c-ne-elk

Was it the Polaris with a snowplow attachment? If so, it might be the one that is a scam. It's been around for a while on many different cities Craig's List. A friend of mine checked into it back in the spring, the seller was going to ship it to him said it was so cheap because someone had made a down payment on it and backed out losing their downpayment. After checking in to it he found out that it was a scam that was going around.

I use RE22 for my 280AI all the time but have not seen this. I have seen slight variances from lot to lot on powder but never anything huge like you are describing. I just opened a new 5 lb keg a few weeks ago and did not notice anything different. I shoot long range with the 280AI so I would notice if my accuracy fell off. Not sure what this could be, maybe just a batch or lot issue?

I have a Colorado Tent Company (Now called the Denver Tent Company) that is 22 years old this year. I have used it multiple times every year since I bought it and other than being dirty, it is like it was the day I bought it. I am sure the other companies allow this too but Denver tent will let you "build" a tent like you want it, 1 door or 2, windows or not, zippers or ties for doors, etc. https://www.denvertent.com/ Couple of things to keep in mind; Over the years a canvas tent will shrink. My tent started off with 5' high walls and now the walls are about 4'-6" high. Spend the money to buy or build an internal frame. I bought the angled fittings off the internet and used electrical conduit to build my internal frame. It is a 12'x14' tent and I can put it up by myself in about 10 minutes. It has been through some extreme Wyoming winds and weather and is no worse for wear and has never come loose or collapsed. I recommend YKK zippers for doors in lieu of ties. I orginally had ties on my door but after a few years I sent my tent back in and had a BIG YKK zipper installed and like it MUCH better. When having to take that midnight visit to the bathroom a zipper is easier to operate than a bunch of ties and it seals the door better than a tie. One of the reasons I think my tent is in such good shape is I have always stored it properly. No big deal to do this just MAKE SURE it is completly dry when you roll it up to store it until next year. Other than that, nothing else is required. They just get better with age. No matter which one you get, there is nothing better than a canvas wall tent to hunt out of!

If using a salt block and you are worried about other hunters finding your station, it's best to bury the block to where the top is flush with the ground. The animals will still find it and will even dig it up if they need to. Be sure to check your regulations, I don't know about Arizona but salt licks are illegal in some western states and have to be removed before the season starts. Some states consider it "baiting".

Now that's funny! But sadly it's sooooo true!

We hunted in Mexico last year and had no problem bringing back our capes, our outfitter had all the required paperwork and knew the system so it went off without a hitch. We are going back again this year and if I am lucky enough to get another buck was thinking about doing an European mount. I am sure our outfitter knows but I am anal enough to like to know for myself, I have seen outfitters make mistakes before. My question/statement is I would assume you have to get all the meat off the skull in order to bring it back in? Having frozen for 24 hours like capes would not be enough or is that enough to get through USFW? Anyone have RECENT experience in bringing a properly tagged Coues skull back?

DANG NICE DEER! And that's some clean skulls! I figured this would be the case as our outfitter cleaned the skull caps of our deer so clean you could have eaten off them. THANKS for the information!

We hunt and fish in Wyoming most every year, some years when we do not draw a tag we just fish and hunt small game, grouse, rabbits, and we go in September when it is still pretty warm so we came up with an idea to insure our meat arrived home in good condition. We have done this for a number of years and it is suprising how much meat (even in quarters) you can get into one of these freezers. We have a smallish chest freezer that we have in an enclosed trailer (with all our other stuff packed in the trailer too) that we put our meat in and run off a generator to keep the meat cool. Once the meat is cooled out you can keep the freezer going only a few hours a day and the meat will stay cool. We have an extension cord coming out of the front of our trailer (we just drilled a hole, put the cord through and siliconed the hole around the cord) we have even ran the generator in the back of our truck while rolling down the highway. At night you can ask the hotel where you are staying if they have an exterior plug you can plug into, have never had them turn us down and they always have some somewhere on the outside of the building to be able to run landscaping equiptment, etc. You can find some inexpensive chest freezers out there, we bought ours at Lowes some years back that was scratched and dented but works and is still working great. I have even seen people with chest freezers in the back of their pickups doing the same thing. Most freezers come with a key/lock on them so you can lock the lid to keep honest people honest if it is in the back of your truck.

We brought out the capes and the antlers attached to the skull cap since we were doing shoulder mounts, was no need to bring the entire skull out for that. Yes, posted photo's and a short story on the hunt on Feb 2nd called "2011 Mexico Coues Hunt". Was our 1st Mexico Coues hunt, had so much fun we are going back again! Thanks for the information on the skulls. I figured that they should be totaly clean. Like I said before, I will probably do that this year.

126 2/8 Great Buck, Congrats!

Dale, if you want to keep your shots under 400 yards, turret caps in any form will help you and will be accurate enough to do the job. I agree with you, I would rather be able to just dial in the yardage when in the heat of the moment not having to hold an estimated 7" high or look at a chart and having to dial in the corresponding moa. But if you want to do that the scope comes with a moa turret that you can reset to zero and dial in the moa just like on the Zeiss scopes. I would also suggest having your turret start at 100 yards. When you go out hunting, you can set your turret at any distance you want (say 200 yards) while walking around and then if you have that quick shot between 0 and 200 yards you are ready to just put the scope on the target. Usually when you need to make a 300 or 400 yard shot you have time to make corrections to your turrets. It is also nice to be able to dial it to 100 yards so when you sight in your rifle in camp after traveling (if necessary)you can put a target up at 100 yards and KNOW your rifle is hitting where you want it to hit. By starting your turret at 100 yards you lose a little on the upper end. With most calibers you will still get about 700 to 750 yards on a turret starting it at 100 yards -vs- about 800 yards if you start at 200 yards. Like I said in my earlier post, I am not planning on shooting at an animal at 800 yards anyway. I highly encourage you to go out and test your turrets even at 300 to 400 yards once you get them. You may find that you need to go an extra click (or you might not have to)to make that perfect shot. I had the B&C reticles on scopes before turrets and found that even at the correct scope setting they were not perfect. With a 300 wby set at 10x (which was what Leupold said the setting should be) my 300 yard crosshair was a little low and my 400 yd crosshair was a little high. Bottom line is there is no one setting/turret that works for every caliber other than using the standard MOA turrets and having a cheat sheet to make the conversion from distance to scope setting.

Depends on the rifle's use. I have a regular duplex on my elk rifle (4.5x15x) and a fine duplex on my Coues/Antelope rifle (6.5x20x) where I might have a long shot and the fine duplex covers less at higher magnification.

Here is more than you probably want to know about Leupold turrets and turret caps..... I currently have a 4.5x15-40 that came with Leupolds CDS turrets and I sent a 6.5x20-40mm to Leupold and had them put an elevation turret (CDS) turret on it for my 280AI for Coues deer hunting. They charge $90 to put a turret on one of their scopes and that includes the 15 moa regular turret cap and 1 custom turret cap. You don't have to order the custom turret cap when you have the turret installed, you can do it later. Leupold will keep track of how many turrets you have ordered by your scope serial number. Additional turret caps are $50.00 each. The 1st thing you need is to have a rifle that will shoot accuratly at the range you are planning to shoot. Just because a gun shoots 1/2"moa at 100 yards does not mean it will shoot well at 400 yards and beyond. Most of the time a gun that shoots good at 100 yards will shoot ok at longer ranges but not always. Once you settle on a load combination for your gun then give Leupold a call to build your scope turret. When you order a custom turret, you have to give Leupold some information. 1) what you want your starting point to be. DUG said 200 yards but you can make it what you want. I make mine 100 yards, you get 15 moa in a complete revolution which will give you at least 700 yards for most calibers starting at 100 yards and that's futher than most people need to be shooting at an animal and I like being able to verify that my scope is still on by shooting at an exact spot at 100 yards not guessing that my shot at 100 yards is 1 1/2" high or having to have 200 yards at hunting camp to verify I am still on. 2) Velocity of your load - need to chronograph your load to give them this information 3) Elevation where you were at when you took that velocity 4) Temperature when you took the velocity 5) BC of the bullet you are shooting 6) Brand and type of bullet 7) Serial number of your scope 8) You have to let them know if you want a "stop" at your starting point. I highly recommend this, what this stop does it keeps you from going past your starting point so you don't look down and go, am I at 100 yards or have I spun it a complete revolution and at my maximum range PLUS 100 yards. The factory 15 moa turret cap does not have a stop installed on it. Your turret will only be as good as the information you give them. You can give them a factory load and they will make a turret cap for that load but there is no way i would trust that information. Once you get your turret you need to try it. BC's given by bullet manufactures are an average BC, the turrets from Leupold will not be "perfect" they will be close but you may find that you may be one or two "clicks" off for a certain distance. Changes in any of the information you use to build your turret cap will change your bullet impact and will change your turret settings. If you base your turret cap around a velocity, etc. taken at sea level and go to 8,000 ft. to hunt, you gun will impact at a different point. Some powders used in loads are temperature sensetive and will shoot considerably slower in colder temperatures giving you 100 fps less velocity when the temperature drops 50 degrees. While turrets are a great aid in shooting long distance, they are NOT magical! It scares me thinking people believe they can get a turret for their scope and just spin the dial to the yardage they want to shoot and hit at medium to long range without LOTS of practice. Sure it may happen SOME of the time but there is a lot of work to long range shooting and lots of practice and customization that needs to go into making a turret system work right. A $90 turret cap is NOT going to make you a long range shooter! You also seem concered about remounting your scope. Remounting a scope is no big deal to someone that has even a little experience in doing it. I don't want to belittle your experience, we all started somewhere at sometime but if mounting a scope seems daunting, having turrets for hunting may not be the thing for you at this point in your hunting/shooting career. The one exception to all of this is if someone purchases one of the "package deal" that are out there from companies like Best of the West. There is a reason their gun/scope/ammo combo's cost so much money. They have done all the work for you and built the scope around the gun and what it is capable of doing. With one of their combo systems it is possible for just about anyone to dial in the distance and do the shooting. But building this sytem by yourself is a whole different animal. I shoot EVERY week at long ranges, out to 1300 yards and the one thing it has taught me is that LOTS of little things can go wrong when shooting long distances and I personally would not try a 600, 700 yard shot at an animal even under ideal conditions. For me personally, I'm all over 500 yards for shots while hunting GIVEN THE RIGHT CONDITIONS, practicing at distances well over 500 yards makes 500 yards seem like a chip shot. BUT..... give me a 50 yard shot ANY DAY!!

137 7/8"

I too looked at Kaibab's and Swaro's at the same time and while the Kaibab's are not Swaro's, they are the next best thing. My regular 10x bino's are Leica's I could justify the extra money on them but I could not justify double the $$ to go to the Swaro's over the Kaibab's. I purchased a pair of the Kaibab's and have not had a spec of remorse over the purchase. Would do it again if the situation presented itself.

Not that it matters but you do have to look at all 3 choices. When an applicaton is drawn, they first try to fill that applicants 1st choice, if it is full they then move to his 2nd choice, if it is full they then move to his 3rd choice. Only then do they go to the next applicant. So you may have unit "X" as your first choice and someone else may have unit "X" as their 3rd choice and if their application is drawn before yours, they my get drawn in lieu of you. On the elk hunt in the Gila that I referenced, of the 50 tags issued, 42 were issued on 1st choice applicants, 5 were issued to 2nd choice applicants and 3 were issued to applicants that listed this hunt at their 3rd choice. Pitting hunter against hunter...there is already talk about a lawsuit against the State of New Mexico if this bill gets signed by the Governor similar to the suit that was filed several years back when the quota was changed to the 10% NR w/o Guide and 12% NR w/ guide, do you remember what happended that year? There was almost no hunting draw, i.e. no draw, no hunt. Why should any non-resident want any of his money to go to funding any programs in New Mexico if he does not have a reasonable chance of hunting there? Just a couple of reasons this can and I will predict will pit hunters against hunters.

Do people really think this is going to make the residents happy? How many more tags are residents really going to get? Take a bull tag in Unit 34 - There were 3,536 residents that put in last year for 141 tags alloted for the residents. There were 33 tags last year for ALL non-residents, with or without guides. Under the new proposed bill, there will be 18 more tags for the 3,395 residents that did not draw. Take unit 16 hunt 1-264 in the Gila last year, 903 residents put in for 39 tags last year. There were 11 total non-resident tags last year, under the new bill there will only be 5, an increase of SIX tags for the 864 residents that did not draw. Are the residents odds going to be that much better? All this is doing is pitting hunter against hunter! And it will get worse before it get's better.

PM Sent

I have asked NMG&F the same question before. The response I got was the same as what ThomC said, if there are not enough tags to fill the application they will not increase the number of tags, will be rejected and draw until they fill.

What have you found to be the best brand of tripod head to use with binoculars? I have tried the pistol grip and found that to not be of my liking, a fluid type pan head is what I am looking for that is light weight and as small as possible but works well. What is your opinion? Thanks in advance for your input!

Tried to PM you on a back up offer for the Jim White head, the PM will not go through. If you need a back up buyer, let me know at tom.philley@huntcompanies.com. Thanks, tp

Got your Pm TJ...and returned you one. Jim White head SPF to TJ. TJ, I also found one extra plate...another PM sent. I'll give you a back up offer in case the deal with TJ falls through, will send PM.

My Kaiab's have been nothing but great! I used and abused them on a hunt in January and they came out looking like new. Seem to be pretty tough to me.

Hello, am new to the forum after going on my 1st Coues hunt. All I can say is ...WOW! What fun!!! I see why people get hooked on the Grey Ghost! All I can say about those folks that are scared to go to Mexico is, that is fine, don't go, stay home, more room for me!! I live in El Paso, right across from Bagdad on the Border. While none of the killing has spilled over into El Paso (we are actually one of the safest cities in the US with a population of over 500,000 people) Juarez is a mess. And for that reason, Antonio (our outfitters name), takes people across at Columbus, NM at Palomas, Mx. He meets you in Columbus where he has a secure area to leave your vehicle and takes you in his truck from the US side from there. The border crossing was VERY smooth with Antonio having all the required paperwork to make an easy entry to Mexico. 3 1/2 hours later we were at our camp near Colonia Juarez (not to be confused with Cidudad Juarez, i.e. Bagdad on the Border). Camp facilities were great, we stayed in a small old house, VERY clean, no electricity but running hot water and a hard roof over our heads. This camp is very remote, 1 hour by dirt roads from the the closest town and then a brutal one hour ride on a quad from camp to the gate at the ranch that we hunted on every morning and evening. There is no "road" from the camp house to the hunting area, you ride up a rocky creek bottom to the hunting area. The only access to the ranch is via horseback or quad. My friend Charlie from Idaho and myself had the place to ourselves, Antinio is a small operator with a little over 100,000 acres to hunt on 6 different ranches. We hunted a ranch that had 35,000 acres on it. He takes a maximum of 3 hunters per hunt, 12 hunters per year on all his ranches. This year, Charlie and I were the only hunters that made it for any of his hunts. He had 6 other hunters scheduled and they all backed out fearing violence in Mexico. One thing Antinio pointed out was that not only would he not put his clients into any danger HE did not want to get into trouble either. I would not fear for my safety in any of the towns that we traveled through but you have to be somewhat cautious as in any city, there are certainly places that you don't want to be in after dark. There was no shortage of deer on the ranch. I saw several shooter bucks but for one reason or another did not close the deal on the bucks, as I am sure you guys know, there is a lot of spotting and stalking on Coues and it does not always work out. My buddy Charlie was up to his armpits with shooter bucks from the 1st hour out. He had a 100" deer that haunted him every day. He would see him EVERY day but they could never close the deal on him. I ended up taking a buck that scored 95" on the 5th day of our 6 day hunt. I just could not stand it any longer! Charlie also shot a 85" buck on day 3 not being able to stand the sight of all the deer and wanting to be sure he at least got a Coues for his collection. Getting back into the US was a breeze. Antonio had removed all the ticks from our capes (one of the best caping jobs I have ever seen by the way) and had frozen them solid. When we hit the US we handed the officials a stack of paperwork that Antonio had prepared with all the necessary forms and while the officials looked hard at our capes and paperwork within 5 minutes they let us cross in with no issues. Being prepared and having all the paper work filled out was the key! Needless to say, we are going back next year! This time we will hold out for a Grande. Great time, great food, great people, lots of deer what's not to like??? Shoot me a PM if you want any information on Antoinio's operation or his e-mail address.