I just ran across this thread somehow...I had my soda shoot out my nose.
Jim took me to Josh Smith's hammer-in last year and we camped out behind Josh's house. Josh said that he and his wife went to bed chuckling, and feeling sorry for me, because they could hear Jim just rattling away at 2 am. And like mr wheeler related, just as I was about to drift off ignoring the conversation, he said "well...I've GOTTA get to sleep." Naturally, I had the "WTF!! response".
Suffice it to say, The boy can talk, and talk and talk. On the trip back, he was telling me all about something or other about his guns, and in an effort to break his rant I said "Say Jim, I'd sure like to slip the tube snake to your daughter." (she IS beautiful)... He didn't even miss a beat, Just just said "Oh, I don't think that's gonna happen...but this gun shoots...."
Big Jim is alive and well In Carpenter,WY (100 mi North of Denver). He still wears his cowboy hat all the time, and now that he is in Wyoming he has the right. He doesn't have any horses, yet. He just got his house finished, having lived above his shop and/or in a 5th wheel for over a year, and has great plans for getting a computer up and running. In the morning, he is taking pity upon a wannabe knife maker and showing me how to make damascus, and then a knife or so... largely, I believe to shut ME up (and ensure some quality hunting for him).