TAM

Well after nearly a year of waiting I finally got her, and she's a shooter! 300 RUM built by Todd Betin out of Iowa. Stiller Predator action, ABS carbon wrapped Shilen 28 inch cut rifle barrel, Lone Wolf carbon Howler thumbhole stock, Timney 2.5 pound trigger, BDL style Wyatt box, Stiller pictinny rail, Burris extreme rings, titanium muzzle break w/ cap, black cera cote, Limbsaver pad, and topped off with a Huskemaw 5-20 scope. Should go right around 7 pounds scoped. I just shot her for the first time today and I couldn't be any happier with the results. my best group was 0.379 inches and I'm only getting started. With a little tweaking here and there I'm quite sure I'll get her down into the .2's. All of my rounds fired today were those JLK bullets. They're made the same way as Bergers with the same J4 jackets only they have higher BC's than the Bergers.

Thanks for the comments guys! RR, You're right there will be some trade off by going light. I've never been very recoil shy so I'm not that worried. When shooting with the break it's no big deal, more of a push than a punch. After I get some good loads dialed in I'll spend a little time shooting without the break. I shot a buddys rifle with a thumbhole for the first time many years ago and fell in love with the concept right away. It does have a little different feel as your engaging the trigger that takes some getting used to, but in the end it is a more comfortable shooting system in my opinion. CS, the gunsmith ordered all the components, so I really have no idea how long it took??? The total time from when I ordered the gun until it was delivered was probably 11 months. I wasn't in a big hurry so I didn't really care to much about time. I had heard the same thing about ABS before I ordered the gun, but more recently I've heard they are doing better. If you want a light weight rifle then carbon wrapped barrels make good sense! Gino I'll see if I can take some better pic's of the break and post them. My camera won't take good pictures up close like that so I may have to barrow my wifes camera.

CS, yep... good memory. ABS carbon wrap over a Shilen cut rifle barrel. 28 inch tube, Predator action, McMillan thumbhole stock, Limbsaver recoil pad, and I topped it off with a Huskemaw 5-20 scope. The test targets from the gunsmith all have cloverleaf groups. With regards to the original topic, my ears have seen to much abuse from shooting and loud concerts in my younger days. I'm pretty sure I have some permanant hearing damage from my past poor judgement. When I shoot at a range with a canopy and other shooters nearby I always double up on my ear protection. I have never owned a rifle with a break before and I hope I never make the mistake of shooting it without ear protection! I don't want my ears getting any worse than they already are.

I'll take a couple pic's and post 'em up tonight just for you RR. Probably put them in the rifle/reloading section.

Gino, the rifle those came off is my brand new custom 300 RUM. I just had it shipped to me a little over a week ago and I've not even been able to shoot it yet because of all the snow. With that said, from what I've been told the break will change the POI, but not the velocity, pressure, group size, or anything else. If that is true I will use the break at the range for load development and then switch to the cap for hunting. Of course I'll have to test everything out for myself, but that's all I know for now. Hopefully enough snow has melted that they will open the range today and I can finally shoot my new toy! I'll keep you posted.

Jade if you don't find what your looking for in Phoenix, send me a PM with exactly what you're lookin for and I'll take a look at a few of the local shops here in Prescott. Prices are going up, but I can still get most everything I need here in town.

What Goodoleboy said is right on. Have your gunsmith build an end cap. When you're shooting at the range you can use your muzzle break and hearing protection and when your hunting you can make that one shot kill with the regular end cap. Here's a pic of mine.

Hey Josh a big congrats to you guys and your pack of dogs! Thats a great looking cat. I talked with Mike yesterday and he's feeling pretty sick right now!!!

I remember when SW opened the first store in N Phx and they hundreds and hundreds of duck and goose decoys taking up floor space. I doubt they ever sold, probably just shipped them off to another store in a market with better duck hunting. It was pretty apparent that they didn't do much due dilligence on the Arizona hunter demographics. Things have changed a lot since then, but I think there problems now are more money related.

Glen Beck was talking about it on his new TV show last night. He's supposed to be interviewing the ranch owner here pretty soon.

Gino, I responded to her with the exact same question. If it's really about managment and creating opportunity then why not manage archery deer like we do for bear? It seems to me like it would be a good idea.

Just a guess, but I'll bet as soon as the sale of SW is final the new ownership will get the stores shelves re-stocked pretty quick. I highly doubt they're buying them out so they can be the new owners of a failing retail chain.

Looks like a solid 10 inches or so here at my house in Prescott. The kids are loving it and no school to boot!

At the end of the day they're still the same old Cardinals...... CHOKE!!!!

Great job Gino!!! Looks like you had another great season with family and friends.

Thanks for the comments everyone! Casey you're right the bucks right side is amazing it was scored at 55 7/8 inches. I couldn't be any happier with this buck and how the entire hunt turned out. Tim

I'm heading south tonight for a week of coues deer hunting in Sonora. Hopefully I'll have a few stories to tell and a picture or two to pass along when I get back next week.

I killed a reall nice lion with Randy Epperson about three years ago. He's a great guy and has great dogs! I highly recomend him.

Sorry, I almost forgot........ 113 6/8 even with 3-4 inches broke off.

This is the third year that I've had the opportunity to hunt in Mexico with Dan Bishop of Cola Blanca Outfitters. Dan runs top notch hunting camps and puts out some great bucks every year. We all met in Tucson last Wednesday morning and made the drive to the Douglas Port of Entry. We declared our firearms at the border and to the Mexican military without incident. We then drove to Cananea where we got a bite to eat at a local restaraunt followed by about a two hour drive to the ranches we hunt. This year we actually made it to the ranch house with about an hour of glassing light left in the day so we didn't even unpack, we just grabbed our binos and rifles and glassed some nearby ridges for deer. These are the two ranch houses we stay in. The next morning my guide wanted to take me to a part of the ranch that no one had hunted since the previous year. He wanted to sit on a high spot with a 360 degree view of awesome looking country. The weather was overcast with a slight drizzle as we sat atop our vantage point looking for deer. We seperated ourselves by a couple hundred yards so we could cover more country. The drizzling rain seemed to have most of the deer holding tight and not moving much but I did see several groups of does. After an hour or so my guide came and told me that he saw a pretty good looking buck with some does that we needed to get a closer look at. I gathered my stuff and we hiked over to a ridge over looking the area he had been chasing does. After a few minutes we were able to pick him up but he and his does had moved further away. We were able to see enough of him that we thought he'd go at least low hundreds and possibly more. We tried moving in closer but by the time we got there he was gone. No big deal we were only into the hunt an hour or so and had seen a real nice buck. We decided to go back to the truck to look at some more country and leave this spot for that evening or the next morning. Views from my vantage point on the first morning. As I stood up from my glassing spot I noticed a pecular shaped rock just a few feet away. I new right away what I was looking at but couldn't believe it! It was an old indian Matate. I had always wanted to find one and finally had. It's an odd feeling to stand over a rock that had been used perhaps hundreds of years ago by indians to prepare there food. I took several pictures and started hiking back to the truck. We only went a hundred yards or so before I saw another, and then not to far away we found a couple more. The ridge we were glassing from must have been an old indian camp or village. That was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me. After the hike out from our morning perch we decided to go to a spot where my guide had seen a nice buck that had a sticker coming off the inside of one of his points. He had seen this buck on several occasions and thought it would still be in the same area. As we got out of the truck and starting gathering our gear for the hike we saw a white flash on the ridge about a hundred yards to our right and realized that we had jumped a couple deer. A quick look at the deer as they topped the ridge and we were both saying that the second was a buck with quite a bit of bone. We immediately changed our plans to go get a better look at this buck. We got back in the truck and drove around the ridge he went over to another rock knob where we should be able to get in close and see right into the area the buck had just ran into. We quietly hiked up to the top of the rock knob and as we peaked over with our binos we immediately saw the buck and he was looking right at us. He knew something was up and turned to walk away. As he turned his head we both saw he was a 4x4 with good mass, good tine length, and good eye guards. I quickly grabbed my rifle and started setting up as the deer was walking down a small cut. There was no time to range him but he was close enough it didn't matter. I found him in my scope and followed him for 50 yards or so untill he stopped, turned broad side, and looked back at us. That was his last mistake.... BOOM! He was down in typical Berger fashion. It all happened so fast I started second guessing myself. After all it was only about 10:30 on the first morning of my hunt. As we approched the buck we knew he was good. I knew I had accomplished my goal of shooting a buck larger than my previous best of 101 inches. He has a lot of character! Long bladed eye guards. Four points per side. Dried velvet that had never been rubbed off. A couple little stickers off his main beam. He's just a super cool looking buck! I know a lot of guys here are interested in how the Berger bullets perform. I was using the 140 grain VLD's out of my .270 Wetherby Mag. The muzzle velocity is 3230 FPS. If you look in the previous pictures you can see the rock pile I was shooting from when I shot this buck at 201 yards. The bullet hole you see in the bucks right shoulder is actually the exit hole. This is the third animal I've shot with this bullet and it's the first one that has passed all the way through. None the less the buck went straight down with nothing but a leg twitch. Entrance Exit Now that My hunt was over I got to help out the other guys in camp. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed hunting without the monkey on my back. I don't have any pictures, but on Saturday morning I glassed up a mountain lion and was able to watch it for about 10 seconds before it disapeared in the brush. I've only seen three in the wild and this was the first one that I've ever glassed up. The day after I killed my buck one of the other hunters in camp killed the buck that we had seen on the first morning. He was a real wide and tall 3x4 that taped out over 111 inches. Another hunter waiting for the buck to stand Jamaro might recognize this country The master himself! Code name Delta Bravo This turned out to be one of the best hunting trips I can remember. Matates, Mountain Lions, good people, good food, and even some real good deer. I hope I get to go back!

Yep, I got home last night about 9pm. I haven't even down loaded the pic's from my camera yet. I've got a few things to do with work and family today but I should be able to have pic's and story on her today by about dinner time.

Perhaps BO will give them the Pardon they deserve?

That gives new meaning to the expression "Double talk"

Mike, I think there are a lot of people that are supporting this issue that feel exactly the same as you do! They want to keep salt, but could care less about feed. I think Catclaw, Gino, and others are not ripping on you for your opinion so much as inviting you to to join the fight against baning both salt and feed. The two methods are very closley related and if we loose feed then it's only a matter of time before the G&F will come back trying to take away salt. That's just how politics work, one small step at a time, give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. I know you think it's BS, but hunters do need to stick together and fight for these issues side by side, rather than battling ourselves over it.

Sorry guys but the Cards are the absolute worst sports franchise in all of professional sports! I'm actually a little surprised that so many of you are willing to spend your hard earned money in support of such a racket! The Bidwells are beyond bad as far as owners are concerned! My favorite team is who ever is playing the Cardinals. Every year is the same old crap..... we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, yada yada yada! Even a blind squirl (or Cardinal) finds an acorn every now and again. For what it's worth, it's not the players I hate it's the ownership. Although the way they've played the last few games I wouldn't bet against them, but that doesn't change the way I feel..... GO STEELERS!!!