billrquimby

"Bill good to hear from you, how is Greer, did you get drawn for elk!" Thanks for asking. We're still in Tucson and won't move back to God's Country until just before my turkey hunt starts May 1. No, I did not draw an elk tag. Don't need any more antlers so I applied for a cow permit, thinking it would be easier to draw. I am just not lucky at gambling, it seems. Bill Quimby

I've taken game up to the size of eland and moose and as small as javelinas and a 10-pound grysbok with my 7 Rem Mag, but would never consider it a 500-yard rifle for elk -- especially with 110 grain bullets. I use 140-grain and 175-grain Nosler Partition handloads, depending upon the size of the animal I'm hunting. Bill Quimby

Thank you. Monday will be our 52rd wedding anniversary and 15 years since I retired from the Citizen after writing its outdoors stuff for 27 years. Today I celebrated both events early by attending a wake in St. David that past and present staffers held at the home of a former Citizen photographer. The Citizen is publishing on a day-to-day basis now, waiting while two potential buyers decide whether they will bid on it. If they don't, that paper will be history, just like the Phoenix Gazette --- and the days when we could buy our deer and pig tags at sporting goods stores and hunt anywhere during the season. Incidentally, I was not drawn for rifle cow elk at the cabin for the fifth straight year. I don't need more antlers, just the meat and the experience of hunting elk again. Bill Quimby

Yes, I remember those days. I also remember the days when you could hunt deer and javelinas without having to enter a lottery, and archery elk tags went begging. Bill Quimby

If the trail camera and reel are still available and free, I'd like them. Email me at billrquimby@cs.com to let me know where to send the postage money. Bill Quimby

"How many javies (yes Bill Q, I am typing that just to raise your ire ) do you see in this pic?" Just noticed the above a few minutes ago, Amanda. Tsk. Tsk. Looks like you are enjoying your vidie camie. Bill Quimby

My granddaughter and I spent three days at Igauzu Falls, including a day driving over to Brazil to see it from the other side. While we were there a jaguar carried off and ate a toddler from the yard of a Brazilian national park service worker. The parking lot in Brazil was full of coati mundis, and they would come right up to our feet to beg for food. There were brocket deer along the roads in the evenings. Bill Quimby

My in-laws lived in Hayden Junction in the 1950s, and we used to hunt mule deer, javelinas, and quail in that country. The largest herd of javelinas I ever saw was not far from your "temple." There were no sheep there then. Bill Quimby

Beautiful photos, Doug. Definitely high-quality calendar and coffee-table book stuff. Wonder what you could have done with your talent for photography if you'd been there with me when I shot these waterfalls? The photo with the double rainbows is Victoria Falls on the Zambezi between Zimbabwe and Zambia, taken from the Zimbabwe side. The other is Iguazu Falls on the Parana River between Argentina and Brazil, shown from the Argentina side. My 24-year-old granddaughter was in the boat in the river. The pilot had just driven it under the large falls in the background. Unfortunately, after several tries, I find I cannot post the photos. May I email them to someone to post for me? Bill Quimby

Before the Buenos Aires Ranch was bought by USFWS for a refuge, a couple of Tucson lawyers operated a shooting preserve and offered pheasant and duck shooting there. It's possible they also may have had a few feral boars, too. Bill Quimby

Yes. I have sample cartridges for all the Weatherby calibers ever made, and most of the big stuff (from .375 to .600) imbedded in two blocks of plastic. I also have many boxes of most known calibers from .22 rimfire to .300 Win Mag. I didn't set out to collect these last cartridges. I somehow wound up owning at least one rifle to go with each. Bill Quimby

Hope things work out well, Lark. Bill Quimby

The closest I got to shooting an elephant was in Zimbabwe's Matetsi in 1983, when a cow charged our open Land Rover. I had my .458 in the vehicle, and was ready to shoot her after she had chased us for a quarter mile through a thicket. At one point in her chase, she was no more than 10 yards behind us and trumpeting. Lucky for her, we were able to reach a good portion of the two-track road and get away. Incidentally, what's with "ele"? I know that's what some members of the AR forum call them, but as much as I'd like to get even with an elephant for its relatives scaring the poop out of me so many times, don't these big beasts deserve better? Bill Quimby Simple... its alot faster to type. Kinda like cwt instead of typing out coueswhitetail... lazy? maybe.. more convinent? yes! Scottyboy. I apologize for being so picky, especially in a thread in which you are justifiably proud of your recent safari. It's just that I've gotten crotchety and protective of our language as I've grown older. As someone who earned his daily bread by working with the printed word for more than a half century, it bothers me greatly when I see grown men write such things as "javi," "taxi," "whitey," "brownie," "Couesie," and who knows what other cutesy contraction they'll think of next. When I was a boy Jack O'Connor wrote a column in Outdoor Life in which he complained that he got "the vapors" whenever he saw another outdoor or gun writer write "muley." I now know what he meant. Bill Quimby

Amen. Bill Quimby

"TO SUM IT UP, PIGS ARE OMNIVOROUS CANNIBALS!!!!" Problem is, javelinas are not pigs, and not even closely related to domestic swine. Lyle Sowls, who used to head up the UA's cooperative wildlife unit and was the recognized expert on the three living species of peccaries, wrote a major book on peccaries. A section of it looked at the diet of our javelinas and found that it was almost strictly vegetarian. Bill Quimby

The closest I got to shooting an elephant was in Zimbabwe's Matetsi in 1983, when a cow charged our open Land Rover. I had my .458 in the vehicle, and was ready to shoot her after she had chased us for a quarter mile through a thicket. At one point in her chase, she was no more than 10 yards behind us and trumpeting. Lucky for her, we were able to reach a good portion of the two-track road and get away. Incidentally, what's with "ele"? I know that's what some members of the AR forum call them, but as much as I'd like to get even with an elephant for its relatives scaring the poop out of me so many times, don't these big beasts deserve better? Bill Quimby

"i’m also curious to hear what data our lack-of-science game department used when it determined that the medication was in fact safe for use on jaguars, because I’d bet my truck that the data simply doesn’t exist and if it did the sample size is too small to utilize. " You lose the bet. There have been many jaguars darted in Mexico in a study that SCI members have been funding by buying "darting hunts" for at least 15 years. Several jaguars have been darted multiple times. I don't know if Game and Fish has access to the drug-capture info that Mexican biologists have gathered, but that wasn't part of your wager. You can keep your truck if you'll quit bashing the only state wildlife agency we Arizona hunters have. Bill Quimby

Sorry, but we hunters cannot claim to be majority members of the "general populace" any more. Like it or not, the bugs and bunny crowd vastly outnumber us. The agency's non-game branch is funded by its share of the Arizona lottery. Bill Quimby

Congratulations. I've been around hundreds of elephants but never had an opportunity to shoot one. Great story and photos. Thanks for sharing. Bill Quimby

No need to buy a call. I blow into my hands to imitate the "who COOKS for you" call of an owl to locate roosting trees before first light. Incidentally, the entire turkey population leaves unit 1 (where my cabin is) before May 1 (when my hunt starts). Bill Quimby

Nice rifle, but what are cousies and javies? Are they like deeries and piggies? Bill Quimby

Color variation is not unusual among deer. The coats of all 40 or so species of deer vary according to season. The reddish phase on Arizona whitetails is normal for summer; gray is normal for winter. Color also varies among individuals in the same area. I've seen more than a few Coues deer with reddish skull caps and red on the tops of their tails in fall hunts. Bill Quimby

<<<<<<<<< .... environmentalists will use them as a catalyst to further their purposes, which is to remove humans from public land.>>>>>> You done broke da code. Bill Quimby

Is he the son of the judge who heard the case and dismissed it instead of recusing himself? The jaguar was shot at a pond very near some land I own in Yerba Buena Canyon down there. Bill Quimby

Thanks. I was hoping it was a six-cylinder with overdrive. Bill Quimby