Neat finds while roaming the hills

[singleshot]

coosfan, it's gotta be the same guy.  or one of the couple o' jerks he ran with.  one of em is dead and the rest are all makin' license plates.  i useta always go to river reservoir in greer when the water was low and get back all o' my rapalas that i broke off and everybody elses junk they lost there too.  when i get to thinkin' about it, i've found a lotta stuff, but mostly like knives and boxes o' ammo and stuff.  stuff folks left on their bumper and things like that.  anything made in the last 40 years ain't too neat.  arrow heads, tommyhawks, old guns, old saddles, etc., that's the stuff that's cool to find.  a guy i used to work with used to hunt muleys in the praries around bonita.  he said on more than one occasion he'd find a really old saddle, maybe a rusty old rifle and if he looked, human bones.  he checked into it a little and was told that ol' Texas John Slaughter useta run down horse thiefs, kill em, dump all their tack and belongings on the ground and take the horse and ride away.  be sorta creepy, but still be neat i guess.  once while i was in college we were on a lab up on mt graham for a botany class.  i was leanin' agin' a oak tree that had an old hole in it that was drippin' nasty sap out of it.  i probed it a little with my knife and made something shine.  dug it out and it was what looked like an old mini ball or maybe a .45/70 slug.  had to have been there a long time.  there's neat stuff out there.  just gotta stumble into it.  Lark.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

  Hey 270, The guy you were referring to is in the pen. I grew up next to his grandpa who had a very extensive collection of artifacts including several bronze spear points that were found in a cave above the four drag. He had a few of those old grizzly traps also. His son traded one to Highway Liquor for a case of beer once.

  The old man was one of the wests last true cowboys. His collection of pictures from Jaguar hunts in Mexico was something to see. He killed many bears and lions on the Blue Range and claimed to have caught and killed two Grizzly bears on the Blue in the 20's.

  As for things I have found over the years what stands out most is two #12 Onieda newhouse traps with teeth that I found on the Black River. I thought they were for wolves but research showed that they were used primarily for beaver. The teeth would grip they're back feet. Also found an Uncle Henry knife and some pocket change and a few bills in a crack in the rock on a ridge in the Chiricahuas.

  As for your Botany class, I bet my dad was your instructor.

[KeithV]

i was sitting here reading about these things you guys are writing about several years ago my dad and I were hunting javalenas in unit 28 we saw a cave from along ways away and found a road that got kinda close. well to make a long story short when we got within 500 yards or so all of the wildlife birds chipmonks and everything stopped as for the cave it onlygoes about 2 feet back but it was big in diameter but there were beer cans and stuff in there . the thing that got to me was about the wildlife everything was dead still on our way back to the bronco we started finding these completely round rocks like mud had boiled up from the ground like you guys said though the hair onthe back of my neck stood up Keithv. Safford

[COUESAZ]

are you sure they were not geods If they were that would be worth finding again they can bring some nice cash.

[CRB]

I know that over in cliff New Mex. on the Mcaully ranch there is a canyon full of round rocks but it was an old volcanic eruption or something like that.

[GRONG]

Wow speaking of those I know of a whole slope of a ridge in 21 that is covered in geods. Those things are pretty cool. I did haul a pretty nice one out and it's in my yard.

[COUESAZ]

They are a bubble formed by cooled down Lava i think. I have never been lucy enough to find one. I keep an eye out for them all the time.

[.270]

hey singleshot, if you're ol' man is that crotchety steve bingham character, then you did live across the street from the guy's grandad. and he is in the joint bigger than heck. dang idjut anyway. my cousin now owns his granddads old ranch. how is your ol' man? hope he is well. last time i saw him he measured a lion for me. he was recovering from a broken ankle. said his horse stomped him or some deal. talk about a cool dude. he told us a story about tryin' to finish off a deer that they ran over one night, with an axe that about cracked me up for good. you're a lucky kid to have him for dad. he was by far the best teacher i ever had. hope he is well and tell him howdy for me. Lark.

[singleshot]

.270,

The old man is doing good. They moved to Alpine about five years ago and still own a small home in Safford. They only come to Safford when they absolutely have too. I wish they would have done that twenty years ago, and they do also.

Weve managed to hammer a few toms in the spring when he gets drawn. He has an old LC Smith double he nicknamed deliverance and gets excited as a little kid when they come in a struttin. He still turns out a few beautiful gunstocks each year. He's building one for myself right now that was broken in half on the November ten day hunt in a bad fall.

He regrets not writing down all of the stories that old cowboy had to tell. It's a shame that none of his children have written a book about his life and adventures. It's hard to imagine a twelve year old today making a three month journey by himself from deep down in Mexico back to the blue to save himself twenty two dollars that he earned on a cattle drive.

Take care and if your ever in Alpine stop by and visit, third house on the right in the Highlands.

[.270]

sometimes i get to thinkin' i'm purty tough and then i think o' guys like ol' John D. and my grandad and Ben Lilly, etc., and realize what a wuss i really am. got to know John fairly well. ran around with his son quite a bit for a few years. your ol' man is one o' the toughest guys i ever knew too. back all fused up and crap. i was in the best shape o' my life when he was my teacher. we'd go on labs and stuff and hiked to the bottom o' the grand canyon and i had to really hump it to keep up with him, and the whole time he was puffin' on a camel. he does make some fine rifle stocks. i was always gonna get him to whittle me one out, but never did. anyway, tell him howdy for me and next time i'm alpine way i'll look him up. Lark.

[singleshot]

If any of you guys know unit 28 very well I glassed up what I believe is a hot air balloon crashed in the desert between Whitlock Cienaga and the Dunes. It's probably a weather balloon but it was a long way off. The closest I could get by road was about 2 miles. We packed out the "black box" from one of those things once and sent it back to Davis Monthan and never got so much as a thank's or postage. It appeared to still be partially inflated.

[desertsheep]

Me and a buddy were glassing for coues one time and he told me to come to take a look at what was in glasses. We couldnt tell what it really was so we decided to drive as close as we could then walk over to where it was. Come to find out it was a mountain lion that was in a vee of a cedar tree. He was hanging by is neck and one front arm. The tree he was in was over hanging a canyon. So I dont no if he was fooling around out on the limb and fell between the vee or if he got chased out there. I didnt not have a camera with me at the time to take a picture. It has been about a year and a half since I was there. He has probally decaded enough to fall from the limb. I will try to go back and see if he is still there. I took a couple of other guys in to see him. It was really strange.

 

 

desertsheep

[az4life]

Me and a buddy were glassing for coues one time and he told me to come to take a look at what was in glasses. We couldnt tell what it really was so we decided to drive as close as we could then walk over to where it was. Come to find out it was a mountain lion that was in a vee of a cedar tree. He was hanging by is neck and one front arm. The tree he was in was over hanging a canyon. So I dont no if he was fooling around out on the limb and fell between the vee or if he got chased out there. I didnt not have a camera with me at the time to take a picture. It has been about a year and a half since I was there. He has probally decaded enough to fall from the limb. I will try to go back and see if he is still there. I took a couple of other guys in to see him. It was really strange.

 

 

desertsheep

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Maybe Josh's dogs chased him up there and he decided to commit suicide rather than face em.

[DEERSLAM]

Me and a buddy were glassing for coues one time and he told me to come to take a look at what was in glasses. We couldnt tell what it really was so we decided to drive as close as we could then walk over to where it was. Come to find out it was a mountain lion that was in a vee of a cedar tree. He was hanging by is neck and one front arm. The tree he was in was over hanging a canyon. So I dont no if he was fooling around out on the limb and fell between the vee or if he got chased out there. I didnt not have a camera with me at the time to take a picture. It has been about a year and a half since I was there. He has probally decaded enough to fall from the limb. I will try to go back and see if he is still there. I took a couple of other guys in to see him. It was really strange.

 

 

desertsheep

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Maybe Josh's dogs chased him up there and he decided to commit suicide rather than face em.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

[GRONG]

HA HA HA HA!!! What a cool find!!! Better yet, dang good spot with the binos!!!! Bummer you didn't have a camera that woulda been awesome!

 

Just like my rule of "Don't leave the truck w/o your binos", NEVER leave the truck w/o your camera as well!!!

[GRONG]

That kinda reminds me of this email I got a couple years ago of this muley buck that met his fate by hanging to death by his dang antlers! Some of you may have seen it but for those of you who haven't enjoy. I would LOVE to find something like this!!!!