billrquimby

Another way to reduce felt recoil is to shoot a heavier rifle than those lightweight, skinny barrel things with Tupperware stocks that too many hunters are buying nowadays. Another is to shoot light-for-caliber bullets and have a stock that fits you. My 7 mm Remington Magnum with scope and four rounds of ammo weighs a bit more than 9 1/2 pounds, and I shaped it to fit my long arms and big frame, with a 15-inch trigger-to-butt stock, a bit of cast-off and a fat forearm. I'm a wimp when it comes to recoil, but it's a pleasure to shoot, even with my 175-grain handloads that I use for everything. Muzzle brakes do work, though. Just try shooting a .Weatherby .378, .416 or 460 with and without one if you doubt that! Bill Quimby .

There were whitetails and a small group of mule deer in that area when we hunted it years ago. Bill Quimby

I haven't hunted there in at least 20 years, but there was a long north/south canyon west of the ranch that always had a herd or two in it. Don't know why there still wouldn't be pigs there. Bill Quimby

Hey, TJ. Jean and I will celebrate our 56th anniversary in March. Sounds like what goes on in our house. Bill Quimby

"I doubt any hunter involved in this conversation would smash a set of 109 antlers on a rock because they were not "book" I say shoot whatever blows your skirt up, whether it be meat, antlers, or nothing at all." They aren't on this forum, but I know many trophy-or-none-at-all hunters who, while they might not smash a set of 109-inch Coues deer antlers on a rock; would go home disappointed with themselves and angry with anyone who may have encouraged them to shoot a non-book head. And not all of these "pure" trophy hunters are super wealthy. Some are retired taxidermists, military and commercial pilots, cafe owners, and lawyers with small practices. "Shoot whatever blows your skirt up, whether it be meat, antlers, or nothing at all" is what I was trying to say. You summed up my 800 words with just 15. I've not changed my mind about measuring hunting success ONLY by a tape, though. Those who do so are to be pitied because they miss much of what hunting offers. Bill Quimby

There is nothing wrong with wanting to shoot a “trophy” animal if that’s what you want, but I really do feel sorry for hunters who believe a measuring tape is the only way to measure their success. I believe you probably feel the same, if as you say you hate to end your hunts early, successful or not. You are well on your way, but you will not have matured as a hunter until you admit to yourself that there are other and better reasons for hunting, and that a “lot of bone” really isn’t reason enough. Would I shoot the world record whatever if it jumped up and I had a tag and a rifle? In a heartbeat. But I do not always shoot the first legal buck I see, and it doesn’t matter if it is a yearling or a five-year-old. Sometimes I go deer hunting for the pure enjoyment of seeing them and being with friends. Sometimes I shoot a deer simply because I want the meat. Whether I shoot or not depends on how I feel at the moment. I don’t need another set of antlers to toss in a box with all the others, and I certainly don’t need another mount. After 63 years of hunting, much of it when it was a part of my occupation, I’ve run out of wall space at our cabin and in the trophy room at our home, and quite frankly my trophies don’t mean that much to me any more. My problem is that I spent too much time around international trophy hunters/collectors in 2,000-square-foot trophy rooms filled with 300-400 heads and dozens of lifesize mounts of record-book animals from 100 countries. It doesn’t take long to realize that amassing “a lot of bone” really only requires lots of money and/or time -- and those who have gobs of the first usually have plenty of the second. It also helps if they have political clout, which can be bought, too. One of the guys whose memoirs I helped write sold all of his businesses when his daughter, mother and father died a few months apart. He then made thirteen major hunts on four continents in twelve months. Another of my clients shot his first deer when he was in his forties, and then took a desert sheep a couple of months later. He then sold his business empire and went hunting full time, eventually posting entries in most of the SCI record book's hundreds of categories. But that was nothing compared to the last crown prince of Iran, whom I wrote about in my book, "Royal Quest." When Prince Abdorreza decided it was time to hunt North America after shooting everything that walks in Europe, Asia and Africa, he contacted his friends Jack O’Connor, Elgin Gates and Herb Klein, who lined up outfitters and arranged museum permits. (They really weren’t needed because the prince had diplomatic immunity.) He then spent three months of non-stop hunting all over the USA and Canada. He not only shot TWO grand slams of record-class North American sheep (one for his trophy room and one for Iran’s national museum), but he also shot TWO EACH of 19 types of North America's 29 types of big game animals (including two big Coues deer south of Tucson) -- all in less than 90 days! He was the worst kind of trophy hunter, and not because of his excesses. It was because his sole reason for hunting was to get his name high up in record books. There were three things in Africa that eluded him, though -- an elephant with 100-pound tusks, a buffalo with horns wider than 50 inches, and a sable antelope with 50-inch horns. When he shot a 99-pound elephant, a 49-inch buffalo, and a 48-inch sable, he told his outfitters to keep them and walked away angry at everyone except himself. When he didn’t shoot the No. 1 argali, tur, markhor, gaur or whatever, he was convinced his guides, his outfitters, and his booking agents were crooks. This has run way too long. Believe me: It makes no difference to me or anyone else whether or not I kill another “trophy.” I hunt because I must, and I will hunt until I can’t. I do feel sorry for those of you who hunt strictly for trophies because the tired old bromide that says records are made to be broken is absolutely true. Even Ed Stockwell's record Coues deer is not safe if someone with an extra gazillion dollars or so decides he wants to shoot a bigger head. Bill Quimby

Makes me wonder if the article is correct and the wolf was shot by "Forest Service officials." The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service, and not the Agriculture Department's Forest Service, has jurisdiction on endangered species, which means those Forest Service "officials" could be in deeeeep doo-doo if the article is correct. Bill Quimby

A great response, Brian. It's been nearly 20 years since I followed Arizona's wildlife issues closely, but the more things change the more they stay the same: the majority of hunters and fishermen still are unsure of the actual roles of the Game and Fish Department and the Game and Fish Commission. Although you talked about this indirectly, it is the commission that should be "blamed" (if that word can be used here) for wildlife-related issues that draw complaints by sportsmen and the public in Arizona. The five volunteer commissioners set the policies that you and others in the department must implement. Your agency can only recommend permit numbers and season dates, etc. to the commission, and only after a series of public meetings to gather comments that you must take to the commissioners. The commissioners may approve those recommendations or throw them out and do whatever they want. It seldom happens, but I have seen it done. I attended nearly every important commission meeting between 1967 and 1994, and learned that individual commissioners had great influence in the direction our hunting and fishing took. I also came to realize that the most avid hunters and fishermen sometimes made the worst commissioners because they were unwilling to listen to new ideas. At any rate, Arizona's department/commission setup is not perfect, but I've yet to see a better system. In some states, politicians set regulations, and governors appoint agency directors. We are fortunate that this is not the case here. Bill Quimby

SBhunter: Never counted the days I spent hunting in five African countries, but I did make 22 trips there between 1983 and 2006. SCI had an office near Pretoria and not all of my time on those trips were for hunting. While there, I also toured every national RSA park as the guest of the government, attended game auctions, helped a well-known game capturer write his memoirs, and got many inside looks at the game farm business in South Africa. I can tell you that lions aren't the only animals for which canned hunts are staged. Purposely starved leopards have been released on smelly bait a half hour before hunters and their PHs sneaked into their blinds. Although not as blatant as canned cat hunts, kudus, gemsbok and common nyala sometimes are released according to the hunts sold for that season. Most game farms in South Africa are only about 5,000 acres, and virtually everyone who hunts these larger animal shoots at least one of them on his first RSA safari. There is no way a high-fenced farm less than 2 1/2 miles by 3 1/2 miles can produce all the mature trophy bulls some outfitter/game farmers sell season after season without buying them at auction. As for free-range hunting vs. "estate" hunting, my best guess is that 98.99% of Americans hunt behind high wire when they hunt in South Africa. There are some free-range areas, to be sure, but there are only a few outfitters taking clients there. And when they do, it is for one or two special types of animal and not a general hunting safari. There was a suggestion that briefly arose in SCI's record book committee when I was there to list most South African entries as "estate taken," but it was decided that outfitters and members would raise holy heck. Snapshot: It would be great if the only time a rhino was darted by a "green" hunter was to collect biological data. Unfortunately, some rhinos with trophy horns were being darted every few weeks only so someone could complete his "Big Five." Whether that is a concern is moot now. RSA banned darted hunts earlier this year. Incidentally, $90,000 (and more) is the price for killing a black rhino. White rhino, the last I heard, cost about a third of that. Darted hunts cost from $6,000 to $15,000. These prices are the reason the white rhino has made a comeback from near extinction. Just follow the money. Every rhino in South Africa outside Kruger and a couple of the larger parks is captive bred. I shot my lion in one of Zambia's Mumbwa concessions, not far from the Kafue River. I expect that the days when Africa's lions can be hunted legally are limited to fewer than five years. There is an well-funded, organized and worldwide movement to accomplish this. Ironically, the guys who are "farming" lions and selling canned lion hunts argue that what they do takes the pressure off wild lions and is actually a form of conservation. Bill Quimby

Why not use the Nosler Partition and get both penetration and expansion? With one exception, it is the only bullet I have shot game with for the 25 years or so, and it has never failed me. There are other bullets that perform slightly better on paper, but I don't eat paper. The exception was my desert sheep, and I used the Ballistic Tip. I must admit that it did us a favor by reducing the amount of mutton we had to eat by at least five pounds. Bill Quimby

The winter after the year we were ordered off Tiburon, we landed at a little settlement on the Sonora side, directly off the south end of the island. I've forgotten its name, it could have been Punta Sueca, but it doesn't matter. The Mexican government had built a half dozen little houses out of concrete blocks and put in a well and a water storage tank there. They had been built since our last trip, but the Seris had removed all the doors and burned them, and broken all the windows, and were camping on the beach. I bought an ironwood bighorn ram about 12 inches tall and a shark about six inches long from the carvers. Neither piece was signed, but both were definitely handmade. I still have them. Bill Quimby

It was so long ago, I don't remember any of the people who were there. I wasn't involved in the transplant. I was only at the gathering site for four or five hours, just long enough to take a few photos and interview three or four people. I suspected that it wouldn't be long before the Seris moved back. Bill Quimby

Yes, but believe me when I say my experience as editor of the SCI record book for 17 years gave me some knowledge of what goes on down there. A very few free-ranging lions are killed in South Africa, and most of these are shot or poisoned by locals. Too many so-called Botswana escapees shot by foreigners along the Limpopo were raised in pens in Mapumalanga and trailered to where they were released and killed. The same with those along the Kruger, except for the few that are drawn out of the park by baiting along the border. Amazingly (to me, at least), few hunters who kill canned lions are aware they are victims of fraud. That became apparent when we removed all South African and Namibian lions from the record book, and members protested loudly that their lions were not "canned," even though they shot them in provinces where wild lions hadn't been seen in 100 years. SCI eventually established a special category for South African and Namibian lions, for all the above reasons. Bill Quimby

Agree! I feel the same about almost every video made in South Africa. Incidentally, my lion came from Zambia. Bill Quimby

Sergio88: A beautiful ram. Congratulations to the hunter and to those who helped him. It seems like 100 years ago, but I "covered" the stocking of bighorns and javelinas on Tiburon Island for the Tucson Citizen and was there when the first sheep were captured and released. The animals were captured on the mainland and transported to the island by biologists on loan from the New Mexico game department. The last time I was there was in the late 1970s or early 1980s and we were returning from a fishing trip at Abreojos, on the Pacific side of Baja California, and looked down and saw a landing strip that hadn't been there a year earlier. We landed our Cessna to see if we might try fishing there on our next trip, and were ordered to leave by Mexican soldiers with machine guns. The sheep obviously did very well, but I've heard that the javelinas did not survive. Is that so? Does the island still have a lot of huge mule deer? One final question: before sheep were introduced, the Mexican government forced all the Seris to move off the island. Did they return? Bill Quimby

Coach: My experience with javelinas is different from yours. I've found that herds will use the same bedding and feeding grounds, generation after generation, even after someone builds a house smack dab in their territory (unless humans allow their dogs to run free). I've returned to places where I killed javelinas 30, 40 and 50 years earlier and found evidence of herds using exactly the same places. They are interesting animals, and I love watching them almost as much as I enjoyed hunting them. Bill Quimby

I was a trophy hunter at one time, too, as my dozen or so entries in the SCI books will show. The more I hunted, though, the more I realized that it really made no difference to anyone, including me, whether I shot something that qualified for a book. Editing a record book also revealed just how low some people will sink to get their names in a book. Everyone hunts for different reasons, and I have no problem with that. I do have problems with those who criticize others who shoot anything less than a trophy. Bill Quimby

"Bill Quimby, you look like you go to africa to go hunting? When you went to africa how did you describe to your guide over there what animal you would be willing to shoot or not shoot? Did you go by body weight, color,height, or maybe a score?" At age 75 with a fixed income amid rising inflation, I've probably made my last hunt outside the USA, but I did take more than 60 types of big game animals with rifle, bow, handgun and muzzleloader on six continents and more than a dozen countries over the past 63 years. I long ago outgrew the need to prove my manhood or my skill as a hunter by taking only "trophies." When hunting in Africa and everywhere else, I always let the professional hunters know I didn't need the largest and best animals in their areas. I was interested only in hunting a mature animal that was representative of the species, and would not be crushed if I went home empty-handed. I hunted for the experience of hunting, and memories and friendships gained through hunting still are more important to me than measurements of antlers, horns and skulls. I was fortunate to have taken a few record-book animals during those 63 years, including what would have been the world-record Siberian roebuck at the time if I had registered it. The lion in my avatar probably would make SCI's top ten, but it also was not registered. The problem with "scoring" is that it brings out the worst in some people, and those who do not hunt judge all of us by their actions. This post already is too long to give examples, but I could list dozens of despicable things that grown men (and women) have done to get their names in a record book. The worst example that quickly comes to mind was a wealthy Spaniard who bought a zoo so he could import live animals from around the world, shoot them and enter their measurements! Bill Quimby

Becker: I edited the SCI record books for nearly 17 years, and agree with you that record books do record the history of hunting. However, there is a problem with your theory about them honoring the animal. if a record book's goal truly is to honor abnormal animals (and that is what record-book animals are), why publish the names of the hunters who killed them? The answer is there would be no books without those names. Bill Quimby

Doug: I've heard that raft trips sell out a year or more in advance, so reserve a trip now. You'll never regret it. There's nothing quite like it, especially for photographers. You can sit on the beach at Redwall Cavern, for example, and literally watch the light climb up the wall across the river. And don't forget to take a packable fishing rod. Not all of the big trout in that river are around Lee's Ferry. Bill Quimby

Doug: Beautiful photos! I made three trips through the canyon on rafts back when I wrote outdoors columns for the Citizen, and I thought I'd never see anything so spectacular as the canyon along the river. That changed when my last trip included a helicopter flight from Lava Falls back to Page. As you've discovered, there is nothing like seeing the grandest of all canyons from the air. Bill Quimby

Hunters who need steel tapes to measure their success -- and the success of others -- are to be pitied. Bill Quimby

There is nothing wrong with any of the three you've mentioned, but you may want to limit your choice to the .270 or the .30-06. The .308 is just a .30-06 with a shorter case, and anything it can do its older brother does better. Bill Quimby

Shaynec: It came from the factory that way. Remington apparently made a short run of 6.5mm RM in its Model 700 BDLs years ago, and I wound up with one. I believe they made a few thousand more a couple of years ago. It's a fine caliber. Bill Quimby

I shot my last mule deer with a 6.5 Remington Magnum, an overlooked and often controversial caliber, mostly because it was introduced in the Remington Model 600 carbine. Mine is a Model 700, with a longer barrel that gives it much better ballistics. It does everything I want from a small-caliber rifle. With 140-grain bullets it is suitable for everything in Arizona, including elk out to 300 yards. In Europe, the 6.5x55 is used on everything from 60-pound roe deer to 750-pound moose. Bill Quimby