IA Born

Thanks! We've got it on Stevebay and FB market place as well as Pinkbike and Craigslist. I'll have to check out offerup, though. Much appreciated! I figured i wasn't the only mountain biker on here!

Thanks for reminding me what I forgot. It's a sweet bike. Asking $4000, but will entertain reasonable offers.

Airborne son (dad was 173d in VN) to a paratrooper. Go to Casey's. If I wasn't already committed to helping a buddy who's helping a wounded warrior with Hero's Rising Outdoors, I'd definitely be there to help you pack out. AATW!

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I'm still processing so much from the last several days and there is so much to celebrate and honor. First and foremost, I'm still so thrilled to be able to hunt with my daughter, Sydney, again and to have both Syd and my son, Jacob, with me. We couldn’t get Sydney’s tag filled before she had to go back to UofA and that’s my one sadness. However, after her taking several years away to find herself in life, I was beyond thrilled that she wanted to deer hunt again and I got to be with her. It was a very strange feeling to be the center of attention for filling a tag after Syd left back for school. My buddy tagged out on a nice Coues buck Sunday morning, and we shifted focus Sunday night and Monday morning to finding me a buck I'd be happy with. We traveled deeper into a spot Sunday afternoon, and we weren't disappointed. I knew where I wanted to be Monday morning, if we didn't find something Sunday night. I ended up glassing up a young-ish 2x2 with about 30 minutes of shooting light left. It was a legal buck, and I could fill my tag on a Coues buck for the first time since 2005. He just didn't make my heart sing and I didn't really want to kill a young buck just to fill a tag, no matter how much I wanted meat in the freezer. I hem-hawed enough to waste shooting light and the sunset decided for me for the night, anyway. As we were packing up and heading back to camp, I got a text from another dear friend who reminded me the next day was Veteran's Day. That kicked a dust storm of emotions I wasn't expecting. I knew I had to do something to honor dad and his buddies, so I knew if I saw that buck again, it was my sign from God, dad, and Goose. It was hard to get up Monday morning, but we got up and hit our spot early to make sure nobody beat us there. We finally glassed up my 2x2 from the night before, but I realized in the daylight, he just wasn't what I wanted. Right around 0815, I glassed up a buck, but couldn't make out any detail. Christian told me I needed to shoot that buck, so we got everything set up for a longer shot. Jacob was amazing at calling out scope adjustments for me while Christian was ranging. It was a group effort keeping me calm and steady and I appreciate everyone involved. It turns out my scope, rifle, and I have some issues we need to resolve, and I missed more than I want to admit, but I finally connected. It also took more shots than I want to admit, but I finally put him out of his misery and took my biggest Coues buck to date (76-7/8"). There was absolutely nothing flat about where he was and one of my shots was prone laying uphill. I'll let you figure out how many times I kept sliding downhill. We had work to do, and I appreciate everyone's help in getting great photos and the deer field dressed on a steep hill. I managed to keep all my emotions in when I recovered and tagged my buck. Back at the UTV was a different story. I had finally met my last post-surgery recovery goal from two years ago. Challenge Accepted Day ~800 and I packed out most of my own deer down a crazy steep, loose-rocky hillside and I felt strong and steady doing it. I sent a text to one of my dad's buddies that I'm close to and that's when the emotions overtook me, and I had to step away. I did my best to honor my dad and the rest of Task Force Black from Nov 11, 1967 on Nov 11, 2024. Sorry for the sideways pics, I never can get them rotated correctly.

Last post above from July 2015 says it was sold back then.

We recently won an All-Season Butler Bag at a banquet. This is the heavy duty 41"x84" model and includes the pillow. My wife decided its too much sleeping bag for her and I have a good one already. I tried to talk her into keepingbit, but we're selling this to get her what she wants. Never been used and only out of bag at banquet and for these pictures. $469 + tax and shipping new. Asking $450; however, reasonable offers considered. Not sure when I'll be in the valley soon, but passing through August 14 in the morning.

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I've heard great things about N565 and 140gr+ bullets. I only hunt with Barnes and a good friend said N560 is great with bullets less thsn 140gr, so N560 was my next look. I can find it easier than RL23. Guess I'll look into that for this rifles replacement!

Rifle sold

I'm selling my custom 6.5 WSM. For those of you not familiar, its a wildcat round (.270 WSM necked down to 6.5mm). When the round was first developed, it was referred to as the 6.5-300WSM because most folks used .300WSM brass and went through a 2-step process to resize the neck. That caused me all sorts of problems as I learned to load for a wildcat round and I had to have it re-barreled a couple of years ago. Now everything is much simpler process necking .270 WSM down to 6.5, leaving out the intermediate step from .300WSM down. Its built on a Winchester pre-64 Mod 70 action and has a Pac-Nor 25" barrel with a 1:8" twist and a Vais brake. Its on a McMillan stock. I've put less than 50 rounds down the new barrel to break it in and do load development. I've never had the rifle/barrel in the field on a hunt; only to the range for sighting in and load development. It currently has two different loads of H1000/Barnes 127gr LRX that shoot 1/2" or less. Custom Hornady dies, all once-fired/annealed brass (66 pcs of Winchester.270 WSM resized to 6.5 and neck turned to fit perfect), 13 un-resized/turned pieces of .270 WSM brass, Leupold Dual Dovetail bases, and a custom Hornady Lock-n-Load modified case for seating depth measurements. All load data for Barnes 127gr LRX included (both H1000 loads). Also willing to carve out the time to resize, neck turn, trim, and anneal the remaining 13 pieces of brass. Its been a fun rifle after I figured out the brass and nature of it being a Wildcat, but I realized I want to go to Mexico to chase Coues in the near future and can't take it with me since the barrel and brass don't match. I'm going a different route, so I figured I'd offer this up to another Coues chaser here. In Flagstaff, but can meet halfway or make a special trip to the Valley if needed. Hoping to be down there mountain biking after javelina season. I'm taking a loss on this after re-barreling it. Asking $2200 OBO for the whole package.

Bump. $2200.

Rifle is SPF

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Currently, I'm getting a 0.6" 3-shot group with 55.8 grains of H1000 and Barnes 127gr LRX. I only hunt with Barnes, but I was getting great groups with Winchester factory 140gr ammo that I was using for trigger time and to get the brass for my handloads. My plan was to try N560 after this hunt and I've been looking for RL 23 for a year now. I've talked to multiple people who have said N560 and RL23 are the bomb for 6.5PRC, with RL23 being the best but I can't find RL23. I didn't monkey with seating depths. I got a load (the H1000) that would suffice for deer hunting and called it good enough until I could find the other powders. Then I took it on this deer hunt and decided I was too old to carry around a rifle that heavy.

Nicely done, Casey! Solid buck!

I'm guessing this has been asked and answered countless times, but I'm asking again to make my life easier. Can someone recommend a processor in Tucson for deer? My daughter is finally back hunting with me and we have the Nov 34A tag. I'm realizing it will be easier for her to drop a deer off to make grind in Tucson instead of me bringing it back to Flag and having to figure it out getting it back to her in Tucson. I did a quick search via my phone when we were down there this weekend for Family Weekend, but didn't have time to dig deep into reviews or places. So, any suggestions for a reputable meat processor in Tucson?

Thanks, Casey! Let him know an awesome young Wildcat may very well be bringing him her first buck to turn into burger for her (except for the backstraps and tenderloins, of course)!

Thanks!

I get that. As I said in my original post, I've realized it will be easier to find someone local in Tucson where my daughter is at college than for me to bring her deer back to Flagstaff and do it myself, then find a way to get it back to her in Tucson. The cost of a local processor will be cheaper than the gas for me to go back up to Flagstaff and then back to Tucson. I do all my own deer, too. Not to mention its more efficient with time. And she doesn't have the ability to do it herself in Tucson. Just saying. You rock, my friend. I appreciate the offer more than you know! Holler if you ever need anything in Flagstaff.

Thanks, buddy! I appreciate you chiming in on top of everyone else! I'm hoping she'll be taking hers there!

Do they have a website? Are they located over off Sweetwater, west of Silverbell? All I'm finding is a Yelp review page (which is all solid, btw). I'm not finding a website with info/pricing, etc.

We are hosting an in-person classroom Hunter Ed class in Flagstaff Nov 21-24. It is open for public registration and has 5/30 seats filled. Class schedule is below. Classroom portions will be at the Flagstaff AGFD office and the field day will be at the NAZ Shooting Range. 100% attendance for all portions is mandatory. NAZ NWTF and the local AMDO group will be providing pizza lunch on Saturday, Nov 23. All firearms and ammunition will be provided. Preference is for kids who need the class to hunt; however, we encourage parents to take the class with their younger kids. As of this afternoon, there are 25 seats left. Thursday, November 21, 2024 6:00pm - 8:00pm Friday, November 22, 2024 6:00pm - 8:00pm Saturday, November 23, 2024 8:00am - 5:00pm Sunday, November 24, 2024 8:00am - 12:00pm Full transparency as I've posted previously on this: we set the class schedule up based on local instructor availability and local (Flagstaff, Williams, Parks, Bellmont, etc.) kids' availability. We've found that drawing a class out 2 hours at a time over 3 weeks gets old and information retention is not great, leading to lower success/passing rates. Saturday can be a long day, but we break it up by rotating stations with the AGFD conference room split with a divider and rotate between each side, plus the lobby so kids aren't sitting in the same seat all day. Throw in plenty of breaks, an hour lunch with a test review, and plenty of jokes, and the day flies by. The kids get plenty of time and opportunities to blow off steam and pent-up silliness and wiggles. On top of that, we rarely, if ever, go until 5 pm. We will not be accepting online students into the field day for this class. We do not have enough instructors to maintain the required instructor:student ratio and keep everyone safe. Our Flagstaff instructor group will be hosting several online field days this coming spring-fall 2025 for those students who took the online course and need a field day. https://www.register-ed.com/events/view/217571

2 seats left. And, because I've had a couple more inquiries, this is a classroom class Thurs-Sun with 100% attendance mandatory for all sessions. We can't take online students who need the field day because of the number of instructors/student we have to maintain.