truly vintage

[billrquimby]

Here are two photos that qualify as “vintage.”

 

I shot the mule deer buck on my first-ever deer hunt in October 1948 on Lynx Creek near Prescott. On the way home to Yuma, my father and I stopped at the base of Yarnell Hill at what then was a crossroads town called “Aguila,” where a freelance photographer was taking photos of hunters with their deer. (The Black Canyon Highway from Phoenix to Flagstaff had not yet been built, and everyone heading to Flagstaff and points north had to drive through Aguila and Prescott. All the roads from Yuma to Prescott still were dirt, except for the stretch up Yarnell.) I paid the photographer $5, I think, and he mailed me this photo a couple of weeks later. Imagine how disappointed a 12-year old boy would be to see what the sun’s glare on the photographer’s lens did to the only photo of his first deer. Note the 1930s-era cars in the background.

 

The photo with me and my father with a Canada goose I’d killed was taken in about 1951 or 1952, when I was 15 or 16. I don’t remember why we posed for this particular picture because we killed a lot of geese in those days. The limit was five per day, and there were many days that my brother, father and I brought home fifteen geese. This was before the Salton Sea (it was only a fraction of the size it is now) and the farms in the Imperial Valley drew birds into California. Maybe 95 percent of the waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway still followed the Colorado River and wintered in the Yuma region.

 

Bill Quimby

[Apatkelley]

I would have to say that those are true vintage pictures. That's a cool looking buck, nice and high.

[johnnie blaze]

I think its funny how different eras pose the exact same way with their kill. My dad has some old goose hunting pics and they look almost identical to yours. And it seemed like everyone took their deer pics in the vehicle. lol

[4Falls]

thanks for posting Bill. Love those old photos. I can only imagine what Aguila was like back then. Im guessing not much has changed.

[Gr8 White Jr]

Those are some great pics! I can see why you would be disapointed being that you face is completely glared out. I love old hunting pics! Thanks for sharing!

 

-Tracy

[Switchback]

sweet pics! I can't wait to find my grandpas

[billrquimby]

I think the reason so many deer were photographed in vehicles in the 1940s and 1950s was because cameras were too large to carry in your pocket to get on-site shots, and nobody hunted with a pack on his back. Only after a deer was in the vehicle was a camera brought out. In our case, film and processing was expensive and reserved only for the most important of occasions. We didn't bother to photograph most of our animals because we hunted for the meat and not antlers.

 

Bill Quimby

[Kilimanjaro]

Great pics, Bill.. I'm sure they are among your most treasured trophies..

[Az Hunter]

Awesome pictures. Holy cow you could fit a few of those deer in that trunk! You wouldn't be able to get just his rack in a trunk of a new car nowadays.

[AZantlerhead]

Boy do I feel wet behind the ears ..... Dandy buck and goose, Thanks for sharin

[Coues Archer]

nice picture.

[.270]

now we know what happened to the last pteradactyl. bill speared it. Lark.

[billrquimby]

now we know what happened to the last pteradactyl. bill speared it. Lark.

 

Nope. It still was the Stone Age. I used a rock.

 

Bill Quimby

 

[CouesWhitetail]

Thanks for sharing the pics Bill! That is a bummer about the glare on the first pic.

 

I always enjoy your posts because they have "extra" info in them (e.g., what highways weren't built yet, what prices were, what things were influencing or not influencing habitat like the Salton Sea). Thanks for all the extra info you share with us.

 

 

Amanda

 

[cessna]

I remember the days of hunting out of our cars. I also remember Aguila Bill. I stayed in a place called Burro Jims Motel (and all that implies) While working for APS. We also hunted on a peak north of town. I think it was called Smith peak. Good Mule Deer hunting. Thanks for bringing back good memories.