


March 09, 2010
Bourjaily: Blue Book on Your Phone
By Philip Bourjaily

Revised every year – this is the 30th edition -- S.P. Fjestad’s "Blue Book of Gun Values" is the standard guide to firearms value. It is also a doorstopper: the 30th edition tips the scales 3 pounds, 11 ounces. It is 9”x6” by 2 7/8 inches thick and runs for 2272 pages. Stephen King wishes he could write books this big. So, invaluable as the Blue Book may be as a reference, it has never been very portable. Until now.
Blue Book Publications just announced a new website that delivers the information in the Blue Book in a format designed for mobile phone screens. Subscribe to the service and you can leave your bulky Blue Book at home and check on the prices of guns at gun shows and auctions just by discreetly peeking at your phone. This is progress. www.bluebookinc.com
***
Speaking of mobile phones, I hate hunting with people who are constantly yakking on their phones in the duck blind. I am also trying to break the habit of reflexively answering my own phone when I’m alone in the field. I learned my lesson – I hope – last turkey season when I had the following short conversation with my friend MD:
Me (whispered): Hello.
MD: What are you doin’?
Me: (urgent whisper) I’m trying to kill a turkey. He’s 70 yards away.
MD: Then why did you answer the phone you fool? Call me back when you get him.
Unfortunately, a short time later a hen attracted by all the yelping and gobbling came and took my turkey from me. This year the phone stays in my pocket – unless, of course, I’m really bored and texting, a relatively harmless bad habit I enjoy too way too much to quit.
Comments (29)
If you ring tone is a duck call...could you get a ticket from the game warden for having an electronic call?
this app could change the game a bit at gun shows.
The iPhone has a good mallard ringtone. Tell me what your phone says that an American Arms O/U 12 ga Waterfowl special in 85% condition is worth. Quick, before it sells!
Last year, I called a friend of mine, who since then had a serious stroke, and he scolded me for calling him while he was hunting. I told him that if he wasn't smart enough to turn the ringer off, he probably wasn't smart enough to sneak into bow range on a buck either.
I'm one of the lucky people that has no cell phone coverage where I hunt deer. Just means I have to drive to a hill a few miles away to send pictures of the hunt to friends.
HANG UP AND HUNT!
That's a handy tool! I don't see it changing anything at gun shows, though. Dealers are still going to ask pie in the sky regardless of blue book values, and most buyers won't even know that a blue book for firearms exists.
I'd be afraid to take it into the stand with me - might get so caught up perusing guns that I wouldn't notice the deer. I wonder if deer notice that faint glow from a cell phone in the treestand or blind before light. Would be an excellent tool for buying used guns, though.
I'm a firm believer in turning off the phone, putting it in a ziploc, and tucking it in a pocket of the blind bag. I've got it if something awful happens, but otherwise, it's like it's not there.
I dislike it when someone brings a phone to the duck blind. Could have stayed home with the wife if I wanted to listen to someone talk on the phone.
The boat, the blind, the deer stand = No Phone Zone.
Other locations to be added as necessary.
Cell phone in glove box of what ever vehicle I am driving AT ALL TIMES! It's only there to call Triple A!
Man do I hate people on cell phones in the duck blind. A buddy of mine once talked 2 phones dead on a hunt. Its just ridiculous.
I am lucky that in most areas I hunt, I have no cell phone service. So it stays in the car.
If I was in a duckblind and some one was talking on their phone, after 1 minute I would tell them they need to get off their phone. If they continuted, that phone would be making ripples in the decoys.
My health isn't very good so my wife makes me check in while I'm hunting. There is no cell coverage at my deer stand so when I come out at lunch I call then. A lot of other places on our land I do have coverage. I'm glad that she thinks enough of me to worry about me when I am hunting.
My cell phone stays on vibrate, in my pocket, all the time. I might answer it, but probably not. My wife and family know not to call when I'm hunting and nobody else counts. Leave a message, I'll get back to you.
There is no cell service where we hunt in CO or most places where we deer and elk hunt in WA, but could be useful at the gun shows.
Hunting with a phone in your pocket is about like hunting in a fence, IMO. Why bother. It ain't hunting, for sure. Getting close to the virtual hunting program that surfaced on the internet. Just stay home and shoot'em on your computer.
After over 50 years in the back country where you depend on yourself I cannot accept a phone in my pocket. We didn't even have radios in my early planes.
Sat phones are worse than cell phones. Now clients bring them anywhere in the world and sit talking to their office while the guide is trying to glass for their game. One client of mine, upon shooting a brown bear, called his office in Dallas and ordered his secretary to call my wife with orders to call my lodge and tell me to pick him up - NOW - he had shot his bear. Although the message got to me via bush communication, somehow, he did not get picked up for a while!
I know most of you, if not all of you responding to DP, do not live my life so that is why I began with IMO. I enjoy all your comments on so many subjects on which I am not as knowledgeable.
Like several others, my wife likes me to check in from time-to-time since I'm running off a pacemaker. One of these days I'm going to park around the corner to see why she really wants to know my whereabouts.
Mine goes with me but service is iffy. Ringer is off, vibrate is on. Phone is turned off if I'm turkey hunting!
Finally an app that might be worth the price of admission.
Mine goes with me, in an inside pocket,on vibrate, in a zip-lock bag. I have to find who called by looking at my missed call directory. I couldn't get to the phone in time to answer anyway, so I call back, usually when I get to my truck.
Word of caution, last spring I took a new rifle to the woods to sight in, fired from the prone resting on a fallen tree. Took lots of time,had a good time wasted lots of ammo, put my phone on the leaves so I could hear an expected call from my wife.
Call when it came was lost in the middle of conversation, happened three times on the way home.
Fact is your phone can pick up a killer dose of moisture laying on the forest floor, hence the zip-lock bag. Cost me $125 to learn that lesson.
My son will load bluebook, I'll sponge off him. Gives me an excuse to spend time with him.
Stephen D. Rexrode, bluegraytx, I'm in the same boat.
Due to bad health the wife and kids got me a cell phone just in case I need help getting out of the woods, problem is most places I hunt have spotty reception at best, some are completely dead zones. I carry mine in a belt holster, now with a magnetic flap over it as the old one was just a pressure retention design. Lost my cell a couple of years ago thanks to the old holder not holding very well. Actually got it back the next day, and it still worked, it was a Nokia flip phone. Tough little bugger I guess!
Actually IF I am walking and will be more than 500 yds from the truck I will have the cell phone in a secure easy to reach pocket but turned off you don't want the noise in the woods.
used to have to carry a phone 24/7 for work...always had the ringer turned off in the woods, but on vibrate mode.
while turkey hunting 1 morning i was sneaking up on this nice gobbler to get in a good sitdown position...needless to say as soon as my knee hit the ground the phone started to vibrate like mad...i knew i was snake bit (phone was in my cargo pocket)... to this day the phone stays in the truck...btw turkey saw me rolling around in the field to get away from phantom snake...o well such is turkey hunting
My phone is on when hunting, but it seem like the cold makes my battery go dead really quickly. Since i own my own business, it makes it a necessary evil.
I must agree, if you go hunting don’t bring your phones rather. Blue Book had been an aid for good hunting bit I guess having this new Blue Book format available designed for mobile phone screens might be more hand. I’ve seen one of those in Beezid. Beezid is a new auction site, has a penny auction category, and you can get great prices, but you also have to pay to play – it can cost you up to $1 to see the highest bid. So if you make 20 bids, and pay each time, that could be up to $20 to win the auction, and if you save less than $20…you lost money. Oh, and you don't get that money back if you don't win the auction.
how much does this app cost?
This is very interesting to have this kind of technology. I work for Filigree and we do all of our work via the iphone. Thanks is great.
Good lesson learned. It's really hard to not answer your cell phone nowadays because everyone has one. It's a like a part of you. auto insurance quote
I lived 40 years without a cell phone I'm not taking one into the woods. It stays in the truck.
Blue Book on Your Phone? i like it. news
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HANG UP AND HUNT!
If you ring tone is a duck call...could you get a ticket from the game warden for having an electronic call?
The iPhone has a good mallard ringtone. Tell me what your phone says that an American Arms O/U 12 ga Waterfowl special in 85% condition is worth. Quick, before it sells!
Last year, I called a friend of mine, who since then had a serious stroke, and he scolded me for calling him while he was hunting. I told him that if he wasn't smart enough to turn the ringer off, he probably wasn't smart enough to sneak into bow range on a buck either.
That's a handy tool! I don't see it changing anything at gun shows, though. Dealers are still going to ask pie in the sky regardless of blue book values, and most buyers won't even know that a blue book for firearms exists.
I'm a firm believer in turning off the phone, putting it in a ziploc, and tucking it in a pocket of the blind bag. I've got it if something awful happens, but otherwise, it's like it's not there.
I dislike it when someone brings a phone to the duck blind. Could have stayed home with the wife if I wanted to listen to someone talk on the phone.
The boat, the blind, the deer stand = No Phone Zone.
Other locations to be added as necessary.
My cell phone stays on vibrate, in my pocket, all the time. I might answer it, but probably not. My wife and family know not to call when I'm hunting and nobody else counts. Leave a message, I'll get back to you.
Hunting with a phone in your pocket is about like hunting in a fence, IMO. Why bother. It ain't hunting, for sure. Getting close to the virtual hunting program that surfaced on the internet. Just stay home and shoot'em on your computer.
After over 50 years in the back country where you depend on yourself I cannot accept a phone in my pocket. We didn't even have radios in my early planes.
Sat phones are worse than cell phones. Now clients bring them anywhere in the world and sit talking to their office while the guide is trying to glass for their game. One client of mine, upon shooting a brown bear, called his office in Dallas and ordered his secretary to call my wife with orders to call my lodge and tell me to pick him up - NOW - he had shot his bear. Although the message got to me via bush communication, somehow, he did not get picked up for a while!
I know most of you, if not all of you responding to DP, do not live my life so that is why I began with IMO. I enjoy all your comments on so many subjects on which I am not as knowledgeable.
Like several others, my wife likes me to check in from time-to-time since I'm running off a pacemaker. One of these days I'm going to park around the corner to see why she really wants to know my whereabouts.
Mine goes with me, in an inside pocket,on vibrate, in a zip-lock bag. I have to find who called by looking at my missed call directory. I couldn't get to the phone in time to answer anyway, so I call back, usually when I get to my truck.
Word of caution, last spring I took a new rifle to the woods to sight in, fired from the prone resting on a fallen tree. Took lots of time,had a good time wasted lots of ammo, put my phone on the leaves so I could hear an expected call from my wife.
Call when it came was lost in the middle of conversation, happened three times on the way home.
Fact is your phone can pick up a killer dose of moisture laying on the forest floor, hence the zip-lock bag. Cost me $125 to learn that lesson.
My son will load bluebook, I'll sponge off him. Gives me an excuse to spend time with him.
Stephen D. Rexrode, bluegraytx, I'm in the same boat.
Due to bad health the wife and kids got me a cell phone just in case I need help getting out of the woods, problem is most places I hunt have spotty reception at best, some are completely dead zones. I carry mine in a belt holster, now with a magnetic flap over it as the old one was just a pressure retention design. Lost my cell a couple of years ago thanks to the old holder not holding very well. Actually got it back the next day, and it still worked, it was a Nokia flip phone. Tough little bugger I guess!
used to have to carry a phone 24/7 for work...always had the ringer turned off in the woods, but on vibrate mode.
while turkey hunting 1 morning i was sneaking up on this nice gobbler to get in a good sitdown position...needless to say as soon as my knee hit the ground the phone started to vibrate like mad...i knew i was snake bit (phone was in my cargo pocket)... to this day the phone stays in the truck...btw turkey saw me rolling around in the field to get away from phantom snake...o well such is turkey hunting
this app could change the game a bit at gun shows.
I'm one of the lucky people that has no cell phone coverage where I hunt deer. Just means I have to drive to a hill a few miles away to send pictures of the hunt to friends.
I'd be afraid to take it into the stand with me - might get so caught up perusing guns that I wouldn't notice the deer. I wonder if deer notice that faint glow from a cell phone in the treestand or blind before light. Would be an excellent tool for buying used guns, though.
Cell phone in glove box of what ever vehicle I am driving AT ALL TIMES! It's only there to call Triple A!
Man do I hate people on cell phones in the duck blind. A buddy of mine once talked 2 phones dead on a hunt. Its just ridiculous.
I am lucky that in most areas I hunt, I have no cell phone service. So it stays in the car.
If I was in a duckblind and some one was talking on their phone, after 1 minute I would tell them they need to get off their phone. If they continuted, that phone would be making ripples in the decoys.
My health isn't very good so my wife makes me check in while I'm hunting. There is no cell coverage at my deer stand so when I come out at lunch I call then. A lot of other places on our land I do have coverage. I'm glad that she thinks enough of me to worry about me when I am hunting.
Mine goes with me but service is iffy. Ringer is off, vibrate is on. Phone is turned off if I'm turkey hunting!
Finally an app that might be worth the price of admission.
Actually IF I am walking and will be more than 500 yds from the truck I will have the cell phone in a secure easy to reach pocket but turned off you don't want the noise in the woods.
My phone is on when hunting, but it seem like the cold makes my battery go dead really quickly. Since i own my own business, it makes it a necessary evil.
I must agree, if you go hunting don’t bring your phones rather. Blue Book had been an aid for good hunting bit I guess having this new Blue Book format available designed for mobile phone screens might be more hand. I’ve seen one of those in Beezid. Beezid is a new auction site, has a penny auction category, and you can get great prices, but you also have to pay to play – it can cost you up to $1 to see the highest bid. So if you make 20 bids, and pay each time, that could be up to $20 to win the auction, and if you save less than $20…you lost money. Oh, and you don't get that money back if you don't win the auction.
how much does this app cost?
I lived 40 years without a cell phone I'm not taking one into the woods. It stays in the truck.
There is no cell service where we hunt in CO or most places where we deer and elk hunt in WA, but could be useful at the gun shows.
Blue Book on Your Phone? i like it. news
This is very interesting to have this kind of technology. I work for Filigree and we do all of our work via the iphone. Thanks is great.
Good lesson learned. It's really hard to not answer your cell phone nowadays because everyone has one. It's a like a part of you. auto insurance quote
Post a Comment