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If there is a hot doe in the area, that is the place to be. All too often, those little guys THINK the does are hot, but they aren't yet.

I bought this rifle for my wife to shoot for the recoil. She likes one of my other rifles better. I did load development for this rifle with 150gr ELD-X's. Shoots really well and will share recipe with buyer and will offer components as well (Brass and Bullets) for extra charge. Cool thing about this rifle is the 1:8.5 twist. Have everything that came with the rifle as new. Added a different muzzle brake because I hate blowing dust all over the place with the original. Also have a Magpul Stock available that comes with all the parts it came with. I believe it will fit any Ruger American. Rifle - 575.00 Stock - 200.00

Last rifle Winchester Model 70 in .243. The bolt and bore are in perfect condition and have been well cared for. The rifle comes with a Weaver Marksman 3x-9x scope with 1" rings. Click HERE for pictures Asking $900 or open to trades. Located in Phoenix ‪(623)-738-536five My preferred trades would be CZ, Beretta, Henry, Ruger, Browning, S&W, Marlin, Winchester, Tikka/Sako, Kimber, Springfield, Staccato, or HK - but I'm open to checking out anything that's not an AR or shotgun.

My buddy was the fortunate recipient of a once in a lifetime Idaho moose tag this year. Like many of the western states Idaho moose has taken a beating over the last few years from predation, disease, and ticks. We didn’t know what to expect, however harvest data still showed a very high success rate on hunts. My buddy traveled to the unit over the summer to get a feel for the landscape, acquire the necessary access permits, speak with the biologist, and learn the road systems. After that trip we felt optimistic and all we had to do then was count down the days until November. This would be a hunt after the rut, so food was key. These giants are worn to nothing after the rut and spend the majority of the day browsing. My wife and I flew in the evening before to meet him and his wife at the Airbnb and after an evening of beating the girls in cards our egos were overinflated and optimism was at an all time high 😂. Opening day was on par for November in Idaho…fog..then rain…then snow….then fog and snow. We continued covering country all morning glassing when we could and as the snow started to stick looking for fresh bull tracks to try and walk down. We spotted a few cows and calfs in the morning. Shortly after noon we cut two bull tracks and a cow crossing a logging road. We started on the track and about two hundred yards in we saw the cow. The fog and aspens were thick and we could not locate the bulls. After a minute or so we felt the wind switch and her head came up on alert. The hill erupted with moose and they were gone. We went back to covering ground and with it being midday started focusing on dark timber directly adjacent to feed. About two o clock we found two bulls bedded and one was nice. My buddy tried to get on him as he stood and started moving off but the fog and snow was thick and a good shot never presented itself. We hopped back in the buggy and circled to an upper road in hopes of picking them up from a better angle. As we start glassing from the high spot we see a black body moving through thick aspen below. A good bull pops out at 185 yards and my buddy anchors him. Such a cool experience! Average bull for that unit over the last five years was 34 4/8”. My buddy’s was 37 2/8”. We were able to get him broke down and packed out with daylight to spare. For those that haven’t had the privilege of eating moose it is extraordinary!

A member named Eddie shot a nice ram in there 2 years ago. I’m not sure if he is very active here now..

Crazy to think the company has gone so far from their roots. I remember when I got my first Kifaru, Aron himself told me to call him. He was on the side of the mountain glassing and talked me thru what would work best for me. He even pushed me over the edge by giving me his DT2 pack if I bought a frame. As you mentioned, that big thread on Rokslide sure is eye opening as to where the company has gone. A bunch of my buddies use EXO with no complaints. I am kind of a gear junky, so I know I will get a new pack in the next couple years and I am leaning very hard towards EXO.

Nice compact 10mm setup. I do love my 10mm!

EXO

Exo k3 3600 checking in. Every time I say I won’t change something out I do, but I feel confident I won’t change it out until it gives up and I don’t see that happening. It’s been a great pack going on probably 8 or 9 years now. I can attach a bow or gun to it. Smash it down for day hunting and open it up to haul a load of meat on the shelf or gear if I needed to. I can’t speak to how comfortable it is to a stone glacier or kirafu but it is the most comfortable pack I’ve had carrying a load or hunting all day. Beat all the MR and Eberlestock packs I’ve owned without a doubt. I did get a Hill People Gear for some hiking excursions and overnights I want to do, not sure if I will try it for any hunting but they are good packs as well.

Exo K4 5000 has been a great pack

Stone glacier is a solid pack also. All different sizes of bags so take your pick. My cousin from Iowa came and shot his first coues deer this year and packed out the gutted buck on the evo frame no problem. Pic for fun lol

Exo K3 4800 is what I use

I’m running the Kifaru Hoodlum and I love it. I have a hunting buddy that runs an Exo and it also seems great. I don’t think either would be a bad choice.

My exo has been awesome. One time a clip broke from a way over-loaded elk packout but they had the replacement part at my front door within 72 hours. I do have friends with kifaru and hear great things about them as well. I think you will be happy with either of your options

I love my EXO

I used several kifaru bags until landed on a reckoning . I doubt I’ll switch for a while

I have had 2 exo packs and still use one today.

Never used kifaru but have a K4 5000. Been a great pack and comfortable. Great customer service too

Nah, ranger pro is the best bang for the buck I know of. Premixed ready to use is always gonna more expensive. But of course if you don't have a use in the future go for pre mixed.

North of the ditch this year

^This. 27 is a fantastic area for backpacking if you enjoy to hunt that way. I love to backpack, but usually do that on the late hunts in the desert where the units get hit harder & just road-camp and hike in during the early hunt. Sometimes we go days without seeing another person, other days you see a few hikers. Hit or miss. Obviously you see more hikers & hunters on the weekend then you will in the middle of the week. I've had deer around me within 20 yards of my treestand while hikers were going by on the hiking trail about 80 yards away. Deer watched them go, then went back to eating. Hikers had no idea that me or the deer were even there. You can go deep if you want to, but you don't have to to still have a great hunt. IF you're unfamiliar with the area, there's a value to being able to use the roads to cover lots of ground quickly, where as if you backpack in your investing huge amounts of time in an area you may end up not finding what you like. If it's your first time there, I'd save the pack trips for until you know exactly where you want to be and treat this hunt more as a scouting mission with the hope of getting a shot. But that's just my .02.

I think everyone is pretty much there. I made this illustration to show the movement of water in the ground. It's always being pulled by gravity toward the center of the earth. Some of the soils and rock are porous, and the water moves through them over time. Then the moving water will run into a non-porous rock like granite, and will either pool up, or move laterally depending upon the slope of the bedrock. When the surface is lower than the bedrock, the water moving laterally along the rock will re-surface creating a spring or a seep, and there may be deciduous trees like cottonwoods around it. If it's deep under the surface we call it an aquifer, but the principle is the same. I think in the case of the seep that Mason A found (what a find!), it looks to be an extremely steep slope, and judging from the old stumps and dead trees and such, perhaps there was some mass movement in the soils at one time that exposed the granite, making the seep possible, other wise the water would have continued to move toward the bottom where it would hit exposed bedrock in a creek bed and move as part of the creek system.

if it's in the desert, look for a cottonwood or seep willow or about any kind of trees or bushes that may be a little out of place. if there is just a little water, there will be some sort of vegitation that is a little out of place from the rest of the flora. in the fall is a real good time to scout for a seep or spring, because the leafs change colors and really show up, especially if your in a place with a lot of cedars or scrubby pines. Lark.

From running trail cams on several known water sources last year, I figured out that there had to be other sources of water. Most of us focus on the tanks and springs that are marked on maps. The area I was scouting held a good number of Coues deer that we would see, but rarely did they water at the tanks or springs, where I had cams. Neither did the 217" non typical Muley that we were after. By moving our cameras to travel areas (saddles and trails) we started getting a lot of pictures of deer that we weren't seeing on the waterholes. After spending 2 years moving cams we located a seep that came to the surface when a large tree blew over. The water, barely a trickle, was in in the hole that the tree roots created when it fell. We hung a camera at the seep and there were tons of pics 2 weeks later, of both Coues deer and the big buck we were after. Even after the monsoons came, that big buck was watering at his little seep regularly. The coues deer were less reliable but still came by occasionally. My point is, there is more water in the hills than most of us realize and finding the isolated spots that aren't widely known is where most of the deer water in my opinion. Kevin

Deer (both whitetails and mule deer) will drink every day if water is available, and will travel relatively long distances outside their normal home range to water. We had one radio-collared Coues doe that lived in an area with three dirt tanks. She would water every day in the middle of the day and usually one more time when just becoming active an hour or so before daylight. When the tanks went dry, she made a daily trip of a little over three miles one-way to water at a windmill located well outside her normal home range. I have done a lot of pre-season scouting in preparation for the arrival of guest hunters over the last 15 years, and the one constant is that deer (both whitetails and mule deer) will almost always go to water as they leave their morning bedding sites around mid-day and look for a shady place to spend the afternoon. Mule deer tend to water again as they become active just before dark, but whitetails are not as regular about this evening watering routine. Both species need water daily once most of the vegetation has matured and gone dormant. They do get some moisture from whatever succulents may be available, as well as dew when it occurs, but they have to have some free water to keep the yeasty beasties in their rumens happy. What most folks don't realize is that there are sources of water and moisture almost year round in seeps, small hidden springs and subirrigated sites that provide metabolic water, as well as some free water that will do to tide the critters over for a day or so if they can't get to a tank, a well or a windmill. This is the problem with sitting on a dirt tank or a windmill--if they know you are there (or even suspect it), they almost always have other options that will keep them hydrated for a day or two.