Coach

Hey Scott, How have things been down in your neck of the woods? I bought the Perfekt Hunters about 2 years ago, and they are by far the best boots I've ever worn, and that's saying a lot. I had a pair of Cabela's Mountain Hunters that lasted nearly 10 years - and that was during my late teens to 20's. The tread was all worn off, but the uppers and waterproofing were still good. I finally had to stop wearing them because in my late 20's my arches dropped (I'm told) and I went from an 11.5 to a 12. I went through quite a few boots after those, and never found any I could really get excited about until the Meindl Perfekt Hunters. I've put quite a few miles on them, but now I make sure to put some good leather treatment on them to keep the leather in good condition. I've been using Obenauf's leather preservative. From what I've been told it does a good job of keeping the leather from drying out without clogging it up. Seems to be working as promised. As for socks. I like Merino Wool with some spandex/nylon/poly mix to keep 'em snug or Smart Wool. The Cabela's outfitter wool socks are good too. For me, it has to be wool, and I don't like the old itchy kind of wool. Cotton is flat out - cotton will get wet, stretch out up and ball up and cause blisters. I also don't use liners - tried 'em a couple times and didn't like them. To me it felt like my feet were sliding around too much, like the liner was sliding around in the outer sock. I felt I had less traction, and more chance of getting a blister, or on downhill slopes my feet were jamming into the ends of my boot. Let us know what you find out.

I had to google this rifle, never heard of it. If you get one, let us know how you like it.

Holy mackerel, what fun!!!! I've got 3 boys, a bit older than yours but I'll tell you what, it seems like yesterday they looked an aweful lot like your 3! My oldest is 13 now, and it seems like yesterday he was 5. Get ready for the whirlwind buddy, and enjoy the ride. Thanks for posting pix - beautiful family you have there.

+1 Great write-up. It sounds like you had a great time chasing coues with familiy and friends. Thanks for sharing the story with us.

Super buck! Man, I'm jealous! Very nice write-up too. Congrats and thanks for sharing the story here with us.

Simple as it sounds, WalMart sells a Remington 870 youth shotgun for a very reasonable price. I bought one for my boys and my middle son, Nick killed a nice turkey 2 years back with it, and they have shot quite a few quail with it. It's pretty "non-frills", laminate wood, fiber optic sights, reliable 870 pump action, corrosion resistant barrell and reciever - pretty good first scatter gun for kids, IMO. Beats the heck out of those break-over single shot doo-hickeys you see so many kids trying to hunt with. Whatever gun you choose, glad to see you getting kids out there in the field hunting!

Not to throw gasoline on the fire or anything...BUT, this guy came on here asking whether to aim low or high at a steep angle, and all kinds of stuff entered into the mix, including the vast, gravity-less, airless expanses of the universe, plus some higher end trigonometry and physics discussion. Not that that's bad - It makes for entertaining reading, but, it's way overkill IMO. We're not talking about the perfect 1.5 mile shot calculating altitude, air density, Coriolis Effect...The guy is making a 358 yard shot at an angle, in field conditions, and wasn't sure whether to hold over or under. This is a very realistic hunting situation, and doesn't take a Ph.D. to give a simple answer to. Lionhunter, you hold *under* at an angle, either up or downhill. You hold for the actual horizontal distance from muzzle to target. You might be a little high or a little low, but if you hold under correctly to compensate for the angle, you'll hit the deer. Not bashing 308Nut or orclouse79 - they have their own discussion going on, and no doubt they know what they are talking about, but I would argue that it really isn't germane in the context of the question you asked.

That is sooooo cool! Thanks for sharing the story and pix Grong.

+ 1 for IC on bottom and M on top.

I did the same thing and the rule for me is glass using my 15 X Binos an easy more user friendly way to glass up deer and then use the spotting scope to judge buck size and shot placement. Couldn't have said it better myself! You will find the deer with the 15's, but you will use the spotter to determine if you want to go after them. +1

Dang! I'm really sorry to hear that! I did the same thing applying for a bonus point for deer - totally stinks to lose your loyalty BP for an application error...I really think G&F should revisit that.

I would just have him buy a license and hunt all that wonderful state managed quail country around Globe!. That said, if you want to bypass the state licensing and hunt on a small game permit from San Carlos, I would go N. out of the town of San Carlos on the Natural Corral road up to the Seven Mile draw road then West toward Chatlin Well and Coffee Pot. More than enough country in there to fill your quail limits.

Great job, and a cool story. So looking back, when it was nobody but you - just hunting solo, and doing it for your own reasons, that feeling that it was all working out...and that realization that this moment was something personal, and important...did you feel like something changed...inside?

Wow, congrats! That is one sweet muley. And I can say from experience, bucks like that were few and far between in 3c this year. You did very well. You should be proud of that awesome trophy!

I'm certainly no expert, but the math involved is fairly basic. The bullet will drop according to the horizontal distance between the muzzle and the target. So, whether you are shooting uphill or downhill the drop isn't determined by the actual line-of-sight distance to the target, but by the actual horizontal distance. It's hard to tell in your exact situation how to do the math because you mention shooting downhill at 120-130 degrees. Keep in mind 90 degrees from horizontal would be straight down. I'm assuming you mean 120 - 130 degrees from straight up, which would put the downward angle at either 60 degrees down (180 - 120) or 50 degrees down (180 - 130). In these cases, the horizontal distance would be 330 yards at 60 degrees and 290 yards at 50 degrees. Here's a picture of this example using the 120 degree figure (actuall 60 degrees downhill). Make sense?

Knowing I had a full plate with elk hunts this year, I decided to apply for a bonus point only for deer. I'm saving up for a Kaibab hunt. At the time I had 4 bonus points, 2 for no draws, one for Hunter's Ed and one "Loyalty" point. When I checked my balance last week, I was down to 3. It turns out, I had left off my hunting license number on my app. So not only did I lose this year's bonus point for a rejected application, I also lost my loyalty bonus point. I get that I screwed up an app, and so I can be denied my BP for this year, but I thought it was really sucky to lose my loyalty point as well. That'll take 5 more years to regain. My own fault, but I gotta vent anyway. Seems cheezy to take away the loyalty point over a application error. When I called G&F to try to appeal it, the lady I talked to had the same thing happen to her, only for her it was loyalty points for sheep. I figured if she couldn't get a reversal, I had no chance.

When I finally draw that tag, I'll be shooting my Savage .300 WSM. Heck of a buck by the way!

Great looking buck! I liked the story, vids, and what a great trophy photo up on those rocks. Great job!

Nice job! Congrats to you and your boys!!!

Man, I sure hope someone steps up. These guys need to be caught and fined HEAVILY. Thanks for posting 200" Muley.

I've been impressed with Yokohama Geolanders on my bigger trucks. Was gonna put a set on my Tacoma this year, but needed to save a few bucks, so put on some Big O - so far they've been good, but they're still new. I've heard really good things about the Toyo Open Country MT, but they were a little pricey as well. One of the local cell phone carriers started putting them on their light trucks that were spending a lot of time offroad, and they've been happy with them.

Great buck, great story, and wow, what a shot... It seems more and more there are stories here of some amazing long range shots. I reload my own ammo, and I know I have guns and optics capable of shots like that, but it still seems like something I can't quite get. To me, a 500 yard shot is a long way away, and even in my tightest shooting guns, anything over 400 yards just seems amazing. In this case, just short of 800 yards - 8 football fields minus a field goal...How in the world do you guys get so good with your rifle to put a good shot on at that range? I've got guns that shoot clover leaves at 100 yards, 250 we're still inside 4 inches, maybe 3 on a good day. But that's off sandbags on a portable shooting table. When I see guys in the field making spectacular shots like that, I am just amazed at how much work it has to take to pull off that kind of shot in actual hunting conditions. My hat is off to you - kudos and then some. That is some amazing marksmanship.

Last year I backpacked in solo into an area that I was actually really scared to be in, that far, alone. I was maybe 9 miles N. of the Mexican border, and pretty much everyone I came into contact with was a heavily armed BP agent. There were thermal imaging trucks parked along the road as I drove in, and absolutely NO access by vehicle, unless you are BP or a rancher. All night I slept with one eye open and a pistol in my hand, as coatis picked around my makeshift camp. That is probably one of my most memorable hunts - at any time I expected to be surrounded by bambidos. Funny enough, I didn't see one illegal alien or drug smuggler. Lots of deer, and some of the prettiest coues country I've ever seen. Maybe it's because it was full moon on Halloween night, none of the bad guys were out there. Who knows. I'll tell you this, I'll do that hunt again, but I won't be alone next time - it was too stressfull. I was so anxious to shoot a deer and get the heck out I shot maybe a high 80's 3x4 - huge bodied deer on the second day of the hunt. But I know there are some whoppers in there, and I've never seen densities of coues deer anywhere like this. If you snuck up to a steep break and stood up, deer scattered like quail. You could push 10 or more out of one canyon head, move 400 yards down and do the same thing over again, over and over again for miles. Nobody hunts it because nobody wants to do a hike-in hunt right in the middle of drug smuggling territory. 2 or 3 guys together packing appropriate heat, could do really well in there. Or they could get slaughtered in their sleep, . At least they'd be in coues heaven when the lights went out.

One heck of a buck for sure. Thanks for posting up some pictures for us all to drool over. Now how about a story to go along with it???

That's awesome! What a great first buck and a fun experience for all of you. I love it when families are out there hunting together!. Congrats!