BruinPoint

Thanks to both of you and good luck oz

Sear it in a frying pan first too!

I'm using 42gr of Varget under 140gr Accubonds in a Tikka T3 with great luck at the range and the woods. Average measured velocities are in the neighborhood of 2,800fps. This is the max load listed by Nosler so adjust accordingly.

If you were born after Jan 1, 1949 then you need proof of a hunter safety course completion not just to apply, but with you in the field as well. Granted, our top end units may not compare to a top unit in AZ, WY, or NM, but there are plenty of units where you should be able to find a 70+ inch buck on public land that take less than 10 preference points. Check out the CPW's webpage on the big game access program and find an atlas with the private/public and your research will be off to a good start.

Nice buck! With a Savage 99 too! Cool, thanks for sharing!

Beautiful! Love the middle buck on the modified form!

Not to derail the score discussion, but how about some details on your rifle set up?

Thanks for sharing - looks like an interesting area!

Awesome deer!

Awesome buck, congrats to both of you! Sent you a PM.

I have a T3 Lite stainless and a Savage 11, both in 7mm-08. Both are easily MOA rifles with factory ammo and the TIkka is a 1/2-MOA rifle with handloads . T3 is lighter and has a detachable magazine, but does have noticably more felt recoil. Savage is heavier, has a blind magazine, and the action is MUCH sloppier, but I paid about 40% less than what I paid for the Tikka. Those are the pros and cons as I see them. FWIW I like the way the Weatherby Vanguard S2 handles at the gun counter, just keep running into other deals I can't pass up so I haven't had one to play with!

Awesome - thanks for sharing those.

Pending trade.

2010 Eberlestock Blue Widow internal frame pack in Max-1 camo. Comes with matching Super Spike Duffel, Zip-in Reversible Pannel (Blaze orange/Max 1), and Bow/rifle carrying attachment (aka "Butt Bucket"). The top compartment is a removable fanny pack. When compressed it has a 2200 cubic inch capacity; expanded, it has a 4,700 cubic inch capacity. With the Super Spike Duffel attached the capacity is over 7,600 cubic inches. Used but in nearly perfect condition (2 superficial blemishes - blood stain on compression strap, small mark from where I cleaned off some pine sap on the harness). I screwed up my back and need to downsize. I'd like to get $300 + shipping. Email works best (nickj1980 at hotmail.com) or PM me here. Thanks for looking! http://www.eberlesto... Blue Widow.htm

I know living here gives me an advantage but if I ever leave I'll still hunt Colorado's OTC units when I can. Most units are at least okay for young 5 and 6 points. There have been a pile of 330+ bulls killed on OTC tags over the years, but not the norm. You'll probably be counting mostly on luck the first year or two, but once you start getting a feel for an area you should have a chance to kill a bull every year.

What an awesome display of elk and whitetails!

There's an entire WY antelope, spotting scope, tripod, rain gear, GPS, camera, snacks, and water in there - no problem! Should handle a big buck Coues' deer pretty well, but I never had the chance to prove it in 33 last year.

I'd like to pass this NIB Beretta TX4 12ga tactical shotgun along to someone who'll use it. Bought it thinking it'd be alright for turkeys but it turns out it uses a new choke system that doesn't include an extra full--I'd like to keep the extended range. Would make an awesome dual purpose calling/home defense gun. Low, low serial #. Link--Beretta TX4 Storm MSRP = $1,450 I'll take $1,200 shipped to your FFL (I'm in Colorado) or work a trade for the following in new or like new condition: -Weatherby Accumark .257 Wby -Remington M700 Sendero in .264 Win or 7mm Rem Mag -Remington M700 CDL in .257 Wby, .265, or 7mm Rem Mag -Swaro SLC 15x56 binos -Vortex Kaibab or Kaibab HD 15x56 binos -Vortex Razor or Viper HD spotters Posted on other sites as well--first public "I'll take it" based on time-stamp gets it.

Those powders are all on the slow end but RL19 and RL22 are a little faster than those you listed. Both put out some pretty good velocities without unsafe pressures which is why they're fairly popular powders for the belted mags. I haven't had a chance to try it but I've heard good things about Ramshot Magnum too.

Quick update--things are looking better. Switched to RL19 after not quite getting there with RL22. Have both the 100gr B-tips and the 130 A-bonds shooting much better and have fine tuned the seating depth on both. The 130's shot 6 rounds under an inch at 100 this afternoon. The 100's aren't quite as tight, but close enough for as little as I plan to actually shoot them. I also found out that free-floating the barrel was a bad idea on such a long tube without bedding the receiver. I hadn't ever heard of that connection before but it makes sense. Just out of curiosity I'm going to put the factory pressure point back in the forend with epoxy and see what happens.

I'm going through something similar with a new Remington 700 CDL in .264 Win. It's a 26" fluted, 1-in-9" twist. I don't have a break on mine, but I did the same "break-in" that you did. I freefloated it and that turned out to be a mistake. It went from a hair under 1" at 100yds to not being able to get any load much under 2". Tonight I finally got a load to shoot halfway decent with 6 shots under 1"... From what I've learned on other forums, the thin, long barrels don't take to floating well, the only mitigating factor being whether it's bedded properly or not. Every single person I've found that had trouble with a freefloated rifle had a long thin barrel, but I don't know how many of those were bedded properly. Rather than bed mine I'm going to "un-freefloat" first it and see if I can get back where I started. That issue notwithstanding, I've had good success with Reloader-19 in 4 belted magnums now (.338 Win, .300 Win, 7mm Rem., and .264 Win.) All 4 have shot sub-MOA as bone stock factory Rem 700's with RL19, and the .338 is a legit 0.5 MOA shooter. If you get desperate you might give that a go with Federal match primers. Have you tried a shorter/lighter bullet? Try a box of 140gr VLD's or Accubonds and see what happens. And if you get a chance post an update.

Looks good to me. Not too cluttered. If it was my site I'd cut the "featured products" from 8 to 6 to reduce the clutter even more and focus customers on specific items, but it's good as is.

Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico for me. CO is home, so it's a no brainer. Utah used to be home, and I used an "alternative" draw strategy for the past 15 years which has left me with mid-level points for deer/elk/antelope and I hate to give up now, since I should draw all three species in the next 10 years or so, plus it's relatively cheap. Wyoming is new as of last year and I haven't gotten lucky in NM (and it looks like I'll have to give it up if they limit non-residents to 2% of the tags with a $90 license purchase). I'm a long way off from seeing an elk or pronghorn tag in AZ, but I should be able to hunt coues a few times in the next several years.

Here are some petroglyphs I came across on my first AZ hunt. The white specks on the left are my truck and tent.

Some good ideas on here--I'll have to keep some of these ideas in mind. I'm a big fan of good food all the time, but it can really keep your spirits up on a tough hunt. One thing we always do for dinner is buy the pre-made "freezer bag" meals. There are about a dozen entrees and all you have to do is dump the contents into a frying pan and it's done in about 10 minutes. 2 bags feed 3 guys about right. Add potato chips, macaroni salad from the deli, etc and it's a new meal every night in under 10 minutes. The only downside over the vacuum packed home-made meals is that there's a pan to clean up and they're about $5-6 apiece. For breakfast we do oatmeal or some kind of breakfast bar, but I've found the Quaker oatmeal bars hold up well and are almost like instant oatmeal, except portable. Lunch is a bagel sandwich (bagels don't smash as easy) or whatever gets dug out of the cooler in camp. And plenty of snacks to make sure we don't come back lighter than we left!