The Good 'Ol Days

[Huntn coues]

 

Wow Telll us some more Tony.

 

Good stuff.

[Outdoor Writer]

The photo below is my oldest son, Keith, (right) with the first big-game animal he killed when he was 11. He's now 45.

 

The tale:

 

We had drawn permits for Unit 19, so I went up a couple times to scout beforehand and found a lot of bucks on one of the ranches. One day, I drove into Paulden and asked who owned the ranch. The person told me the owner's name was Bob Keikeffer (sp?). So when I got home I called him and asked permission for us to hunt it, which he gave me. It was myself, my son, a friend (in the pix with Keith) and my grandfather, who was already in his 70s.

 

On the very first day, my son and I were just about to cross one of the fences when I saw a guy on a horse approaching. He rode over to us and asked, "Are you Tony?" When I said I was, he reached down, stuck out his hand and said, "Glad to have you here." Then he proceeded to tell us where he had seen several decent bucks.

 

So that afternoon, we headed to one area where there was a windmill. I stopped to glass and spotted the buck in the photo. He was a good 1/2- mile away. I told Keith I didn't want to shoot it but he could if he wanted. Naturally he was quite anxious to do his part.

 

To that end, I had bought him a used Savage 99 in .300 Sav. that had the stock already shortened.

 

So off we went. We used a deep ravine to cut the distance, but when that petered out, we were still a good 275 yards from the buck with not a bit of cover available other than a couple sage and creosote bushes. The terrain was completely flat.

 

I knew Keith would have a difficult time hitting the 'lope with the Savage at that distance, so I told him the only way he would be able to shoot was if he used my Mod. 70, .264 mag. He had never shot it before and was quite apprehensive about the recoil. He finally said he would use it, however.

 

So I put my pack down in front of him for a rest, and he got into a prone position. At that point, the buck was facing away from us, so I told Keith to wait until the buck turned broadside before shooting.

 

I continued to watch the buck through my binoculars for a couple minutes and saw him start to turn. Just as I said, "Get ready to..." the .264 boomed in my ear. I heard the bullet whack him and watched as he dropped like someone had cut off all four of his legs.

 

I turned to Keith to say something, but he beat me to the punch with, "That didn't kick as hard as I thought it would."

 

The bullet had destroyed the 'lope's heart.

 

Later that fall, he killed his first deer -- a doe on the N. Kaibab. It's the one I have hanging next to my Kaibab buck.

 

Be sure to take note of the effective camo!! -TONY

 

[CouesWhitetail]

heheheeh, great camo!! fun story.

 

Amanda

[muskrat]

Well, not THAT old, but here is a Maine buck shot in 1993. Famous (to some) Haynesville Woods in Northern Maine. This fork field-dressed at around 170 lbs.

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Hey Marshall, I like your camo, too. -TONY

[muskrat]

Well, I did change out of my red plaid shirt for the picture, and into a comfy sweatshirt

 

muhahahaha

[Outdoor Writer]

Some oldies from a circa 1968-69 hunt on the Kaibab's east side. We were camped right alongside the Eastside Game Trail about six miles up from the Houserock Ranch. This was at a time when any deer was legal with a Kaibab permit. The smaller buck in my '46 Willy's Jeep was killed by my grandfather while just sitting on a ridge. He was about 75 then. The big one is the buck on my wall. -TONY

 

 

 

[Non-Typical Solutions]

You gotta love those pictures and yes the unbelievable camo that we all worry so much about today.

 

That .264 had some credibility in its day, does it still hold it's own?

 

I also love the vintage trucks, classic hunting rigs......NICE!!!

[Outdoor Writer]

A few miscellaneous pix from the past, all circa 1960s. . -TONY

 

The first two are from Big Lake with my trusty springer spaniel Duffy.

 

 

 

This one is a mess of white bass from Lake Pleasant. My fishing partner is Ric Clark.

 

 

My two companions with some trout and walleyes from Canyon Lake.

 

[Outdoor Writer]

You gotta love those pictures and yes the unbelievable camo that we all worry so much about today.

 

That .264 had some credibility in its day, does it still hold it's own?

 

I also love the vintage trucks, classic hunting rigs......NICE!!!

 

The .264 is indeed still holding its own, though it has been refurbished a bit. If you look at the OW's 2003 Africa Hunt & OW's 2004 New Zealand Hunt threads, you'll see how it stills perform its tasks quite well. After it got too beat up from carrying it in a saddle scabbard, I had Robar Inc. put a satin silver NP3 coating and McMillan stock on it.

 

The red/white GMC truck was mine. It replaced the 1953 Ford panel truck that's in the photo of me and Duffy. I had pulled the 6-cyl. motor in that and replaced it with a 292 CI V-8. Also changed the 6-volt system to 12. I have a few other photos to upload where the panel was still all white rather than white and orange. The name painted on the front fenders was 'Miss Carriage.'

 

I also pulled the motor out of the '46 Jeep and completely rebuilt it with all new pistons, cam, crankshaft, etc. It was in the first stages of bodywork in the photos on the Kaibab. I towed it behind the bigger trucks. -TONY

[Outdoor Writer]

This is gonna be the last batch of pix I post. Some of you other guys need to post some!

 

The first bunch is from two successive pig hunts in the Pinto Creek area. The second bunch was taken on my very FIRST big-game hunt in AZ in 1962 -- deer near Waggoner. The Chevy "woodie" wagon was my first hunting vehicle, and the buck hanging in the tree was mine -- the only one killed on that hunt. I used a Marlin 336 .30/30 with a 4X Weaver scope. -TONY

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the next year after I had painted the Jeep.

 

 

 

[dave]

Tony encouraged me to do this so here goes.

 

This is a pic of me and my best friend back in ?, I still can't figure if it is 1971 or 1972. I am the good looking one with the black rim glasses, my friend is the dork in the football "camo" jersey.

My dad and I found this bull dead, shot from another hunter that morning. The bull's body was still smoking in the snow. We waited a long time and tryed to find the guy that may have shot it. Dad let me tag it and call it mine. I was the Cock of the walk. I was so proud of this bull that I decided to brag to everyone I killed it. I lied to my friends and family and told them I shot it. Dad never said a word. He let me live with my lies.

Funny how when you are 15 you want to be the great white hunter and show everyone how great you are.

Dad never lied to anyone about anything so I am sure he never thought I would lie about this and claim I killed it.

Here is another interesting fact, I have had 9 Arizona bull elk tags. The first 5 were in unit 1 and 2 of them were throphy rifle bull hunts. The last 4 were archery bull hunts in units 6B, 1, 1, & 27. I have never killed a bull elk in Arizona yet.

Moral to the story:

 

DON'T EVER LIE

 

I did catch a 5 pound large mouth one time.

 

The special thing about this photo to me is all the memories of friendship and family that are true. My uncle took this picture and I didn't even know there was one until a few years ago.

 

Thanks to Tony, it almost looks like a picture now.

 

 

Gee Tony, at least we had color film

[Outdoor Writer]

DON'T EVER LIE

 

Hey, no one on this site would ever think of lying. I bet they all fill out their hunter survey cards with nothing but truthful answers.

 

I have a stack of old hunting photos somewhere, but I'll be danged if I can remember where I put them so I could find them again. Most of the ones I've posted so far are outtakes that my wife had stored in a shoe box. -TONY

[Non-Typical Solutions]

I'm still looking for my photos that I know I put where I would be sure and remember them

[Non-Typical Solutions]

OK Tony, here are a couple of pics, sacraficial to keep you baited into posting pics.

 

Here is the hunt story.

I think the year is 1982 not all that old, but I was going to college and came home for the big hunt.

 

I have to kind of set the story up first. We didn't know about scope covers, if they existed at the time so we would take an old inner tube off of a tire, cut it into a strip, like a big fat rubber band, and then slip that over the scope to keep it from getting dusty, etc.

 

So, I am hunting just on the New Mexico side of the AZ line, just north west of Luna. Doing a still hunt with a lazy snowfall in the process of coming down so naturally, I have my handy little scope cover on to keep the moisture off of my scope.

 

I am moving very slow down this ridge, loving the little bit of snowfall, when all of the sudden, there he was, at the most, 60 yards away, looking right at me. That rack seemed so huge to me, of course I went into a panic. That %$#@ innertube scope cover would not come off my scope, between the cold and a small case of buck fever I was definitely feverish.

 

I finally got the cover off and put that buck in the crosshairs of my Redfield wide angle 3-9 power scope and let the lead fly.

After the first shot, the buck was still standing there looking right at me as if nothing really had happened, much to my shagrin, so I jacked another shell into my gun. This activity startled the buck and he turned around and bolted straight away from me.

 

There was no way in the world I could have missed that shot (ha), in a last chance effort I put the crosshairs on the buck as he was about to disappear and I pulled the trigger. At the time I thought I had hit the buck, but definitely could not see him. I ran over to the last spot I had seen him, and there he lay in a heap. I had hit that poor old boy right in the back of the head. Truly the luckiest shot I have ever put on a deer.

 

This is the first decent buck I had ever shot. Not big by some of you'alls standards but it was definitely a trophy in my books.

I was using the gun of my dreams at the time, bought with my own hard earned pig money. Remington Model 700 BDL 22-250, Custom loaded 60 grain Hornady spire point with 35 grains of 4064. My folks let me use some of my "savings" when I turned 16 to buy the gun and my older brothers helped me pick it and the scope out. It of course was purchased with the intent of hunting Wyle Coyote.

 

Still the gun of my dreams and I still shoot the same load, although I have since then purchased a little bit bigger caliber for my deer hunting.