recurveman

Honestly the weight for hunting purposes is more important than an actual stabilizer. Same applies to competition rifles. For distances under 50 yards the difference is very minimal. For distances past 50 yards you really will need a longer stabilizer than most hunting stabilizers to have a true affect on accuracy. So if I was going to try and shoot an antelope at 60+ yards I might consider shooting a stabilizer. If I was doing most other hunting.........I don't know that it really helps that much. Given most shots under 50 yards. Now shooting 300 arrows a week.......that will make a huge difference.

I have been using the AAE Max hunter vanes for a bunch of years. My wife was shooting gold tips with gold tip vanes. Shot OK until we put a broadhead on the arrow. Then all heck broke loose.......Kind of expected it. Fletched her arrows with 4 fletch helicol AAE max hunters. Her groups tighted up and the fixed blade slick trick head flew right into her field point group. Then switched her to the easton full metal jacket arrows with the same fletching system.......What a differnce!!!!!! I like the higher profile vane to stabilize the arrow a bit better. The stiffer material will also help stabilize the arrow better. Give them a try and I think you will like them. Worse that could happen is you get to try another vane if these don't work. I haven't seen them not work when we use a 4 fletch helicol............except one time a buddy wanted to shoot a HUGE fixed blade broadhead. Then it took 6 vanes. Long story but it worked.

If he shoots in a 10 MPH full value wind then he will miss the target regardless if the gun in Sub MOA or 1.5 MOA. That would put him at 8.9" plus 1.5" (assuming a 1/2 MOA gun). So basically missing the mark by 10.4". At that point the shooter needs to gain some skill or not take the shot. Making the gun a 1/4" gun doesn't make up for missing a wind call. That is my point. An MOA gun with a shooter that reads the wind and understands how variables (lots of variables other than wind affect the POI) will affect the POI of the bullet will out shoot a guy that has a 1/2 MOA gun that believes that he can just adjust the top turret and let the bullet rip. So I guess to answer your question. If all the other variables are not accounted for.........The accuracy of the rifle isn't the biggest factor in missing a shot. The difference between a 1/2 MOA gun and 1.5 MOA gun at 400 yards is a max of 2". Given a 2" circle and a 6" circle. The crosshairs will be within either 1" of center or 3" of center. That equals 2" difference. The wind call you were talking about is a 8.9" miss. The external variables are more important than a super accurate rifle. Now don't get me wrong. My rifle will be really accurate, I will have a fouled barrel (every time), the gun will physically be sighted in at the elevation I plan to hunt, my dope will be for the elevation I plan to hunt, my powder will not be temperature sensative, gun/scope will be level, angle of shot, ect. You get my point. I will also verify that the claimed BC of my bullet actually performs as marketed out to 1000 yards. Or I will make the needed changes in my dope.

Well if you have a 6" group and aim in the middle of the group.....The distance from the center of the group and the outer edge of the group is 3". Your bullet will be within 3" of where the crosshairs are placed and the shooter does his part.

Accuracy and long range shots are two very different topics. Variables other than accuracy will account for a greater change of impact then the accuracy of the gun. Problem is frequently hunters thing that they have a 1/2 MOA gun and that means they will shoot 1/2 MOA at 800 yards and can just change the top turret on their scope and whack critters at any given distance. Not going to happen. Honestly I think the OP could shoot factory ammo and have an MOA gun. An MOA gun is plenty good enough for 99% of the shots in the field. 1.5MOA isn't the end of the world. If they were to shoot 400 yards then the bullet would hit within 3" of where they are aiming. That will kill a WT deer in AZ everytime. Now the other factors might change the point of impact by more than 3" but that isn't the guns fault. That is the shooters fault. They would miss by that much regardless if they have a custom 1/2 MOA gun or a 1.5MOA gun. That is my point. Having a super tight shooting gun doesn't account for most of the misses in the field. Had a buddy just get back from an NV antelope hunt. There was a hunter with them that shot 22 rounds out of a gun and finally killed a buck. 22 rounds out of a sub MOA gun and was missing the goats by FEET not inches. An accurate gun is the easy part of the equation. Understanding how to use the gun and taking the time to learn the gun is the important part.

If you can't hit the animal with the first 2 shots.........

Let't keep in mind that he is looking to shoot max of 400 yards with this gun. Personally I would go buy factory ammo and see if it shoots 1.5 MOA or less and be done with it. If he can hit within 3" of where he is aiming at 400 yards that would kill any animal he is going to hunt.

I'm not the biggest picture taker. I just like to spend time in the field and catch and kill stuff.

seating depth has less to do with accuracy than the powder charge. Get an good group with a powder charge and then mess with seating depth. If you are only going to shoot 400 yards.........Just put some powder in the cartridge and make it go BANG!!!!!!!

So this is what I do. Normally I start out with a lower charge for the cartridge and add power in .5 grain increments. I will typically shoot 3-5 rounds per load. I always use a chronograph. I will typically load up charges that I know are going to be past max. I start out shooting the lower charges and go up in grain weight with each new load. I'm always looking for pressure and I expect to hit it at some point in the day. Stop shooting the hotter loads once you hit pressure signs. You will need a bullet puller to get the bullets out. Normally you will see the groups open up and tighten up as the load goes up in grain weight. Normally I will find 2-3 nodes (or loads) that are better than others and at different speeds. I'll pick the speed that I want to shoot the gun at and then I will fine tune the grain weight of powder from there. Then I will do .1 or .2 grain changes in powder as needed to fine tune the load. So in less than 50-70 rounds you should have your first round done and then about 20-30 rounds the second trip. Side note. Normally the hottest load isn't the most accurate. I usually pick the second load down and use that one. Never had a deer complain about 50FPS slower bullet yet.

I like the slick tricks. I shoot the standard slick tricks. Killed my elk with one last year. Did a good job. You couldn't pay me enough money to shoot a mechanical at anything but small game. Here is my theory on broadheads and killing critters. The only thing I want out of a broadhead is DEEP PENETRATION!!!!!! If you put a hole through the vitals it doesn't matter if it is 1" or 2" in diameter.......The animal dies 100% of the time. Now if you have a really large hole that doesn't penetrate to the vitals then the animal lives (yes I have see this with mechanicals more than once). So give me a smaller, deeper hole every time. Plus, if you can get an entrance and exit hole you just doubled the number of holes that can leak all that red stuff on the ground that we like to follow. Sometimes the fixed blades take a bit more to get to fly strait but that is nomally a super easy fix.......tune your bow and add fletching with helicol to your arrows. Fixes it 98% of the time.

Well I could report some really great boat rides too!!!!!! Just got to put the time in to have a few great trips.

I can predict the rut with 100% certainty. The rut is directly related to my allergies. If my allergies are horrible the rut is great. If my allergies are mild then the rut will also be mild. This has held true 100% of the time for the last 25 years. Basically I think if the monsoon rains are better then the rut will be stronger. There must be a plant that blooms and my allergies get really bad at that time. If we don't get enough rain for that plant to bloom then my allergies are easier to deal with. From what I have seen I would expect a very good rut.

Just got back from the 8 day on the intrepid starting the 9th. We fished the big tuna for 1.5 days and got 12 of the big guys with 7 of them going over 200#. I did not get one of the big tuna. We then went way south and had wide open yellow fin tuna fishing. Pulled on tuna for 9 strait hours and when we left they were still biting. The next day was wide open yellowtail fishing and kept quite a few but everything under 12# we threw back. Probably caught north of 75-100 fish that day. The following day we got into really nice yellowtails in the 25-35# range. Also mixed in a 20# bluefin and (2) 30-40# groupers for the day. They pulled much harder and we fished those for 9 hours and rarely did you bring a bait back to the boat. So sore I could barely turn the handle anymore. Final day was catch and release 4-7# calico bass. Every cast we caught a fish for about 3 hours. Sent 560# of fish to 5 star processing. Fish fry was Sunday. Lots of fish out there guys. Go get some!!!!!!

There are a ton of people saying how bad antler growth is going to be. I don't think it is going to be awesome but I don't think it is going to be nearly as bad as everyone has made it out to be. The winter was very mild. The critters were in awesome shape going into the winter and there was a bunch of food from the previous year for them to munch on. It won't be a banner year but I think there are going to be a bunch of really great bulls shot this year. I'm seeing quite a few bulls that just about every hunter in the woods would shoot opening day with any weapon. The only way I would turn a tag back in is if I had max points and drew an early rifle tag for a mega premium unit. Other than that I would enjoy the season. So here is a prediction. The rut will be great this year. Much better than last year.

Well here is a 7E rundown. "most" of the elk will start the hunt up on the big hill. "most" of the elk will leave the big hill after about 3-6 days and heavily migrate north. Personally, I would start towards the north and head south until I found elk. The other weird part with this unit. If you find tracks and they are fresh...........don't think they will be back. They might be or they might not be coming back. The elk can really migrate during this hunt and you need to get in front of them. That being said. I killed a bull up on the hill (9200 feet) one year on the 8th day of the season. I was the only guy to see a bull that year. All my buddies were up north in the flats and they didn't migrate because it was so dry. I was also very unpopular when I came back to camp and said "let's go get my elk". I almost got shot that night. I would shoot first available but you could see or shoot a really good bull too.

Well here are a few things. If you have a gun that shoots less than MOA out to 1000 yards (or your desired distance) then great. It doesn't happen as often with a factory gun. For most hunters having a factory gun that shoots MOA will get them out to 400 yards and they are done. Go kill stuff and have fun. Once you get past 400 yards there are a ton of variables that will affect your point of impact. One of the big ones is variation in speed from shot to shot (wind is also huge). Reloading can typically take care of the that issue. It can also make the speed variation worse. That is why guys "develop" a load. Basically they try a bunch of crap (powders, bullets, primers, ect) that doesn't work and keep trying stuff until they find something that works great. I would rather have a factory rifle and handloads than a custom rifle with factory loads. A custom rifle with factory ammo is a waste of money in my book. So if you are thinking about building a custom gun I would start with learning how to reload and see if you like it. I personally love all the geeky math crap that is out there. You could get lost in the math and numbers of handloads. The next thing you know you will be looking at powder burn rates, pressures, bearing surface, neck tension, standard deviations and a bunch of other measurements. It is stupid crazy and a blast if you like that stuff. Most of my hunting buddies just want me to get them a load that shoots a good group and be done with it. I love the details of reloading. The other big reason for a custom gun over a factory gun is consistency. Normally a custom gun will have a heavier barrel (so it will be consistent from shot to shot), after market trigger, free floated barrel, action starts life as a trued action. It will shoot great unlike some factory rifles. Some factory rifles shoot great and some suck. Just depends. Also the cool part is you can choose the twist rate. I shoot a 140 grain bullet out of my gun and it requires a 1-8 twist rate (this means that a bullet will complete a full rotation in the barrel in 8 inches. 1 in 12 would be a full rotation in 12 inches). Pretty cool. If I was going to shoot a 120 grain bullet I would choose a different twist rate. I also had the throat of my chamber reamed to fit the longer 140 grain bullet. I would make the throat shorter if I was going to shoot a 120 grain bullet. You can do geeky crap like that. Last barrel I made the neck a little tighter than normal 6.5 X 284 specs. Kind of fun but it gets kind of stupid to own a gun that you can't put factory ammo into. But that is the fun part. Honestly the key to accuracy is putting a bunch of dents in primers. I watched some youtube videos of people shooting long range at WT deer last night. 50-75% of the people missed with their first shot. Some took quite a few shots. Out of the 8-10 people I saw take shots only about 2 of them had any business shooting the distance that they did. The others thought they knew what they were doing and really didn't. Funny part. I knew where they were going to miss and by how far......with their $5,000 rifle topped with a $2,000 scope. It was interesting to watch. If you are into math this sport is a blast. Dive in and have a good time. There are other forums that really get lost in the details too if you want to get stupid geeky. Go check them out too.

seen pics from a ton of cameras. There are pluses and minuses to all of them. Just buy them. Put them up and have a great time. As long as you don't compare them to a top camera you will think they are great. My cams are middle of the road at best and I have a blast with them. My kids want to look at the pics as much as me. Funny thing.......who cares about the big buck/ big bull.......the other critters are more fun to look at. young calves, fawns are super cool. Seeing the critters you rarely see are awesome like fox, lion, bear, ect. Cams are a blast. Your kid will enjoy them for sure

Lots and lots of lions out there. If most people knew how many they would be freaking out!!!!!!

You guys are all over the place. I think the term is "hot mess". Here is the basics. To me bullet construction is the key along with penetration. I love a 300 win mag with a 180 grain nosler partition and a .243 shooting a 90 grain ballistic tip. Both are superior rounds. We have shot deer with both rounds. The performance of the 90 ballistic tip out of the .243 smokes the 300 win mag all day and twice on Sunday. That setup of the 300 is designed for deep penetration on a bigger animal. It is over kill on a WT deer in AZ. No doubt. Now if you shoot the deer in both lungs it will be just as dead but the wound of the .243 will be much bigger in my experience. Now, if I was going to shoot a bull elk I would want to shoot the 300 and expect it to be a far superior setup for this situation. The wound is going to be bigger and the elk is going to experience more damage because it has a longer distance to travel with a much bigger bullet. I'm also not the biggest fan of the Berger bullets. I've shot a few smaller animals (deer and yotes) with them and the results have been marginal. Did they die. Yes but a .243 with a 90 BT bullet would have done much better. Now the accuracy of the Bergers is AWESOME!!!!!! The consistency from bullet to bullet is great and probably their best feature. That being said I'm going to shoot a different bullet out of this cartridge (6.5 X 284) at smaller critters. My theory is the slippery bullet design is also slippery through the smaller animals. So here is how I look at bullets and game. I want to dump as much energy as possible into the game. Shooting a WT deer with a 300 win mag and having the bullet exit the animal and dump a bunch of energy into a rock behind the animal does very little to kill the critter. Having a smaller bullet dump all of its energy into the critter will have better results. For the most part most people shoot more gun, energy, bullet than they need to get the job done. I think it works against most of them. So smaller bullet that expands rapidly for smaller game and a slower expanding bullet on bigger game. Seems like common sense but I see guys all the time worry more about 1/4MOA accuracy than bullet performance on the critter. I'll give up a little accuracy to have better performance on the animal.

Because everyone knows about it now. Wonder why? Got my 35A tag. We seem to get a tag about every other year. Used to be every year.

That pen looks like a great place for a live bait and 100# line. I would have a blast catching those fish!!!!!!!!!

I think the crew is typically willing to teach. I ask questions all of the time. most captains have a ton of knowledge and some deckhands are awesome and some are morons. BUT.......when it comes down to it. Fish need to hit the deck and there are times it is better for the crew to just hook and hand. Some guys go on one trip every 3 years and aren't going to get it figured out in a very short period of time. Fishing is tough right now and they just need to fill the boat. A good stick will frequently be willing to share some info and teach too.

Once you crack the 1000 yard mark then the game changes. The 338 lapua just crushes everything. The 6.5's and the 7MM have no business being shot past 100 yards at critters. Their KE just isn't there. Though in all honesty it is just about impossible to have a cold bore, first shot hit a WT deer at 1000+ yards. A ton of variables to consider that the average hunter doesn't even know to evaluate let alone how to compensate for the variables. But, it is a ton of fun to dump lead at those distances. Doing it at a competition and on paper really changes how you look at every shot. Frequently bullets move 6-18 inches and you wonder why. If your using a 7x57 pushing a round nose bullet I'd agree. A 28 Nosler pushing the 195 eol in the average conditions I hunt in is around 1800 ft lbs and in excess of 2000 fps. My 270WSM with a 170 eol is around 1500 ft lbs and 2000 fps. Both are more than capable of knocking a coues on his a$$ @ 1000 yds. My 22-250 AI pushing a 95 gr smk will be around 2000 fps and almost 900 ft lbs which will still destroy a coues. It isn't the gun or the cartridge that has me concerned.

one last thing. I personally will only use the extreme powders. I spend to much time developing loads at 70-90 degrees and then hunting at below 30 degrees. That will make a difference. The match shooters I know will also only use the extreme powders because of the temp changes.