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Anyone? We're heading out tomorrow night after work. Trying to get this last detail squared away. Thanks.

Well my plans have changed. I was going to take my 243 for my coues deer hunt this coming weekend, but now I'm taking my 7mm Rem Mag. My dad called me last night and told me he won a guided mule deer hunt on the Piute Indian Reservation. He bought a single 100 dollar raffle ticket for it, and they called him last night to tell him the hunt starts Friday. Lol. He's not up to shooting big calibers anymore so he asked if he could take my 243, so I said yes of course. So it works out in the long run. I'll get to do a little more practice with my 7mm for my upcoming late rifle bull tag.

Congrats!!! Those are amazing. It's always fair to give at least 2 warning shots. Lol. I gave 4 warning shots on my last elk hunt, before I sealed the deal (scope turret was turned wrong direction once buck fever took over).

Lol. Awesome story!! Thanks for sharing.

If you want optimum life out of your brass, a Hornady headspace gauge bushing set is worth every penny. Put your sizing die in your press and keep pushing the shoulder back until you have no issues chambering the brass. Find your measurement it takes to achieve this, and then write it down. Then every time you reload, push the shoulders back to this measurement. It should help your brass life. Stretching and shrinking your brass too much wears it out. I get short life out of my 7mm Rem Mag because I'm running my loads at almost max load. But I don't get case separations. My primer pockets usually give up first. But I blame that on Winchester brass. Better brass would probably give me more reloads. I get almost 10 reloads out of my Norma brass in my 243 before I throw it out. I would have bought Norma brass for my 7mm, but I came across a bunch of brand new Winchester brass for a good price. But never again. The amount of work it took to prep the brass the way I like (cut the primer pockets to uniform depths, uniform the flash holes, run through the sizing die, cut the brass to the same length, deburr and chamfer the necks, and then clean) is a pain in the butt. The Norma brass goes straight out of the box to get primers, powder, and bullet. I'm going to quit being cheap with my brass. But I have 400 rounds of Winchester brass to use up first. Lol.

Here's how the 95 gr Berger Classics shoot out of my 243 Howa. Not too shabby for a stock rifle. The nice thing about the classic is the seating depth isn't supper critical, like the VLD's. I had a great load worked up for the 87 gr VLD, and it shot just as well, but I had to play with seating depth a lot before I could get it to shoot. Then the 87's got hard to find for a while, so I bought the 95's. I'm happy with them so far. 7 shot group at 100 (one got away from me, lol) 5 shot group at 500 yards

Love the Howa's. Very underrated rifles. I have one that's 25 years old, and it's still looks brand new, and the action is like butter. Great starter rifle here. Good luck with the sale.

5-6 reloads on a belted magnum is pretty good if you ask me. On my 7mm Rem Mag I load them very hot, and I only get 3 reloads before the primer pockets loosen up and become junk. I don't know if there's any truth to this (works for me), but I take my micrometer and measure a new peace of brass just above the belt, and measure my used brass after I resize it. Once the used brass grows to .0015" over the new brass just above the belt I throw it out. Or you can do the paper clip trick. Straighten out a paper clip and sharpen one end to a point. Then bend the sharp end to a 90 degree angle with the bend being small enough to slip inside the neck of your case. Drag the point up and down the inside of the case to feel for a depression in the area where the case separates. If you feel a lip in there at all, you should toss the brass because it's on it's way to separating.

Lol. "He's a 2x2 but he's a big little dude."

This is one of my favorite pre cooked dinner meals for hunts. TACO SOUP- 1 can red kidney beans 1 can pinto beans (I like the ranch style pintos with jalepenos) 1 can black beans 1 can tomato sauce 2 cans of Rotel (original or hot depending on your tastes) 1 can of corn (drain the corn first) 2 small cans of green chilles 1 packet of taco seasoning 1.5 lbs of ground elk or beef Brown your meat, and add all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Pour into bowls and eat with those large frito lay chips. Very good stuff. Double the recipe, and put it in some 1 gallon zip lock bags, and store in the cooler. Dump one in a pot and warm up for dinner. Wham bam thank you mam. Just make sure to leave your sleeping bag partially unzipped.

Thanks guys. Yeah any pictures would be awesome. I like the VLD. I've personally taken a deer and an elk with them now, and they both hit the dirt right there. I have a 95 gr VLD Classic for my 243 which I planned on using for this hunt. But I also have my 7mm with the 168 gr VLD that I'm very confident in as well. I'm almost thinking of using the 7mm on my coues hunt so I can practice some more with it, so I'll be even more ready for my late rifle bull hunt. I was just worried that it might be too big for coues.

How big was the hole? I'm bringing my 7mm Rem Mag with the 168gr VLD as my back up gun, for my November Coues hunt (just in case it gets windy or something).

Nice! That's what it's all about. I love helping out on my friends and families hunts. I enjoy watching someone else fill their tag just as much, or if not more, than filling my own. Great buck. Thanks for sharing.

Hodgdons H4350. I tried Varget, H1000, and a few others and good old H4350 was the best.

Load is in my sig, and it's very accurate. I'm shooting a factory barrel and I can hold 4" groups at 500 hundred with it. I'm averaging 3091 fps with this load too, and the brass life has been pretty good. In this pic I have a 7mm Rem Mag (168gr Berger VLD), 243 Win (95gr Berger Classic), 243 Win (55gr Nosler), and 204 Ruger (32gr Nosler).

Just do like all the other road hunters, and hold the steering wheel with one hand, and your rifle or bow in the other. Hehehe. J/K.

I've only seen one in AZ before, and that was 18+ years ago. I buy one every January, just in case lightning strikes and I do come across a lion. I keep a rifle and my mountain lion tag in my truck 24/7. I know I'll come across one again, just got to be ready for that day.

If you're not reloading yourself, try a box of good old Remington Core-Lokt. Good stuff right there. Like others have said, check your barrel twist rate as well. If it's 1:10 (which most 243s are), you'll want to stick to 95 grs or less as a general rule of thumb. A 95gr Core-lokt is good elk medicine for a younger shooter. Double lung it and you've got a dead elk. I know a lot of women that shoot 243's for elk (for the lower recoil), and they have killed a lot of them. Before I reloaded I shot the Core-Lokt, and it was a great shooter out of my Howa.

Without pics it never happened.

OMG! These are nice. Ritch knows what he's doing. Ugg, if I wasn't still buying stuff for my elk hunt I'd be all over this. Good luck with the sale!!

It's a phase thing too. What ever unit is the hot unit, will get hammered. 10 and 9 used to be hot, and have slipped over the last few years. Guides and hunters are getting more proficient. When they get in a unit that's hot they clean the old bulls out. Once it loses it's popularity, the bulls will come back within 4-6 years. The gene pool is still there, and the big bulls will be once again, but you have to give them time to grow. 23 is pretty hot right now, and it will probably see the same fate. But I do agree that tag numbers are getting a little out of control. I vote that they lower the amount of tags by 10-15% state wide, and raise the price of the tags to offset the $$$ they lose for several years until they get the numbers back in all units state wide.

Stay diligent, and don't get discouraged. This wind isn't helping anything. The wind effects all 3 of their survival senses. They see more movement than theyre comfortable with, they cant smell as well, and they cant hear as well. A lot of them are going to move a lot less in the wind. I bet things pick up for you starting tomorrow. And as people start heading home things will calm down and get better for you as well. Just stick to it and be patient.

With the pressure of hunting season upon them, they'll go dang near nocturnal. You need to find and area that does have cows in it, and wait for them to slip up. How are you hunting them? Glassing, sitting water?

Congrats. Looks like you got her down in the thick stuff. Lol. I got my first bull in 22 North, and it was quite the adventure. How long was your pack out?

Squirrel and dumplings is really hard to beat. Take a good chicken dumpling recipe that's done in a crock pot, and replace the chicken with squirrel. Make sure to add some all spice to it (before eating), and enjoy. That's how my okie family taught me how to eat squirrel.