TAM

I just got these pictures emailed to me from Randy. This is the first lion that the dogs treed that was dead in the tree. Randy went back with the G&F officer and pulled her out of the tree to see what happened. He said she had a deer kill nearby and her belly was full and her body was covered with bite marks from head to toe. Maybe Randy will get on here and tell his opinion, but it sounds like the female killed a deer and began eating it when the Tom came along and whooped her and ran her up the tree where she died. Then along come the dogs which jump the Tom and run him up a tree futher up the draw. Mother nature sure is cruel... According to Randy this is the first dead lion he has ever treed.

Have a great one Phil

I'm glad you were wearing the snake gear! I don't mind snakes, but I sure don't want to get bit by one.

Thanks everyone! I'll keep you posted on the weird skull. It's going to take a couple months for the beatles to clean it off, but I'll take some pictues of it and post them when it's all done. An interesting side note is that a few hundred yards before my lion treed, and in the same draw, a couple of the dogs were barking treed on a different lion in a tree. The only problem was that it was already dead! While some of the dogs stayed at that tree a couple of them continued the chase up the draw and treed the lion that I ended up shooting. Randy was going to go back in there yesterday with the game and fish officer to pull the dead lion out of the tree and see if they could tell what killed it. Since my lion jumped from that same general area, and the dead lion is much smaller we're thinking that perhaps my lion hurt it in a fight and the smaller wounded lion went up into the tree and died? I'll post more later when we know more...

A helicopter could fall from the sky and crash into your sleeping bag at night while you are in it. There are a lot of things that could happen to us when we go hunting. The odds of most happening are usually pretty slim. I think it's ok to be aware of the possible problems you may encounter and to prepare yourself for them. But don't let them keep you off the mountain. Go kill a big buck!

Scott, sorry I don't have any ideas on where to get your Bergers, but thought you may want to give JLK Bullets a call. For what it's worth JLK's are made with the EXACT same jackets as Bergers and use the exact same manufacturing process as the Bergers. The only difference is the JLK's have even higher BC's than the Bergers. I have personally killed animals with both the Bergers and JLK's both with the exact same devistating results. Give 'em a try! http://www.swampworks.com/jlk/

I'm no expert, but I just bought a T/C Encore this year for an antelope hunt and had excellent results with 260 grain Dead Centers over 110 grains of Blackhorn 209 powder. They shot right at one inch at 100 yards and about 3 inches at 200 yards. Not to mention that clean up and loading a second shot is MUCH easier with the BH 209 powder. Good luck!

Welcome

Usually the foam pads are lighter and often have higher R-values than the thermarest pads. However, I think most people agree that it's pretty hard to beat the comfort of the thermarest.

I've got a pair of rear tires mounted on rims from my Polaris Sportsman 500. They are the originals that it came with that I replaced when they wore out. The tires are pretty much wore out, but could be used as spares I suppose. The rims have some dents and dings but still work just fine. They've just been sitting in my garage for the past couple years and I wouldn't mind getting rid of them. I would take $25 per tire/rim. I live in Prescott and you would have to come pick them up.

Are looking for just comfort or is R-value and weight an issue as well?

Congratulations on a fantastic ram!

I think we should throw away all our guns and bows and modern technology and use people and fire to drive the herds over cliffs so we can hurt them and then go approach them and club them to death with sticks and rocks. Recurve bows are just too modern for me.

Well we made it back! As you can see from Tommy's posts we had a great hunt. I was able to take my nine year old son with me and I think everyone will agree from the smile on his face that he had a blast. The hunt itself didn't take long. I used Tommy's map service for the second time and he was dead on.... I mean that literally. Basicly Tommy sends his clients topo maps of the area that they will be hunting with areas flagged where he has seen deer. The area we were hunting was flagged in the exact spot where Tommy had seen a good buck last year. Our plan was to work down a ridgeline first thing in the morning that would allow us to glass finger ridges to our west and to the east in the area where the buck was spotted last year. Not more than 15 minutes and about a quarter mile down the ridge I saw what I thought was a deer in the exact spot Tommy had marked on the map for us. Sure enough it was a buck and after putting the spotting scope on it I knew it was a great buck for the area. I lowered the scope for Kade to see and he immediately said... "that's the biggest buck I've ever seen... we need to go shoot it!" So we did and this is our result. As I mentioned the hunt itself was short, but the tracking was long and difficult. I have to admit that I made a critical error in judgement when I took the shot. The only position we could find to give us a shooting lane was on a side hill and I was unable to get a level shooting position. In hind sight I should have found a better position, but we had already busted up some cattle and the deer was very alert. Not wanting to risk further detection and push the buck into nearby thick cover I took the shot from a very canted rifle position. This was a crucial mistake which resulted in a gut shot buck. So, since Kade's hunting lesson was brief his tracking lesson would be long. When we got to the spot where the buck was standing when I shot this is what we saw. There was a trail of partly digested stomache matter instead of a blood trail. As luck would have it my good buddy Jason, who is part Swahili and skilled in the art of tracking, was only an hour away and was quickly on his way to give us a hand with the tracking. After a lot of painstaking effort to follow the pooh trail, tracks, and few drops of blood here and there we finally jumped the deer. He only ran a short distance before running out of gas and rested under a tree where I was able to put the finishing shot through his chest from a short distance. Picture of my Swahili tracker friend Jason and myslef with buck. In the end all is well that ends well, and Kade and I had a great time spent hunting and trailing together. Thanks goes out to Tommy and Jason for all their help!!!

I guess I'm a day late and a dollar short... but happy birthday anyway!!!

Here are a few pic's for anyone that may be considering this. I hope Phil doesn't mind that I'm using a bunch of his pic's.

I think most of use just wrote it down and turned it over I just turned my head up side down... That's a good one!!!

Ha... I'm just ribbing you. Actually that's exactly what my dad would have said to me.... "You were born with two shoulders son, what's wrong with the other one?" Let me know when you want to have a little fireworks show of your own. Say about 3am sometime this winter when the neighbors are trying to sleep. I've got a little stash I picked up a few years ago in New Mexico that would fit the bill Hope you recover quickly

My uncle has killed more deer and elk than you can shake a stick at with his 22-250. Yes, I said he uses it for elk as well. Put the bullet in the right spot and it's a very effective round. He also uses a 7mm Remington mag but prefers the 22-250 because it doesn't tear up as much meat. I've been standing next to him when he shot both a mule deer and a cow elk. Neither took another step. I'm not suggesting that everyone goes out and buys 22-250's for elk hunting, but the truth is that it is plenty of gun for deer and even elk. The key is that the hunter has to know their limitations and be very selective with shot placement. I'm just saying this because nowadays there seems to be a trend that bigger is better. Sometimes I think bigger guns means you get to have a bigger ego or something like that. I'd much rather shoot a small caliber rifle accurately than a large caliber rifle inaccurately. For what it's worth I'm also in the market for a rifle for my young boys and will probably be going with the 243. My reasoning is that I believe the 243 has a little more room for error if the shot isn't quite perfect. Good luck!

Right shoulder surgery they are telling me 6 Months before I can shoot I did do the same thing on a turkey tag and the day after surgery I was at camp Is somthing wrong with the left one?

I was at a gun show about 15 years ago when someone accidently discharged a hand gun. Everyone yelled and booed at the vendor and he packed up his stuff and left. Luckly the gun was aimed at the floor when it fired and no one was hurt.

Congratulations on your first archery Bull. I think a lot of hunters misinterpet the "first come first served" rule. In their minds I really think they believe that by placing their blinds or stands at the tank they are "first" and have dibbs on the tank. Way to go Blake!!!

Keeping your barrel cool is a great way to get consistant groups. I always look at a clock and wait 5 minutes in between shots. I even have a couple of rifles with carbon wrapped barrels which aren't supposed to be impacted by barrel heat and I still wait five minutes. Wether you wait one minute like RR or ten minutes always try to be consistant in your shooting routine. I like to do what RR said and bring a couple different rifles to the range and rotate through them. I always get a kick out of the guys at the range that rip off half a box of ammo of large magnum rounds in about two minutes and then complain that the gun won't shoot any better than 4 inch groups. Don't forget to follow the manufacturers recomendations for the barrel break in period. You may notice that your rifle will pick up as many as 50 FPS after the first 50 or so rounds have been fired through it. You should also try to do your range work during the cooler times of the year/day. Many of the powders on the market today are temperature sensitive and will shoot and group differently at various outside air temperatures. Good luck! RR, I've seen guys do the ice cube thing or a cool wet cloth, but I've never been able to get myself to do it. Not saying its wrong, just that in my mind guns and water aren't supposed to go together

I hunted there last year for coues and saw some good bucks. I didn't end up killing anything but my buddy killed a 92 inch buck on the last morning. We were in deer every day and we didn't have to hike 3-6 miles to find them. The truth is I had never set foot in the Burro's until the day before the hunt. You should really consider calling Tommy Maldonado at Gila Wilderness Hunting and use his map service. He is a member of this site and will put you on deer! We were so happy with his service last year that I'm using him again this year on my Burro Mountain mule deer hunt. Give him a call... you won't regret it. http://www.gilawildernesshunting.com/

Thanks for posting the pic of my lovley bride/cousin. I never knew she was that photogenic! Perhaps we could get my daughter and your brother Darrel together for some possum hunting and moonshine sometime before we have to pull anymore of her teeth?