billrquimby

Heck, your dad is just a pup. My daughter is 52! Bill Quimby

Any of those weights will work fine on an elk, but my preference would be the 175 grain, especially if it's a Nosler Partition. I've used them on elk with good results out to 250-300 yards and on all sorts of large game including moose and eland at closer ranges. Bill Quimby

Yeah the ribs and legs were all chewed on, and the vertebre was broken. that could have been post death but I doubt it. Amazing that coyotes didn't scatter the bones and carry off the legs. Those palm trees in the skyline make me wonder where you were hunting. Bill Quimby

BobbyO: Thank you, but I think I'll stick to writing. It's been good to me. It's also easier on an old man's eyes, and I no longer have the patience needed for gun work. "Hawkens" were sturdy, big bore (.50 caliber and larger) half-stock "plains" rifles made in St. Louis from 1825-1850 by a shop owned by a pair of brothers. Somehow, their surname has been applied in modern times to all half-stock percussion rifles, but lots of short stocks also were built with cap and flint locks (including underhammers) by dozens of other smiths long before the westward movement began. So readers would know what I was talking about when I told about a hunt with this rifle in my new book, I said I designed it based on a "Hawken" but in .45 caliber with a 32-inch barrel, and much slimmed down. The decorative carvings and general shape of the stock actually were based on a photo of a Golden Age longrifle that appealed to me. I also incorporated some of my own ideas, so I guess it would be more proper to call it a "Quimby." I wanted a gun that would be light and easy to carry on javelina hunts. Two of my three other home-built muzzleloaders are longrifles based on the Golden Age Pennsylvania style; the other is an early Germanic Jaeger-style flintlock. I've shot deer with each of them. Another Pennsylvania longrifle is about 3/4 finished and has interchangeable cap and flint locks, but I haven't worked on it in more than twenty years. It began with a magnificent piece of curly maple a cabinetmaker friend in Ohio came across and gave me. I need to finish the carvings, make and install the sights, stain and seal the stock, and brown the barrel and lock. Yes, I still own the rifle in the photo. In fact, I have every gun I've ever owned except for a .22 semi-auto Remington rifle I sold when I was in college and needed cash. Bill Quimby

>>>>>>>I had to rethink why I hunt. It's very easy to get wrapped up in scores, and for me, it took away from why I love to hunt. The magazines, videos, and websites can skew a guy into thinking he's got to kill a big one to feel succesful. Maybe it's age, but I can honestly say I could care less if I fill my tag, and I really don't care what the other guy has to say about what I wrap my tag around!>>>>>>>>>> Coues: You are at the point in your hunting career that I reached a long time ago. After seventeen years of editing Safari magazine and the SCI record books, and being around too many too-enthusiastic people who measured their trophies with tape measures instead of memories, I don't give a dang what size antlers my deer wears. I may or may not shoot the first legal buck I see. It all depends upon whether I feel like ending my hunt at that moment. I now enjoy just watching a game animal as much as I do shooting it. I refuse to become like Prince Abdorreza of Iran, the greatest trophy hunter who ever lived and brother of the Shah. I was shocked when I interviewed him for my book, "Royal Quest." He was so obsessed with records that he bad-mouthed the booking agent, outfitter and PH after he killed a 49-inch Cape buffalo instead of a 50-incher. He did the same thing after shooting a 90-pound elephant. A 49-inch buffalo and a 90-pound elephant are comparable in international hunting circles to a 400-plus bull elk or a 120-inch Coues whitetail -- excellent trophies, but short of the No. 1 status the Prince felt he deserved. Hunters go through several stages as they mature. Unfortunately, they eventually discover record books and become obsessed. Many of us, if we hunt enough, come to realize the size of the animal a hunter kills is no indicator of that hunter's manhood (or womanhood) or skill. Someone with a fat wallet or lots of political influence can get anything he/she wants -- including as many listings in record books as he/she desires. The Prince was a prime example of trophy hunting mania gone awry. With the assistance of Jack O'Connor, Elgin Gates and Herb Klein, Abdorreza collected seventeen of the twenty-seven big game species in North America in one three-month marathon trip. This included all four sheep, caribou, grizzly and black bear, mountain goat, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, Coues deer, moose, bison, and mountain lion. If that sounds nearly impossible in ninety days, then consider this: He shot not one but two of each species--one for the Iranian National Museum in Tehran, and another for his own collection, and every one of his thirty four animals made the B&C or Rowland Ward record books! He also shot two javelinas and several wolves. Hunting with diplomatic immunity and the blessing of each state's wildlife agency and the U.S. State Department, the Prince flew all over America and hunted with the guides that O'Connor, Gates and Klein had arranged for him. Each of those guides had done extensive scouting, and had game located by the time the Prince arrived in camp. Some of his trophies were taken in national parks and refuges with rangers helping guide him. Such an expedition will never be duplicated, thank God. To answer the question posed at the start of this thread, when you get in a funk after hunting alone it is time to go home. Failing that, you need to shoot that little forkhorn, fry up its backstrap, sit back, watch the clouds float over the mountain, and ponder why you hunt. Bill Quimby

A beautiful buck, and 4x4s always score well. Anything in particular that makes you believe it was killed by a lion? Bill Quimby

Heard many good things about his work His background includes several years at the Jonas Brothers of Denver studio back when it was the premier taxidermy shop in America. He also did many of the high-quality mounts at SCI's International Wildlife Museum, including the lifesize mount of Dan King's big non-typical Coues whitetail, the lions attacking a Cape buffalo bull, and the desert-bighorn-drinking diorama. Bill Quimby

Fall color in that region is absolutely breath-taking. I used to think nothing could compare with our aspens and live oaks in a good year near my cabin, but that was before I spent two weeks in New Brunswick in late October doing interviews for a book. The red maple leaves were so impressive that I gathered a bunch, pressed them in a book, and brought them home to my wife. Couldn't open all your photos, Amanda, but did you get any shots of those big northeastern whitetails in a fall forest? There were so many on the farm of the guy whose book I wrote that we hand-fed them apples. Bill Quimby

Chuck Meacham in Tucson did a wonderful flying mount of my grandson's turkey. I've seen none better, but it was not inexpensive. Bill Quimby

Hunter4life: Please forgive me for bumping your thread temporarily. I don't mean to minimize in any way your great buck or your taking it with a muzzleloader. BobbyO: Don't know if this will come across, but it is a photo of the fourth and last muzzleloader I built. The half stock is from a piece of walnut I cut from a tree on a friend's ranch in the Texas Hill Country. The pewter tip of the stock once was a mug I stole from my wife. I made the escutcheon plates, side plate and patchbox from sheet silver, and the sights from a piece of real iron, just like the originals. I got fancy with the ramrod and burned the spiral pattern on it by soaking knitting thread in lighter fluid, wrapping it around the rod, and igniting it briefly. Although it can't be seen here, I did a good job on the floral carving around the cheekpiece, if I must say so myself. I made the trigger guard and ferrules from brass. The barrel, caplock, trigger, and buttplate were the only store-bought items and I ordered them separately from a Dixie Gun Works catalog. All were best-quality parts, and the gun shot 3/4-inch groups at 75 yards when I was shooting well. I killed four whitetails (one in Arizona, the others in Texas), and two Arizona mule deer and one javelina with it. I wasn't trophy hunting, though. Any buck within my range was fair game. Bill Quimby May I email the photo to someone to post for me? I obviously don't know how to do it.

Unit 33 HAM hunt, Unit 1 gobbler. Bill Quimby

The easiest way, and probably the only way is to go through your local police. Like I mentioned earlier, the firearm may be reported lost already. So, I would turn it in. When the police run the serial number, they will know. If already reported they can get it back to the owner. If not reported, they will hold it and hopefully the owner will make a police report. If they do not make a police report, eventually the BATF will identify the owner. The BATF will then contact the agency that is holding the gun and have them contact the owner. The BATF will not do anything unless it goes through the local guys. The BATF won't do anything unless the local police believe it was used in a crime, and there is no reason to do so. So enjoy your pistol. It's better that someone gets some use out of it than for it to gather dust with a bunch of unclaimed and seized firearms until a bureaucrat decides it's time to destroy or auction all the stuff that's taking up space in his crowded storeroom. Bill Quimby

Can't blame a rifle for its maker's political views. Hope it continues to shoot well and fills all of your tags. Bill Quimby

Wasn't it Cooper Arms that endeared itself with firearms enthusiasts across the USA forever when its founder announced he supported Obama for president? Bill Quimby

The BATF (and their info is available to local law enforcers) knows exactly who has bought every new firearm. If a gun is sold a couple of times to individuals, it gets tougher to trace its ownership, but the feds been known to do so. Bill Quimby

If you are thinking about hunting in Africa someday, I recommend you attend the "First African Safari" seminar I have conducted every year at SCI conventions since 1989. I'm only the moderator who organizes the event and keeps it on schedule. The experts are our panelists: 1, Craig Boddington, author, hunting writer and videomaker (guns and ammo choices and inernational travel with firearms), 2. Johan Calitz, owner of one of Africa's largest hunting companies (what to expect from your outfitter/Ph and what they expect from you), 3. Jack Atcheson, Sr.. retired taxidermist and booking agent (how to ship your trophies and what to do to ensure you get the best mounts), 4. Beverly Wunderlich of J&B Adventures and Safaris (why using the right booking agent will save you money, time and headaches), 5. Ludo Wurfbain, publisher of Safari Press and Sports Afield magazine (what to read before, during and after your safari). It will be held 9 to 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 22, 2009 at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center during SCI's annual convention. It's SCI's longest running (20 years) and most popular (up to 300 attend every year) seminar, the panelists are the top names in safari hunting, and it's free. Brief Q&A periods allow you to ask the experts questions after each presentation. No one checks to see if a seminar attendee is an SCI member or registered for the convention. However, can you imagine being that near 1,300 booths offering hunts and goodies from around the globe and not going inside the exhibition halls? I just wish there had been something like this seminar before my first trip to Zimbabwe twenty five years ago. People who attended several years in a row have told me they learned something each time. Bill Quimby

A beautiful deer, and I congratulate you. You can be rightly proud of your great buck, especially after finding it three years in a row. I particularly like the way you took the time to clean it up and pose it for photos. Have you ever thought of hunting with a more traditional muzzleloader -- flintlock or percussion, iron sights, long octagon barrel, one-piece walnut or curly maple stock with a patch box, and patched round balls or greased Minni balls and bullets you cast yourself? My friend Bud Bristow and I got interested in muzzleloading in the 1960s, and we each built several Kentucky- and Hawken-style rifles with stocks and other parts we made ourselves and triggers, barrels and locks we ordered from specialty catalogs. (We didn't use kits because we wanted our rifles to be "authentic.") I even carved floral designs on my stocks and "browned" the barrels, just as the early smiths did on their longrifles. Our range was limited to 75-80 yards but we managed to kill a number of mule deer, whitetails and javelinas in Arizona and Texas with them. Later, I borrowed an original percussion rilfe built in Scotland in the 1840s and used it to kill a bison in Colorado. Just thinking about the fun we had with black powder makes me want to take one of my flintlocks out again in the next HAM season -- if I draw a tag. Hunting with a primitive rifle was indeed (pun intended) a blast! Bill Quimby Incidentally, hunting with a "muzzy" sounds dreadfully inane. How did such a juvenile contraction ever come to be used for such a pleasureable activity?

My brother-in-law lost a .22 revolver in the Galliuros above the old Sunset Ranch. It was a long, long time ago, though. I think it was about 1965 or 1966, so it surely would be rusted and worthless now. Bill Quimby

>>>>>>Baiting deer? Is this still hunting? >>>>>> Nope. "Still hunting" involves taking a few slow steps, stopping, and looking closely around you before taking a few more steps. In Europe it is called "stalking," even though it's done before game is located. Sitting over a bait and waiting for a buck to come to the gun is something else. Don't know if there is a name for it. I hunted from baited stands in Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Texas and didn't care for it, even though I wound up shooting a few deer. Waiting for a buck to come to a blind is about as exciting as sitting on a bank and drowning worms -- a whole lot of boredom for a couple seconds of fun. Bill Quimby

After you've mailed your dues to the NRA, SCI and whatever, call the Republican Party headquarters in your county and ask to be added to its list of volunteers. Obama won because he was well-financed, totally organized and had hundreds of thousands of people working (for free) for him. Obama is in for the next four years, and there is nothing we can do about it, but there's another election in 2010. We need to keep Arizona a red state. Don't think we can not lose it here. New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon and Washington State are all big hunting states, and their electorial votes went to Obama yesterday. Bill Quimby

>>>>>>>>>>>well i personally have seen alot of dead/live bobcats. and can tell you that as big as some are or look its an absolute rarity to find one over 20+ lbs especially in arizona. any cat over 18 lbs would be a HUGE bobcat. I think i have seen one actually weighed over 20 and barely. But congratulations seein a big bobcat is always fun....>>>>>>>> My sentiments exactly. Bill Quimby

Your daughter is to be congratulated. She writes far beyond her years, and is a heck of a lot more literate than some of the guys on this forum. Bill Quimby

Congratulations on your buck. A great story with a happy ending. Bill Quimby

I've shot more than a few deer that were infested with ticks, and I agree with Amanda about eating the meat. If there were problems with eating venison from tick-infested deer my family and I would be in big trouble. Also, I've never heard of Lyme disease caused by ticks from an Arizona deer. Bill Quimby

You also can learn a lot by looking at who is endorsing each proposition. With Prop. 202, it's farmers and restaurant owners. Bill Quimby