billrquimby

I'm lucky in that I'll qualify for a Pioneer's license next year. ... if you can call being 70 "lucky," which I do. Bill

I've been bit once by a scorpion (on my stomach inside a sleeping bag) and twice by brown recluse spiders. No stingers left behind by either critter. I knew immediately when the scorpion hit me, and it hurt terribly for at least 12 hours, after which the pain diminished rapidly. On both spider bites I had no idea I had been bitten until I saw the wounds. Brown recluse spiders leave a target-like wound (both were on my thighs) about the size of a small saucer. I ran very high temps and felt awful, and the flesh in the bite area in the center of the wound started rotting until I was treated with certain antibiotics. If I had to make a choice, I'd choose the scorpion any day. Bill

""He got kicked several times. He was walking bowlegged for awhile," Deputy Doug Gay said." OUCH!

" If you come across and level minded and an honest person it will get you farther then anything. Being most of them are honest and fair, it might not get a gate unlocked, but it will almost always get you info on the land ... " Shane: After spending six months working on that access series I was shocked to learn a great many hunters didn't care if gates were locked as long as they personally had access. They even didn't mind having to ask permission from a lessee to enter Forest Service and State land. A few even admitted they felt having a rancher limit access to public land kept the riff-raff out. Again, I have no trouble with ranchers saying who can and can't use their private land. Public land is something else, though. I really have a problem when historic roads are closed to keep us off public land behind private land. I'm not a lawyer but I would think the laws of adverse possession could come into play after a road across private land has been used by the public for 20, 30, or even 75 years. Unfortunately, our state and federal land managment agencies have been reluctant to protect our rights. Bill

Knowing I would be hunting a lion I borrowed a .416 Weatherby with a muzzle brake for a trip to Zambia in 1994 and shot it perhaps 15 or 20 times here at home to get to know the rifle and its recoil. By the time I reached Zambia I felt very confident I could blow away anything out to 300 yards with that rifle. Its felt recoil was a bit more than my .300 Win Mag but considerably less than my .375 and .458. The first thing my PH demanded, though, was that I remove the brake. He didn't want his ears or those of his trackers to be blown away. (The blast and noise to the sides and behind the shooter are awesome.) That rifle slammed me from here to Sunday without the brake, but it did upend my 500-pound-plus lion. A muzzle brake certainly does reduce felt recoil a bunch but my question is why do you need a brake on a .300 WSM? Isn't its recoil similar to a .300 Win Mag or a .300 Weatherby? BQ

Shane: I have no problem with ranchers locking their private lands ... until they block historic roads that have been graded and maintained by counties with public money or have provided access for the public to huge sections of public land for a long, long time. A rancher's land is his fiefdom and he is entitled to charge entry fees to it or keep everyone off it, but BLM, State, DOD, and Forest Service lands are the public's and we should have free access to it. This means if a rancher closes a 50-75-year-old road to BLM land that crosses his property he definitely should not be allowed to lease that BLM land. Sorry, but that's what I believe. Just as we shouldn't lump all ranchers in the same pot, it is flat-out wrong for them to make all of us pay for the actions of a few slobs. Bill

Agree completely on both counts. I say three-pointer and cooz, and I don 't give a twit what they do back east or if Dr. Elliot Coues pronounced his name like the bovines. When I first started hunting them in 1948 as a boy they were simply "whitetails" to most Arizona hunters. Those who had some experience outside the state called them "Arizona whitetails" (and so did the Boone & Crocket Club.) It was in the 1960s and early 1970s that we and everyone else started calling them "desert whitetails." We even had a club we called the "Record Desert Whitetail Club." The B&C minimum for desert whitetails was 100 points net and we had to shoot a record buck to join the club. We were automatically kicked out for shooting a whitetail buck smaller than 100 points or a mule deer of any size. I lasted just one season, and was drummed out because I shot a mule deer. About the same time B&C raised its minimum it changed its title of its listing to "Coues white-tailed deer," following the scientific name Odocoileus virginianus couesi. It sounds stupid to me everytime I hear someone say "cows' deer" but it does tell me that the person who said it has had very little to no experience with these wonderful little deer. Bill

Back in the early 1980s, when I still was the Tucson Citizen's outdoor editor and a member of its editorial board, I did a six- or seven-part series on the problems of access to public lands. It accomplished only two things: 1. It embarassed Game & Fish enough that it removed illegal locks on the powerline road into the Mustang Mountains. After that it "negotiated" with state land lessees, resulting in "agreements" with two or three ranchers allowing hunters to cross narrow stretches of private land if hunters signed a logbook coming and going. (trouble is, public roads leading to the same area were closed.) 2. Ranchers retaliated by screaming about vandalism. So my bosses suggested I do a series on the problems ranchers faced from slobs on their leases and private land. Almost every complaint I investigated turned out to bogus. One guy said hunters had dismantled his windmill. But when I and a Game and Fish guy went out to look at the windmill we found greasy stove bolts and nuts all over the place, some as far as 20 yards away from the mill. Under a magnifying glass we could see that the bolts had never had a wrench turning them the left == only to the right to tighten them. The rancher had used too much grease in his mill, the grease leaked onto the vanes, and caused a couple of bolts to work loose. The vibration eventually threw off more bolts and ripped the vane off. I made at least two or three trips to ranches in response to littering complaints. It was in late spring, after the javelina season, and all the garbage and trash I was shown hadn't been dumped by hunters. One bag contained household garbage. After I used my column to invite ranchers to register their complaints with me a guy called and asked me to come out to "see the trespassers" who plagued him every weekend. I did, and found a carload of guys shooting doves (the season was open) at a waterhole. He complained thAT they no only were trespAssing, but were "shooting TOO CLOSE TO WATER." (MY KEYBOARD IS STUCK). I EXPLAINED THE RULE ABOUT A QUARTER MILE FROM WATER APPLIES TO CAMPING. AFTER RETURNING TO TUCSON I CHECKED AND FOUND THE POND WAS ON STATE LAND.

I used to hunt the unit (especially Sardina Peak) a bunch in the 1950s and 1960s, but the last whitetail I shot in 36B was about 20 years ago on an insignificant little hill called Cerro Pelon, west of Tubac and a long way from the main mountain. Getting on the pipeline road that led to it was tricky, but there were a few "hidden" gates that weren't locked. Does anyone hunt there now? As I remember it, there was an ancient man-made rock wall and two or three rock blinds that I assumed were made by early Indians to drift deer and javelinas to their bows and arrows. Bill Quimby

It's interesting to see the license for a gemsbok oryx in New Mexico is $1,500. Add $1,600 to $1,800 and you can shoot one in its native habitat in Namibia or South Africa, including airfare from Tucson or Phoenix, lodging, food, and the services of a professional hunter. Toss in another $2,000 and you can shoot another three or four more animals, including a greater kudu. If anyone has questions about hunting in southern Africa contact me. My former job took me to Africa 21 times beginning in 1983. I've moderated a very popular seminar for first-time safari hunters for the past 15 years at SCI conventions and personally know many of the bettter outfitters and have visited a great many of the areas where hunting occurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Bill Quimby

I used to have badgers come to my calls from time to time when I did a lot of varmint calling a hundred years ago. They are persistant critters when they think there's fresh meat to eat, and I'm not sure what a couple of them might have done to me if I hadn't shot them first. Except for one I saw three weeks ago all were adults. This recent one, though, was not much larger than a big cottontail. It was running down a two-track trail and we chased it for 30-40 yards with my truck before it ran off. It looked cute and cuddly but there's no way I'd pick it up even if I could catch it. A wolverine I shot in the Northwest Territories on a caribou hunt a dozen years ago reminded me of a badger, only it was much larger. Bill Quimby

"Well, I just got back from our annual pronghorn hunt and I must say that we had the best year yet. ... " Scottyboy: Congratulations on two great bucks. I've seen a few thousand antelope in Wyoming and none looked like these. Although they look like the Arizona antelope we used to see I'll guess you hunted in New Mexico. If I'm wrong and you're hunting antelope every year in Arizona would you please buy some PowerBall tickets for me? Bill Quimby

I'm not surprised that Peta people tossed a pie at Vogue's editor for wearing fur. What would surprise me would be if the Vogue editor defended hunting and hunters. I'm not holding my breath. Bill

I built my reloading bench top out of 8-foot-long 4x6 lumber years ago (when lumber still was cheap) and assembled it by drilling holes to accept four 1/2-inch threaded rods. I then bolted this heavy top to a 2x4 frame that I lag-screwed to the studs in my wall. I don't ever want to move the darned thing, but it certainly is solid. Using two RCBS C-type presses set up side-by-side make loading rifle cases easier and faster, and so does a separate tool for installing primers. I also have separate presses for loading 38 special/357 mag pistol and 12, 20, and 28 gauge shotgun shells, as well as a tumbler, digital scale, etc. etc. All this stuff was collected over many years ... much of it from yard sales. I've loaded all my ammunition since about 1958 (I started with a Lyman tong tool) and have used my ammo on six continents for more than 60 types of game animals. I don't think my rifles would know what to do with factory fodder. You'll find you'll shoot more when you reload, and this will make you a better shot. Enjoy. Bill

I was there in the morning of the grand opener, too. I expected some good bargins and was disappointed. Prices on the items I wanted were identical to Walmart. Bill

Abu-graib style does not describe my wishes for that jerk.

In addition to finding guys camped just about everywhere I wanted to take a couple of friends who had drawn elk tags, we came across something this week that really burns me. We glassed up a fair bull in late afternoon and started to go after it, but decided we'd didn't have enough daylight left. We watched it until dark instead. This was at the end of a dead end road, and when we got back to my truck and left it was pitch dark. We saw absolutely no one in the area, and passed no one heading there. We were back at first light, and were relieved to find no one had beat us to our spot ... or so we thought. The first thing we found was the carcass of a bull elk (probably the one we had been watching) that had been shot during the night by some yahoo driving a quad. He apparently had come in after we left and got out before we returned. He had taken only the antlers, rear quarters, and backstraps. Everything else was left to rot! bill

Ernesto C: The elk was shot in the middle of the night. We left the spot after dark and found the carcass when we returned at first light. We saw no one coming or going on the road to the place. Unfortunately, we were so angry we didn't think to inform a wildlife manager until a couple of days later. Bill

Not so surprisingly I didn't draw an elk tag this year, but two friends did and I volunteered to help them out. I took them out for a quick look at some of my favorite spots the night before the season opened and found a good bull that we watched until dark. During the night, though, other hunters erected a tent camp on the edge of the meadow where we'd seen that bull. There were tents, trailers, and pickup campers at all of my other favorite spots, too. Why must people camp smack dab in the middle of where the elk are (or more correctly, used to be before they showed up)? Other deer may tolerate having people slamming doors, talking and laughing, building fires and cutting wood nearby, but elk surely do not. Two days into the season we still haven't found where these so-called "hunters" pushed the elk! Bill Quimby

Bret: How about posting a photo of your 2005 bull? I couldn't get to your grandfather's home to see it before you took the rack away, but he says it was a "big and heavy typical Unit 1 bull." Bill

We used to glass from the fire tower on Apache Maid Peak. Don't know if ordinary citizens still are allowed up there. It was amazing how many elk we could see mornings and evenings. It also showed us how far ahead of a truck an elk would move out. I remember a bull that was feeding in the middle of a wide-open area near a two-track road when it suddenly became alert, then ran off. It was at least three or four minutes before we spotted the vehicle heading toward where that elk had been. Bill

The .308 Winchester would not be my choice for 1,000-yard shooting. I'd rather have something like a .300 Weatherby, .300 Win. Mag., .375 H&H, .416 Weatherby, or one of the hot Lazeronis of .30 caliber or larger. A .50 caliber would be the ultimate if I didn't have to shoot it off my shoulder. In the late 1960s, early 1970s a friend and I used to compete in the metalicas siluetas matches every weekend during the winter in Sonora. The matches were 20 rounds -- five each at undersize 1/2-inch steel cutouts of chickens (200 meters), javelinas (300 meters), turkeys (400 meters), and bighorn sheep (500 meters). Everything was fired offhand with no sling or shooting coat allowed. Rifles had to conform to rules designed to make sure competitors used regular hunting rifles and not heavy-barreled target rifles. I reloaded and fired 75 to 100 rounds a week and spent and hour each day dry-firing my old Harry Lawson thumbhole .270 Win. until I burned out its barrel, but I did win a championship my second year of shooting. Hitting the javelina targets at 300 meters offhand was my specialty and I knocked down all five targets quite a few times. The sheep at 500 meters were awfully tough to hit, but I managed to knock down one or two nearly every match. Hitting 50% of the 20 targets usually guaranteed a win. I used a 6X Lyman Alaskan scope (anything more powerful was not allowed because it would not be a "hunting scope). and knew exactly how many clicks were needed for each range. I adjusted my trigger to 2 pounds, the minimum allowed. The .308 eventually became the "standard" for metallic silhouette shooting when the sport eventually reached the USA == but it was because it had less recoil than most other calibers that were large enough to knock down the 400- and 500- yard targets. A .257 or .243 didn't have enough punch at those distances. Bill

I've seen quite a few Gila monsters, and not all of them have been in the wild. There was a time when at least two per year would wind up in our swimming pool filter. I also saw them often immediately after rains in the Willow Springs Ranch country when we quail hunted there. My best recollection about them took place while hunting whitetails in the Sierrita Mountains about 1980. I had walked out onto a big but thin, flat rock to get a better look at the country below me and the rock rocked. I put my Moses stick onto the rock below it and felt something hit the stick. I jerked the stick up, of course. There was nothing below me when I looked down so I put the stick back .... and watched a Gila monster run out from below me and bite the stick. I had quite a bit of fun for a while with my stick until the guy got tired of playing with me. Gila monsters are not supposed to be aggressive, but that one surely didn't want my stick invading its territory. Bill

Amanda: I'm not certain if deer come to a varmint call because they think another deer is in distress or if they're just curious. Most of the deer I called didn't come runnng in. They approached my stand as bobcats do ... slowly... and stood there looking at me for the longest time when they finally spotted me. I haven't done much calling in the past 20 years but I used to be a fanatic about it. Other critters that came to my calls at one time or another included horses and cattle, hawks and owls, feral housecats and dogs, etc. I think curiosity is as big a factor as distress and lust when it comes to calling animals. The most curious Arizona big game animals of all, of course are our bighorns and pronghorns. I've never called in their country but I think it would be safe to bet that they would respond to a varmint call, too. Bill

I used to call in mule deer regularly 100 years ago ... mostly bucks, too. Never had a whitetail come in, but that's probably because I did most of my calling for coyotes in the low country. When I called in the higher country I called in lots of javelinas and a few coatimundis. Bill Q