Scooter

What a beautiful trophy and rifle. .38-55win is an awesome antique cartridge! Thanks for posting!

I shot a fox two weeks ago using my handloaded 55gr speer SP's at 75yards and I was shocked at the damage it caused to that animal. Very similar to the wound pictured above! I guess I'm going to have to speed up my .223 loads so that they pass through quicker.

5th post and all of them I have read are negative "troll" type posts... Now why would cameras get banned? Cameras don't attract deer to an area, they don't hold deer in an area, and often times they flash and scare game away from a spot or at least make them a bit more wary. The fact is, baiting is a method of hunting. It has been for centuries especially with trappers. Food plots for the most part are a form of baiting. Salt and mineral licks (intended for the deer and not livestock) are baiting. Tinks #69 or whatever you use during the rut is baiting. Gathering up acorns on the ground and piling them up in front of a treestand is baiting. You know what? It's all HUNTING!!! I personally do not bait areas, but if someone wants to use their superior human intellect to their advantage, LET THEM! My gosh this is worse than some elitist fly-fishermen that want their own special sections of public rivers to themselves. Banning the use of bait will not take hunters out of the woods- nor do I believe it will make any difference in the deer population either way. I think if anything- that there is a distinct possibility it will invite more people to take more questionable shots (especially with archery equipment) than when they could use a bait pile and see calm, feeding animals broadside within their comfortable shooting range.

I grew up in Western New York- NY state didn't allow baiting... No big deal- because there were TONS of deer and small areas in which to hunt them. You always saw deer everywhere. Here, in AZ that is just not the case. There are not as many deer and there is TONS of acreage in which they can roam. Personally, I think that baiting is okay and does not interfere with the spirit of hunting. For as long as man has walked this earth he has used every bit of brain power to his advantage in a quest to put meat on the table. Baiting is just part of the hunt. It is one of those genius ideas that a caveman came up with at some point to make killing food more efficient. If you are limited to 1 deer per calendar year, and you have to pay for that tag (sometimes multiple tags if you archery hunt) you should be able to use every advantage that a human being can think of to fill the tag you payed for. Now we get into the realm of why AZGFD sells more tags than they want to see filled. I don't agree with the "gambling" method that is used to issue tags. We'd really be up sh*t's creek if people hunted hard and all tagged out!

Too many of those round these parts. Gotta meet up sometime and strategize good buddy! -scooter

Nope I live here... Stationed at Huachuca

I wish I could... I hunt Wyoming and Erie county areas where I grew up. Not gonna make it back this year though. Sure do miss the doe permits

And I couldn't leave well enough alone, tried to swap out back to my old peep sight and busted tw strands with the string separator. Bow is at the shop getting a brand new string. It's gonna be a Vapor trail so hopefully after the install and tuning (and $120 later) I'll have a peep that doesn't turn on me and a few more FPS... I should have used a bow press, or just taken it in to the shop- by the way... Black Velvet Archery in Sierra Vista is a pretty awesome shop. Dave is a great guy and hasn't made fun of me too much yet for my stupidity and bad luck!

South ain't looking good except in the neighborhoods

No rifle tag this year, but I'm ready for December and January!

I'll try to make it out... My new string should be installed and ready by then...

I think what he lacks in mass can be made up for in the spread... I have no real experience scoring coues, but that looks like a pretty wide deer.

I thought there looked like something between the G2 and 3 on the left side in the second pic... Could just be a piece of velvet or something.

110+ all day. Need a better pic of the junk on his left side- then it could be 120 class for sure!!!

I work with a PSE pro-staffer who made me shoot it and I'm not really a bowsmith so I'll do my best to point out the stuff I remember reading and heard from the pro's... Here's the write-up I got from a quick google search: (I don't know how this site is about posting URL's to other websites) but if you google it it is contained in PSE's blog site. "When the Drurys challenged the engineers at PSE to design a lightweight, high performance hunting bow, it seemed impossible. Stripping down a current model or creating a bow that was too expensive for most hunters was not an option. Instead, PSE’s engineers set out to design a bow that was entirely different, all the way down to its DNA™. Introducing the Dream Season® DNA™ by PSE. Created by using a riser forged out of state-of-the-art, ultra-light and ultra-strong aluminum alloy, the new DNA™ weighs in at only 3.7 lbs. It features PSE’s new Center Pull technology that places the arrow in the exact center of the bow for unparalleled tuneability and exceptional performance. The amazing new Core™ cam produces speeds of up to 352 fps, has 5 inches of draw length adjustment on the inner-cam, and is incredibly smooth. The DNA™ also features the new Centerlock 2™ Limb Pockets, FleX™ Cable Slide, Backstop 2™ and all the other features you expect from PSE. The new Dream Season® DNA™ is not only the best hunting bow we’ve ever made…It’s the best hunting bow EVER made!" If you know where your local PSE dealer/pro-staffer is you can pre-order them now. I have to say it is about the lightest bare bow I have held and the draw cycle is absolute silk. I usually don't get caught up with speed, but shooting it next to my bow was a huge eye-opener.

"FREE"? I'll have you know I spent a whole $10.00 on that program. For that price the info better be 100% accurate!!! Just kidding...I was pretty skeptical myself. But yesterday I shot at various distances ranging from 200-600 yards and was pretty surprised at how accurate it was. Not perfect...but I would say far more accurate than just using the mil dots. Worth the $10 anyway...lol My mistake... most folks just use the free ones. I strongly distrust pretty much any digital and paper references telling me what someone else's rifle did on a windless day at sea level with zero barometric pressure and so on and so on. The only references I use are my reloading manuals, actual 3 to 5-shot groups on paper targets, a laser rangefinder, and a journal to record it all. I was thinking about adding a wind meter- but I currently just use my phone to tell me roughly what the wind/barometer is doing. 6" at 200yds is a little shaky and I know if you are this enthusiastic about it you'll greatly improve on that in the weeks leading up to your hunt. REMEMBER: record the data from your practice sessions.

What exactly was the expected use of the pistol? I'm just confused as to why you or he feels strongly like he would need to carry it? There's really no wrong answer, maybe self defense? I just don't think that an unlicensed minor tagging along on a hunt ought to carry ANY firearms at ANY age... Tagging along means helping glass and carrying large items uphill. If he's hunting, he has to hunt within your control. He has to have a license. Do you really expect that he'll be doing much small game hunting or target shooting while you are out pursuing deer? I am of the firm belief that EVERYBODY has the right to self defense- to include minors- but under the current laws it seems like you'd be better off leaving the pistol home or in the truck on this one.

I clean all of my birds in the field, but the carcasses go in a garbage bag all the way home with me so that I have proof of species and number. Good post, shell hulls especially. That's just so entirely disrespectful to leave them out there since they have NO way of ever being reclaimed by nature as it is the case with dove carcasses. Those last only as long as it takes carrion feeders to find them.

Dumb question... but that's a .308 right?

My Brother already does help out with the spotting. He knows the do's and don't s of gun safety. I just wanted to see if he could carry legally. Go Get 'em!!! Good luck!

You don't sound rifle-ignorant. You at least have some load/ballistic data to go off of. Now, that being said- unless you have the equipment to verify that what your rifle/bullet combo will accomplish, take charts from a free iPhone app for what they are... a good place to start but NEVER a good place to base your decision off of. The .270 is a fantastic deer cartridge. It shoots "flat", hits about as hard as a 30-06, and can be carried in a featherlight rifle configuration. I would say, out-of-the-box, sighted in, with average factory ammo, and a good optic the .270 is a 400 yard rifle all day. Lots of Kudos for you getting lots of practice in- and I have no doubt from the language and concern evident in your post that you will make an ethical, informed decision when the time comes and you need to squeeze off that round at your target. Good luck!

Thank you so much Gabriel for your contribution. I am of the same mind that if you blast off with a firearm your bowhunt is over at least for the immediate area within decent sound coverage. It also sort of answers the question of when you are considered "actively participating" in a certain hunt or not (excluding those hunts with migratory birds requiring magazine limits and non-toxic shot regulations).

This came up in a recent conversation around the water cooler and I wanted to get a few people's take on it... "Individuals participating in an “archery-only” season may possess a non-hunting handgun for personal protection. It is unlawful to take any wildlife with this handgun while participating in an “archery-only” season. For the purposes of this Section, a nonhunting handgun is defined as a handgun with a barrel length of six inches or less that does not have a scope or any type of electronic sight." That's the exerpt from the AZGFD regs... If you were to carry a 4" or 5" barrel .22lr pistol without optics during an archery hunt, and you saw a fat, juicy cottontail or a jackrabbit on your direct hike back for lunch you would then legally have to use your bow to kill it? Would it be illegal to put your bow down on the ground and kill it with your .22 pistol? When exactly does your participation in the "archery only" deer season stop and your participation in the rabbit/non-game general season begin??? My opinion on this particular regulation is that if you are not shooting at or actively pursuing the animal that the "archery-only" season covers, then it doesn't matter. If you are engaged (lets say in a blind or treestand) hunting the specific "archery-only" animal then you cannot use the pistol for any other purpose than personal protection. Let's see where we can go with this, if anywhere... opinions from all sides welcome!

Do yourself a favor and focus his attention towards a pair of bino's or a spotting scope. That way he's more gainfully employed, learning something, and you don't have to worry about whether or not the iron on his hip is legal.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the agents who were ambushed. I regularly hunt VERY close (30B just west of Naco) to where this happened and when I am walking around ALL I see around me is evidence (litter/trash/clothing/water/scout posts) from border crossers of every motive. To me, it's both a miracle that these shootings don't occur more often and a strong testament to the hard work and long hours our BP agents put in out there. I hope they find these scumbags and make an example out of them. Not time for politics guys... time for us to band together and take a stand against the criminals entering this country day after day. The BP agents are good- but they are too few and far between. We need to re-form and activate the "minutemen", only this time the leader and every member should be of and held to a standard of un-questionable virtue.