catclaw

Wow!! I'll bet you are a fisherman too!!

I guess they are "local" thanks

OK, thanks Doug, I am hoping someone in Phx does it. I don't see myself driving to Parks in the near future!

I have seen a buck that had the right package but no antlers! This was during the December hunt so should have been month away from shedding time! My cousin killed a WT buck in unit 1 that had ivories! There is occasionally some weird stuff out there!

A frigid 32 here!

Actually, the Chrome-moly actions are no stiffer than any other action. They have a higher tensile strength and a greater yield strength but until that point is reached, no stiffer. They are easier to properly heat treat and ultimately stronger. That is their benefit. Bob Brackney is well regarded by those who know but no too well known. Too bad he's not in Mesa anymore!

My dad has an old horse that was given him and is really too old to be ridden. Being pragmatic, he wants to get rid of it so he doesn't have to feed. Would make good hound food if anyone is interested. Must be picked up in Mesa. PM me if interested. Dennis

My son tells me that he wants me to take him bear hunting during his fall break. Most of the close areas are closed to we head over to "The Blue". The first day we do some glassing in an area that has been productive in the past and do some calling. We had one fox come in. We climb into another canyon and do some calling. Nothing. We hike out and when we get to the trailhead a pickup is driving in and comes over to us to see what we were hunting. I recognized the guy as a friend I hadn't seen in nearly 10 years. Of course we now have to camp together. I take them to my "secret spot" but when they hear my plans for the next day they balk. I guess dropping into a canyon several miles wasn't in the cards for them. Levi goes right down below camp and calls in a fox- he called a lion in there last year. He sees bear sign so his is excited for the next day. On Tuesday morning we drop into this canyon and work our way towards the river. We make few stands. We are seeing sign that they are in the acorns so we remain vigilant. We have gone in further than I wanted so we start working our way back. About 1/4 mile later we are sneaking along in the oak trees when he spots a bear. We make sure there are no cubbies. I get set up and look through the scope. At the shot, I see the bear cartwheeling in mid air and then crashing down the hill! He made a perfect shot with his 308. We took some photos and then I caped it out and quartered it. We loaded up and started hiking. We had dropped about 1000' so we knew we would have to make that up. About 8pm I couldn't go any further with the pack load. My legs were cramping too much. He was pretty much done too. We dropped the packs and guns and hiked out to the highway. We laid down on the pavement and rested a while. Luckily, it was downhill to camp. We went back and drank some water. We were both badly dehydrated and had only 500 calories the whole day. It is now 9pm. We laid down on our cots to rest. I threw up all the water I drank- twice! It was midnight before we could function again. We broke camp and drove to the trailhead we came out on. We then went back down and found our packs and rifles. Once more, we climbed back up the mountain. We got to the truck at 2:30 AM, 12 hours after he shot the bear. My legs were still cramping but we made it back to town where we crashed at buddy's house until about 7. My wife thinks we do this stuff for fun!! Maybe I should bring her along- once! It was pretty exciting to see my son shoot his first bear and even spot it before me! The 180 grain Norma Oryx is a great bullet. Complete pass through and a dead bear in seconds. I don't think I will shoot one this year! One is enough fun. Two tired hunters!

Funny thread! Lark is right except I don't drink the Gary Schneider koolaid all the time. 4140 CM steel is far stronger and tougher than 416 SS which is what all rifle barrels except Lothar Walther and they use their own proprietary steel that they call LW50 which means nothing. Most custom rifles made these days SS barrels because people believe them to be better. They really only have a couple of advantages; they can be left unfinished and are serviceable which saves you money on bluing. The other main point is that there are a lot of makers, Gary Schneider being one (unless he has changed) ONLY use SS for their barrels. Also, some of the bigger and better companies only make their best barrels in SS. I have bought 3 Schneider barrels in the last 12 months as I believe in supporting the local guys and feel that his are as good as the next guy's button rifled barrels. My two main hunting rifles have a Krieger and a Chanlynn. I have had duds from two of the biggest names in custom barrels so nobody is perfect! He also does a good job with his fluting. I don't use button rifled barrels on my hunting rifles unless they have at least a #5 contour. I have had better luck with single point cut rifled barrels [Krieger, Pederson, Obermeyer, Rock, Chanlynn et al] in lighter contours than the cut rifled barrels. They seem easier to find loads for and shoot most stuff to the same or similar POI. Most all of these makers will sell you a barrel that is better than the sum of 90% of the rifles out there so getting worked up over one brand in a lighter barreled hunting rifle is just a feel-good decision and has very little bearing on the final product. You can use whatever barrel you want and excepting the real inexpensive barrels like Wilson, Adams and Bennet and a few others, your rifle will shoot as good as it possibly can. I would never buy a rifle action made of 416 SS but there are a lot of them out there. I prefer the MUCH stronger 4140 CM steel actions. With the wonderful coatings we have these days, the anti-corrosion properties of SS are a distant second to any other reason to choose that material. There will be no problems with the somewhat dissimilar metals screwing a SS tube on a CM action or vice-versa...

This horse is OLD but very kid-proof. Would actually be a good horse for little kids to ride. Probably has another year left at least.

Quentin Defense, Sun Devil- both in the East Valley and have billet lowers and upper.

A recent event hammered something home to me. I have mistakenly thought that wolves were pretty much limited to unit 27 and 1 with maybe an occasional trespasser on 25 and 26. Wow was I wrong! Three buddies of mine were hunting elk in 3C near Forest Lakes when they watched four grey wolves attack and kill a mule deer buck opening morning of the late elk hunt. The wolves toyed with the deer, killed it and ate the entrails and the rear end. They then left on their own. My buddies went down and looked at the deer and took the photograph posted below. They said that it sounded like someone had their E-caller turned on super loud with a deer distress sound! Wolves have ruined the elk herd in Yellowstone and now are well on their way to ruining the herd in Idaho. I hope they don't do the same thing here. Maybe a little S-S-S is in order! Be careful out there!

Elkhunter- you guys sure like those head shots don't you?

I have seen a couple of really old bucks that still had some velvet on when killed. I think that they just let it mostly fall off and didn't waste any time thrashing trees. They were "retired" I guess. Maybe same story with this old warrior.

I feel the same way about the butcher shop I used in Springerville... Couldn't have been worse!

My shovel is freshly sharpened! The era for wolves is over. Man has been trying to eradicate them since the beginning of time. They are in direct conflict with everything we do. If you like hunting deer and elk, then forget about liking wolves. We will reach a point where they will be pretty much replacing us as the main consumers of these big game animals. They are way better at breeding than lions and kill more animals for sport than lions. They are pretty much the kiss of death to our lifestyle if they get a real good foot-hold. No more deer and elk tags, few hunting licenses = AGFD out of money. They will either have to become a taxpayer burden (that will go over great) or be absorbed by some other department with a lesser role in life. Wolves are worse than bark beetles, zebra mussels, CWD and droughts all at the same time!

All the people I have seen actively doing wolf stuff have been USFW or USDA. All Feds or college students.

I'm not sure that 100 votes is enough to really endorse a business. I saw one meat processor touted as the best in the area and they totally suck, in fact, there was a discussion about it on this website a few months ago. You should have better vetting before you put your name on something- when I saw that processor was #1, I totally disregarded everything else in the whole directory. I mean this place SUCKS!!! I hope you get 500 voters so that you can get some meaningful data. Less than 30-40 votes for one business is pretty meaningless unless you really know the voters. Just my 2 cents. good luck though

That's the contradiction of the week! If you can't hold right to shoot 700 yds, it makes no difference the cartridge.

Ft. Huachuca is one of the premier communication centers in the whole world, they can pretty much listen to anything. There is a good chance that they are scanning all that stuff- say enough key words and they will probably tune in and pass the word. DHS is NOT going to give you access to their communications. period! Maybe you have had better luck getting a hold of them than me. I have never successfully talked to an operator or real person there. If that concerned, I would call 911 on your cell and just get the sheriff's office and they can pass it on if needed. I get cell coverage pretty much everywhere down there I can get my truck to.

A hard-core thief will get it but we are mostly dealing with the opportunistic thieves.

Give him two more years! I promise not to shoot him until then...

I can't believe that the bigger bulls are still tending cows. Wow, talk about a strong rut and a lasting one! Found a few bulls that weren't busted up too bad either. another Curious little buck

That's a really nice buck. You did well!!

I notice that those bulls are busted up just like about all the other bulls in 10. Too bad for those of you who have late rifle tags in 10 this year.