hunter4life

The .243 is a great caliber for kids to get started shooting. My brothers and I all started out with the .243 and killed a bunch of game with it up to the size of oryx and black bears all with one shot kills. We always used hand loaded 100grain Hornady BTSP's and never had a problem with them.

Congratulations!

Congratulations, that is an awesome year.

You can use a regular padlock. The ticket agent will have you put in a card that you sign stating that the rifle is unloaded. They then have you lock the case and TSA should not have to open it again, so you do not have to use TSA locks. They have always had me wait around for about 10 minutes to make sure that TSA does not want me to open the case. I am not sure on the ammo. I have always just put it in my regular checked baggage.

Great job on a beautiful velvet buck!

Congratulations, awesome buck!

Nice modification. I have the same problem and use a piece of parachute cord around my neck to catch the binos from falling if I don' close the top.

Congratulations! Looks like you had a great trip.

Nice work. It can sometimes be very difficult to get the horns to pop off on aoudad, any pointers on that?

Thanks for all the nice comments. It was an amazing experience. That country is probably on a whole the steepest area I have ever been hunting. Much steeper than the Colorado high country and even a little worse than tahr hunting in New Zealand. They also struck me as being similar to aoudad but the horns carry a lot more mass and have a different shape that is hard to capture in pictures.

Congratulations, nice bear!

Awesome, looks like a nice one.

My dad and I have used an aluminum (got the thicker walled one, I think 0.080") 2 rifle case from Cabelas that we got about 15 years ago. This case is tough and has been around the world on multiple hunts and has stood up to all the abuse the airlines could throw at it. I just quickly looked at their website and did not see an equivalent version so they may no longer be making it. I have seen inexpensive plastic cases destroyed on a single flight. I have never used or known someone who uses a tuffpak or pelican case so I cannot comment on them. It may be worth shooting scottyboy a PM as he also has done a lot of international travel and likely has a case he could recommend.

Congratulations! I hunted a bunch in medical school, but not quite so much during residency. It is a long road but will seem to fly by when you look back on it. I am finishing residency this month, a mere 9 years after I was in your current position.

I have done it in a single day in NM. However, they were not all fresh browns so I still have room for improvement.

Very nice photos. I saw my first elk calf this year last weekend in SE New Mexico.

The public land hunt would never be described like oz31p's description of the private land. There are a lot of tags given for the public hunts. Mostly muleys in that unit and you will find them all the way up to the top of the mountains. A few scattered pockets of coues. Neither quantity nor quality is really high, but ocassionally you can find a nice 10 point in the 150-160 range.

Congratulations on the birds. No Rios around that part of NM. A lot of our Merriams have the more buff colored feather tips. Probably half the NM turkeys I have killed look like that first one.

Congratulations! I see that you are from NM, are you finding them in last years burned area by Ruidoso?

Great story, and an awesome buck!

Awesome fox. I have only seen one red fox in southern NM, they are quite rare. I did manage to kill a silver fox a few years ago when I was deer hunting on Kodiak Island in Alaska. The pure silver phase makes up only about 1% of the foxes on Kodiak and is even more rare in other areas. I did a full body mount, it turned out good.

Bohuntr is absolutely correct. There is no void between the spine and lungs.

Great video!

There is some pretty good predator hunting in the area. The sand dunes to the East of town can be good.

If I wound an animal I look for it until the hunt is over, or I have to leave. I figure the tag is only good for one animal and if I wound something then my tag is filled. I have only mortally wounded and not recovered one animal, an archery elk about 8 years ago. I did shave hair and about a 1 inch piece of skin off an impala in Africa and got charged the trophy fee for that one. I like your rule Coues'n'sheep, I wish more guides and hunters would follow something like that.