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BIG thank you to all veterans, for your service!!! 🇺🇸

New! Never Fired Tikka T3x 7mm Rem Fluted Barrel - Grayboe Phoenix Stock w/ adjustable cheek rest & adjustable butt pad w/ level bead - Vortex Viper PST 5-25x50 (EBR 7-C) MOA - Top/Bottom Rails - Quick release grayboe strap hardware PRICE: $2500 all or $1500 just rifle. Text: (602) 501-1549 vtx_rfl_pst-2_5-25x50_moa_fr_w.jpg.webp

I never had bipods or clamp or any device to hold my rifle. I was about the same age too. Maybe it’s where I grew up and was blessed with a lot of plinking, rabbit hunting, prairie dog shooting and just getting out very often that helped me. Before I had my .270, I was using the old man’s 257 Roberts on coyotes and used what was available like prone, kneeling, fence post or tree limb. When I got the 270, we went out and shot the heck out of it. So much that I could hit with decent accuracy no matter what since the gun was kind of a part of me. Some of the times we went out, we didn’t fire a shot but I carried the rifle the whole time that it imprinted and seemed easy to use after a while. Kind of like the military drills where they do pointless moves over and over that the rifle feels so useful, it’s kind of a part of you. That’s my recommendation, practice with practical shots. Bench rest work is good too. While at the bench or plinking, maybe use a bipod periodically if you’re worried about it, but don’t leave the bipod on while he is young. I think a bipod is not a good permanent rifle fixture, only temporary.

Most of the shots I have had kids take are from a bipod prone or from the tripod with a yoke on it. Best thing I can tell you is do not think any animal is a slam dunk and do not let your haste or frustration show. There has been a few times where an animal should have easily died, however the kid could not locate the animal or get comfortable with the shot. It's one of the most fun hunts I go on and also one of the most stressful. Good luck and whatever you do, let that dang kid shoot any animal he wants to that is legal.

You need better hunting buddies

Im still trying to grasp the fact that Hobbs is in charge of the entire state election. Only in AZ would this not be a clear conflict of interest. And that is not even a GOP/DEM issue....its just common sense. Imagine the riots if Trump or DeSantis were in charge of the 2024 Presidential Election?

Got to work this morning at 0700 and was contemplating maybe doing an evening hunt since this was the end of my hunt. I was talking to my Chief around 0845 and my hunt came up and he asked why am I still here? He said, you need to leave now…this is an order, I want to see you drive out of the parking lot. You don’t have to tell me twice. I get home and changed, loaded up my gear and headed out to where my son shot his deer because we saw “the bruiser” disappear before he shot his. I new it was still alive and maybe I had a chance. I made it out to where my son shot his around 12 and got set up. It started to get breezy and I new the deer would be bedded and out of the wind. I started glassing the north facing ridge and trees knowing there should be some bucks bedded. I immediately find a bedded spike and think this could be the same spike we saw with the “bruiser” on Sunday. I range it at 68 yds. I start to get excited and scour the area for other deer. For the next 2 1/2 hours I keep looking at the spike thinking, last day buck…why not, but then if I do shoot it surely the “bruiser” will appear. I then recall another CWTer talking about shooting a Coues with a handgun. It was 68 yds, I could sneak in and do this with my 9mm, how cool would that be, but then again it’s a spike. I go back and forth for the next 1hr. I finally talk myself out of it. The spike stands up and starts milling around so I think this it, the “bruiser” will surely get up too. As I scan around the spike I notice something jet black under some bushes and ocotillos. I think it’s a nose of another deer. I get my 15’s to verify and low and behold it’s a nose. I instantly get excited thinking it’s the “bruiser”, while I’m trying to figure out if this a doe or a buck it’s head turns and I see horn. Now this horn is way bigger than the spikes, so game on. I remove my 15’s from the tri-pod and position my rifle on top of the tri-pod. I range the face of this deer and it’s at 67 yds. I can’t believe I’m this close. I settle the crosshairs just under its face and squeeze the trigger. Rifle goes boom and the spike hauls butt down hill, my deer isn’t moving, but I can’t see it either. Now I’m shaking beyond belief right now, I don’t know if this the “ bruiser” or not. I slowly walk up to the spot and can see a deer down but the antlers are covered by all the foliage. As I inch closer and closer I start to see antlers and unfortunately this buck is not the “bruiser”. I am still tickled pink with my last day buck, I would have shot this on day one. I shot this just past where my son shot his and now I’m thinking, great this is going to be long drag out. After about 10 minutes into dragging and not having my son to help, I decide to cut the deer in half and make 2 trips to get my deer back to the truck. Just under 8 miles, Can’t wait till next year!!!!!!!

So I cashed in on some points and decided to go to Colorado for a Mule Deer muzzy hunt. I tried my hand on the Elk hunt there a couple years ago but a early season snow storm threw me off and I left empty handed. One thing I decided this time I was going to buy a lighter rifle and to bring a pair of llamas. This past year, a friend and I pulled the trigger on some llamas, but I will have to write up a new thread on those. Fast forward to the hunt, I showed up a day later than I wanted, due to life issues. I rolled into camp at mid night and as I proceeded to park, my alarm on my truck goes off, declaring my presence to everyone in camp. I thought, great, an awesome way to start a hunt. Over the first 2 days I spent my time just day hiking and hunting with the llamas trying to adjust to the thinner air. Which i didn't do very well. The first couple days I didn't see much, other than spectacular views, does, fork bucks and tons of hunters. I was going to adjust my plan to take the llamas in deep, and spend a few days doing that. But one of the guys in camp convinced me to try another area first, but due to the access in getting there I wouldn't be able to take the llamas. At this point I was happy with a decent 3pt. The next morning we were in our glassing spot. As the sun came up, this new area proved to be better than anywhere I had been the previous days of the hunt. We located a few bucks that peaked my interest and began to see which one would give us the best play. I about had my mind set on a buck we called the miner, until he walked over a ridge and out of our lives. Soon after, one of my buddies, who seemed to be struggling behind the glass, calls out a doe on a ridge across from us that we had all seen. Shrugging it off we laughed and said, yeah we've all seen that doe. But as we all look were he is describing we see 2 awesome bucks, in the chutes below her. We waited till they both bedded. Which happened to be in one of the gnarliest places I've ever seen. But off I went. I had to decend 2k ft and then climb 3k ft to get above the bucks. Then come down 500ish ft to get into a shooting position. I was stoked. It took me almost 2 hours to get into position but I finally made it. I settled in and could see this buck was an awesome 3x4. At least 30" wide. I was positioned directly above him at 42 yards on a cliff over hang. I couldn't see the other buck, but I knew this was the one I wanted. I ranged him several times, and I knew couldn't miss at 42 yards. I kept calm but was excited. I leaned over to make the shot, I am in and squeezed, POP, the muzzy misfired. The buck looks at me and I slowly lower out of sight. I think ok, he's not leaving. I add a new primer to the rifle, wait for the buck to look away, hang over the ledge again, aim, fire, POP, another misfire..... the buck looks up again then away. At the point I can't believe this is happening. I decide to lay on my back, pull the breech and kick the load. I have never been under such reloading stress. I grab some grass and clean the breech hole. Reassemble the rifle and reload. I reprime a 3rd time, take aim, squeeze, POP, again no ignition. This time the buck gives me a hard look. He must have stared at me for 15 minutes. Now I'm panicked. I'm only carrying 5 primers, and I'm down to 2. Reprime one more time, not knowing what to do. Aim, POP! Again! At this point he knows something is up. In a panic I decided to kick the load again and add a new one. Its at this point I finally remembered that I could add powder in front of the primer in the breech hole to get a stronger ignition. As I hurried to reload and set my primer, the second buck i had forgotten about stands up, and we are both terrified, staring each other eye to eye about 20 yards apart. Now I know I'm in trouble, he then breaks running down the chute towards the other buck. I pop up to see if I still have a shot. And there they are, both standing there broadside, I take aim, squeeze, BOOM! Clean miss.... both bucks run off and out of sight. I couldn't believe it. When I got back to the truck I restocked, this time with stronger 209 primers. And shot a practice shot, dead center. That night at camp I was disappointed, but I had no one to blame but myself for missing a great shot opportunity. But we decided to head back to the same spot the next morning to see if we could turn up another buck. The next morning we hadn't been glassing 30 seconds, when my buddy says, "Got him!" Sure enough, there he was, the wide buck on the same ridge, 300 of yards from where I missed him. Today other hunters were around, so we made no delay and went after him. We figured he would bed in the same spot again, so we were gonna get close and just wait till he bedded. As we watched from a closer location, we watched as a trail hiker passed under the buck and the buck was having none of it. He bolted over the ridge and gone. We decided to climb up a separate ridge and get eyes on him again. We did a huge circle, another 3k ft climb, but it paid off. We saw him walk back over the ridge toward the chute were he was bedded the day before. This time we were already positioned above him. So we gave him some time and made our move. Once we got above the chute I began to climb down, I looked back at my buddy and told him to stand by here as I stalked lower. The wind was constantly shifting and we weren't 100% sure he was in the same bed. I crept down the side of the chute periodically looking down to see if the buck was in there. It wasn't until I got to where I missed the day before that I finally found him in the same bed as yesterday. This time facing away from me and dead asleep. This time I took my pack, rested my gun against it, peered over the edge. I ranged him 41 yards this time. I said a little prayer and took aim. Due to the swirling wind, I knew I didn't have much time to shoot. The angle was an almost straight down shot. I aimed in on his spin in-between his shoulder blades. Slowly squeezed, BOOM! Perfect shot. The bullet broke his back and straight into the boiler room. He death rolled into and down the chute, stopping inches from the edge and 1,000 ft drop. I was beyond excited and in disbelief. I turned around to yell at my buddy to start the climb down, but to my surprise he was already there. He said he got selfish and had to watch it go down. We slid down to the buck, broke him down and made our way out. 6 primers fired at a single buck. Later looking back, I practiced using blackhorn 209 with Triple 7 primers. In practice the gun went bang everytime. But at higher elevation I figure the lack of oxygen was reducing the flash of my primer. When I switched to shot shell primers it went off everytime. Inside spread was 30 7/8 and outside was 33 7/8. Gross 170.

Finally, my son is almost 10! He will be ready to hunt next year and I enrolled him for the online hunters safety course yesterday! Looking for the best ways to plan on setting him up for the shot. I am going to have a brake installed on my 257 wby. I have seen a lot of people use the claw set up. That seems like a great way, and will work as we will have two tripods anyways (mine and his). What else should I look into? Bipod of course, but that might bring issues based on size, grass etc.

So as I mentioned in another thread, we bought some llamas this year in hopes of making a small side business out of it. I'm a horseman by heart, but llamas have grown in appeal to me over the years. We've done some camp trips over the summer, I took them Mule deer hunting in Colorado, but we didn't use them much. Last month a friend and I went into the backcountry to try our hand at some Colorado Elk. We took 3 llamas, 2 of which were rookies. We went a few days early to scout. We found the elk the night before opener, but due to the terrain, we decided to pack up the llamas and move closer. On the second day of the hunt, my buddy was able to harvest his first Elk. We packed half the meat out to our spike camp. We went up the next morning and a bear ate a whole hind quarter that we failed to hang high enough in the meat tree. Overall, we spent 7 days in the backcountry and packed the llamas over 22 miles of the roughest country Id care to take stock. They did phenomenal. Definitely one for the books.

So the past year has been a real roller coaster. Last year my daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and it has been super tough on my daughter and family in general. We struck out on all youth tags, but picked up a 3rd choice general hunt coues tag. I wasn't sure my daughter was ready or could handle the challenge. Long story short, I'd like to thank Kev for his help. He found this buck for us opening morning, in a location my daughter would be capable to make a decent shot, and we were able to make it happen. Seeing my daughter being herself again made this one of the most memorable hunts I'll have.

Just a proud post. Wife has killed 3 bucks in a row from 97”-99” she finally held out. Wife and I had a rough 4 days with wind and weather. Looking for 2 specific bucks I had found on my previous hunt that were substantially bigger. Found 12-15 bucks over the first 3 days with her turning down a high 90s” but turned him down on the 3rd day. With no luck we were about to call it quits on the last day when I glassed up this guy. Wife was okay with him so we made our move and she made a great shot at 169 yards. No long range needed with her stalking skills. She is a real trooper and loves her some Coues bucks. She finally broke her 100” goal.

Got a chance to hunt the southern portion of the state this year for the second season. Such a beautiful area. Opening morning was awesome at a mere 28 degrees. Pulled into camp and started glassing from there. TONS of deer up on their feet until late morning. Only saw a few smaller bucks and not looking for a meat hunt yet as we had until Tuesday night before we had to pull out. Met up with some friends midday and headed back to a spot I had been eyeballing on Google Earth. Started picking up a few deer with one being a mid sized buck. Too far and too small for day one. Moved the glass to the North and picked this guy up at about 1,000 yards. I usually try to keep all my shots to 350 yards or less. I just don’t practice enough to do otherwise. There really weren't any good vantage points for a shot except for the small rise right in front of the ridge he was on that I ranged to be about 200 yards from him and getting there I was going to be in the wide open for the first ½ of the stock. I decided it was worth a shot. Down the hill and into the wash to the right trying to use what little cover I had until I could get behind the rise. My buddies stayed up top and let me know he was still there and feeding out into the open. I used the small hill to stay concealed and finished the stock with a 40 yard belly crawl just far enough to where my barrel would clear the brush and I had a good sight line to the buck. Almost like he knew I was coming he turns dead broadside in a wide open spot. I ranged him at 195 yds. “Click” goes the safety and he lifts his head startled at the noise. I couldn’t believe he actually heard that from there. Still broadside I centered the shot and “BOOM - - SHWACK”...... Buck Down! Great hunt with great friends. Need help with sideways pics.

There are a lot of positions to shoot from. I’m not anti Bipod, I have my share of them, 5 total with three different manufacturers, but they feel like too much when I’m carrying everything and have something bulky near the end of my rifle. When I’m doing long range, I use them but most of my deer or elk shots are from 75-400 yards. Something I have confidence in without a bipod. im a lefty and this position feels real good for me. Notice how he sits on his foot. A good thing to do is try them all and see what works. Doing that can only help, not hurt. After that, bring out the bipod.

How do you haul all that around the hills then find time to set it up before the shot is passed?

Out in 6A. It’s possible it was some joy shooting but the shots seemed fairly isolated. Usually just one at a time

Which one?

Few rams

No "pampers" teach them how to shoot!

Man I couldn't disagree with you more on the bipod. I still have a bipod on my rifle at all times.

I haven't heard of any reports. What unit were you in? Lots of people had the day off. Might have been recreational shooters too.

helll, ive hunted with lots of grown asss men who couldnt set up their own rifle, find the deer and kill it! Let alone a brand new hunter.

Since I was accused of not starting any shoot lately. Let me ask, If a kid can’t set the gun up himself, find it in the scope, and shoot it, is he old enough to be hunting?

Kids need to learn that killing a deer the first time out to feed daddys ego isn't what it all about. They should hike a few miles for a couple years first before they get daddys participitation trophy, which they don't really care about at all.