My Mentor

[HorseHunter]

3 hours ago, Outdoor Writer said:

I doubt many varmint hunters were ever featured in Sports Illustrated, and we sure as heck wouldn't see it in today's world of political correctness. Cantwell did a pretty decent job of capturing Sam's demeanor at that point his life. 

I did not realize William Safire was in SI.

I was giving a nod to his work as Spiro T. Agnew’s speech writer credited for the famous reference to the media as “nattering nabobs of negativism”.

[Outdoor Writer]

24 minutes ago, HorseHunter said:

I did not realize William Safire was in SI.

I was giving a nod to his work as Spiro T. Agnew’s speech writer credited for the famous reference to the media as “nattering nabobs of negativism”.

I got completely lost somewhere along the road.  The article in SI was by Cantwell, and that's what my first sentence referenced -- I think anyway. 🤣 .And yes, I realized you were referring to Safire's style in your other reply. 

[jdown]

3 hours ago, Outdoor Writer said:

I knew someone eventually would as I added more clues. The SI article I cited also mentioned the name of a very old dear friend, Floyd Preas, who I also met in about the same time frame and in conjuntion with varmint calling. I hunted with Preas a few times -- two for quail ( see Mearns excerpt from Quail Hunting In America book) and once for deer/turkey in TX. But over the years until he died, we fished together (Carol, also) many times, mostly at Pleasant for white bass and Apache for smallmouth, the latter often using his creation -- the yellow jacket spinner. I've probably included Preas in more than a dozen articles in various publications, and at least one cover photo that's a wide-view scenic I took from a hilltop of him and Carol fishing at Apache. 

I just found this old 1985 article I wrote for Field & Stream online:

Summer Whites At Lake Pleasant

This one on Preas in F&S 1976 was written by the late Jim Tallon, who was my photography mentor. 

Bass Basics

I got the pleasure to get to know Carol when she worked for us for a bit at the az sportsman after Floyd's passing. What a sweet lady.  She moved to co, as I recall,  to be with family later that year. She had two old fish baskets full of old lures of hers and Floyd's that she allowed me to purchase before she left. Hanging in my safe room to this day.  Goodness that has to be 20-25 years ago now.  

[Outdoor Writer]

18 minutes ago, jdown said:

I got the pleasure to get to know Carol when she worked for us for a bit at the az sportsman after Floyd's passing. What a sweet lady.  She moved to co, as I recall,  to be with family later that year. She had two old fish baskets full of old lures of hers and Floyd's that she allowed me to purchase before she left. Hanging in my safe room to this day.  Goodness that has to be 20-25 years ago now.  

Right on about Carol. She was also a pretty dang good fisherlady. I wonder if she is still alive. 🤷‍♂️

[Outdoor Writer]

14 hours ago, biglakejake said:

Thank You Tony!!  called in most everything starting about 1972 with my partner Bob Kyhn and my trusty old Circe..  predators plus cow elk, mule deer, buck pronghorn, owls, hawks, bear and javalina.  almost got eaten by a bunch of unleashed dogs at midnight in east mesa one time with nothing but harsh language to defend ourselves with.  oh and a few chupacabra down on the border in 36a/b/c.  they looked like coyotes but did not have any hair.

lee

The name Bob Kyhn sounds familar, and I'm pretty sure I had met him. I'm thinking he guided for Duwane Adams for a time maybe??

Did you belong to any of the varmint hunting clubs??

[daryl_s]

Tony, did you know Bruce Tucker? He was my neighbor across the street from us when I was a teenager in the nineties. He was really big in the AZ varmint hunting scene back in the day, not sure when exactly. I remember him mentioning at one time that Bill Quimby did a write up about a trip they were both on.
 

The first big game animal I ever killed was on a rifle javelina hunt in 36C around 25 years ago when I was 13 or 14. Bruce had told my dad exactly where to go. My dad would know more about Bruce and his story. 

[Outdoor Writer]

20 minutes ago, daryl_s said:

Tony, did you know Bruce Tucker? He was my neighbor across the street from us when I was a teenager in the nineties. He was really big in the AZ varmint hunting scene back in the day, not sure when exactly. I remember him mentioning at one time that Bill Quimby did a write up about a trip they were both on.
 

The first big game animal I ever killed was on a rifle javelina hunt in 36C around 25 years ago when I was 13 or 14. Bruce had told my dad exactly where to go. My dad would know more about Bruce and his story. 

That's another name that sounds familiar but leaves me with a blank as to who it was or if I really knew him. In doing Johnny Carson's best Carnac imitation, I seem to have a fairly big guy in mind, not so much as in tall big but pretty husky big. Otherwise -- I haven't a clue. 🤣

Any idea what he did for a living?

[daryl_s]

I may be wrong in this because it’s coming from the memory I had as a teenager, but I believe he was on the rifle shooting team at U of A, probably sometime in the 70’s. I also think I remember hearing that he was heavily involved in a southern Arizona varmint hunting club, maybe even the president. I don’t know what he did for work, but I know that when I knew him he did not hunt at all anymore, but was big time into doing photography. I don’t remember him being big as in husky, seemed like a little taller than normal and more of a skinny build. 

[Outdoor Writer]

18 hours ago, daryl_s said:

I may be wrong in this because it’s coming from the memory I had as a teenager, but I believe he was on the rifle shooting team at U of A, probably sometime in the 70’s. I also think I remember hearing that he was heavily involved in a southern Arizona varmint hunting club, maybe even the president. I don’t know what he did for work, but I know that when I knew him he did not hunt at all anymore, but was big time into doing photography. I don’t remember him being big as in husky, seemed like a little taller than normal and more of a skinny build. 

Sounds as if he lived in Tucson and doesn't fit my mental image. So I'm guessing it wasn't him I knew personally but I might have heard something about him. 

[Outdoor Writer]

In another thread, someone brought up John Shaw's "Fishin' with the Good Ol Boys" Tv show. Here it is with Floyd Preas as the guest at ApacheLake. 

 

[Outdoor Writer]

A couple old photos from one of the championship varmint calling contests. 

The guy in the left photo is Bill Dudley, Sam's son. He is also the one to the far right in the 2nd photo with one of his four world championship trophies. I'm not positive who the other two guys are, but these are some of the more possible ones: Del Western, Bob Henderson, Jim Dougerty,  & Doug Kittridge.

     

 

Listen to this

 

[Outdoor Writer]

1957 First World Calling Championship, Chandler, AZ
l to r:  F.B. (Rusty) Farrel - 2nd place - Waco, TX; Jim Dougherty - 1st place - Calif; Doug Kittridge - 3rd place - Calif

1961 Field Competition: Dennie Murray (left); Delroy Western (right)

 

[Edge]

I'll be darn, Del Western. I knew him 40 years ago when he ran the Western School of Horseshoeing.

He had an adventurous life. Always treated me well when I bought shoeing supplies at his store.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=delroy-western&pid=16559007

[10Turkeys]

I've posted this before but at Randalls gun shop on 51st and Olive, there is a varmit calling trophy in there with Del's name on it. I met him a couple of times. I've heard a couple of the old timers say that some of those coyotes should have been checked for tire marks with those contest, then they would laugh.

[Outdoor Writer]

 

3 hours ago, 10Turkeys said:

I've posted this before but at Randalls gun shop on 51st and Olive, there is a varmit calling trophy in there with Del's name on it. I met him a couple of times. I've heard a couple of the old timers say that some of those coyotes should have been checked for tire marks with those contest, then they would laugh.

I remember that thread.