TAM

Great ram! Great story! I can't wait for my turn........ 12 points and keeping my fingers crossed!

Clay, not everyone limits themselves to 400 yard shots. While I do everything possible to get 400 yards and under, sometimes it just isn't possible or there isn't enough time/light to do it. That's why I have a custom rifle and custom hand loads to shoot out to longer distances. I practice year round at the bench and in the field under "hunting" conditions to make such shots and feel confident in my equipment and abilities. Yes, I'll admit the 1200 yard range finder is over kill for myself, but they aren't always perfect either. The way I figure it is that if I wanted to take shots out to 400 yards I wouldn't buy a 400 yard range finder because they don't work as well at there maximum capicity. I have a Bushnell 600 rangefinder that will almost always work out to 450 or so, but after that it is hit or miss and depends on light and the reflection of the target. Even my Leica 1200 will not pick up every object at 1200 yards every time, but it's pretty darn reliable out to 900+ yards! For shots out to 400 yards I'd buy at least a 600 yard and perhaps even an 800 yard range finder. If I wanted to shoot futher I'd adjust accordingly. Sometimes it's also nice to know what the distance to a target is even if it's outside your shooting range. That way you know how much further you've got to move in to be within your limits.

Yep, ASU won like I hoped they would, but in my opinion both teams looked real bad! You would have thought that one of them would have brought there A game and made the other look bad, but that wasn't the case at all. Dissapointing game to watch either way if you ask me.

I've seen rut activity during the first part of the late December hunts, but it intensifies the later the hunt goes. I also think that the further north you go the earlier the rut will occur. A lot of times you will see middle age bucks gathering does early on and seemingly rutting it up. However as soon as the rut really kicks into full swing a larger more mature buck will step in, give the boot to the middle age buck that did all the work in gathering the does, and cash in on the younger bucks work.

Nice bull, cool pic's!!! I love the indian rock art, I've always wanted to find some on my own.

Congrats on a nice buck!

I'd be surprised if a 222 buck was the biggest unless you're talking net score. Opening morning a guy shot a 43 inch wide buck that I think would easily score more than that. Perhaps it's the buck that Cory's talking about. I personally measured the spread on this buck so I know it's no rumor. Grizzly, I was in camp with Howie, and he did shoot a real nice buck. We took 4 nice bucks in 3 days! Here's a link to another website with the 43 incher. You have to scroll down nearly to the bottom. http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID6/15739.html

Great buck, especially considering the weird weather conditions up there this year!!! Congratulations.

Real nice! Up high is where it was at this year.

Nice write up and a great buck! Thanks for sharing.

I use a Leica 1200 and love it! I wanted a range finder that would preform everytime out to 900 to 1000 yards and this one does just that. Check with Doug at Cameraland, I think he's got some real good prices on them.

I know you're comparing the Leupold and Nikon, but I like the direction that Red Rabit is going. I own a Zeiss Conquest and I personally think that it is the best quality scope out there for the money right now! How does the conquest compare in price to the others?

I didn't say I forgot about it, I said I blocked it out. I just wanted to focus on one thing at a time!

I just recomended Guns Etc to a friend today. He just fell on his November coues hunt and busted his rifle stock and was looking for a good shop to get it replaced. I don't live in the valley anymore, but I've bought one gun from them and had several trigger jobs done with there gunsmith. I always got first rate service over there and if I lived closer they'd probably be getting more of my money!

Thanks everyone! Kevin, I'm glad you saw the post. I was going to email you the details but I couldn't find your address. Thanks for all your advise and suggestions. They really paid off. Elkhunter, that lady was super nice and you could tell she was very dedicated to her work. The truth is that I brought the gut pile back because of her genuine concern. I'm not sure I totally agree with all this save the condors from lead poison stuff, but I know she does and I can always appreciate anyone that is commited to a cause like she obviously is.

No short cape there. I left the entire hide from the tail to the neck/head. He had a big swelled up neck with real thick fur that there's no way I'd let go to waste! You just can't see it behind the log.

FCW80, I was just curious how much he would really weigh. since he died right there on the burm of the the water tank I backed my truck right up to the burm, put down the tail gate, drug him about 20 feet and loaded him in. Seems like people do a lot of guessing when it comes to "Live" weights and I thought it would be kind of cool to know for real. AZG&F did not require that I brought it in whole, but since I shot it with a lead bullet the lady at the check station practically begged me to bring her the gut pile. She even gave me the trash bags to bring it back in, and also entered my name in a raffle for a $500 Cabelas gift card. I never thought I could make a girl so happy by bringing her a fresh gut pile!!!! I even made the comment to her that if all of us hunters work together and shoot lead bullets and bring in our gut piles that perhaps the Condor population will sky rocket and they'll start issueing some condor tags? Her expression was priceless!!! Crazy, I had kind of blocked the Mexico hunt out of my mind while I was focusing on this hunt, but thanks for the reminder!!!

Way to go! I'd get him out looking for more.

Thanks everyone! I'm heading out on Thursday after turkey. I'll be gone for the entire 10 day hunt or untill I tag out, whatever comes first. With this cold front moving in hopefully it will get the bucks all stupid for the does. I'll be sure and let everyone know how things turn out when I return.

Just got back from a scouting trip for my Karp hunt next week and look what I found on the ridge that I'll be glassing from come next Friday morning. I rough scored it at 91 inches.

Same as all the above, start with three. But I wish it was just that simple. You have several different bullet selections, with several weight selections. Then you have several different powders to select from as well, but the fun doesn't stop there. After that you you have different bullet seating depths to figure out as well. When you add up all the possibilities, the number of different combinations is pretty overwhelming!

That's a dandy!!! I've got a straight up four like that that goes 54 inches and that one looks bigger to me.......... I'll say 56 and change.

Youngbuck, check your inbox I sent you a PM. That's a nice buck your buddy shot! It probably would have been another Kaibab monster in a few years.

My guess is that the reason for so many left over tags is because there was no internet application this year and everyone had to pay up front. Hopefully there won't be a internet application and everyone will have to pay up front for the Elk, Antelope, Deer, Sheep applications for this next year.

I got a 20a rifle pig tag, and got skunked on the turkey and buffalo tags.