Hoss50

I know a lot of guys carry 2 optics with them in the field. I have a set of 8x42 Diamondbacks I carry around my neck. I am still learning and upgrading my items and what I carry. I learned this year I need something with more magnification for longer ranges beside my 8's. I am debating getting a set of 15's for my pack or a spotting scope for my pack. Thoughts, suggestions? I am investing in lower/moderate range hardware for now that I can pass to my son's as they get older and go with me, so honestly I am looking at Vortex 15x56 Vultures & the Diamondback 15x45x60 Spotter. I need a spotter for general range work too so I am kind of leaning that way but I wanted to hear thoughts and opinions. A $1000+ set of bino's or spotter isn't going to happen. That money isn't available right now or soon with the amount of other stuff I need to upgrade/get. I need to upgrade my pack and get a range finder still as well. I have a 4 year old and 1 year old son that will need some gear soon enough though so this stuff will be passed down and maybe later I can get myself some nicer gear. I spotted some deer at probably 1000+ yards this elk season and I was trying to see them better. Even with my buddies set of nicer 10x42 Zeiss bino's I couldn't see much other than deer bodies at that range. That is what is prompting me to want to get something bigger for the pack. I could see animals but couldn't tell jack about them at that range other than they were deer and count them. Harley

Not after tax and gas to get there.

4 points should probably get you drawn in most of the northern cow elk units.

My grandfather bought me Remington 700 adl in 3006 and gave me a used winchester 69. I still have the winchester and it is a tack driver. I sold the 3006 when times were tough. I don't regret it as I really never bonded with that gun and I bought my 257 weatherby when. I got flush again. I shot my first elk with that rifle this season. Harley

I have a crap ton of 7mm Rem mag brass if you need more. All different head stamps. Bruno's had some h1000 in stock yesterday too if you need more. I will have a 8lber soon too if you need a.couple lbs

Don't tow anything heavy on that extension.... bad news. How big of trailer do you plan to tow? Weight? I wouldn't even consider towing anything heavier than a pop up trailer on that extension, especially a harbor freight extension.

Nice build Lance. I am sure he will be proud. It probably isn't the route I would have gone but do it how you think he would want it and you will use it. Getting used is the key. The gun that sits in the safe doesn't create memories.

not anymore.

I would buy as much scope as you think you need. I am probably going to go with the 4x16x50 Viper HS LR scope for my 257 Weatherby soon. I plan to use it kind of how you are talking, not really shooting past 600 yards or so. I have a Redfield Revolution in 3x9x40 on my rifle now and I like it a lot but it is not enough scope for me at 500 yards. I have hit steel at 500 yards with no problems with this rifle an scope, but the target is just to small for my liking even on 9x. More magnification is not always better. I don't honestly think I want a 24x scope scope on my rifle to shoot 500-600. If I was working on shooting 1000+ I think that is a good choice. Those are just my opinions though.

I like my 8x42s. They are pretty clear and alot better than what I had. I compared them to a $550 pair of leupolds and a set of more expensive zeiss in low light during elk season. They were not as good as either pair but they were no slouch either. I would say they were only slightly worse than the leupolds and less than half the price.

Keep in mind that the area area between i 17 and bumble bee is also a popular gold panning, offroading, and horse back riding area. I would push past that area more toward cleat or and the West side of that big valley. I would also be inclined to look south of that big wash. You can access so.e of that off dirt roads not far off the I 17. If you see anything and feel like sharing I have a good buddy who is planning to hunt 20b for ham Hunt with his disabled father. He is always looking for places to check out

I was happy that the Bengals lost at the hands of 2 or the worst character guys in the league. Serves them right for rewarding terrible people with millions of dollars just because they run fast and hit hard. Character counts in life.

I am newer at glassing but buy the 8s or 10s your eyes like and get a bigger pair for the pack. I have 8x40s on my neck and learned this year I need a bigger pair too. I caught site of some deer during my elk hunt way out and couldn't tell much about them. A set of 15s would have been really nice to dial in more info on them. When I bought my 8s I had intended to buy 10s but the 8s felt better to my eyes.

I love my weatherby vanguard in 257 weatherby but it is not a round I would shoot on a bull elk past 500 yards at the very most. It did a great job on my cow elk this season at just under 300 yards but much more then that is pushing it to far IMO. My vanguard is a basic blued series 1 and will shoot sub MOA with handloads all day with a Redfield Revolution scope. For a non handload er though you don't want a weatherby caliber. I would look at a Tikka or savage in 7mm Rem mag or 300 win. Muzzle brake it if you need to.

Learn to reload on a single stage, but you will want to invest in a progressive someday if you plan on shooting things like 223 and 9mm a lot. It is slow to reload those on a single stage vs. the volume of ammo you usually shoot in those calibers. I personally don't reload 9mm because it isn't worth my time to do so on my single stage press. I would rather pay $12-16/box instead of paying $8-10 for the components and spending an hour or more of my time loading them. The money savings on a single stage press is on the larger more expensive calibers like .270, 300 RUM, etc. Get a good manual and read through is before you ever even attempt to load a round. Make sure you understand everything and what you are doing before you start playing with real loads. Go slowly and make sure your method is sound. Put thought into setting up your reloading area and making sure you have good equipment. You need a lot more than a press and dies to reload correctly. I got lucky and my dad bought a pretty complete reloading setup from a friend of his when I was young and it had the Speer manual and others with it. My dad never learned how to use it, so I taught myself to reload from reading the manuals when I was about 12 years old. I am not a master by any stretch of the imagination and I have a lot to learn and have learned a lot here. There is a lot more involved than just making a round that goes bang and doesn't blow up the gun if you are trying to reload for accuracy and distance. Reloading is a scientific process and should be treated as such. Start with X and only change 1 variable at a time when you are trying to work up loads. Dial in what you are doing little by little and don't be afraid to scrap 1 or more components if it doesn't look like your gun likes what you are feeding it.

If it where me I would setup camp somewhere along the bumble bee road turnoff and work south of that road near cleator. Or that is at least where I would start looking for scouting purposes. I have not hunted 20B but I have hunted the north side of that road before in 20A which is where I usually try and draw a tag for javo.

I loved the Smarty I had in my 98.5. It was great for lowend and midrange power & torque. Madselectronics.com If you want more power there is the edge comp box as well or the TST Powermax 3. Either can be stacked with the Smarty to have dual programmers, but you will need good supporting mods to do that. Make sure you have the supporting mods necessary for the power level you are after though.

Sorry for the novel, don't read it if you don't want to. I know it isn't a bull, but I am still excited about it. I was able to close out my elk hunt with success and this was my first solo big game animal that I have harvested. 4 of us drew our cow elk tag this year and we have been excited and putting in as much scouting time as possible to get ready for the hunt as well as getting to the range to get ourselves and rifles dialed in. We ended up harvesting 2 cows and we should have had a 3rd but 1 of our buddies went full on buck fever and couldn't get the shot lined up. He is pretty new to hunting and this was the first big game animal he has ever had in his scope. We split into 2 teams of 2 for the hunt mostly and it seemed to work well. My best buddy and I sat water opening morning from before light to about 9am. We then punched hills and brush til about noon. We went back to the trailer for lunch and then headed out to check out a spot I had found on the map to see if it was viable or not, it wasn't. By the time we started working back it had started to get really windy with winds probably 15+ gusting higher. With the direction of the wind our evening plans were wind broke so we called an audible and went to another hole we had liked before season but had cooled off in the weeks prior to season. We hiked into a long distance partially obstructed viewing range of this waterhole and sat for a few minutes trying to assess it. As we are glassing I get a text from my other 2 man team. "we might have 1 down". I texted back and said "let us know". After a few minutes 3 elk moved out from behind an obstructed area into view. Our hearts raced, but we were in a bad spot. We had little cover to work with to get closer and we were probably 600-800 yards out. I dawned my camo burlap hunting poncho that I had made before season to use as breakup and hopefully manufacture some cover. My buddy and I split up and he worked right and I worked left. He got to about 475 yards and ran out of cover so he went prone and started low crawling and got into about 425 yards but couldn't get closer without blowing his cover. He setup and waited on me. I didn't have much cover initially and moved low and slow with my poncho that I affectionately referred to as "Clint Eastwood". After about 125 yards of going slow I got to a small draw that helped me make up another 100 or so yards at a quick pace. I only had a small stand of juniper that was between me and the elk that I could use to stay in there blind spot and I continued moving. I would peek out every so often to make sure they were still there and they were so I kept moving. I had done some rough range finding before season and I knew a specific set of bushes was about 300 yards out from the hole and I used that for reference. I moved in and finally got to the stand of juniper and moved in as close as I could. From where I finally got to I estimated at 180 yards, but the only way to get a shot was to crawl out into open view. I set my rifle up on its bipod and slowly crawled out behind it. I had to calm myself because my heart was RACING. I slowed my breathing and got on target. They were facing me when I crawled out so I had to wait what seemed like forever until 1 turned broadside. I put the crosshairs on target and squeezed. The 257 Weatherby barked and the 2 lead elk ran about 25 yards and turned back to look. I MISSED!!! or so I thought. The stopped quartering away and I put the crosshairs back on her and squeezed again. She stumbled and fell down!!! I waited for my hunting buddy to make his way down to me and I told him she was down! I got a text during this process that our hunting buddies did in fact have 1 down and they were requesting help to get her loaded. I declined and told them they were on there own as we had our own elk to deal with! I got up to her and my first shot was right on the money, and the 2nd shot was pretty darn good too. Now the work began. Thankfully we could get the truck right up to her but it was windy and cold and light was fading fast. I chose not to gut her right on the waterhole as to hopefully not keep game from coming back on the rest of our hunt. We had a set of ATV ramps in the truck and ATV so we tried to drag her up the ramps. No joy. We got her butt about 1/2 way up and that was that. We had to muscle her the rest of the way in and hauled the mail back to camp to get her gutted an skinned. Right as we get her on the trailer to start skinning our other team showed up with elk #2 and we were up for quite awhile getting our elk dressed out. I took her into Casey's in Flagstaff the next morning and she hung at 225lbs. Our other hunting team put their cow elk down at 350 yard with 168gr Bergers out of a 300 Win Mag, 1 shot that did not exit. My shots actually were 260-280 yard shots as I didn't take into account they were about 60 yards behind the waterhole. I put 2 shot from my 257 Weatherby with 115gr Berger HVLD's. Neither exited but both penetrated well. The neck and front shoulder from my second shot had some decent bloodshot in it, and the near side lung from my first shot had a hole the size of a quarter in it. I didn't find either bullet but I wasn't really looking either. Thankfully my rifle was sighted in for 225 yards and the 257 shoots lasers to 300 yards. The other member of the 2nd hunting team had an opportunity the next afternoon at a waterhole but this was his first time with an animal in his sights and he buck fevered and couldn't get steady enough to take the shot. We hunted all 7 days and this was the last opportunity we had. The elk went totally ghost after day 2 of the hunt. This is the only real picture I have of our elk. I am the ugly dude in the middle.

Does anyone know much about the stevens 66? How do you tell which varient you have? 66 66a 66b 66c My wife's grandfather passed earlier this year and my mother in law has his old stevens 66 .22. I am trying to figure out which variation she has to get a couple parts for. Harley

Get her fixed. I love my mini. It isn't as accurate as an AR but is more reliable like an AK.

Fire form some possibly. I make all my 257 weatherby brass from 7mm Rem mag brass. I know Randalls in phx typically has Remington 300 weatherby brass in stock for sale by the piece. Harley

My 7x57 mauser has iron sight adjustments to 2000 meters so I should be able to get out that far no problem on 8" steel gongs right...

I work in Tolleson, I see you live in Litchfield. If you want to meet for lunch or something and talk truck and take a look at what I am running and let me show you some pointers I would be more than happy to. I love to talk Cummins if you have not figured that out already.

Do you have gauges? If not you need that BEFORE anything else. Then get an air filter setup. I would do a BHAF with outerwears personally on your truck, cheap and effective. You need to know what your EGT's are if you are towing with any mods especially a chip or injectors. More fuel means higher EGT's. Towing above 1350* for a consistent stretch is dangerous for your motor and if you tow at too high of an EGT you could LITERALLY melt your pistons. You also need to know your lift pump fuel pressure. A VP44 which is the injector pump for your motor won't live long if the lift pump pressures are to low or if the lift pump dies. If that happens the injector pump itself is over $1000 just for the part to replace. Does your chip have a boost fooler? What is your boost pressure? Without gauges you won't know. If you are running on the high side of 40psi of boost you are risking blowing a head gasket. Another very labor intensive fix that is easier to prevent than cause. If your towing with more power and extra power you should look into at least valvebody mods and billet torque converter to help keep the transmission alive along with a trans temp gauge to monitor the temperature. If your lift pump is dead or dying you should look into a better upgraded lift pump like a FASS. Your fuel pressure gauge will help you monitor the lift pump. If the lift pump dies the VP44 is soon to follow. If you upgrade your fuel pump make sure to upgrade to a 2 micron filter setup to get good clean fuel to the motor. I have the Edge CTS monitor in my 2005 ram along with an analog gauge for fuel pressure and really like it. I have a stick shift otherwise I would have added a trans temp gauge too, either digital in the CTS or analog. Either works. I had 2 analog gauges in my 98.5, fuel pressure and EGT. I didn't need boost because my SMARTY box wouldn't push enough power to drive boost past about 33psi even with the wastegate bypassed. Once you have gauges and an air filter setup go tow whatever you tow. If your EGT's are not too high then think about a different chip or injectors. Too much fuel IS a BAD thing. I did 60hp injectors in my 2005 cummins and I towed with it last weekend. Even with the programmer turned to stock I still had to back out of the throttle because I could drive my EGT's over 1400* which is bad news. I need to modify my exhaust and see if I can lower EGT's enough that way. If I just went balls to the wall without gauges I probably would have really hurt my truck pulling up the Camp Verde grade at 1400-1500* EGT. Harley

What do you have so far along with supporting mods, and how much power do you want? Do you tow?