lancetkenyon

For the metal, I always use a stripper and degrease. Then hit with brake cleaner and finally wipe with water. It has always adhered perfectly. Even on polished stainless. Never had a chipping issue except around the crown where I get solvents on it. For the stock, I used 120 grit lightly, then 220 grit sand paper. I didn't want it too smooth, so the paint will adhere well.

Aerovoe for the metal. Rustoleum, Krylon, and will use a bit of model airplane paint for the stock.

You cannot compare the binos to the accesories. The binos are the best made, by anyone. Other companies make a better adapter however. Swaro is not in business to sell adapters. They are there to sell optics. They should stick to that.

Absolutely love this thread! Awesome job to the huntress on a fantastic buck, to Dad for getting here out, and to Adam, Big Browns, for helping out!

You tell your gf to fetch the napalm out of the utv, instead she brings you an F...ing hockey stick? Time to reassess this relationship. Heck with the Gopro, its only going to bring nightmares. I killed a rattler out back and cut his head off. A dude from CWT was coming over to borrow a horse trailer, it was dark out we both had flashlights. so I coiled the dead snake up and placed under the trailer tongue to scare him. Dude hooks up the trailer, steps on it several times but never once saw it till I pointed it out. That is plain mean! I like it!

Congrats on a great mule deer. Going to be some tasty eating!

DAMMIT!! I am sitting on site in my work truck, and a dang plastic wrapper blew by my open door and scared the crap out of me just now while I was watching that video!!!

Great memories, and lessons learned. Sounds like a successful hunt to me. Even with an unused tag.

I appreciate it. If I get desperate, I might have to take a drive.

My add would look more like this...... Bed. Rustic, hand carved, w. shed deer antlers. Wife does not approve. Wife for sale, $400. Trades for hunting dog will be accepted. Located in Tucson, will deliver within 1000 miles at no extra cost.

Huge thanks to Charlie, 5GuysHunting, for selling me a 3/4+ # of H1000 to get started. I got 10 sighters of a light charge @ 85.5gr. loaded, and a ladder test set from 85.5gr. to 93gr. in .5 grain increments. I still have plenty for getting some loads together after my ladder test & group testing. Got my seating depth for mag length right now, and still have plenty of case capacity, even at 93gr. if needed. Base of a 210 HVLD is still just barely below the body to shoulder junction at mag length plus a little wiggle room. Berger book states 84.0 to 88.2gr. of H1000, Hodgdon book states 85.0 to 90.0gr. for max. Another source has multiple people shooting 92gr. and one guy shooting 95gr., but he states it is a hot load in his gun. Seems high to me too. I hope to get out and do a ladder test in 3 weeks. I plan on sighting it in and getting some foulers down the barrel this weekend. I won't finish the paint on the stock before the elk hunt at the end of Nov., because I need to get a load worked up first.

Great story. Congrats on the deer. Congrats on the shooting. Good to see people giving thanks to God & the AZGFD.

Awesome story, awesome deer, awesome huntress and values. Great job on raising her correctly.

Sound like too hot of a load if you are getting sticky bolt lift. Be very careful. Any other signs of overpressure, like flattened or catered primers, case head swipes, ejector marks, brass flow, etc.? The reloads are the minimum powder load, not sure on factory but buddies gun doesn't have issues with the factory loads. Books give you a reference. Only your gun can tell you what it likes. Depending on brass make and content, I have had way over pressure from the same loads I always run when it is hot outside, and when using Federal brass or military surplus brass for various chamberings. The more brass content, the less case capacity. Meaning less room in the case=more pressure when fired. There are other possible issues that can lead to over pressure. Bullets jammed or touching the lands of the bore, high ambient temps, different powder charge or different brand or lots of powder themselves. Tighter chamber cut, not all "SAAMI" chambers are cut exactly alike, either from a factory or a good gunsmith. I weigh each case and discard any that are out of spec. I like a 2 grain max difference in brass content for my rifles myself. Something like 124 to 126 grains for each case, or 171 to 173 grains, etc. Mixing different brands is bad. So if you load some Winchester at 160 grains of brass content, Remington at 170 grains of brass content, and Federal at 185 grains of brass content, and size them all with an FL die, they all have the same outside case diameter, but thicker walls equals less case space inside the brass. Bad for velocity, accuracy, and pressure. I have found up to 55 grains of brass content difference in .25-06 cases between 7 brands/head stamps. Winchester, WW Super, Remington, Federal, Frontier, Hornady, Nosler. Nickel plated cases make a difference too. Depending on how you weigh each charge, you can easily get discrepancies in charge weight. A powder throw can miss a charge weight by .2-.4 grains. My Hornady electronic charger/scale is off sometimes up to .2 grains for a 43.0 targeted charge weight. I individually weigh each charge on my RCBS 5-0-5 beam scale for this reason. If you set an auto charger for a certain charge weight (say 50.0 grains), they are good to read within ".1" grain. But they also have an error factor of .2 grains easily. Meaning you can be at the low end of your charge and be at 49.75 grains, or be at the high end and be at 50.25 grains. A .4-5 grain swing is bad for accuracy, and if your max pressure that your gun likes is at the 49.8, but you are getting some at 50.2, that might be enough to cause overpressure. Go up in charge weights, the error factor goes up too. Add a slight overcharge of up to .4 grains, a case that has more brass content/less capacity than previous cases (whether from brand changes or just batch or machining changes), a powder that is temp sensitive (and you did load development in a cool month), higher ambient temps, a bullet that is touching the lands, and a tight chamber, and you have a recipe for a hot load very easily. You might not even know about it. Just spit balling here.

You have to take known drops at known yardages to true your velocity. Make sure everything else is 100% correct, atmospheric conditions, altitude, temp, humidity, BC of bullet from LITZ (Not from Barnes), scope height, etc. I try to use at least 5 distances and actual drops to true my velocity. And not just hitting an 8-12" plate. You need to be center hits, from 500 and out.

That buck looks amazing in hard antler!

Nice. Kill a boatload of coyotes with it!

Sold

Should have clarified yearling as 1.5 years old, not a calf still @ 6 months. Good clarification GreyGhost85.

Picked up my rifle from Phoenix Customs on Friday afternoon. Tore everything apart. Sanded down the stock w. 220 grit removing the "web" and getting it ready for paint, stripped all the old paint off the action and prepped it for paint. Cleaned the barrel. Masked everything off, applied 2 light coats of primer, then all metal went to matte medium khaki, and stock got a couple light coats of flat olive. Metal all got 2 coats of matte clear too. Masked off some patterns This is as far as I got this weekend. The paint scheme will be similar to this when it is completed. I also got to brass prep. This chamber is tighter than the factory one just a bit. I pulled apart all of my old rounds (120), annealed, resized and bumped the shoulder back by .0015", trimmed everything, chamfered and de-burred, and weight sorted to within 3 grains total. From 171.5 grains to 174.5 grains for brass content. I only discarded 6 brass, so I have 114 prepped brass ready to start load development. All of the primer pockets had already been uniformed, and flash holes de-burred as well. I actually have 52 that have never been fired yet. I had pulled apart factory rounds to use the brass once I started reloading. I will be using: CCI 250 Mag primers Remington brand brass Berger 210 HVLD & 215 Hybrids Powder is up in the air right now. I will probably use RL22 to get started, since Taylor has a hunt in about 5 weeks, and I have a ton on hand an that is what I used before with great results. I would like to use H1000, but that stuff is like unicorn tears to find. I will keep on the lookout for it just in case I get lucky.

Usually as a yearling (1.5 years), they can be spikes. The tag is an "Antlerless" tag, not a cow tag, so he is legal. Going to be some amazing eating!!!

F150. Ride in comfort. Bring good glass and a tripod, LRF to see how fay you might have to shoot, and a camera. Weather has been warm. Low of 40° to 75° for a high at the North Rim. I am leaving in 9 days for my daughter's hunt up there, so tie up a couple big ones for you and her and I will pay you when I see you.

Awesome write up!!! Congrats on a Pronghorn, on a FIRST pronghorn, and a first KILL!!! Way to stick with it.

Your bipod is on backwards......I bet it would shoot 1/4" groups if you turned it around.

Familiarity. Component availability. Very modular and easy to change parts if desired. Adjustability. Ergonomics. Looks badass.