IA Born

First, thank you for committing to using non-lead. As the lead for the Condor program, we need hunters like you committed to overall conservation and ecosystem management beyond just those game animals we love to hunt. I've used Barnes for over a decade now and have always had good luck, when starting 0.050" off the lands, which is what Barnes recommends. As Casey said, most Barnes bullets stabilize and get better accuracy when they are moving faster. As for the 115 TSX vs the 100 TTSX in the .257, Casey is right again. The 100gr has a boat tail that the 115 doesn't and you don't need to go heavy for caliber with non-lead. Once you start getting the accuracy and performance, it will be hard to switch back. Good luck!

What he said. Keep in touch, Tom and I'll help you if its the early youth hunt up there that my son has. Last year (or the year before?) a friend's son had the late hunt and I sent him to the spots where my daughter shot both of her deer. He was done opening day.

You have to call and ask about pending charges. I have two $25 pending charges on mine, but they won't show up officially until sometime next week.

Don't know your situation, but if you need help with a 34A tag, let me know. You've been good to me up here, so I'd like to pay it back! Both of my kids' second choices were the 34A youth hunt, so we can do some early scouting for you, if you have that tag and they do. Even if they don't, I can point you in some directions with deer!

Both of my kids have deer tags, so life is great!!!

I'm in the valley enough when soccer is up and running, but can meet in Camp Verde (half way?) if you're serious. We'll also be by the airport July 13th to catch an early flight on the 14th. Could probably bring it down then. Of course, its much cooler up here than it is down here, so the road trip is worth it!

Up in Flagstaff. Its only ever left my safe two or three times since I received it. Two times were when I was cleaning/reorganizing the safe and once was for these pictures. Its never even been loaded beyond a snap camp and I don't recall that its even the action fully racked.

Lance Kenyon deserves a huge shout out. I've tried to be serious about my reloading and I have a handful of rifles that I've been able to work up great loads for, but Lance's knowledge is off the charts. More impressive is his willingness to share that knowledge with strangers. I've picked his brain off and on over the last couple of years, but it got more regular about a year ago. Not long after my mom passed, my wife let me get a custom rifle, which I've always wanted. I was going back and forth with another friend (before I really got to know Lance), looking something in the 6.5s, so my wife and kids could enjoy it. I was debating on joining the Creedmore bandwagon, but the 6.5-284 really caught my eye. As I was talking to my friend about this, he says "I'm cleaning out my safe and I have something you'll love. Its a 6.5 WSM." I knew nothing about them, so I researched them a little bit. I expressed my concern about having a wildcat, especially if I have to fire form brass. He had all the dies to custom make brass without fire forming. My other hesitation was that the rifle has a 1:10" twist that he had built specifically for 142gr SMKs. I questioned that, especially since I'm a Barnes guy and none of Barnes' heavier 6.5 bullets would work well in a 1:10" twist. I am our office's lead biologist for the California Condor program, so me hunting with lead bullets is absolutely not an option. Beyond my professional stance, I've been a personal believer in Barnes for many years before taking over the condor program (its part of why I was asked to take it over). Long story short, I ended up buying the rifle, hoping I could get Barnes 120gr TTSX bullets to work, which Barnes said should work great. I also bought some 143gr ELD-X to try and build target loads for. I used the load data that came with the rifle, but ended up having pressure issues. I won't even go into how much brass I ruined trying to figure out how to resize 300WSM or 7mmWSM brass down to 6.5WSM brass. I was getting discouraged and started talking to my wife about selling the rifle to start over or having it rebarreled to a 1:8.5" twist to be able to shoot the Barnes 127LRX or 130TSX bullets. Long story short, I reached out to Lance about a year ago to figure out which powders I could use for the 120TTSX and 143ELD-X and he sent me a list of powders to try and suggested charge ranges. We also brokered a deal on a bottle of powder I bought by mistake and part of that deal was "unlimited reloading questions". I've used that part of the deal for all of my trouble rifles (those that I can't get a load to work) so much that I'm sure Lance shakes his head when I text or message him! A couple of weeks ago, I finally put some test loads together for my 6.5WSM using H1000 and Barnes 120gr TTSX. I took it to the range last Friday, not with high hopes, but also not with a gloomy attitude. The scientist in me was just curious to get data to work with. It turns out that my rifle loves 60gr of H1000 with the 120s seated 0.050" off the lands, which is what Barnes recommends. I went home and promptly texted Lance the following picture with a huge thank you. In the last week, I've realized he deserves so much more than that text, especially with all of the texts I've sent him, including when I've asked how to fix something stupid, like grabbing the box of 30-06 brass and running it through your 25-06 resizing die. I told Lance I was going to name my new 6.5 WSM load the "Lancelot Load" in his honor, but it dawned on me later that Lancelot, being the great knight and warrior he was, also slept with his king's/best friend's wife, so I'm not sure I should honor Lance that way! At any rate, "Lancelot Load" or not, this one is for you, Lance. THANK YOU for being you! p.s. I tried to get the target picture to rotate, but it wouldn't do it.

Back to the top...

The Business Building is across two parking lots (north of my office). We're always needing house sitters, so if he doesn't mind big dogs, we can give him some extra cash, too. We always need fresh perspectives on our NWTF committee up here and I'm rarely turning good people down to keep me company on hunts. There was also just a discussion in our neighborhood forum up here about parking RVs. Let me take a look at that and get you some more info in the next day or two.

I'm with him (and you). I've given a few earsful to people who drive past my truck on a dead-end road and stop to tell us that they are intending to hunt the same area I've just told them we're on our way to hunt.

Have you looked at either Black Bart's RV spot or Kit Carson RV parks? Unfortunately, we don't have space; however, I'm happy to be a local contact for your son if he gets in a jam, or just needs an adult perspective. My office is on the south end of campus, across from the soccer fields, in the Forestry Building (actually RMRS, but not many have heard of that). PM me if you want a local contact while you're up here or if your son needs anything.

I made the switch to Smartwool hiking socks many years ago, after the recommendation of a former boss. They don't stink like synthetic socks do (not as bad, anyway). I then switched to the Smartwool liner socks after using synthetic liners. I used them when I was working on wildfires and they're all I use for hiking and hunting. Since I've made that switch, that's all I've used and will use. About a decade ago, I bought into Under Armour and stopped using my wool insulating layers. UA keeps me warm, but there's the stink factor after a long day. I'm debating on getting rid of all my UA tops and bottoms and using my pro deal to get either First Lite or Helly Hansen wool insulation layers. They wick the moisture and, therefore, the stink, away much better than synthetics. And wool generally still keeps you warm when it gets wet. I've never had synthetics still keep me warm.

TTT Still have cards left that we need to get sold...

Still have about half of our deck left. Help us raise the money for turkey research and get a chance at a Governor's tag, a rifle, and a great vest!

Bump back up. Still have about half of our deck left. Let's get them sold give this vest away!

good website Yep. I won't lie. This is going to be the year that makes me glad I gave up wildland firefighting. The Beast will be hungry this year.

If I was going to be in your area anytime soon, I'd snag it from you for my daughter. Would you ship if I sent you $10?

Bump back up. Anybody need a turkey gun?

When there are hens in the mix, that's the best you can do. Whenever there are hens, I figure out the boss hen and start a pissing match with her over who's more dominant. If you can get her to come in, she'll likely bring a tom with her or one in the area will hear the commotion and come check it out. It worked for me and my son Saturday morning, except that the tom came from behind the boss hen and walked right to her as I was calling her in. Game over at that point.

I've had several conversations with the AGFD turkey biologist for that area and the turkey population has exploded this year. A couple of guys on our NWTF committee here in Flag work for him and have confirmed that. Turkey numbers are the highest they've been in years. I can't give you the spots I know best because I've already given those to close friends, but you really shouldn't have any problem finding turkeys this spring. Good luck!

Friday was horrible with crazy high winds, followed by snow. Only one youth shot a bird and that was after sitting water for 10 hours straight. Saturday and Sunday, the woods were on fire with gobbles. I had my son in birds both mornings, but a hen ruined everything Saturday and we accidentally bumped a couple of hot toms Sunday. The good news is that he's now hooked on turkey hunting and he's getting great with a pot call and starting to work a box call well. We had one family show up Thursday night and realize they had a modified choke in their kids' shotgun. Rather than driving to Phoenix to get the right choke, they were able to meet my wife in Flagstaff and use the extra choke I had that didn't work good enough in my son's shotgun. Saturday morning, their daughter killed a jake with it! I told her I didn't want the choke back. All told, I think we had five birds taken in the camp, a few missed shots, and lots of young, first-time turkey hunters who can't wait for next season!

I loved getting that text from Ron Saturday! Congrats again to all!

Teenagers, right??

After what you and that knuckle head friend of ours pulled, I want to say something mean, but I actually like you too much to do that (and it was darn funny!)! Good luck to you and Draysen! I'll be heading down to help set up the youth camp at Happy Jack tomorrow morning, hauling butt back to Flag to get my son from school and then taking him back down there for his first turkey hunt! Good luck gents!