation boundary, but I'm sure they'll be gone by next fall, too. Bill Quimby

Lark: My dartboard is reserved for the important stuff that really makes my blood boil. Right now the photo on it is of the guy residing in the White House. You are two up on me. I've yet to kill my first deer with a rental car. Because I made my living as an outdoor writer, I was fortunate to have taken five subspecies of whitetails, using rifles, a shotgun, and flintlock and percussion muzzloaders I built myself. Does that count? Bill Quimby

Thank you, Scottyboy. You are correct about my pet peeves and I thank you for making me aware of what I'd done. I have been so irked by the frequent infantile bastardization of the English language and near-total lack of knowledge of taxonomy by a great many hunters on the internet that I didn't realize I might be belittling a person when I only meant to criticize what exists out there. It seems I get crustier and more curmudgeonly as I age. I apologize to anyone I may have offended. I am not the first professional writer to feel the way I do, however. Although I do not in any way consider myself in the same league with him, I still remember Jack O'Connor writing in one of his columns that he got "the vapors" whenever he heard someone call a mule deer a "muley." As it turned out, O'Connor lost his battle to protect our language, as I obviously also have done here. You guys may continue to say eastern whitetails, javy, whitey, taxi, spotter, ele, specie (instead of species or subspecies), etc. and I will bite my tongue and look the other way. Incidentally, I also have always said "Cooz," even there there is some evidence that Elliott Coues himself pronounced his name "Cows." I've even written columns and articles defending my pronunciation of the word over the past fifty years. Bill Quimby

Try searching www.alibris.com or www.amazon.com or www.abebooks.com Bill Quimby

Long before they became known as "Coues" whitetails, our little deer were widely known in the hunting community as "Arizona whitetails," and this included those taken in New Mexico and Mexico. It finally changed when the Boone and Crockett Club finally realized that it had goofed in the 1920s when it created a separate category for just this one subspecies because it mistakenly believed the whitetails named after Elliott Coues were a distinct species. Texas whitetails (there is only one subspecies) are named for their scientific name (Odocoileus virginianus texanus), which was given to them by the naturalist who first described them. He apparently collected the type specimen in that state. This subspecies is found in eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, western Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas, as well as Texas. northeastern Chihuahua, northern Neva Leon and northwestern Tamaulipas. I agree another common name for them is needed, but "eastern whitetail" is not appropriate IMO. The SCI method of lumping the 30 subspecies into categories based mostly on the regions where they are found is much better: northwestern whitetail, northeastern whitetail, southeastern whitetail, mid-western whitetail, Texas whitetail, Anticosti whitetail, Coues whitetail, Mexican whitetail and Central American whitetail. At least this way, a hunter has an idea what type of animal someone is talking about, where it is found and what size it might be. Calling every whitetail that is not a Coues deer an "eastern whitetail" simply is wrong. What about the whitetails of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho that are found west of the Rocky Mountains or those that are found south of the U.S. border? It really does matter what we call them. The reason I get so bent out of shape when I see fellow hunters say things such as "eastern whitetail," and "species" when they mean "subspecies," is because as knowledgeable and experienced hunters we should know better. If we do not, we should educate ourselves about the natural history of the animals we hunt. I feel the same about seeing things such as "taxi" for taxidermist, "javy" for javelina, "whitey" for whitetail, and on and on. I also go ballistic on the African hunting sites, where members typically are more affluent and better educated, when I see them saying "ele" for elephant. Such things make all hunters look childish and ignorant to others, especially our enemies and the potential friends we need. Bill Quimby

Aaarrrrrggggh! Montana is north of us, Colorado is northeast of us. Why call their whitetails "eastern?" The whitetails of Montana (O.v. dakotensus and O.v. ochrourus) are not the same as the whitetails of Colorado (O.v. texanus). Although the range of these three races may have expanded or shrunk slightly in recent years, they have existed in pretty much the same regions of those states for many millennia. The chance of New Mexico's Texas whitetails leaving their traditional range and moving west across that state's central plains to intermingle with its Coues whitetails (and Arizona's) is pretty slim -- i.e. if it hasn't happened in the past few thousand years it probably is safe to say it won't happen in our lifetimes. There might be a short-term effect on some of our deer in the unlikely event that a few Texas whitetails from eastern New Mexico did reach Coues whitetail country, but the environmental differences that made Coues whitetails unique eventually would take over and, many generations after the influx, the whitetails in our present Coues deer range would again be small, with antlers to match. Incidentally, several of the whitetail subspecies in the southeastern United States (as well as most of the whitetail races in Mexico and Central America) are as small or smaller than our Coues deer. Would you call them "eastern whitetails" also? Bill Quimby

Hey guys, the two subspecies of white-tailed deer found in New Mexico are the Odocoileus virginianus couesi and O.v. texanus races. (The texanus subspecies is found across six U.S. states -- and not just Texas -- and two Mexican states.) New Mexico's Coues and Texas whitetails are just two of the 30 recognized subspecies of North American white-tailed deer. Last I looked, Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young lumped 29 of the North American whitetails (all except the Coues whitetail) into a single "whitetail deer" category. Recognizing that there are differences between the deer of each region, SCI lumps the 30 subspecies into seven categories based on their geographical range (again, except for the Coues whitetail). What I'm trying to say is there is no such critter as an "eastern" whitetail, at least as far as scientists and record books are concerned. For those of us who hunt Coues whitetails to call the 29 other races "eastern whitetails" does a gross injustice to the various types of whitetails found north, west and south of here. Bill Quimby

Pardon this crass commercial announcement, but a couple of CWT members have asked when and where I will be signing my book, “Sixty Years A Hunter.” For those who will be at the SCI convention in Reno next month, I'll be in the Safari Press booth on: Wednesday January 20 from 10:30-11:30 am Thursday January 21 from 4:30-5:30 pm Friday January 22 from 10:30-11:30 am Weatherby Award recipient David Hanlin also will be signing his “Around the World and Then Some” (which I helped write) at the same times. I assume the booth will have my other books that Safari Press has published, including: Arnold Alward’s “The Heck With It, I’m Going Hunting” (2003); Watson Yoshimoto’s “Yoshi, The Life And Travels Of An International Trophy Hunter” (2003); my own “Royal Quest, The Hunting Saga Of H.I.H. Prince Abdorreza Of Iran” (2004); and Hubert Thummler’s “Wind In My Face, The Shikars And Safaris Of A Cazador de Mexico.” (2005). My “The History of Safari Club International” was published by SCI and not Safari Press, but I’ll be happy to sign your copy if you bring it to the Safari Press booth. It was published several years ago and may or may not be on sale at the convention. You also may want to attend the"Your First African Safari" seminar I've moderated for 21 consecutive years. Panel members are Craig Boddington (arms and ammo choices for Africa), Jack Atcheson (how to assure the best mounts and how to ship your trophies home), Johan Calitz (what to expect from your outfitter/PH, and what they expect from you), Beverly Wunderlich (tips on gear and travel and why you may need a booking agent) and Ludo Wurfbain (books to read before, during and after safari). It's scheduled for 10 am to noon on Thursday. I look forward to meeting other CWT members. Stop by the seminar or the Safari Press booth and say hello. Bill Quimby

There are no other book signings scheduled. Safari Press sells them only from its website and catalogs, and not in bookstores. I doubt that I'll visit Maricopa County in 2010 ... or should I say I hope I won't have to. Having to spend the winter in Tucson and fight its traffic is bad enough. Bill Quimby

He's a braver man than I.

A similar thing happened while I was in high school in the early 1950s. There were no cell phones then, and few hunters had campers, camp trailers or four-wheel drive vehicles. Hundreds of hunters were stranded and were running out of food when rescuers using horses, tractors and military command cars reached them. If I remember correctly, more than a dozen hunters died of exposure. One of them was the Yuma crop duster pilot I worked for. I used to ride in the hopper of his Sterman biplane to the fields, where he landed and I loaded the hopper with DDT, then flagged for him, before climbing back in the hopper and flying back to town. I wore a respirator, but I still can smell the stuff. They found Woody's body under a juniper the next spring. The newspapers said there were two or three books of burned matches around him, indicating he had unsuccessfully tried to start a fire. In addition to the elk hunters, the storm killed thousands of pronghorn antelope. Carcasses of entire herds were later found piled up against fence corners all across the north country. They never really recovered after that. Bill Quimby

A hundred years ago, the late John Doyle and I called in a pair of javelinas from a herd of maybe twenty. We used our voices to make the "woofing" sounds javelinas make when they are spooked, and then shot them both at close range with our recurve bows. I tried "woofing" a dozen times since then and never got it to work again. It may require two or more "woofers." I had much better luck using mouth-blown varmint calls and called pigs often by loudly imitating high-pitched jackrabbit-distress squeals and guttural squawks. My friends and I found the secret to getting them to come in had nothing to do with how far away they were or how many times a herd had been called. The secret was to keep calling, non-stop, especially when we could see them. If they were within 100 yards or so, they frequently bolted when they first heard the call. If we continued calling, they often stopped, turned around and returned single file, their teeth snapping and their long hair erect. Bill Quimby

I asked the game and fish in Yuma about them in 2002. They said that a pet store guy in Florida let about 50 of them go in the 70's. They breed about 4-6 times a year with about 3-5 chicks. the babies once grown will fly about 50 miles and make it their home. They (game and fish) dont want them here. Thats why there is no limit on them...They sure do taste good... If they taste like other doves and pigeons, no thanks. I prefer quail. Bill Quimby

Looks like they've found the White Mountains. There were several feeding on the ground for nearly a week outside our cabin in Greer this summer, picking up the bits of corn the squirrels dropped out of our squirrel feeders. Bandtail pigeons fed regularly at these feeders all summer, but I never saw the two species together. I also saw Asian doves at a friend's home in Eagar this summer, too. Bill Quimby