lancetkenyon

My 10x42s are Meopta. My 15x56 & spotter are Cabelas. I had a relative drop my 15x56s about 8' down off some rocks. Cabelas ordered a new pair and shipped them to me no questions asked.

Save $700 and get the Meopta Meostar 15x56s. I have had a set for years, and they are amazing.

I have Meopta 10x42HD, 15x56HD, and a Meostar S2 20-70x82 spotter. I keep the 10s in a chest harness, glass with them out to a mile all the time. 15s are my main long range glassing optic. 1 mile out to 3+ miles easily. The spotter is for taking a good look at game that I find WAY out there. I actually have the 15s out at work this week. I was glassing towers for MW shots from my mountaintop from 7 to 51 miles away with the 15s. I have thousands of hours behind them. No eye fatigue, amazing color (I actually prefer the color a bit over Swaros), great clarity (only giving up the outer 5% of edge to Swaro), good contrast, and light gathering so good you can easily glass game during a moonlit night. I got my 10x42s from Sportoptic as a demo set. Saved a couple hundred and they were like new. I got my 15x56 from Cabela's. I had full intentions of buying the Swaro 15x56 when I went, with cash in hand. I took them both outside on a tripod for an hour with the optics counter lady. Side-by-side, I compared them. For the "$700" difference I thought I was saving, I could live with the outer edge being a bit distorted. Then, I got a great surprise. They were on sale, saving me another 10%. Then, I opened a Cabela's card and saved $200. Then, got an additional 10% off at the register, AND made Cabela's points. I basically paid $1100 for them when all was said and done. The Spotter is a Cabela's branded too. Got it in the Bargain cave and saved $500. Even at full price, they are a great buy. I would buy them again in a heartbeat.

If you had 10x42s, my no-brainer answer would be 15x56. The 12x50s make it a bit more difficult. But....what is your budget? Unless you are talking $700-1k+, it is hard for me to suggest either. I would take a great set of 10x42s over a $400 pair of 15s or a spotter. Put a great set of 10s on a tripod and find way more game than sub-par 15s.

If you weren't in western NM, I would take them. And I am out of town until Friday.

Lots of units can produce big Coues bucks in AZ. Dave is the man to talk to. Personally, I have only hunted Coues deer a very few times (once as a draw rifle tag, and a few times archery OTC). I am more of a Muley guy myself. The only Coues buck I have ever shot was in 24B. It was about 16 years ago. I have been told it is a pretty good buck. But back then, I had no $$$ to mount it. I still regret not saving up and getting it done. It is one my future to-do list to buy a cape and get it mounted.

4 legged or 2 legged fox hunting?

I will definitely agree with this observation. But a 6.5mm 140gr and a .338 300gr do NOT have the same BC. Lighter high BC bullet (still heavy for caliber @ .600 G1) cannot match heavy high BC bullet for caliber (.818 G1). So drift is significantly less with the .338 300gr. You cannot make a 6.5mm bullet with a BC that will ever come close to a .338s 300gr, because of the weight factor. They might have the exact same shape/BT/ogive, but the 140 cannot overcome the 300 due to the weight difference. Which makes the BC higher. Which makes less drift when pushed at comparable speeds. Now if you want to compare a 6.5mm 140 Hybrid (G1 BC .605) @ 2850 to a .338 275 Accubond (G1 BC .575") @ 2850, you are correct, that .338 275 AB will actually drift more than the 140.

I shot a .30-06 & .270 for years when I was a kid hunting with my Dad. No brake on them. 7RM for years after that with no brake. I got my first brake on my .300RUM when I bought it back in 1999. I shot 5 rounds with it.....and went and installed a brake. R700 BDL sporter weight @ 8+# was not friendly. Now, I am a wimp, and have a brake on everything except my AR and rimfires. My 6CM will even have one. Much easier to shoot LR when you can see your own impacts.

You have it backwards. 6.5CM w. 140 class bullet will be 2800-2900 average. Let's say 2850 because that is what my 6.5SLR shoots and I already have all that input into my ballistics program. .338 Edge w. 300 class bullet will be 2850-2900 average. Let's say 2850 to make it even. Drop is comparable out to 400, then the .388EDGE spanks the 6.5CM in ballistics. Especially with wind drift at drop at 1300 yards. 1700 yard comparison: 2000' elevation, 59*F, 10mph 90* wind 6.5CM w. 140 Berger @ 2850fps: drop 1273" (20.8MIL/72MOA), drift 197" .338 Edge w. 300 Berger @ 2850fps: drop 940" (15.4MIL/53.5MOA), drift 126"

Sorry Big Tub. Copywright 2009. No inclusion of hand loads, or high quality bullets. And ridiculously low claims. Saying a .260 is only good for a 500# elk out to 75 yards is asinine. And saying you need a .338RUM for a large moose @ 300 yards...…..stupid. But then again, we were talking about shooting steel, accuracy at 1300 yards, etc., not so much hunting. Even though I use shooting steel as hunting practice. I would not use a 6.5CM on anything other than coyotes @ 1300 yards. Not even a Coues deer or javelina. In all honesty, I have my own criteria for hunting. 1800fps minimum on target, regardless of bullet type/brand/construction, and 1000ft/lbs of energy for deer-sized game and down, and 1500ft/lbs for elk/bear that exceed 300# live weight. But, even though I have several rifles that are fully capable of taking big game @ 1000+, I have personally never shot big game over 662 yards. Coyotes though....if I can see em', I will send lead at them.

I have shot a lot out past 1300 yards. With everything from my 6.5SLR pushing a 140 HVLD @ 2850, to a 7RM pushing a 180 Hybrid @ 2996, to a .300RUM pushing a 230 Hybrid @ 3068, to a .338 Edge pushing a 300SMK @ 2820. My 6.5SLR is deadly accurate out to 1500 easily....on a calm day....on steel and rocks and stupid ground squirrels that inhabitnone of the areas I shoot. But I would never shoot at anything else living other than a jackrabbit or coyote at those ranges. That bullet/speed puts it subsonic at about 1580-1620 yards depending on conditions. I have shot it @ 1771, but those hit not only become more erratic, but much harder to see impacts for corrections. I think a lot of errors you are going to see over 1300 yards are wind induced. Even a 2mph difference will change POI (from 3mph to 5mph) almost 24" difference in drift, from 23" to 47". And that is if it is consistent. Swirling winds will push it all over the place. And winds change direction and speed across 3/4 mile easily. Meaning very hard to judge all aspects of it. Tailwinds induce less drop, headwinds induce more drop, full value winds push left or right, etc. Plus, you still have spin drift at 1300 to account for. And your zero better be perfect L-R. And your ballistic inputs. And your velocity better have single digit ES and SD. A .338 Edge pushing a 300 Hybrid @ 2900 is going to have far less drift at 1300 yards. That same 5mph 90° full value wind only pushes the bullet 29" vs 47" with the 6.5mm 140. And at 3mph, only 13". So about half what the 6.5 140 drifts. That is a huge difference. Just because a bullet has a high BC, a lighter bullet is still going to drift more than a heavy high BC bullet. Takes more force to move the higher mass. Making a .338LM a much better ELR candidate than a 6.5CM. The 6.5CM definitely ups your wind reading game though, and far cheaper to shoot for practice.

Baby quail are striped. Darn Eurasians are invading everything I guess.

I remember you posted that somewhere before. Amazing photo. They can flat move when they need to.

Every rifle I own wears a Seekins 20MOA Picatinny rail and Seekins rings (except my rimfires). Makes swapping scopes simple when I get the urge or the need.

I have had a couple come across my phone from buddies. But not mine to share. Nothing monstrous yet, but some nice mature bulls hitting the dirt.

I have some you can borrow....

No fire forming 300 pieces of brass w. 6CM. And....Lapua small primer brass..... Don't get me wrong, I love AI and other "improved" cartridges. I have/had several (.250AI, .25-06AI, .280AI., 6.5SLR, 6.5SS) I considered another .250AI (I had a nice one for years) for this build. It shot a 115 @ 3000fps. This should do that as well, and the 6mm 115 has much higher BC than the .257" 115.

Reload your own.

Sneak peak. Not complete, but I went down to grab a scope from Eric.....and saw my baby sitting there during the bedding.

I still bowhunt. But the reason I do not do it as much, is I spend a lot of time hunting with family now, and none of them want to hunt as hard as I used to. Last archery buck I killed was 2013. But I had a rifle deer in 2012, 2014, and had deer hunts with Taylor in 2015 & 2016, and at least 1 elk hunt in the family for the past 6 years I concentrated on. Last year I spent a ton of time scouting for my long awaited elk hunt, but carried my bow around during the early, and late archery deer seasons a lot. Almost shot a couple different bucks while I was working across the state in December.

Only when it is very dry. Not when it has been raining.

I used to shoot 300-500 arrows a week. Then the political side of competitive archery really chapped my butt with the cheating that went on in an "honor system" sport where 70% of the top competitors have no honor. And if you get paired with them and are not in their clique, you get screwed whether you beat them or not, and then get accused of cheating by them when you don't shoot with them. Even with honest competitors vouching for you.

In my personal opinion, I like a bit more bullet for elk/bison. But a 6.5SAUM is amazing for everything else. From coyotes to sheep, coues to mulies, Javis to antelope, lions to bears. Lighter recoil, flat, fast, accurate, high BC 130-160gr bullets. I think a .280AI or 7RM range is about as perfect of an all-around gun as you can get for AZ game. The heavier 160-184 bullets put those in the elk range. Again, just my opinion. I know a few guys who have killed elk with 6 5s of all kinds.

In some aspects, I am a 10. In others, a 5. So that makes me a solid 7.5.