recurveman

Keep the head and get the outdoors compact medium tripod. I've got that setup and it is incredible for back country glassing. A bit heavier than the vortex summit (got that too and it is nice)

Well that does look like crap. But then again I haven't seen a really good chamber/barrel from a production gun. Honestly I've seen quite a few custom chamber jobs that looked like crap too. I think you have a couple choices. You could take it back and get another gun (don't know if that is even an option). You could see if it shoots good (you have shot worse looking barrels before but just didn't know it). If is shoots poorly then sell it. You could try lapping the barrel but I don't see those grooves coming out. You could put a new barrel on the gun. Would run about $700 for a top quality barrel and a quality chamber job that will shoot better than this barrel. I would shoot it. Then decide to keep it as is or sell it if you don't want to put a new barrel on the gun. long guns that aren't awesome don't get a spot in my safe.....EVER!!!!!!!

By weight not measured.

So......I told my buddy that if he drew a muzzy tag I would buy a muzzy (probably need one anyways) for his hunt. He drew the Kiabab east side muzzy hunt. So I bought the Remington Ultimate Muzzy and put the new Arrowhead breach plug into the gun. So I'm now to the point where I'm looking for loading advice. Only shot a muzzy once and I know little to nothing about them. I'm leaning towards BH209 powder and I'm guessing a 250-300 grain pill. Any advice on bullets, powders, velocity, cleaning tips, expectations would be great. I'm super familiar with reloading rifles but I need an education with muzzy's. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Chad

shot the muzzy this weekend with the arrowhead BP installed. Shot the remington 250 grain bullet and green sabot with 90-100 grains of BH209. Was shocked at how accurate the gun is. Shooting 100 grains by weight will likely end up being the load. Bullets were literally touching each other. Can't ask more than that. I was using a lead sled but recoil wasn't bad. Now my buddy just needs a deer to stand still at 100 yards.

I shot one off of water. I sat all day for quite a few days. Start you day with as many ice bottles (frozen gatorade, water, ect)as you can carry or get to the blind. Might even want to bring a YETI style cooler and put it in the blind. Bring a towel and dunk it in the cooler or find a way to put the ice bottles on you to keep you cool. Bring way more fluids than you think you might need. I think anytime after about noon will be your best time to sit but I would spend as much time as you can take in the blind. Personally that was a really tough hunt for me and the next time I hunt goats I will be using a very large caliber gun.....I don't care if it is a monster or not........I just want revenge!!!!!!!!

They are like $20 from Outdoorsmans. Some models have to be installed by Outdoorsmans which will be a different issue and I think they run about $100 or so.

So last year there was a sheep clinic was in the morning and the banquet at night in the same location. The clinic is worth going to if you aren't very comfortable with scoring sheep. You will learn a bunch about what to look for in a good old ram. They do spend a bit of time talking about really basic hunting which got a bit old at times. Though I'm sure that some hunters needed that too. The best part is almost all of the rams that were harvested the prior year were displayed at the clinic. Complete with unit # and score. It's very cool to see all the different sheep in one location and be able to compare them. That in of itself is worth the trip.....unless you are a sheep bad butt. If so, then sleep in and get drunk at the banquet.

this will last about 5 minutes. I wear XXL or I would buy it all.

Well now......that sounds like fun. Guess I'll make my buddy do all of the load development!!!!!! Luckily I have a lead sled.....but I won't tell him until we are done.

What would this load kick like? 300 win mag? 30-06? I'm fixing to dent primers this weekend.

If I was going to do another build today and wanted to use factory ammo.......First off I would get a custom action and build from there. Leave the original gun intact. If it is a money thing then sell the gun and put the money towards the new action. In regards to caliber I would probably do the 6.5 PRC because it has great ballistics and great ammo options. I would have a great debate with myself and look at the 6.5 SAUM too but only if you wanted to reload.

Just last year. My daughter shot a deer up on the Bab at 200 yards with a .243 and it went 10 yards. Bang flop. My buddy shot a deer at 100 yards on the strip with his 300 win mag (horrible shot placement) and it took us a ton of tracking, 4 guys, spotters, 4 hours and even more shots to get this animal killed. Big guns are rarely the answer. Being able to hit exactly where your supposed to hit the animal is the answer. If you hit the animal where you are supposed to then almost any caliber will do the trick. The big difference......I take my kids shooting quite a bit so that when it is time to pull the trigger they hit exactly where they are aiming. Both my kids killed deer last year with one perfectly placed shot.......Unfortunately I can't get my thick headed buddies to spend time at the range. I've seen or personally shot probably close to 50 deer and elk sized critters killed with a .243 (mostly with a 90 nosler BT). I've yet to see one make it 75 yards. 90% make it less than 10 yards. For the longest time my wife thought that when you shot an animal with the .243 they just dropped in their tracks and you would just go pick them up.

I typically don't shop price. I shop quality and pay the price. The difference between incredible and crap isn't that much money. Keep in mind you are going to look at this critter for the next 20+ years. Crappy taxidermy work will drive you crazy. There are also taxidermist that specialize in certain animals. I would look to see who does a great job with the species you are looking to get done. If you want a sheep done then use a sheep guy, CWT then use a CWT taxi, Africa, ect.

OR......you can just hit the animal in the correct spot and it will die with a .243. Magnums have their place but very few animals really need a magnum. Most guys would be a ton better off if they shot a much smaller caliber and spent more time behind the rifle. Most guys are also more comfortable shooting a smaller caliber and will shoot it more accurately.

Had a buddy miss one and it ran into a barbwire fence..........died shortly there after......

My kids are going to be using a .243 for elk hunting this year. We have shot quite a few elk with a .243 and they die really fast. I have also found that if don't hit the animal they rarely die. Can't tell you how many deer we have shot with a .243......Many on the Kiabab too. Or you can go get a brand new 500 super nitro mega magnum and be cooler than all the other guys up there hunting deer. Don't know anything about copper bullets.

Tripod was 32 ounces (plus 4 ounces for the center post. This is a must have!!!!!) and the head was 7.5 ounces. It is much stiffer than the carbon tripods that they had to try and the outdoorsmans. For the weight I don't think you can do better than this setup. Keep in mind that this only works when sitting down. If you want to stand then you need a bigger tripod. I personally never glass standing so this works for me.

Outdoorsman medium compact with extra center pole extension tripod. I use the outdoorsman micro pan head and it is awesome for 15's if you need light weight. Other great heads out there if weight isn't a obstacle. I think this setup is the best "light weight" set up you can get. You can get lighter and cheaper but both come at a price. There are a ton of great products depending on weight and price. For the most part you pay for quality and lighter.

OP - you should go down and scout at some time. There are a ton of turkeys down there and I find it enjoying to watch them gobble regardless of having a tag. Watched a group of 10 gobblers making noise towards the end of March. They would gobble every time I made a noise. Super fun hunt (did it back in 2015) and I would take a tag anytime I could get one. They are REALLY big birds.

Schedule a trip to a Texas game ranch. I learned a bunch about bullets in Texas and that is an opportunity rich environment. There really as so many variables it is really tough to perform tests that are accurate. If you shoot a deer at 75 yards the bullet may perform very different than if you shoot the same deer at 700 yards. The ELD-X bullet I'm shooting doesn't seem to want to exit an animal when shot under 100 yards. if I shoot a deer at 700-800 yards the bullets seems to stay together better and I will have an exit hole. How do you test that other than putting holes through hair? All critters died too so not sure that it mattered but just interesting to watch the changes.

I don't know what we use to be honest but I'm sure the endoscope is plenty good for what you need to look at your barrel. Basically you will look for copper fouling and throat erosion. Those are easy to see with just about anything. Only issue is getting something inside of the gun.

I don't think you need anything fancy (that one doesn't look fancy). I use one that is super simple. Can't tell you how many chambers I've look down. You will learn a ton by looking down chambers. Best thing you can do is look down a bunch of chambers and see the differences. After about 10 chambers you will notice a very bid difference and tell roughly how many shots are down the tube. The key area to look at is right as the bullet leaves the brass. Also the last few inches of the barrel will tell you quite a bit about how much copper build up you have going on too. Also there is a big difference between chamber jobs from a gun smith. Most factory jobs are rough and a good smith will have the chamber looking like glass.

I have a bell and carlson stock. They do very good and well worth the money. They will have plenty to choose from.

I have been very fond of using coyotes for this exact purpose. Not sure you will get the desired results with using a ballistic media. If I thought it would react the same in a critter I would do it but honestly I don't think most of the medias are going to work well for testing bullet performance. Going through hide, meat, maybe hone and then a softer internal organ is hard to duplicate with a ballistic media. I have found that bullets that work well on coyotes also do very well on deer. If the bullet didn't work good on a coyote the bullet also didn't do well on deer. Plus it is an excuse to go tip over a critter during the off season.