40-year-AZ-hunter

Have two new, in the boxes, never fired rifles for sale. First is a Weatherby Vanguard .257 Weatherby Mag. 24" barrel, blued with composite stock. $425 Second is a Winchester M70 30-06 with BOSS system. Pre-64 style action, stainless with composite stock. $525. Both available FTF in North Central Phx. Thanks for looking.

I see you are new to the forums, please check your PMs.

After 51 years of applying, I finally drew a sheep tag. I said I would take my time and enjoy the experience rather than try to kill the biggest ram in the unit on day one. The other 3 tag holders filled in 1 to 5 days with rams in the 160s. All had big camps with helpers. One must have had 20. I'm hunting with my wife who has been a real trooper. We have seen sheep most every day and rams most days. I've taken many pics and wished I had a better photo setup. I've tried to attach some. My big problem seems to be judging them. We have the whole month and am pretty sure we can kill a beautiful ram. I'm told that there are 170-180 rams here and I may well have passed on one or more, I just don't have much confidence judging score. Well, that's a summary of the sheep hunt in 44BN. Bruce

With all due respect, it has not been out of that box since it left the factory.

Thanks for the offer, but I can't use it.

Bump.

Hmmmm.....

I posted a picture of the label. Hope that gives you the info you need. I'm not familiar with the difference. It was purchased from Sportsmans about 5 years ago.

I thought I'd wrap this up. My wife and I spent 30 days out in 44BN, 23 days during December. Our main objective was to enjoy this sheep hunt. One fellow said "you're getting your moneys worth out of that tag". We looked at many sheep and took a bunch of pictures (with very limited photo equipment). Just as the hunt started, it ended with us having no idea how to field judge the score of these rams. I really tip my hat to the guys who can do it accurately. On December 25, we decided that it was risky to put off taking one much longer. While we had seen rams on most days, some were out of our capability to reach and successfully retrieve and twice during the season we had gone 3 days without seeing any rams. The weather was turning cold and very windy and the forecast was for more of the same. So on Christmas morning we spotted a group of 6 rams, some of which we had seen before, some not. It seemed like late in the season the rams would enter and leave different groups or wander off on their own. In spite of our limited ability to identify individual rams, we could see that was going on. It was howling wind so we just watched them all morning. About 11:30 we broke it off and went back to camp for lunch and let our 3 pet dogs out for a stroll. About 1:30 we returned and found them not far from where they were in the morning. After watching them for another 30 minutes or so, I decided to make a stalk on the oldest of the group. It was about 3/4 mile away and about 1/3 way up the face of a mountain. The wind was still blowing, altho not as hard so I wanted to get within 200 yards if possible. When I got there, there was too much vegetation in the way so I tried to get to the next small ridge about 125 yards away. When I got there, the two rams I was watching buggered and started running. I found a big rock and laid my coat over it for a rest and when the ram I had selected stopped at about 200 yards I pulled the trigger. He started running, but I knew it was a good hit. He stopped again about 30 yards further out and I was ready to shoot a second time, but he just fell down and expired. It was a good lung shot from the .257 Weatherby with 100gr Nosler Partition. As an aside, the rifle I chose to take hunting was left to me by my long-time hunting partner who passed away this past summer. He will be in the 150s with a bunch of deductions due to chunks out of his horns. I guess I could have killed as good a ram on the first day or many days thereafter, but the real objective after 51 applications was to hunt sheep. We might have stretched it out another few days, but I really did not want to go home with this tag in my pocket, so timing was important as the end of the month got closer. As a footnote, a good friend ( and I mean good, it's times like this when you really find out who your friends are ) from Kingman drove down the next morning with one of his protégées and helped my wife and I haul the ram off the mountain. Thanks so much Don and Laura! I've attached 3 pics, the first is the ram just before the stalk at about 3/4 mile thru the spotting scope. The second is my wife and I with the ram, and the third is Don, Laura and I with the ram. It seems a bit anti-climactic now that it's all over. No more anticipation every year of finally drawing a desert bighorn tag.

Just a quick follow-up ( can't figure out how to edit the original post ). A friend interpreted the post as an "SOS", ie the hunt was not going well. Quite the contrary, the hunt is everything I hoped it would be and I just thought I would share some pics! I just hope when I decide to pull the trigger, I am at least close to correct on the eventual score, whether he is a "book" ram or a pretty ram. Thanks to all for the encouragement and the offers to help! Bruce PS. In case you may have missed it, the pic of the lone ram also has doe deer in the same frame. I just thought that was neat. The ram was at about 40 yards and the pic was taken out the truck window. He could not have cared less that we were there. Thanks again guys for reading the post.

Dont know the answer to your question, but the pivot point where the stud usually goes is used on the Geovids for the rangefinder system. I made a "platform" for my 15x56 Geovids to sit on out of a small piece of plywood, a 3/8x24 nut, and some velcro. Looks a bit ugly, but stable as a rock and cost less than a dollar.

"...prefer these over my Swarovskis" That's heresy on this site :-) ( altho I'm a dedicated Leica fan )

Thanks Steve. Great talking with you and look forward to meeting you.

Sent you a PM.

Have for sale a Ruger M77 .270 Winchester with inexpensive Simmons 3-9x scope in Ruger high mounts. It is an earlier tang safety model made in about 1985. Some hunting scratches on the stock, but none deep. Checkering still sharp and clean. Bluing still nice with a few small spots like on the bolt release lever. Round count is unknown, but likely quite low and the bore looks perfect. I've only shot regular factory ammunition and most will group under 1 1/2". If you don't want the scope, I'll drop the price $20 and put it on another rifle. I live in Flagstaff but will be in North Phoenix Friday and Saturday.

This is why that list is BS. Maybe "levers" didn't like the shape the gun was in or it wasn't exactly what he wanted. Does that make him "bad" or just cautious about what he is buying. Or does it make FB67 a "bad seller"? There is way to much speculation about it to make a judgment on either person. Yep, I didn't mean "levers". He was second in line (post number 5). You are probably right about the problems with the lists currently being discussed. I do think there are a few folks on this forum that jump at something and later decide against that impulse purchase, perhaps without ever seeing the item in person. It's happened to me as a seller. It's frustrating to then have to go back and try to determine who was next in line. If an item is "hot" there tends to be a feeding frenzy sometimes.

Looks like somebody won't make the "Good Guy Buyers" list!

Looks like I have a chance to buy a new in box Winchester M70 30-06 with BOSS for less than half the new retail price. I dont care about the BOSS, but since it includes a muzzle brake I would not have to modify one of my existing rifles. It's a classic model so at least the action is quite similar to the old pre-64 M70 I have altho the rifle is stainless and has a composite stock. Hopefully this will fill the bill. At least it will give us a chance to try a gun with a muzzle brake.

My wife drew an early rifle elk tag after 15 years. Now we need to get her shooting a rifle larger than her trusty .243. I'm thinking of installing a muzzle brake on one of our rifles to cut the recoil for her. Even tho i've shot many rifles over 50 years, I've never owned or shot a rifle with a brake. Can any of you tell me the difference between the ones I see that look like they are added to the end of the barrel versus the ones I see that look like holes in the original barrel? Pros and cons? What is the rough cost of having one installed and do any of you have suggestions about gunsmiths that do it? Any info will be greatly appreciated! Bruce

Thanks guys for all the input! I guess I have some more studying to do. Noise versus kick is surely a consideration. I've long been aware that recoil is generally not felt when hunting, but sighting in some guns can sure be torture.

Depends a lot on how original it is and condition. $500 and up.

All M70s were factory drilled and tapped. 300 H&H improved is very similar to the .300 Weatherby without the radius-ed shoulders. Quite f few of the old 300 H&Hs were re-chambered for .300 Weatherby. While it hurts the value to a collector, it is a much better round for the shooter.

Sent you a PM.

Have for sale a very nice Remington 788 in .222 Remington. Bluing is near perfect. Stock very nicely refinished. Has Redfield type base and rings, and site holes with filler screws. Unknown round count, but bore looks perfect. Sorry, I can't figure out how to post pics, but can send via text or email. Listing for my best friend in Phoenix. Thanks for looking. My number is 602-633-5208.

Updated with Pics (I hope).