Outdoor Writer

Arizona Sportsman wasn't even around when I was in the gun business. 😉

Agree. Sadly, I don't see that ever happening.

That was 49 years ago. You must be an ol' codger like me. 👍

Yup! Sold stuff to them all. Lucky Wade did all the metal work on a 7X57 Argentine Mauser I sporterized. Paid $16.95 for the military version.

Assume you mean that as the good sportsman that you are, you adopted a couple, right? Otherwise, you might not want to post the above publically into too many places. "The animal is also protected under federal law by the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Anyone found guilty of harassing, branding or killing one can face a fine of up to $2,000 and a year in jail."

If you enlarge the photo a lot, it appears to be wearing a tracking collar. Note the rectangular thingie directly down from the nose. Also seems to have something white around its body. 🤷‍♀️

A couple other jogged memories. Before I got into the gun selling part of my life, I bought my first two handguns from Bob's Sporting Goods, owned by Bob Nasar. One was a Ruger Single-Six combo and the other was a Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 mag. I also played AAA softball for Bob' Sporting Goods for several years. The original owner of Bellows Sporting Goods at 27th Ave. & Camelback was Ed Bellows. He later sold it to one of his employees named Chuck, but I can't remember his last name. Anyway, Chuck organized a 5-man trap shooting team, and we competed at a venue on the westside somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was on Indian School Rd. out near Litchfield. It's no longer there, however. After Mickey & his brother Ed closed down the store on Northern & 16 St., Mickey opened up a small shop on 16 St. but much farther south. He sold some new stuff, but it was mostly a reel and Coleman repair shop.

Hmmm. Didn't realize that. Last time I visited there was 2006 to buy a few dozen waterdogs. I was good friends with all of the DelRe's, especially Mickey. He and Chester Hanson (Hanson's Mortuary) often came to fish for pike with me at Vallecito Lake in Colorado when I owned a resort there in the mid-1970s. Both passed a way quite a few years ago. Here's Mickey with a 29 lb. northern.

Indeed. Also remember Camelback Guns, Wade's, Bellow's Sporting Goods, Bob's Sporting Goods, DelRe's Sporting Goods in Phx and Don's Sporting Goods in Scottsdale to name a few. All out of business now except for Al DelRe on S. Central. When I worked at the Jewel Box, it was touted as the largest firearms seller in the West. We not only sold in the store, but did oodles of business through ads in the Shotgun News. The Jewel Box opened in May 1949 at 41 South First Ave. To make room for Patriot's Park in 1976, the business moved to 601 North Central where it remained until the doors closed in May 2006.

Circa 1967, I was working at the Jewel Box on 1st. Ave in downtown Phoenix. We sold a lot of Pythons, but we also sold lots of altered Colt Diamondbacks after they were introduced. We had them reamed to accept the .357 mag cartridge, and the barrel was restamped to reflect that. Later into the early 1970s, I went to work for American Wholesale Hardware out of Long Beach, CA as a road rep selling firearms and fishing gear to retailers here in AZ. S&W, Colt & Ruger were just three of the lines we sold. I wish I knew then what I know now and had the money to stash a few dozen S&W M29s and Colt Pythons. Likewise for Belgium-made Brownings. 🤬 As an aside, the owner of American Wholesale Hardware, Judge Anderson, provided a goodly portion of the financial backing for Ruger & Sturm to start their company. Thus, even when firearms were being meted out, we never lacked having plenty of whatever Ruger made at the time.

Thank you. 👍 I had searched for that because I thought it was there but somehow missed it. EDIT: Figured what I did. I looked in the regs with the javelina HAM hunts instead of the deer regs booklet! Shame on me. 🤬

This isn't rocket science. Words have meanings and meanings have words. G&F doesn't define it because it's been defined for eons. hand·gun /ˈhan(d)ˌɡən/ noun: handgun; plural noun: handguns a gun designed for use by one hand, especially a pistol or revolver. pis·tol /ˈpistl/ noun: pistol; plural noun: pistols 1. a small firearm designed to be held in one hand. Firearms Verification Gun Control Act Definitions Pistol 18 U.S.C., § 921(A)(29) and 27 CFR § 478.11 The term “Pistol” means a weapon originally designed, made, and intended to fire a projectile (bullet) from one or more barrels when held in one hand, and having: a chamber(s) as an integral part(s) of, or permanently aligned with, the bore(s); and a short stock designed to be gripped by one hand at an angle to and extending below the line of the bore(s).

Since I use an electric smoker, I don't get any natural burning of wood. 😉I have to add wood chunks or chips to the pan and control the amount by time. I totally agree about the overpowering bit; that's why I asked about it. I wouldn't want prime rib to have the same smoky taste as my pulled pork or salmon.

https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/arrest-made-in-connection-to-human-remains-on-pima-canyon-trail

I meant how long do you add smoke for, not cooking time. I use temp for that, also.

I hope you work things out, Bob. Your story sounds very much what my grandfather went through when he moved here in 1959 with my parents. My grandmother didn't want to leave NJ and told him she would rather die there. He told her, "Fine, die there. I'm going to Arizona." So every year, her and my single uncle would come to AZ to visit for two weeks. Usually, grandpa and grandma would get into a fight and she would leave. Finally, after she had a stroke in the early 1970s, he moved back to NJ and stayed there until she died. Then my uncle and him moved back to AZ, where they both died. My grandfather was 94. He had been my hunting partner in the 1960s & early 1970s. I have one of those for almost 10 years now. It's a nice perk for us old codgers.

How much (time wise) and what flavor smoke?

I would use it for already cooked meat. I'm going to pass on this one.

Looks perfect, Stanley. 👍 I did some about two weeks ago, and coincidently we're having some tonight cold that is fixed like tuna salad. I break up a pretty decent size hunk and add mayonnaise, chopped onions, celery & pickled jalapenos. Flavor to taste with horseradish, a bit of chilli or chipotle powder, salt and pepper. Then squeeze some lime juice on top when on your plate. Another concoction is a dip. Shred a piece of salmon and mix with a pint of sour cream. I use dill, salt & pepper and chipotle power to spice it up. I usually eat it on crackers as an appetizer. Right now, I have two pork roasts for pulled pork and three slabs of ribs marinating in the fridge. They go in the smoker manana.

Pretty buck. Well done. 👍

Anywhere near 67th and Camelback? And you're sure it works fine and the blade is fairly sharp?

They must have just done so over my house. The photo in the upper left is more than a year old, but the satellite view is pretty current and shows a 2020 copyright. It's less than six months old, anyway.

I'd take the slicer but not driving all the way to QC from Glendale. I'd have to pack a lunch. 🤣

You have it correct, according to what Duwane suggests. Here's the pertinent info from our book, HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER: COPYRIGHT BY TONY MANDILE & DUWANE ADAMS HUNTING SKILLS The three important skills for success are locating deer, getting within range and shooting prowess. Let’s start with the locating part. When Jack O’Connor hunted Coues deer during the 1920s and ‘30s, it was pretty much a still-hunting technique. A hunter would slowly move along the ridges and hopefully find a stationary buck within gun range. Much of the time, though, the hunter was shooting at spooked, running deer as they bounced through the trees or headed up the opposite ridge. That left little time to study a buck’s antlers, and it likely resulted in many misses and more than a few wounded bucks. Much has changed over the last few decades. Now, veteran Coues deer hunters spend more time looking through binoculars, and they see the deer before the deer sees them. Duwane has honed his glassing skill into an art and often jokes about his method. "I spend so much time in the woods, I can get worn out covering several miles every day. Besides, most of my hunters would die if they had to climb up and down the hills all day. So for many years now, I’ve let my eyes do the walking and call it my “three B” method. The first two Bs represent my binoculars and backside. The last stands for the brains for figuring out how to use the first two,” he said. If Duwane hasn’t hunted an area before, he likes to scout it prior to the season and locate several possible glassing spots overlooking prime whitetail hangouts. Sometimes those places will be small, isolated basins, and at other times it might be a mile-long canyon with a wide-sweeping panorama of a ridge. Deer are easier to spot when they're moving early or late, but glassing is an excellent way to spot bedded bucks any time of day, as well. If you do find a bedded buck, the stalk is frequently easier than going after one that's feeding because the bedded deer normally stays in one place for while. One key aspect to good glassing is patience, according to Duwane. “Too many guys try to cover the terrain quickly and probably miss more deer than they see. Just slow down. Every time you move that tripod head, spend at least five to 10 minutes picking the new view apart. Thoroughly search under and behind every tree and investigate anything that remotely resembles a deer or a part of deer. Especially keep your eyes open for the sun glinting off an object; it could be horns or a deer’s back,” he said. Devising a consistent system is a good idea, too. If Duwane is glassing a ridge, he starts at the top and either at the right or left end. Once he completely checks his first view, he pans the tripod head just far enough to get a new view that slightly overlaps the area he had just looked at. He continues doing the same thing until he reaches the opposite end of the ridge from the one he started at. Then it’s time to vertically lower the binoculars a tad so the very top of the field of view overlaps the first horizontal zone by a bit. He then repeats the panning process across the length of the ridge. By making multiple horizontal passes, he eventually makes his way from top to the bottom. Then he does it again. Focus is another critical factor. Depending on the distance to the area you’re glassing and the power of your binoculars, you might have to refocus quite a bit to compensate for the slope angle as you move from the top to the bottom. This holds especially true with high-power binoculars and short distances. Duwane suggests glassing slopes that face south, east and southeast early in the day, then switching to the north, west and northwest slopes later on. That way the sun isn’t shinning into your binoculars. Instead, the sunlight hits the area you’re glassing. Once you find a buck, it’s time to kill it. Occasionally, a shot is possible without moving from your glassing location. More than likely, though, you will have to get closer, perhaps within that range where you feel confident your shot will hit the target. This situation is one benefit of glassing deer at a distance. The hunter has the advantage because he has seen the deer first and not the other way around. Keeping that advantage should be the goal of your stalk. Whenever possible, stay out of the deer’s sight by using natural terrain features such as hills, arroyos and dense brush or trees. If you can’t stalk directly toward the deer, circle around and approach your quarry from the opposite side. This is a good option if your buck is near the top of a ridge that doesn’t have a lot of vegetation on it. If there are too many trees, though, an unobstructed downhill shot might be tough.

May you sit on a sun-warmed ridge watching the trophy of your dreams this New Year