billrquimby

What would your friend charge for the fire pit at the top of the post? Bill Quimby

I don't follow the running, jumping, throwing games, but I take it my alma mater beat Tempe Normal School at something. Bill Quimby

Congratulations to Scottyboy! For CatfishKev and others who have not heard of argalis and ibex, they are the epitome of mountain game trophies. The argalis are the largest of the world's wild sheep and are found on the roof of the world in Asia. SCI maintains categories for 14 subspecies, including the Marco Polo, which has the longest horns. The Venetian explorer Marco Polo for which they were named was called a liar by European scientists when he told of seeing wild sheep with horns that were six feet wide per side while on his epic expedition, but the all-time record horns proved to be three inches longer than that! Ibex are wild goats, also found across Asia, and the billy Scotty took is an especially good one. The mid-Asian variety is said to the largest of the seven varieties that SCI maintains records for. The "Persian" ibex from Iran that were introduced to New Mexico are smaller and have smaller horns. I have mixed emotions about the photos but thanks for posting them, Casey. I am torn between being happy for Scotty and downright envying his opportunity and ability to hunt these fantastic animals in some of the roughest high-altitude terrain on this planet. Bill Quimby

"Sustainability is as good a reason as any. We all get a 34B lope tag, a sheep tag and a goulds tag as well then right? There won't be anything left to hunt." The word sustainability implies a resource could become extinct. We have relatively few pronghorn, bighorn sheep and Gould's turkey, so limiting hunter numbers is needed until their numbers increase. Our deer are widespread and numerous, and would not be threatened with extirpation by increasing permits by 5% or even 10% in many units. History shows the worst that might happen is hunter success would drop slightly. -- Bill Quimby

"so folks will survive not having a deer tag for a year or two." The question is why must anyone have to stay home? Nearly 80 percent of Arizona is in some form of public ownership, and a lot more than one half of our big state could be hunted if historic roads were reopened. -- Bill Quimby

JustinB -- What we need is access to all public land where hunting is allowed. Too much is inaccessable because private landowners (and land agencies) lock up or eliminate historic access roads and this concentrates hunters and their camps along the only roads still open. We already have stratified seasons that reduce the number of people afield at the same time. If we continue down that route, we could have a bunch of three-day seasons with a day of rest between them. It is not silly for wildlife managers to say they do not manage for trophy quality. Growing trophies for fewer hunters should never be their mission. As bowhunters who hunt the rut know, there are trophy bucks that have eluded hunters for five, six, or even more years in every unit. Those same deer were available in the earlier seasons but were too smart to allow themselves to be killed by hunters. -- Bill Quimby

Count me as among those who are not fond of the current hunt structure. However, it is because Arizona could offer even more opportunity than it does. A quality hunting experience does not mean staying home or traveling to another state because we can not draw a tag. We hunters and fishermen are our own worst enemies. Avid fishermen campaign for reducing limits in the belief they are saving the resource and ignore there can be unintended consequences. For example, when the Arizona trout limit was 10 per day, many people quit fishing on slow days after catching just three or four fish. With a six-fish limit today, a large number of anglers with three or four trout will keep fishing because a six fish limit seems more attainable than a ten fish limit. Unintended consequence: More fish may be taken by the same number of anglers. Avid hunters who lobby for antler-size minimums and fewer hunters in the field ignore that it is not (and should not be) the mission of a state wildlife agency to grow trophy animals for fewer hunters. Unintended consequence of reducing hunter numbers: Those who want to end all hunting move another step closer to their goal. Bill Quimby

Wish I were 25-30 years younger. Your photos brought back all the great times I had hunting off my horse and mule. Bill Quimby

I had a similar thing happen with an antelope in Wyoming. Three friends who had taken their bucks that morning were with me when the buck I'd shot jumped up when I approached it. I grabbed its horns and tried to keep it from goring me, and that buck and I kept going around and around. I tried to twist its neck and force it to the ground like a bulldogger, but couldn't. I eventually got my friends to stop laughing and put me out of my misery by giving the antelope a finishing shot. Bill Quimby

Good for you, Casey. Bill Quimby

Thank you, everyone. I've been offline for a while and just now found your posts. The elk are bugling all around the cabin and our aspens are more spectacular than I've ever seen up here. It's a great time of year to be in Greer. Wish I could stay all year, but I am at an age that I avoid driving in snow and ice. Bill

From Sierra Magazine: In the mid-19th century, there were as many as 10,000 brown bears in California — a greater population density than in Alaska today. The last documented sighting was in 1924. Now all that remains is the profile of the powerful bruin on the state flag. No doubt some people will freak out at the prospect of the Lower 48’s biggest predator haunting the woods. But there are good reasons to return the animal to the Bear Flag Republic. Grizzly reintroduction would have clear ecological benefits. And it would have cultural benefits, too, by prompting us to rethink what nature is “good for.” California is already crawling with predators. We have mountain lions in Los Angeles — where the Internet-famous “Hollywood Lion” stalks mule dear in Griffith Park — and one in San Francisco, too, where a cougar was captured on a security camera last summer. ‘The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us’ The reappearance of mountain lions is an example of what conservation biologists call “rewilding.” In some instances, like that of the mountain lion, the wild animals find their way back on their own. In other cases, state or federal agencies have made determined efforts to bring back animals hunted and trapped to oblivion or pushed out by development. The reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies in the late 1990s is the best-known rewilding story. Twenty-one years after wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park, there is an established population and some have migrated as far as Northern California, where, in August, a pack was confirmed in the state for the first time since 1924. The return of the gray wolf to the rural West has been hugely controversial, marked by serial court cases, Capitol Hill maneuverings, vigilantism (in the form of poaching animals listed as endangered) and fiery debates that have scorched western communities. For many ranchers and hunters, the return of the wolf represents a dangerous surrendering of human control over the landscape. To supporters of rewilding, the success of the wolf is a kind of ecological restorative justice. Grizzlies appear to have loved California's varied habitats--but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back? Grizzlies appear to have loved California’s varied habitats–but do Californians love the bears enough to bring them back? (University of California/Bancroft Library) Bringing back grizzly bears to California is the latest rewilding idea. Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based conservation group, filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider reintroducing the grizzly in the Southwest and California. The agency denied the request, and now the organization plans to petition the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to bring back the bear. “Grizzly bears were a common part of the California landscape and had been there for eons, and we wiped them out,” says Noah Greenwald, the endangered species coordinator at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By bringing them back we would be righting a historic wrong.” Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful. Grizzlies originally occupied varied habitats in California, including river valleys during seasons when salmon were plentiful. (Laura Cunningham/Basin and Range Watch) Returning grizzlies to California would have real ecological advantages. Wildlife biologists have shown that restoring large predators to a landscape can have consequences that ripple across an ecosystem. This phenomenon is called “trophic cascades.” Imagine: a wolf reappears on the scene. Suddenly, the elk and deer have to be alert. Their newly cautious behavior gives aspen and willow a chance to thrive, which provide fresh habitat for beaver and songbirds. David Mattson, a lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry, says grizzlies would have “demonstrable ecosystem effects” were they reintroduced to California. Brown bears would assist with seed dispersal and soil aeration as they tear into the ground hunting for gophers and voles. Coastal grizzly would move nutrients upstream and inland via their consumption of spawning salmon. But state wildlife officials are cool on the idea. “Grizzly bears traditionally would roam oak woodlands and even beaches and eat whale carcasses and whatnot,” says California Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Jordan Traverso. “So you’d be introducing them in places where people are now, not the typical black bear habitat. So we are not supportive of that proposal, even a little bit.” Still, the idea is not as outlandish as it might sound. A study of Europe published in the journal Science found that large carnivores are successfully sharing landscapes with people. Some 17,000 brown bears (Ursus arctos, essentially the same species as the North American grizzly) live in 22 European countries, making the bear the most abundant large carnivore on the continent. Europe is also home to 12,000 wolves, twice as many as in the United States, despite the continent having twice the population density. The study found that large carnivores “have shown an ability to recolonize areas with moderate human densities if they are allowed, and to persist in highly human-dominated landscapes and in the proximity of urban areas.” Martin Lewis, a geographer at Stanford who has studied the politics of rewilding, says the problem with grizzly reintroduction is not a lack of suitable habitat. But, he says, “there are questions about coexistence. People can learn to live with them, but there will be trade-offs. There will be encounters, and some of those encounters will be negative.” Move to Return Grizzly Bears to California Will Be an Uphill Push Let’s face it. Wolves eat cattle and prized game like elk. Grizzlies sometimes attack backpackers. Mountain lions sometimes go after hikers. Acknowledging such dangers is not being callous toward human life, but recognizes that the lives of these animals, and the role they play in the environment, also matter. The risks are worth it. The presence of grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves are reminders that nature in its wilder states is not here to serve us, and that wild animals and wild places have their own interests. Can we cohabitate with wild animals though they might pose a threat to us? Such coexistence will require us to rethink some of our assumptions about wild nature. Do we want nature to always conform neatly to human desires — a garden to be tended by our hands, or an idyllic retreat imagined by the Romantics? Or are we willing to live with a nature that is wilder? A nature that is uncontrolled, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous. One where you could end up as lunch if you’re not careful. To accept the return of large carnivores will demand a selflessness to which, as a species, we are unaccustomed. It will also require a measure of courage. After all, it’s easy to love a nature that just looks pretty. It’s a much more difficult task to live with a nature that can be threatening — a wolf pack in the pasture, a lion on the prowl under streetlights and, yes, grizzlies in the woods. _________________________

Let's hope she recovers from her "pneumonia." If she leaves the race, Biden will be tougher for Trump to beat. Bill Quimby

When I hunted in Europe, gamekeepers performed a "last bite" ritual they said honored the animal, the hunter and the landowner/wildlife manager. They would dip two small leafy twigs in a stag's or boar's blood and carefully place one twig in the animal's mouth. The other twig was placed on a knife blade and offered to me while saying, "Weidmann's heil." I had been told to respond by placing the twig in my hatband and saying, "Weidmann's dank." Loosely translated this is German for hail to the hunter and the hunter thanks you. As far as I know, the same words are used in the same ritual all across Europe, no matter the local language. Bill

Ahhh good ol Jensen's Bill, where you been? Don't wait so long between posts. Edge: I've been working on two books simultaneously. One is for a Californian, the other is for a guy in West Virginia. Glad to know I've been missed. Bill Quimby

editing records made you not want to hunt them? trphyhntr: It made me realize that the best heads were consistently being taken by guys with the thickest wallets, and only occasionally by skilled or lucky "average" hunters. For example if someone who really wants to shoot a new world record something or another has enough money, there are outfitters who will offer obscene bounties to crews who will systematically scour six or seven of the best states year around to locate it. If there are governor's permits in that state, the hunter can kill it legally. If not, enough money will find a way to make it "semi-legal." Failing that, there are breeders who gladly will grow and release a steroid-fed creature with the best genes into a "wild" area where he can shoot it like a put-and-take trout. Bill Quimby

I stopped hunting "trophies" after editing a record book for nearly 17 years. Today, I may or may not shoot the first legal animal I see. It all depends upon how I feel that day. Bill Quimby

Both bears were shot with S&W revolvers with a 6-inch barrels. I don't know what load my friend used, but my ammo was hand-loaded by Jensen's in Tucson with hard cast bullets. They were flat-nosed, not hollow points. My friend's bear was a healthy 2-3 year old. Mine was a very large, old animal. Both had very thick layers of fat. Bill Quimby

I've had two bad experiences with trying to kill black bears with .357 mags. Both bears were in trees and both took six shots into their chests with no effect other than to make them them roaring angry. I finally handed my buddy his .30-06 and he killed the first bear. The other bear, years later, also took six .357 bullets into its chest before I borrowed my guide's .44 mag and blew it out of the tree. When we skinned my friend's bear, we found five of his six pistol bullets had penetrated only the skin and fat before lodging against ribs without reaching a vital area. The sixth round made it through the lungs and ribs and stopped in shoulder muscle on the opposite side. It was the only shot that would have been fatal --- eventually. With my bear, the only bullet that made it into the vitals was from my guide's .44 mag, and it exited the bear. Take your .45. Bill Quimby

Coach: No one knows when his/her time is up, but with luck, modern medicine and God's will I suspect the hourglass that measures your life is only about half empty. My best years began at about age 45, mostly because I had realized my daughter and grandkids had grown up to be responsible, talented adults who never presented us any of the problems the children of some of my friends gave their parents. I literally died at age 66 in 2002 when my LAD (the "widowmaker" artery) suddenly became 100% blocked, but I survived thanks to fast action to revive me by the staff and cardiologists at Tucson Heart Hospital where I'd gone because of minor chest pains. It was not the only time I dodged the bullet. I've had heart problems since my mid-thirties, and since my first pacemaker was installed eleven years ago, I've been told that my heart had stopped beating while I slept (on two occasions) and the pacer got me going again. Old age has brought me nearly every acronym known to the American Medical Association -- CHF, COPD, PAD, CAD, A-fib, CKD, SAA, AMD -- plus pseudo-gout, hyperthyroidism, and hyperglycemia. However, my biggest scare ever came last summer, when my wife of 60 years suffered a heart attack at our cabin. I got her to Summit Hospital in Show Low and she was flown to Tucson where a stent and a balloon treatment opened her blocked arteries. I don't know what I would have done without her, but she is fine now. I have told her she is forbidden to go before me. At age 80, every day is a blessing. My own death does not scare me, but the thought of losing her or the possibility of either of us suffering a stroke, dementia, or something similar scares the poop out me. Coach, my point is that you should enjoy each day and this truly wonderful world. Tell your spouse, children and grandkids often that you love them and are proud of them, and that you look forward to many years ahead with them. End of sermon. Bill Quimby

Suggestions that might work: 1. Bring Bill and Hillary to trial for various violations committed through their foundation and her position as secretary of State. 2. Find an UNreasonable prosecutor to try Hillary for lying to Congress and criminal carelessness with classified documents. 3. Sentence both to at least 30 years in the same prison cell. Bill Quimby

I worked as a sandblaster many years ago, but only for a couple of weeks. Here's how that summer sandblasting job in 1955 left me claustrophobic: My uncle had a contract to sandblast the three round water storage tanks on Fort Huachuca, and hired me to help him. I spent a week removing the rust inside one of those tanks until the day the hose that supplied me air from a compressor on the ground came loose from a fitting on my belt. Inside that metal tank was like an echo chamber. I couldn't hear anything and after I had been blasting only a few minutes I could see only 2-3 feet. (We used a big row of lights and chalk to mark the area we would blast each day.) When I finally realized my air hose was missing and I was having trouble breathing, I climbed off the scaffolding and tried to find the ladder in the center of the tank. By the time I bumped into the ladder and climbed to the hole at of the top of the tank, I had almost suffocated. I was wearing a leather vest-like "helmet" (similar to those deep-water divers wear) that covered my head, arms, hands and chest and when I reached the top, I unbuckled and ripped it off. The plume of dust, sand and dirt coming out of that tank blinded me and I started off the side of the tank without a non-skid walkway. I tried to lie flat with my feet pointed to the edge to slow myself, but couldn't stop sliding. The only thing that kept me from going over was an electrical conduit that fed the lights around the tank. After I was able work over to the ladder and get down, I told my uncle I would finish the day by shoveling sand into the machine but I was quitting. Bill Quimby

A friend who owns a couple of ranches in the Texas Hill Country told me years ago that he found a live rattlesnake in the toilet of one of his houses where we stayed when hunting there. Fortunately for my friend, he saw it before he sat down. That snake wasn't "returned to the wild." He blasted it (and his toilet bowl) with a shotgun. Bill Quimby

This is How it is Written C. Except in hunt units with Commission-ordered special seasons under R12-4-115 and R12-4-120 and hunt units with seasons only for mountain lion and no other concurrent big game season, an individual shall not locate or assist in locating wildlife from or with the aid of an aircraft in a hunt unit with an open big game season. This restriction begins 48 hours before the opening of a big game season in a hunt unit and extends until the close of the big game season for that hunt unit. That rule will last only until a non-hunter who can afford to hire a lawyer is taken to court for flying her drone over an elk herd and she tells her local nightly news reporter that she only wanted to video the magnificent animals in their natural state before hunters killed the last of them. Bill Quimby Like This

In my Economics 101 class at the UA way back in 1955, one of the first things we were taught was that the marketplace should set minimum wages, not the government, and that a government mandate provides only temporary benefits to entry-level workers because it is always inflationary. History has proven the truth in that basic economic law: The mandated minimum wage in 1955 was $0.75 per hour. It was raised to $1.00 hour in 1956, $1.15 hour in 1961, $1.25 hour in 1963, $1.40 in 1967, $1.60 in 1968, $2.00 in 1974, etc., etc., etc. Each time minimum wage goes up, there is a ripple effect that reaches all the way to the highest pay scale. When a minimum wage earner gets $15 hour, his immediate supervisor who has been making $10 hour will demand to be paid more than the person he's supervising, and so will the foreman who has been making $15 hour and the regional manager who has been making $20 hour, etc. etc. Higher labor costs inevitably result in higher costs of everything we consume, and as the cost of living rises, a new push for higher minimum wage always follows. The real victims of minimum raise increases are those of us who are retired and/or on fixed incomes. We take a big hit when the money we spent a lifetime saving buys less. Bill Quimby