.270

i've killed a truck load o' bears and lions with a .22 pistol (until they outlawed em). but almost all up a tree with a pack o' hounds around it. i've seen a bunch of em shot with .357's and .44's and 9mm's too. and i've seen some sorry shots that turned things into a fiasco. i could tell stories for days about that stuff. with bears, most folks don't realize how much different they are built than hooved animals and don't shoot accordingly. but inside of 50 yards or so, a guy that knows his peestola, should be able to shoot a deer with a lot of confidence. i've shot a lotta stuff with a bow with no problems. a good, accurate pistol oughta be just as deadly as a bow. especially if you want to move up to a .44 mag. some of these new pistols are like elephant guns. .500's and .480's and such. why pack around a pistol that weighs as much as a rifle, kicks harder and busts your ear drums, when a rifle is a lot better? .357's are real puny when compared to even a .30/30, but just like everything, use it accordingly. eleanor o'connor shot a bull elephant with an '06. karamojo bell shot something like 20,000 of em, most of em with a .303 british and a 7x57. but i wouldn't do it. be smart, things'll work out. Lark.

that's bad, but not a lot different than shootin' one over a garbage can fulla bait. poor bears. it's name was cubby? man, that ain't right. they shoulda at least called it killer or somethin'. i don't get it. you can shoot all the bears ya want in canada over bait for about the same price. why shoot a pet? did they edit it so that it was chargin' him? man, some folks'll do anything for little publicity. Lark.

only the ones with feathers one em. it really is, so don't shoot none. it's a federal case if ya do. Lark.

hey johnny, he's gettin' along. he had to get hisself air-evaced to tucson a couple months ago because his gut blew up. had to have his small intestine sectioned and have a "gangerenous" gall bladder removed. he's about healed up from it. he's back home anyway. he's about to go nuts because he ain't strong enough to get out in the hills and he's afraid of having a flat tire some some other dang deal. but he's getting better. he'll be fine by deer season. between him and ray and that old cowboy across the street, there's a lotta history in that nieghborhood. there ain't many o' them u28 secrets left. the new mine is gonna take em all and ruin em. Lark.

Ray is my ol' man's next door neighbor. he has a farm in fort thomas. he's an ol' dude now, but he was one of the best old timey traditional bow hunters there was, back in the day. i remember he had to borrow a .22 from my dad once to shoot some coyotes that were buggin' some o' his cows, because all he owned was a bow. he's also a heck of an artist and sculpture. he's such a tough ol' dude i bet the cat broke his teeth on his skin. then it probly licked it's butt raw tryin' to get the taste outta it's mouth. http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2006/08/...news/news02.txt

all birds of prey are protected in the U.S. don't be fooled into thinking otherwise. eagles, hawks, falcons, ospreys, even hooty owls. heck, even stinkin' buzzards are protected, but they are called a carrion (rotten, dead meat) bird. Lark.

killin' a 40" buck is an accomplishment. doing it on the strip is even more of an accomplishment. you guys ever been in the big buck country of the strip? hard country for sure. having a buncha guys guiding you, having the whole state to yourself, and lucking into the tag and stuff does take off a little o' the shine, but it's still a big buck. i don't know why he didn't wait until it was hard horned. another thing, unless b&c has really lowered their standards, i don't see it making the book either. not enough typical frame, too many typical deductions and not enough nontypical trash. but dang, it is a big buck. i ain't gonna bash the guy that shot it. but i don't care for the system that allows for this kinda stuff. and like i said, i bought a raffle ticket too. i think the lottery is for suckers too, but when it's a hunnerd million +, i dang sure spend a buck or 2 on some tickets. and i ever win i'm gonna keep the money. same as if i get a raffle ticket, i'll use it. ain't much we're gonna do about it, so a guy just as well take a chance. Lark.

there aren't a lot of em and their numbers are shrinking. they are a cool bird too. her in creen queek there are a lot of em and a lot of em have been relocated by builders, etc. we have a lot of the desert chipmunks too. something you don't see a lot of in most places. these little stilt owls are neat. watch one some time if you get a chance. Lark.

i think they keep a portion of it. maybe amanda can clear that part up. there are guys on here that know. don't get me wrong, i buy raffle tags every year. but i buy em because i have a chance to get a primo tag, not because of conservation. and if i had the bucks i'd show up at the auction with bank hooked to my truck and buy every tag i wanted. i just don't see where they do all the wonderfull things that folks say. it's just seems like a way that some elite folks have figured out to make sure they get some great permits every year. money can't make it rain. animals can't eat money. it dang sure helps out to have some cash to work with and the azgfd needs money to operate, but i don't see where these auction tags do much more than help rich guys. and there ain't nothin' wrong with bein' rich. i've always been mad about bein' born good lookin' and not rich. Lark.

personally, i don't like the auction or the raffle. usually some guy with a lotta bucks buy enough raffle tickets that he gets it. and we all know that some very wealthy guy gets auction permits. here's my take. how much money does the azgfd, or any state, bring in? put that in one collumn. how much money do all the auction and raffle tags bring in? put that in another collumn. the auction and raffle tags make up a very small percentage of what it takes to run the wildlife programs in any state. small enough that the state probably wouldn't even miss it. and nothing like everyone tries to say it does. i've "done the math". it just ain't there. if all they had was a raffle and there was a limit on how many tickets a guy could buy, i'd be ok with that. joe hunter would have a chance. sure, there might be some pet project that doesn't get done or some fence won't get built for some guy whinin' about wildlife damage to his property, but nothing important is going to go lacking. all the auction and raffle does is give a few folks with more money than other folks a chance at really great hunting. don't get me wrong, if i had the bucks, i'd be there with a suitcase full buyin' every tag i could. and i own every reservation elk tag, with unlimited funds. but i don't think it does the states enough good to make a difference. if they quit the program, the only folks who would miss it would be the guys with all the money. Lark. p.s. dang, that's a big buck. too bad they didn't wait till it was de-velveted.

inconsistent velocity will cause big groups. i've found that the main thing for good groups is a round that "fits" your rifle. overall cartridge length has more to do with tight groups than about any single thing. make sure you don't have a long way for the bullet to travel before it engages the lands of the rifling. there are various ways to measure it. most good manuals will tell you how. i usually load one a little long and ram it home, extract it and see how long the scratches made by the lands are. seat it a little deeper and try it again, until it just touches. different rifle manufacturers have different throat lengths. don't know why, but they do. this has a lot to do with pressure too. using the same brand of brass and same type of primer is important too, if you're interested in tack drivin'. there's lotsa tricks. a chronograph is a must. so is a dead solid rest, not shooting in the wind, keeping your barrel cool, ensure of proper eye relief, length of pull on the stock, light crisp trigger pull, etc. one other thing, i've never got what i felt were real tight groups from noslers. every bullet manufacturer builds their bullets different. different profiles, different shoulder configuration, etc. finding the one your rifle likes is real important. usually you can make about any bullet shoot fairly well in about any gun, if you work at it. you can also about wear a rifle out trying to get it right, with things off a little. make sure the barrel is floated. maybe bed the action. have a good scope. don't expect good results with cheap stuff. and don't expect good results from the best stuff, without working at it. right now i'm working with a new .264 mag. it will put 10 shots inside 1/2" with 85 gr bullets. move up to 100's and the group gets real big. i have to figure out the correct overall length and what bullet it likes best. plus i found i had a barrel bed problem. i'll figger it out, but it might take some time. get a good book that has a lot of info in it and go from there. and take them balistic tips and chunk em in a pond. they ain't real bullets. Lark.

get a vari x III and fergit about it. i prefer 40mm myself, and we all know i'm the smartest guy around. my kid has a .270 wsm. a tikka. he loads 100 gr hornadys real fast with RL19 and loves it. he has shot several coues deer and a near b&c muley with it and it works real well. his buddy dropped a 6x7 bull in it's tracks with a lungshot at around 400 yards with it last year. i'd rather have a little heavier bullet for elk, but it worked fine. i'd think any factory load that doesn't have a plastic tip should work well. Lark.

one time while i was guttin' a buck i shot, another one had been hiding in some oak brush about 30 yards away and finally had all he could take and busted out. he was a smallish 3x3. my uncle decided to try and shoot it with his .357. it stopped at about 80 yards. he thumped in the lungs. it went maybe 30 or 40 yards and fell over. he was using a model 27 smith with a 6" barrel. if you can hit one in a good place, it will kill a deer. Lark.

badgers? we don't need no stinkin' badgers!! Lark.

yup, burrowin' owls. you'd think that something that lived in a hole like a troll would have stubby little legs, but comparitively to other owls, they are long legged critters. they almost look like a killdeer when they walk around on them stiltly legs. they are a cool bird. i flushed one outta a badger hole a couple years ago while trackin' a buck. shortly after i jumped up the buck and shot it. so they must be good luck too. Lark.

decoys? are ya duck huntin'? Lark.

hey, i at least clean my rifles, sometimes. cleaned 2 of em friday after hammerin' the heck outta some targets. but i've never been one to break in a barrel. never even heard of it until about 15 years ago. a friend o' mine bought some "lapping" bullets for his .378. maybe they have valve grind compound on em or some deal, i don't know. i remember he used reduced loads and stuffed cotton in on top of the powder to keep from having hang fires in that big ol' case. after a couple shots we had lint floatin' everwhere. the new barrel, with all the little sharp edges and stuff in it really grabbed the cotton too. he had a heck of time cleaning it all out. it looked like caterpillars nests all over the bench and stuff. he always claimed it made his gun better and he did it to a couple others after that. them big guns like that make me flinch so bad it don't matter what you do to em, i ain't gonna get a good group out of em. as far as hunting tho, i don't think just shooting one is gonna hurt it much. just don't get it too hot, but that goes with all shooting. and one thing about running a patch soaked in some kinda solvent between shots, it does help keep your barrel cooler, and that's a good thing. RR and casey left out one thing, between shots casey played dueling banojs, then foggy mountain breakdown, then white lightnin, then cannonball express, then.............Lark.

i usually start out by droppin' it 3 or 4 times and then draggin it around in a scabbard on my horse in the brush. or were you talkin' about shootin' em? with most rifles, especially for hunting, just shoot it. a lot of paper shooters have a set protocol of "lapping" bullets, light loads, different types of cleaning brushes, etc., but it really doesn't have a lot of effect, unless you're looking for an improvement of thousandths of an inch in group size. proper trigger pull, good bedding and good ammo that your rifle likes should do what you want without a lotta worries about smoothin' out the lands. Lark.

try the guys at the usery pass rifle range. i've never used em, but know guys who have and all were real satisfied and their prices seemed real reasonable. Lark.

there are some ugly mounts at cabelas. looks like the same guy that did the elk in KC did a lot of em for the Az. store too. traingle headed, slant faced and ugly. there were some putrid coues bucks mounted. and there are a buncha replicas mounted there too. either that or the ones in the other stores are replicas. because all the big muleys in the museum are in the KC store and others. so someplace has to have replicas. did you notice in the "museum", on the back wall, there is a row of big bucks mounted with scores attached under em. the farthest buck to the east said it was a 243 nontypical, but it only had 3 really small nontypical points, and i don't think any of them were long enough to be measurable. looks like somebody mislabeled that dude for sure. the little canyon you can walk through was cool. all in all tho, there are some great mounts there. even if some of em were ugly. most of the big pronghorns looked like replicas also. but it was cool to be that close to em to see just how big they really are. the one from 1878 was incredible. whay ain't that thing the world record? it's huge. i liked the prarie dog butt stickin' outta that hole. the museum had some really big elk in it too. we went last thursday and had a really nice time. spent a lotta time and money there. had me a elk samwich. seen some ol' pals. bought me some blaze orange stirrups. i've always had this phobia about somebody shootin' me in the foot while i was ridin'....... Lark.

yep. that's looking east from the becker butte pull over. saw it just yersterday. we always called the black rattlesnakes "timber" rattlers. guess because they were always up high. i've seen rattlers at big lake before. but i think it's pretty rare that one makes it long up there. the "thing" you took the picture of i think is a combo snow/rain guage. not for sure how it works. there are several of em up there. nice ram too. looks like a nice time. Lark.

i thought that was a red rabbit i smacked with my truck. that was you? hey, you owe $750 for a new bumper and radiator. Lark.

seein' as how the .270 is the greatest cartridge ever developed and seein' as how it was divine inspiration that created it and seein' as how i am the world's greatest authority on the .270 (among other things) i'd say get the .270. i've shot a lot of elk. i mean really a lot. almost all with a .270. it's like anything else, if ya gut shoot em, they're gonna run off. if ya hit em in the lungs, they're gonna die. and real quick. there are a lotta great cartridges that will git-r-done, but none as divine as the .270. i usually shoot mine over my shoulder, while sightin' it through a mirror at ranges usually over 600 yards (hey i'm lazy and don't feel like sneakin' any closer) and most o' the time i get em in the eye. (elk have really big eyes) Lark.

i wonder how many cuss words wuz said over losin' alla them plugs? one time at river reservoir i wandered around it and started findin' lures and hooks and rigs. foung an old plastic 5 gallon bucket and between me and my kids, we about filled it up in one afternoon. i think about a fourth of the stuff we found, i had lost before. got back a buncha my sinkin' rapalas. Lark.

they make a good, solid, reasonably priced revolver. that's what their business is based on. not saturday night specials, but not real expensive. usually have fewer moving parts than a smith or ruger of the same style. and, the son of sam used one. only it was a .44 special. Lark.