billrquimby

"There is bears here? Where do they live? What do they eat? Are you allowed to shoot them? This is all major news.....Bret M." Dear Bullwidegeon: To answer your questions: 1. Yep, we got bears. One was messing with my wife's bird feeders a few weeks back. 2. In the woods, the same place they deficate. 3. You better not shoot my wife's bear. After 50 years with her, I know for sure you don't want that kind of trouble. Bill Quimby

"Bill, Do you know many people from Arivaca? The Schaffners who lived their for a LONG time and had shot hundres of Coues between the family. They had the big fenced in yard just as you entered into Arivaca on the Left. Richard Schaffner 1st, Jr , III- Frank Schaffner. Richard Schaffner ran and worked for Ed in his honey business for about 10 years. Later hunting with Ed. I think in his later years Ed and Doyle were goit o Yuma alot to hunt. I think they were a couple of 4 or 5 people. Ed always loved the deer in Big Sandy!!!! Like Kim who had the 3rd largest deer for ahwile but has now slipped to 6th I think. He has an archery shop inside Doyles now. Richard Schaffner taught Kim how to hunt. The people that live in the area and 36b never hunted for trophey game it was for food. That is why some good size antlers were always tossed behind the shed." I knew Ed Stockwell and met his wife Barbara a few times, but that's it. I never spent much time in Arivaca, except to drive through it to get to someplace else down there. I don't think I ever met the Schaffners. I did work with a fellow at Tucson Newspapers Inc. who lived there, but I've forgotten his name. He and his family shot a lot of big mule deer and whitetails, but as you say they were not trophy hunters. The group you mention, I think, were Ed, John Doyle and the Levy brothers, Seymore and Jim. There may have been a couple more. Some of the largest Coues deer taken up to about the early 1980s, when trophy hunting really started coming into its own among a large number of hunters, were never measured. I remember giving a ride to Willcox to a guy whose truck had broken down in the Galliuros. Before we left his camp, he opened up his camper shell and showed us the deer he'd shot that day ... it probably wasn't nearly as large as Stockwell's but I remember it being HUGE! He had cut off the head just below the jawbone. Back when newspapers ran photos of hunters with big deer I photographed many Coues deer that would easily make the book, but the owners had no interest in entering them. I suppose many of these old, record-class heads are gathering dust somewhere, waiting for someone to recognize what they are. Bill Quimby

"The world record rack shot by Ed Stockwell sat behind his shed for a few years before he decided to ever have it measured. The antlers were never on the original mount...." I knew Ed Stockwell but was unaware that his record deer antlers "sat behind his shed for a few year." Could very well be, because he was a teenager when he shot it. Taxidermist John Doyle was a good friend of Ed's and would remount the Stockwell head with a new cape every few years whenever he changed his mounting forms and encourage Ed to display them locally because he felt the world record should be seen by as many people as possible, and should be the best work Doyle could produce. Ed became a successful sheep guide in his later years, and he shot a few big desert mule deer, but he claimed he never saw a whitetail that approached anywhere near the size of his record buck even though his honey business in Arivaca kept him afield in Coues habitat. He once told me everyone expected him to be a super great hunter when in fact he had been just super lucky to have taken that buck. Bill Quimby

"Yes,that rattler was on the black river,right below the bridge on F R 25 just a few feet from the water." I've seen rattlers along the Black, but never anywhere above about 8,000 feet. Has anyone ever found them in aspen/fir/pine zone up here? Bill Quimby

Ernesto: Great photos. Glad to see you enjoyed a few days in my country. Does anyone wonder why I picked Greer for my retirement? I do have a question. Did you find the rattler along the Black River? I've never seen a rattlesnake in the higher country, although I know they are here. Bill Quimby

My long apprenticeship in camping in Arizona ended on the Kiabab about 15 years ago when we woke up to find 18 inches of snow covering everything, my truck's wheels stuck to the ground, and all of our water frozen solid -- including what we had stored in our tent. At some point in life you find yourself unwilling to give up comforts of civilization. For me, it was then. I was through with smoke-reddened eyes, half-cooked and overcooked food, sitting on rocks, squatting behind bushes, and going without my nightly shower and a real bed. From that point on, I made it a point to reserve a room in the closest motel -- even if I had to drive 60 miles each way each day. I sleep only about 4-5 hours a night regularly, so long days are no problem. I could have bought a big, luxury camp trailer or a motorhome, I guess, but with my luck in drawing hunting permits it didn't make sense to risk using one of those things only a few days (or not at all) each year. All my camping gear was given away years ago. I don't even own a sleeping bag, much less the tons of gear I used to think were indespensible. I had done so much camping in the past that I haven't missed it one bit. What's more, motels actually SAVE me money. Breakfast and dinner now come from the nearest greasy spoon (it usually is less greasy than my camp cooking was). Lunches are made fresh on the spot with sandwich makings and fruits out of my ice chest. Bill Quimby

I'm impressed, too! The artist definitely meant to depict a mule deer. Note the line between the eyes to show a muley's dark skull cap. Bill Quimby

The skullplate of my moose from the Yukon had to be split to fly the antlers out in a little SuperCub. I didn't mess with trying to get the antlers/cape home myself. I left that up to the outfitter, who shipped them direct to my taxidermist in San Antonio. I don't remember what it cost, but it didn't seem that expensive at the time. I would have loved to have taken some moose meat home, but I was lucky to get out of our camp at the edge of the Arctic Circle at all that winter. I was the last client of the season and my guide and I were stuck in a 12x12-foot shack made of 1/4-inch plywood for 12 extra days by bad weather. When we finally had an opening in the clouds, the outfitter arrived in his 'Cub, and landed on skis on a "landing strip" the guide and I stamped out on the ridge above us. There was room in that little plane for only him, me and my rifle and gear. He brought out the guide, meat and trophy parts in three or four more flights after I left. The outfitter flew me straight from the camp to Dawson City where I caught a commercial plane to Vancouver BC, but there was no time to change clothes before boarding. I flew out wearing the same heavy wool hunting clothes I'd worn for three weeks. The Canadians on that plane apparently were used to smelly hunters, but the deskclerk at a five-star hotel, the closest hotel I could find near Vancouver's airport, certainly wasn't. He must have thought I was homeless, or worse, because before I could say anything he looked at me and greeted me with, "You know, our rates are v-e-r-y expensive." I wanted a bed and bath so badly that I didn't care what it cost. Other oufitters took care of shipping my caribou antlers and capes to San Antonio, but I did bring home elk and Siberian roe deer antlers and capes from Mongolia with me. Air Mongolia wanted $400 in excess baggage costs for each passenger's third piece of "luggage," and each of the twelve Americans on this trip had brought a duffel bag and a rifle case. We got around having to pay $4,800 by splittlng the skulls and duct taping the antlers of all twelve of our elk and making two huge $400 packages -- one for the capes; the other for antlers. We protected the tips of each antler with short pieces of garden hose that we'd brought specifically for that purpose. A represenatative from Jonas Brothers Taxidermy in Seattle (we'd booked our hunts through them) was waiting for us when we landed in San Francisco, and took everything off our hands. Usually shipping a substantial amount of meat home is not worth the effort, but moose meat is a different matter. It's the best game meat you'll taste on this continent. Bill Quimby

"I personally would try to keep shots whit a 270 under 350 yards,then.........I dont care if I'm using a 308,30-06,7MM,300 Win.Mag or 338 I personally would not shot more then 400 yards." I totally agree, Ernesto! Bill Quimby

"never woulda guessed it Bill! At least not in recent times." I suspect there still are turkeys in the ocotillos in that Burney Mines country. Bill

My daughter and her husband spent a weekend at our cabin in Greer while I was in Australia. Both know how to tell wolves from dogs and coyotes, and both claim they foiled the plans of a pair of wolves to grab an elk fawn between the Sunrise Lake service station and Slade Ranch. Two years ago I saw a collared wolf across the cienega near White Mountain Reservoir. So far, I've not heard of the USFWS reporting that their darlings have reached that area. Bill Quimby

The Catalinas have had turkeys throughout my memory. I was told they had been stocked there and elsehwere in southern Arizona in the 1930s. I shot two gobblers over the years in the Catalinas, and missed another, back when we could buy tags over the counter. I shot one in the canyon where Rose Canyon Lake now sits; missed one on what now is the Aspen Trail near the ski lodge, and killed one in the ocotillos near the Burney Mines low down on the north slope. Friends report they still see turkeys in the ocotillos. Interestingly, in the 1950s, the San Pedro River between Reddington and Cascabel still was a jungle of mesquite and I heard lots of reports about turkeys hanging around the river. Sabino Canyon and the slopes on the south side of the mountain used to be loaded with feral goats, too. Bill Quimby

A .270 with 130- or 150-grain bullets will kill any elk that walks at reasonable distances (and so will your .243). However, if you must shoot one at distances past four football fields, I suggest something that shoots heavier bullets and yields greater energy than a .243 or .270, or even a .308 or .30-06. Bullet weight is one factor in retaining sufficient energy (another is velocity) at long distances. If you must bang away past 400 yards, get something like a .300 Win Mag, .300 Weatherby, .338 Win Mag, or even a .375 H&H. Just remember, bullets start slowing down and dropping as soon as they leave the muzzle. Study the ballistic charts for your caliber and shoot accordingly. A rangefinder would be of great help. There's still the factor of wind deflection, and it's a big thing at 400 yards and beyond, even with heavy bullets. Bill Quimby

400 yards max with either .270 Win Mag or .270WSM. For more "oomph" at long distances try something that shoots heavier bullets. Bill Q

I'm on a pay-as-you-go machine in Cairns, Australia. Just checked the AZGFD site to learn I will not be allowed to hunt anything in Arizona this year. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! Bill Q

Before computers came along, the drawings were done manually ... and publicly. At a certain announced time, applications in boxes were taken to the state capitol (I think) and names were drawn. I never attended the drawings, but I knew hunters who did. One of them called me after a drawing to say I had drawn a House Rock buffalo tag. This was 100 years ago, at least. Bill Quimby

In in opinion, individual Coues deer bucks have a small range and pretty much stay in it until the rut sends them running around looking for loose women. You will see does in a buck's feeding and bedding areas (and vice versa) in August and September but the bucks pretty much ignore females until estrus time. Bill

"Waitin for Cathrine Zeta Jones to invite me over for the weekend. Sorry, Lil' Cathy is joining my grandson and me on our Australia trek. We meet her tomorrow at the LAX international terminal at 8. She wants to see the opera in Sydney, too. Bill Quimby

Both, I guess, but the emphasis is on sightseeing. The trip is my gift to my grandson for his high school graduation, and he doesn't hunt. He has nothing against it, but he has decided it just isn't for him. We'll see an opera and he'll climb the bridge in Sydney, then we'll hop over to Ayers Rock where I'll buy him a didgeridoo (and lessons from an Abo) before going on to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. I've booked a day of barramundi fishing for us and have a friend who says he'll take me out to shoot a wild boar while my grandson tours the rainforest and its waterfalls. This probably will be my last trip out of country. I have congestive heart failure, among other things, and my legs and feet swell so much when I sit for a couple of hours that I have to wear sandals. I can't get my shoes back on if I take them off. It's about 14 hours nonstop from Los Angeles to Sydney so I may have trouble walking the first couple of days after I get there. I'm going this last time because I've promised him most of his life that I would take him to Australia. It's true what they say about growing old not being for wimps and sissies. Bill Quimby

I'll be in Australia from Tuesday through July 27 with my grandson. I am hoping I'll return to find my elk, RM sheep, and deer tags waiting for me. Bill Quimby

We left Greer this morning and drove through the heaviest gully washer I've seen in my lifetime in Arizona. It hit us about ten miles past Seneca Lake and continued almost all the way to Globe. So much water was falling that dozens of drivers pulled off the road. Those of us who continued drove under 10 mph most of the way. BillQ

I've had good and bad horses and one good mule. If they all are like my old "Jenny," I'll take a mule any day. She packed everything I put on her back (except a bear), and she loaded into trailers without balking. She'd find more game than me, and when I got off to shoot all I had to do is lay my rifle over the saddle and she'd hold her breath. She really impressed me when we got brushed up on a shale slope and she didn't panic -- she simply backed up (uphill) and found a better place to get through. Bill

I will be in Australia during the meetings, but I did comment on the proposals. Summarized, I said: -- I do not mind temporary roads for management purposes in roadless areas as long as the roads truly are temporary. -- I do not want to see any existing road closed. Someone on this forum asked how road closures might hurt hunters. The answer is by reducing hunting permits. The primitive roads that land managers love to close are the same roads that distribute hunters. When they're closed, there are fewer camping spots and more pressure on localized areas near those spots. It is only natural that wildlife managers will propose reducing hunting permits even though there are vast areas of a unit that will see few hunters. These proposals seem to come along every few years, each time reducing the number of access roads. It started with the RARE 1 and RARE 2 (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation) proposals of the 1970s and 1980s, which were supposed to decide once and for all which areas could have roads and which roads would be closed. Each time we lose more access. Bill Quimby

Thank you all. It seems I was nominated by my daughter and bullwidgeon's grandfather. I thank them, too. If any CW.com member is at the August 25 banquet, please let me know. It will be nice to put faces to names. Bill Q

Thank you, guys. I cannot describe how much I appreciate your kind words. We hear so few words of praise that it is truly humbling. BillQ