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Opening Day Morning Hello everyone! Been a little while since I’ve been active on the forum. While I wasn’t drawn for hunting this year, my brother in law was able to draw a late bull tag for 6A. So we are up here for the hunt! Got in Monday and put in a little bit of scouting. Saw some bulls in a few different areas and then yesterday morning (before stuffing our faces) we were able to turn up a nice bachelor group that got us excited for Opening Day. Wake up was early today, around 3:45, and after a couple beers with dinner last night & getting a year old older, it was a little tough haha. We hiked about 2 miles into where we saw the bachelor group yesterday morning and waited for the sun to come up. It was a little chilly, but we were hoping once the sun started rising we would get a chance to see some bulls on one of the ridges before us. In the lowest light of the dawn we were able to glass the ridges that held the bulls yesterday and nothing. Not getting discouraged we thought maybe they were just lower and would slowly feed up in the hour or so after sunrise. We didn’t have to wait that long. As it got lighter I was able to scan another ridge about 1000 yards away that I was unable to see before in the low light. I instantly spotted an elk. As it got even lighter we found 2 of his buddies and were able to see that all three were decent bulls. No monster, but definitely something to go after. My brother and I stayed put glassing and keeping an eye on em while my brother in law and father in law made a move to get closer. About 20 minutes later they were in a good shooting spot but they couldn’t find them on the ridge. One was broadside for a while but a tree was right in their way and based on their angle they couldn’t find a way to see into the clearing my brother and I were looking at. Two of the three looked to have bedded down while one was still up, so we told my brother in law to cross to another ridge so he’d have a straight shot. Right as we finished that plan, something spooked the elk up the canyon and all three bulls took off. We followed them in our glass but they didn’t slow down and soon they were long gone. Dang it! Well not quite the ending we were hoping for at the end of that sequence but hey, we get to keep hunting a little more. I’ll keep y’all updated as the hunt goes on. Good luck to everyone out there right now!

Just picked up my cat from them and it looks great.

Hate to break it to you money bags but if you’ve been applying in Wyoming, MT and AZ for 43 years you have way more than $4700 into just the app and license fees. Thats the thing about old rich dudes, most of them don’t even remember what it was like to be middle class.

My nephew was able to arrow and tag a bull coming into water the Tuesday of the archery hunt in 23. His brother has the late rifle tag today in 23 so hoping to hear good news. He did say bulls were getting harder to find.

Schmidt & Bender PMll 5-25x56mm scope. Illuminated FFP Reticle: (P4FL 1cm ccw DT/ST) Scope is in overall good condition. The exterior shows only minimal signs of wear. Glass lenses are bright and free of any blemishes. Comes with rings, but no box or paperwork. Text Don at Ph. #520-834-2359 with any questions... NOW $1500 OBCO...

sold

Any elk processor any or would recommend between payson and the north valley

Sold

If you can find them at last light they usually are in the same area in the morning.

This one gets reviewed pretty favorably on rokslide, I’ll probably pick one up at some point

I have a Athlon Ares UHD G2 spotter. It’s a little heavy, but nice and compact and the glass punches way above its price. Not sure if I would trust one of their scopes on a hunting rifle, but for a spotter I hardly ever use i’m fine with it. I’d like to see more testing on the scopes to see if they track and hold zero reliably.

So Max first deer was just a little baby 3 point. So we were going to hold out for anything slightly bigger this year. Hiked in a 1/2 mile and started glassing. It was disappointing, not even a doe. We moved up another 1/2 mile. We were at a high rocky point when I spotted and pretty decent forky. At 686 yards and just rocks and boulders on a steep hill we moved to the next ridge. We moved after he went into a thick of oak trees. This next ridge was a nice sitting bench. While the buck was still in the trees I ranged 5 different areas. The trees were 485 yards, dialed in for that, and set the gun up and put my hunting pack under the stock. I told Max to find a comfortable shooting position and set the gun up on that position. Best part right next to the location of the buck was tree in yellow fall colors. So real easy to find in binos and scope. After we got set up we both jumped on our binos and just tried to pick apart the oaks. After 20 mins some does started coming out. A total of 3 of them. After another 10 min of watching the deer come out, Max says that buck is in that open clearing again. I already knew it was ranged at 535yds so I quickly dialed for it. Max jumped on the 6CM 103 ELD-X. (Springfeild Waypoint, Suppressed) Lance got that round up to 3100 fps shooting less than 1/4 groupings. Ive shot 6" plates at 986yds with this gun. Ive been so impressed with it. The Buck was perfect broad side, and Max controlled his breathing and then shot. A perfect hit! He ran 10ft and tumbled. I said you got him! His excitement was "I got him??" He ended up being a 3x2

Same thing in 3a3c

About as pretty of a buck as you could ask for. Congrats! Ugly hat tho 😉

I think there is one in the classifieds right now

It's crazy when you pick up one of those carbon fiber bikes. They feel so light it's hard to believe they are even strong enough to use.

Enjoy. Next year it looks like they intend to get increase tags from 150 up to 210. Could start feeling real crowded next year. I don’t suspect it will hold the age class for long at that clip

There’s a certain point in which spending money on this rifle is gonna far out way the benefits over just sticking to factory ammo. Not saying your suggestion is wrong, it’s not. Just not sure how far I want to ride this out. The gun shoots good, it’s a hunting rifle, used when I get drawn, which is less and less often these days it seems. Reloading was meant to cut cost if possible, improve accuracy possibly, and keep a consistent load if specific factory rounds dry up as they do from time to time.

I would invest in measuring devices to print the case after sizing, you need to know if your in spec or not

So got back after it. Tried RCBS shell holder to match the dies. It helped ever so slight but not by much. I pulled out some factory loads and started measuring cases. I measured fired cases and the fired and sized/deprimed cases. The factory loaded ammo are under specs and sized cases are just a hair under but about right on specs. Once fired unsized are over on legnth(expected) but not by much but are under the sized case specs so they chamber easier then sized cases. I think I may just have a really tight chamber as had been suggested by a gunsmith. I am going to try small base dies next. I tried the marker trick, no rub areas showed.

Here a couple more of the little guy

Did you use A3's tape? 😁 No matter what, it is an awesome old buck.

Most of the time when I have experienced this issue, it has come down to one of two areas: 1) the brass just above the web has expanded too much; or 2) the shoulder has been bumped back too much causing the shoulder bottom to bump/buldge out. A small base die or thinner shellholder will solve the first problem. Simply backing off the die a quarter to half turn should solve the second problem.

Well after many years of holding out for a good archery bull elk hunt this was the year to finally draw a tag. My son will be 10 in February and already itching to go out in the woods and hunt. So this was the year to spend the time to try and go out and shoot a good bull. The hunt came quick and was glad to have a great group of friends to help me for the majority of the hunt. I have hunted with them for many many years and been with them when they were able fill there first archery bull tags. Day 1 started early and out well before sun up. The weather was not helping much as it was warmer than usual and very windy, made hearing bugles difficult. We heard some bugles and set off after them but were not able to get in close enough and see if they what they were. We headed back to the cabin around 11 for some lunch and a nap and made the decision to sit water in the afternoon. I felt with the weather being unseasonably warm that would be our best bet. I sat a tank we have had good success on from 2 till dark but nothing made its way to water. heard a few faint bugles in the distance as the sun set on day one. Day 2 was basically the same result and was not very productive. Moon was bright and up most of the night, temps were warm and elk movement and bugling was very minimal. Day 3 we were able to get on a group of 5 different bulls screaming their heads off. Shooting like came and they continued to bugle but were moving away up the ridge to the area they wanted to bed. I was able to circle around in front of them and get the wind right. Gave out a few meek cow calls and had a calf come running in to my position. She finally moved off and I was able to move up another 100 yards and get to where I thought they might pass by. Shortly after a small young 6x6 stepped out of the think jack pines at 15 yards. We had a good staring match before he decided something wasn't right and walked off. Sat water the rest of the day only to see some turkeys and a whitetail doe. Day 4 we were greeted with cooler temps but socked in fog and rain for most of the morning and then heavy winds all afternoon. Elk were not very active and ended day without much to be excited about. Days 5-7 were very similar, on elk early but couldn't find the right bull I was looking for. I passed a few opportunities in the mornings and sat water in the evenings to with no luck. Days 7-9 we made a pivot to another area in the northern part of the unit. We were on elk in the morning and chased bugles until late hours of the morning. The bulls were smart and always seemed to be in an area you could not get in close to them. Between the topography and thermals it was almost impossible to get on them without blowing the out of the country. Day 10 started out in the same area as the past few days. We were on them early and able to get in a position that the wind was in our favor and elk moving towards us. Unfortunately the only bull we got a glimpse of was the small 5x5 raghorn my buddy called into 7 yards. We had a good laugh at how tough he thought he was hiked the several miles back to the vehicle to get some much needed breakfast and rest. For the evening hunt we decided to go back to the tank I sat the first night and have my buddy go check an area not to far away for bugles. As luck would have it the bulls in that area started screaming about an hour before sunset. he sent me a message and we hightailed it over to where he was stopped. As son as we got out there were 5-6 bulls absolutely screaming, I believe there had to be a hot cow in the area because it was chaos. We got the wind in our face and slowly started sneaking in on the bull we thought sounded the meanest. We were closing the ground but light was fading fast. The bull was glunking and decided to give out a few subtle cow calls and that did the trick. He came walking right in quartering slightly to me and stopped to bugle at for 45 yards. I let the arrow go and connected just behind his shoulder. The bull trotted up the ridge a little bit and bedded down just in sight. Just like that the hunt was over, he wasn't the monster bull I had hoped and dreamt about. But he was a cool old bull that had been in his fair share of skirmishes and thorough many ruts. His front teeth were worn to the gums and had some scares to show his age. we got him taken care of in a timely manner and the meat to the processor to fill the freezer for the family and close friends. Look forward to hunting with my boy in the years to come and hope it doe not take another 17 years to draw an archery bull tag IMG_4804.MOV

Good news I have all three brands of shell holders and measured height. Lee and Redding are both .248" and RCBS is .244" so you should be able to acheive an additional .004" bump by buying the RCBS. You measure the flat that sits on top of the ram to the flat on top of the shellholder. Do not measure from the bottom of the groove that fits into the ram. Hope that helps.