Coach

Awesome job, Scott, and fantastic write up. Huge congrats and thanks for sharing the stories here.

After a couple rainy, windy days with very little deer movement, Nick put this guy down at 400 yards with one shot.

Those are awesome packs. I finally upgraded all 3 of my sons to that pack because it does it all and has a lifetime warranty, regardless of where you bought it.

For sure, PM Shedhunteraz.

Best glass ever. That's a newer model. Great deal for someone.

I just want to see all these giant bucks you guys are talking about. I've seen the bundy buck that was around 290 but where are the rest? I don't do facebook so let's post 'em up!

Just got a pic of Brec Bundy's strip buck. What an absolute toad. I don't have permission to repost the pix but that buck has it all and then some.

I'm thinking that Nosler is putting out some wildcats that they can market as high performance rifles similar to what a custom shop would build. The 28 Nosler is interesting in that, as Lark pointed out, just a 7MM mag. It's a non-belted fat brass. So Remington put out the RUM family built on the 404 Jeffery case necked down. Had some success but nobody really flocked to them. In a lot of ways the 28 Nosler is like a 7mm Ultra Mag in terms of brass and powder capacity. Getting rid of the belted cases might make it easier to reload but certainly not cheaper. Brass will cost around $2.70 per round - just the brass. Remember when nobody wanted to shoot Weatherby with factory ammo because it cost $50-$70 a box for premium Weatherby ammo? So in my opinion, the 28 Nosler is a way overpriced 7MM Mag. The 26 Nosler is even more interesting. I've been loading for a 6.5x284 Norma with a wide range of powders. Typical loads are around 47 grains in IMR4350, H4831sc, etc and it's considered a barrel burner. The 26 Nosler uses 72 - 92 gr. of powder. You get 3-400 extra FPS but at what cost? I'm old, so FPS means little to me. I want accurate. Blowing 80-90 grains of powder behind a 6.5 bullet to get some extra velocity seems contrary.

I guess LR is subjective. I'm a new 6.5 groupie and just love that round. My newly-built 6.5 284 Norma is so far the best rifle I've hunted with. My buddy just got a 26 Nosler. My other go-to rifle is a 300 WSM that can do just about anything.

This is a great thread. I've been hunting all over AZ most of my adult life and branching out to NM. I have 3 sons and try to get them tags wherever I can. Sometimes I end up with tags in areas I don't know much about and ask for help - usually on this forum. So many people have come forward and helped out, it only seems right to share. The "Pay it forward" mentality. It's one thing to find a honey hole, blab it, then complain when you show up at the end of the line. At the same time, it can be very rewarding to help someone out who doesn't know where to start, give them some pointers and let them succeed or fail based on how they use the info. I've had spots ruined not by telling anyone where they were, but just by putting up success pictures here. I've also had areas I was very secretive about get ruined when someone stumbles on them and then tells everyone. I actually have a good story on that for later. My take is, I want to help people out who are less experienced and need a starting point. But there's a lot of people on all these threads who just want to get info, and have to intention or ability to give back.

That hose head pretends he can't smile.. he can. lol.

I've been building a 6.5 x 284 Norma off a Savage 110 action. Starting completely from scratch, I rebarreled the Savage action with a Shilen heavy sporter. When mounting the barrel I used Nosler unfired brass to set the headspace. I got to where it was tight using unfired brass, and no-go with masking tape on the back of the same brass. But when I ran once-fired brass through a full length RCBS resize die, they wouldn't seat. I determined that it wasn't the case length, but the start of the shoulder that was the problem. Just tinkering around I also found that if I shaved around 10/1000 off the #3 shell holder and cranked the resizing die as tight as I could, I could get the resized brass to cycle. The die I'm using is for 284 Win, which is the correct die according to RCBS, Redding, Forster and others. So the question is, is my headspace too tight? And if so, why does it load unfired brass and factory loads with no problem but has an issue with resized brass?

We've got a fellow member up there right now going fully DIY. Here's hoping he can make the best of a great year.

Man some awesome bucks right there. Great job. That last one has some serious mass.

I'm a huge fan of the Garmin GPSMap 60csx. Fantastic GPS unit, great battery life, fast satellite acquisition, nothing I don't like about these. My son has the Oregon and battery life is terrible.

Great bucks! Major congrats. I'll be taking my sons to NM over Thanksgiving week to hunt Ft. Bayard. I hope we do as well as you guys did.

That's freakin' sweet. Calling a cat into shotgun range. Definitely a bucket list accomplishment.

A little update on this. I've fired a few rounds out of my gun and put them back through the resizing dies with a standard #3 shell holder, and they all cycle perfectly. The gun we shot the first few out of was built by a local gunsmith. The ones that were tight in our builds had no problem in that rifle, but the ones fired from it had issues resizing. I'm thinking the headspace on that rifle is a little loose.

My guess is you hit him high up over the shoulder if he hunched up. Flesh wound.

Sorry you didn't find it. A long time back I was hunting with a buddy in 23 and we jumped a buck. He shot it just as it crested the hill above us, and we both saw it hunch up. We found absolutely zero blood. Thankfully, we found the buck about 10 yards from some really nasty thick stuff, about 45 yards from where he was hit. He had a drop of blood on his nose and another on beneath his body when he fell. Had he made it just a few more steps, I doubt we would have found him. It was a quartering away shot with Nosler Partitions and it passed through like a lazer. One small hole on each side and no blood trail.

I was a long time Cabela's fan until they went public. Now it's just MSRP on everything with less customer support than the old days. Thank goodness Sportsman's Warehouse came to Lakeside. Between them and Amazon and MidwayUSA, I have no use for Cabela's or Bass Pro. I think the major stockholders are responding to their inability to compete online and the expense of those stores.

Good point - If it's on FB I doubt they mind it getting out there, lol.

Nothing fake about that buck. Those brothers have taken lots of clients on hunts for so many years, it's about time they got to hunt.

Love it! Thanks.

Very awesome buck, and great story. Sounds like you guys have some awesome glassers too. Huge congrats to your daughter.