lancetkenyon

Thunderbeast .30 cal Ultra 7, or Ultra 5 if you want really short.

You just missed the AZ deer draw. It would have been good to get a bonus point. Some of the desert hunts can be tough. You need to have good binoculars, a tripod, and practice. A .270 Win w. 10x scope is plenty. OTC archery in Dec/Jan (2022) are great hunts. The Aug/Sept hunts can be brutal, and a lot of the desert units are not open.

I loaded up some 69SMKs in .223 for a buddy to take his, and a couple of kid's friends, on the Jr doe hunt up on the Kaibab a few years ago. 4 shots out to 180, 4 deer. I don't see why they wouldn't work on Coues to 200. But I am with Casey, if you have a .243, I would go that route. I have seen big mulies drop to well placed shots in 6XC, 6x47L, 6 Dasher, 6CM, .243 Win, 6mm Rem.

Make sure you call Dave. He is a wealth of 12AW knowledge.

196 3/8". Biggest deer in the house by 20".

Even rain can make some of the roads impasssble to 2wd. Get, or borrow, a 4wd. No use cutting off 70% of the unit because you can't get to it. Last year in 12AE on opening day, we woke up to 8" on the ground. It got WAY more after day 3. 2wd would not have allowed access to where we were. Snowed 2 days before, and started to melt, then came back in with a vengeance. Ice was everywhere after the morning melt off. Again, 2wd would have been a no-go.

I wouldn't do another 28 Nosler. .280AI, 7SAUM, 7RM, .264WM, 6.5PRC (can't believe I just said that).

The tag holder's minor child or grandchild. Point guard it and turn it back in. Donate to one of several charities for vets, disabled, sick kids.

Wow. That is WAY south! Along the I-8 east of Yuma for those that don't know where Roll, AZ is.

Holy cow. I went scouting with him a few times for his kid's hunts, helped him with reloading, gave him kids camo, etc. This is a terrible shock. He was a great guy.

If you are west side, and want a hand, let me know. I have all the proper tools, and would have no problem helping you out. Home today through next Monday! Nice having a week off work.

I heard a horror story about a certain guide up on the Bab last year. Not Duwane.

Copper works fine if you keep to the distances where you retain the proper velocity on target as required. I prefer coppers to be moving 2000fps on target to open better. If your .243 is a 1:10" twist, you will need to shoot lighter bullets to stabilize them. I know you are 19, do you reload yet? If not, the Barnes LRX are a good way to go. If you do reload, the Hammer Hunters seem to really work well, and are very accurate. Just know this. Shot opportunities up on the Kaibab can be longer than expected. I would be prepared, and that means lots of practice, for shots out to 500+ for the best chances at big bucks. Sure, you could have a 50 yard shot, but sure is nice to be confident and accurate out at longer ranges. Don't take shots you are not comfortable with.

You will still be 1 point under max next year until they all draw. Point creep is a real thing. Could still be 3-4+ years depending on what unit you apply for. Could draw next year. Nothing is for certain. Only 20% of tags are allotted for the bonus pass. If there are 10 tags, only two goes in the bonus pass. The other 9 goes into the general draw I believe. Edit: I stand corrected on the sheep draw, see below.

The Yo Dave spring kit for Tikka work very well, you can get down to 1.5#s, and pretty crisp. Pretty much everthing you will need: Action, barrel, brake, stock, trigger, bottom metal, mag or internal mag box & follower w. spring, rail/rings or one piece rings, scope, anti-cant device (level), caps, throw lever. Some items that people can forget to budget for are: Bedding stock, truing action, Cerakote, timing barrel & brake, contouring brake to barrel diameter (I prefer a brake to blend with barrel contour), dies, shellholders, caliber specific inserts for your comparator, reloading components (new brass, bullets, primers, powder). Axisworks has built me 6 rifles now. If the first one or two were not amazing, no way would I have gone back for 4 more. I have shot more than 30 other Axisworks rifles. All amazing.

Only a parent or grandparent can donate their tag to a minor child. Not a sibling. I am on the opposite side of the fence on this. I say hunt the elk, turn in the 12AW tag. Because maybe I will get lucky and get it when you turn it back in!

Awesome story. Absolutely love seeing kids hunting.

Fifth, I have cash.

2" groups at 1500 yards? Very impressive. .13MOA. I think you might have your numbers flipped. The 180-185 will do fine in 1:11" twist. I have even loaded up to a 190 HVLD in one. The 200+ would shoot better in the 1:8". 210+ would definitely shoot better in the 1:8" over 1:11".

https://www.themeateater.com/hunt/whitetail-deer/the-dumbest-poacher-of-2019 The Dumbest Poacher of 2019 Spencer Neuharth Jun 17, 2020 Earlier this month, Dugan Traversie entered a plea deal with prosecutors for his role in a poaching case that dates back to last fall. Traversie was ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution to Timber Lake Elk Ranch, one-year probation, and one year without hunting. Since the judgement by the U.S. magistrate seems light, I’m tacking one more punishment onto his crime: I’m declaring Traversie the dumbest poacher of 2019. Traversie is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. He held a buck tag for the reservation’s deer season, which started on November 2. But, five days before gun opener, on October 28, Traversie got a head start on the season by poaching a whitetail buck with his rifle. It wasn’t just any buck, though. Traversie shot the deer on the Timber Lake Elk Ranch, a high-fence game farm within the boundaries of the reservation. The property offers 100% success hunts to wealthy clients for everything from pheasants to mule deer to bison. “Located on 8,000 acres of pristine western South Dakota prairie, the Timber Lake Elk Ranch has grown to be one of the largest privately-owned elk, buffalo and deer herds in the world with more than 700 head,” Timber Lake Elk Ranch’s website states. From outside of the property, Traversie shot the 28-point buck through the ranch’s 8-foot fence. He then crawled through the fence, took a picture with the whitetail, cut its head off, tossed the head back over the fence, and left the carcass to rot. Traversie cached the rack under a bridge for a few days with intentions of retrieving it before deer season opened. The buck was already “spoken for” by a client who paid $20,000-plus to hunt the deer. The ranch managers brought in the whitetail on October 18, but late that month they noticed it had gone missing. When they went on a scouting mission to locate the buck on November 1, all they found was its headless body. A picture of the buck from Timber Lake Elk Ranch’s website. Since they didn’t acquire the buck until October, this was likely taken at the deer farm in North Dakota where it was purchased. It didn’t take long for them to figure out who the poacher was, though. On November 3, the day after the Cheyenne Sioux Tribe’s opener, Traversie posted a picture on Facebook of him proudly holding the buck, claiming to have shot it the day before. The image went viral and reached hundreds of thousands of people, with one post getting 1,900 likes, 1,100 shares, and 650 comments. The image was immediately met with praise and skepticism. For every five people lauding this buck of a lifetime and congratulating Traversie on his harvest, someone would comment on the deer’s unnaturally white antlers and elk-like spread. Before law enforcement even got involved, the online hunting community was questioning the legitimacy of this would-be record book whitetail. The debate was short, though. The same day Traversie posted a picture with the buck, photos started circulating of the deer’s headless body at Timber Lake Elk Ranch, along with older photos of the buck in velvet from the ranch’s website. According to the investigation carried out by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Cheyenne Sioux Tribe, Traversie fessed up when law enforcement reached out. Throughout the process he’s cooperated with prosecutors and shown remorse for his actions, which led to a lenient plea bargain—despite the potential for a $250,000 fine and five years in prison based on initial charges. “I am very, truly, truly sorry for poaching the whitetail deer when it wasn’t deer season,” Traversie told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Moreno. “I just ask for the opportunity to prove to this court that it will never, never happen again.” The $9,000 restitution is the amount that Timber Lake Elk Ranch paid for the buck from a whitetail farm in North Dakota. The case has been filled with moral and legal conundrums, like how the Federal Lacey Act, wanton waste laws, and other game regulations are applied to wildlife that’s raised as livestock. But that doesn’t change the fact that Traversie killed a whitetail out of season, trespassed, wasted a whole deer, and still felt compelled to post that grip-and-grin to social media. Now more than ever, Pat Durkin’s old Wisconsin proverb rings true: “Deer make people stupid.”

I wonder who won the 2017 contest.

I will take it. Free, right? Since you posted absolutely nothing about it....

Axisworks in Tempe Phoenix Custom Rifles in Tempe Southern Express

Nice conclusion to this story. Buck is now with G&F. Convicted poacher loses license for 10 years. And is currently a felon. 18k in fines. At least 4 other poached trophy bucks, a trophy bear, and a coati brought to light and confiscated by G&F, except one that "the coyotes ate the antlers". Poacher also convicted of fraud. A fellow poacher involved got busted too.

Who was the taxidermist? That is a fast turnaround. That photo on the wall does not do that big beautiful buck justice.