This is topic True story in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by Moe (Member # 4494) on December 05, 2016, 10:56 AM:
Years ago when I lived in Barstow, California out in the Mojave Desert I had been out quail hunting and pulled into a Whiting Brothers gas station on the old highway between Barstow and Lenwood. The attendant was a skinny old guy that liked to spin yarns. According to him he'd been a surgeon, a dentist, a rocket scientist, a professor at UCLA, etc, etc. A real character. He started gassing up my truck when another pickup with a camper shell on it pulled in. The guys asked him to fill their tank and headed to the men's room.
The old guy started pumping the gas and saw through the camper window they had an enormous buck laid out in the back. They'd been to Utah or Colorado hunting deer and someone bagged a serious trophy. When the guys got back the old man remarked on how big and beautiful the deer was then one of them asked, "Say, is there a taxidermist in town?" The old guy didn't say anything so the hunter asked again. The old man said, "I don't rightly know." The hunter said, "You don't know if there's a taxidermist in town??" The old man said, "I don't know what that is." The hunter said, and I'm telling the truth, "It's a man that mounts animals." The old man got a knowing look on his face and said, "Oh! You mean a sheep herder!!"
Posted by DAA (Member # 11) on December 05, 2016, 11:31 AM:
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
- DAA
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 05, 2016, 11:31 AM:
Yeah, remember when Newberry Springs and Ludlow was way out in the sticks even beyond Daggett. I wish I had a nickel for every time I made a stand somewhere along old 66. Rumor has it, there still might be a couple coyotes we didn't kill, back then. Amboy, Bagdad, Essex; names that conjure up the romance of the early days. Remember Moe, we invented this shit.
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by Moe (Member # 4494) on December 05, 2016, 03:32 PM:
I know I was on the ground floor.
Back in those days we'd pull well off the highway and make a stand calling from the truck. I can't tell you how many times a deputy sheriff or CHP guy pulled off to check us out. It always turned into a chat fest with the LEO asking questions about how to do what we were doing. A buddy of mine in Barstow was a CHP and he went out with me a few times. A good time was had my all.
I'll admit, there were a couple of game wardens that really hated us shooting coyotes but we were legal. Ron Holdstock made me a portable light for calling away from the vehicle. I wish I still had it.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 05, 2016, 05:03 PM:
Yeah, I always have wondered about using LED lights instead of portable sealed beam spotlights?
Just never felt like changing what works.
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by Moe (Member # 4494) on December 05, 2016, 07:42 PM:
The Holdstock light was actually 2 lights mounted in PVC pipe, one on top of the other. The top light only picked up eyes with a dull beam that didn't hurt the animal's eyes. It was made from a headlamp, one that actually mounted on your head, that we used at the phone company for working trouble at night.
The main beam was a modified fireman's light with a nitrogen bulb that threw a pure white light. When you switched to the burn light it lit up an animal beyond comprehension. I loved that light. It worked off of a Burgess 4F6H 9 volt battery that was kinda heavy but far lighter than a 12 volt car battery. That light got us into places to make stands where we could never get to in a vehicle. Sometimes we'd have 3 guys. One guy dropped the other 2 off because there was no place to park and when we were done he'd pick us up.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 05, 2016, 09:07 PM:
Like the road that goes up to 29 Palms, from I-10, maybe?
Posted by Moe (Member # 4494) on December 06, 2016, 10:57 AM:
Back in the old days we took the road from the top of the grade of the road from Lucerne Valley and into the Morongo Valley. No houses back then and lots of bobcats and rattlesnakes. You had to be very careful. It was easy to get 4 or 5 bobcats in a jight and still make it home to get a good nights sleep. I loved in Barstow. All that area is national park or filled with houses now.
I never called the road you mentioned but have driven it hundreds of times.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 06, 2016, 11:11 AM:
I just meant that that road, that I also have driven a few hundred times seems like the sort of road where you could drop off but very little places to pull over, so a driver would keep going and come back later.
There are still plenty cats in southern California desert.
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by Locohead (Member # 15) on December 13, 2016, 10:10 PM:
Now, come on Moe, is that REALLY a true story?!?! It is a spectacular story and I got a great laugh out of that. Now I hate being the gullible one here but that story had an almighty true ring to it!!
My father-in-law lives east of the highway out there in Barstow. Apart from a few lizards and cactus, the whole darn area is purely sand!!!
Posted by Moe (Member # 4494) on December 15, 2016, 04:59 PM:
Yes, it's true. That gas station was a victim of the so called oil embargo. Major companies would no longer sell gas to independents.
I filled up there as often as I could and every time I did that old fart had another story to tell about how he gave up the high pressure life to pump gas in Barstow. I kinda liked him but it was obvious he was a major bullshitter.
I know I didn't expect him to say what he did and I never figured out if he was putting those guys on but I was laughing about it for a long time.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on December 16, 2016, 06:40 AM:
Yeah, sand, lizards and the Marine Corps Logistics base. And that huge solar energy installation.
Besides, Moe is ex CVCA. These people don't lie, they have been there and done that.
Good hunting. El Bee
Posted by Moe (Member # 4494) on December 25, 2016, 07:18 PM:
I've been through Barstow a few times over the years and the changes are unbelievable. Most of my best old friends there have passed on now. For most of the time I lived there it was a nice place to live. Then they built the low cost housing and moved a bunch of inner city problems from San Bernardino out to Barstow and we became the per capita murder capitol of the US. We decided to get out of there and moved to Juneau, Alaska, a place I love and miss every day of my life. Too old to go back now.
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