Coach

Thank you guys for sharing your experience. I'll definitely stick with MOA, as that's what I'm most familiar with. I really like the scope 452x264 linked, and it appears it is also available in 6-24 with the XLR reticle. http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/vortex.pl?page=vortexviperhs6-24x50lr Leaning that way right now, but also looking at Zeiss.

Great looking pronghorns! Can't wait to see the pix of your clients with some of those big guys.

Haven't read ALL the responses yet, but I'd say either .270 WSM or .300 WSM. Given that you want a shorter, lighter rifle, between those 2 I'd suggest .270 WSM. (Shout out to Couestracker). IMO, the .270 WSM shoots great out of lighter rifles. Low recoil, magnum velocity, huge range of bullets if you reload. I like this round second only to the .300 WSM, but for that I wouldn't suggest either an ultra-light rifle or shorter barrel.

You guys are freaking awesome. No kidding. My wife and I have a 3.5 mile walk routine in the mornings right after we get the kids off to school, then off to work. She coaches gymnastics and teaches at school, I work a "desk job" in software, then coach football or baseball, whatever the season. By the end of the day, we're pretty spent. As far as making healthy living a lifestyle, it's awesome to see how hard you guys work.

Those graphs and charts are strange, for sure. I remember sitting in my doctor's office for something I don't recall, and coming across a dial that you could use to put in your age, gender and height to get an idea of whether you were overweight. According to this dial, At 6' 1", 39 years old, around 213 pounds, I was significantly overweight. I didn't feel overweight, but looking at pictures of myself at that time, I certainly was. However, the chart on that dial had my "optimal" weight at somewhere around 169 pounds. I ate like a rabbit, walked 6 miles on the treadmill daily for months. Then I went on a elk hunt. I was up at 3, hiking and hunting hard until hours after dark for 2 weeks, every day on end - only eating when my body told me it had to have food - and then I ate snickers bars, jerky, sugary foods to get short bursts of energy. My diet was super high protein and carbo breakfast at 3 Am, minimal snacking throughout the day, then a heavy carb, protein dinner at night. And the lowest I got was around 178 pounds. My own mother said I looked starved, my wife said I was too thin - it was showing in my cheeks. So according to these charts, I was still 9 pounds above my "optimal" weight. Looking back now, I realize that our body wants to stabilize at a certain point, and we have to train our body slowly to re-adjust to that point. Too much too soon puts a lot of strain on the body. We pick a small goal, get there, get comfortable, pick another and so-on. One thing I'll put out there, for those of you trying to get in shape, and this is coming from someone who is NOT yet in good shape - OK but not good- My family loves to hunt and hike and fish, and we LOVE to go explore canyons in Utah - the slots, the narrows, the rappelling - some of the things we tackle really drive home that we are not in that great of shape, and to truly enjoy it, we want to come back next year a little leaner, a little stronger, a little more core strength, more rope training, and we will have more options to do more challenging things. If you haven't done the Flagstaff Extreme Challenge, you really should. It starts out pretty easy but by the end of it, you know if you've got that balance, inner core strength, etc. I watched 20-somethings blow through it, but honestly at 42, by the time I finished the black course, all I could think about was how much pain I was in and it shouldn't be that hard. It was a very humbling experience for me.

Wow, thanks a lot guys. I'm kinda a boot/sock junkie. I'm all about comfortable feet when hiking. I'm guessing you guys just cost me at least an extra $40 to try these out. JK, In all seriousness, thanks for pointing us to quality gear. IMO, not many things can ruin a hunt faster than bad boots, or good boots paired with bad socks. If you are out hiking hard to get away from roads, even more when you are backpacking in your most critical gear is good footwear, IMO. Based on the reviews here, this is definitely something I'm going to have to try out.

Nice Vid! Taking my oldest boy, Matt on his first "REAL" big game archery hunt this year. Unit 1, early bull. Can't wait to get out there and smell the wetness of the ground, hear the sound of the breeze in the aspens turning gold, and that sweet sound of bugles that tell you the hunt is ON! Best of luck to you on your hunts this year.

Leftovers in 32 came today.

I've met a few guys who have come out here from back East or the Midwest and put their experience patterning whitetails to use with amazing success. Of course, I totally agree with posters here on getting the best glass and tripod you can and learning how to use those tools. But there's a lot to be said about doing some serious hiking in the area you are going to hunt. Try to locate where they bed, where they water, how they move. One thing that's a little tricky out here, when you aren't hunting the rut, the bucks simply don't move much. They'll bed in a secluded area where they can feed close to their beds, and unless it is extremely dry, they won't even move much for water, and when they do, it will be at night. I'd say use your experience from back East for locating and patterning, learn to use good optics and be very patient when it comes to glassing. When it comes to getting your kill out, and I hope this is a problem you encounter, lol, you'll want to bone the meat out as quickly as possible. I like the gutless technique, get it hanging in the shade in quality meat bags quickly, and don't overload one bag. It's not uncommon to spend the night hiking the bags out. Best of luck, and thank you for your service.

Great gun, my son is working his tail off to buy his truck. I'm sure he'd love this turkey/goose slayer.

Very clean truck. It's nice to see pride in ownership.

Sweet! Didn't know a bird could be so smart.

Awesome! I hope you guys keep smacking those toms. Great dogs and great dog work. I love seeing how happy those dogs get when they tree a cat like that.

Does it shoot 3.5" shells?

I've talked to enough ranchers, and held enough mini-mature racks to hold on to the "fantail" club. Talk with the guys at Pinky's ranch in 24A, or some guys who walk the forest from WMAT, my dad set aside racks that were 3-4 points on both sides, but would fit in a cantaloupe. The science is NOT on their side, but old school cowboys believe in them. I'll side with the cowboys.

He's growing well!

I think this is great service - I for one would have loved to have this available the year I lost my first elk due to bad shot placement on my part. It happens, it's bow hunting, and anyone who can help recover just one lost animal is doing us all a great service. For those like BoneCollector777, and others who questioned the legality of it, this has been a gray area in the laws for some time. These guys appreciate the service, and just don't want to see someone doing the right thing get punished because of some oddly written or misconstrued law. Awesome thing about this post, even where there is disagreement, it's all about hunters having each other's backs.

I truly empathize with Amanda on this subject. On the one hand, as many have mentioned, there is a LOT of stuff going around these days, politically, that have the potential to shape our future and the world our children will live in. If you aren't aware of these things and quite frankly, PO'd, and wanting to discuss them with others, you are asleep at the wheel, for lack of a better term. However, there are literally thousands of web sites out there where we can get on our soap box and preach politics, religion, etc. People will disagree - sometimes start making actual threats, etc. I can't speak for Amanda, but from my own perspective, one of the things I love about CWT is how it hasn't turned into one of those other sites - yet. In the professional world, or being invited to someone's house for a dinner or BBQ, it's kind of an unwritten rule, you tone-down, back off the rhetoric, avoid polarizing issues and maintain a certain level of civility, as respect to your host. From my perspective, when I come on CWT, I think of it like I've been invited to Amanda's house to enjoy some food and meet new people. The last thing I want to do is start a fight or get belligerent and make other guests feel unwelcome. If you respect this forum, its founders and members, try to approach it like you would a dinner party with your company/co-workers/supervisor, etc. Having an opinion is great, and expressing that opinion in an honest, deliberate, respectful manner shows integrity. Trashing the home you were invited into shows the opposite, IMO.

Great looking buck! Congrats

Happy Birthday Clay

Wow looks like some awesome bears in there! I love that first cinnamon, looks really big! I hope you get to put an arrow through one of those big boys. Thanks for sharing.

I just went over the past 12 years of hunting pix and came across these. There's a bunch more out there of my kids and family fishing trips, lots of turkey, javis, but these are the highlights of my hunting over the years: Just enjoying reminiscing the old hunting trips.

Secure the border with armed service men and women from National Guard to Spec Ops types. Cut funding immediately to Mexican companies that build US branded cars, impound all imports from the southern border. Make it known to Mexico that the few economic gains they currently enjoy will dry up in weeks if THEY don't clean up this mess. This problem originated in Mexico, they should clean it up. In reality, they never will, Illegals are sending millions of dollars into Mexico every day, and the Democrats love this because they are made up of old school dems who don't realize they are actually republicans, black voters who have forgotten that MLK Jr was Republican, Jews who vote democrat even though Dems throw them under the bus every day, Native Americans vote left every time, but it's the left that marginalized them, It's no surprise that the power tool on the left is all about importing tens of thousands of people who are dependent on 'the system'. Dependency is their goal, their crutch. The last thing they want is an independent, free thinking society of people who can call bullshit. Well, I don't mind speaking my mind and I'll call BULLSHIT. We should stand united with guns in hand and tell the feds, they are full of crap. We've had enough and we're ready to stand together, hand in hand, arms at the ready. This B.S. utopia dream they're trying to sell is shallow, pointless and leads our country nowhere.

Wow, you are lucky. One day I'd love to hunt those buffs. Best of luck, brother and tell us all about it!

Funny thing is, that second coues was the hardest I ever hunted, and he's the smallest buck I've taken. I camped in a tent in 24A in sub-zero temps and heavy snow for a week. Each day I would get up, make some hot tea, hike about 1.5 miles in my underwear in snow and 15-19 degree temps and glass all day. I had a dry bag up top with insulated coveralls, water and snack food. I had seen this buck from the first day to the last but I was sure a buck in his teens would show up. One day hiking out, my knee buckled in the snow. I thought my hunt was over. I went home, but as I paced back-and-fourth for days my wife said "just get back out there". I hiked back up to that peak with an inch of fresh snow, and he just showed up, making scrapes. All the nights in freezing temps, the hiking up practically naked in 14-19 temps, then bundling up and glassing all day. I was sure I would kill a 120 type buck, but no. I end up with a re-injured knee and a small buck, BUT, that hunt will live forever with me because of how hard it was, and how a "dink" buck can make it all worth it if you judge the hunt by the experience instead of inches.