Hoss50

We did 7e twice in December in toyhaulers. First year was no water. 2nd year we did water, and used a roll of duct wrap insulation to skirt the bottom of the trailer. It was well below freezing and the insulation skirt kept the water from freezing.

If it doesn't get picked up let me know.

Get away from the roads, and dont believe that elk only live in pine forests. If it is cold, get into the junipers and nastiest canyon you can find.

Also a note for people running the heaters from a hose. If you can't get it to light you need to purge the air from the hose. That night when it was freakin cold I couldn't get the heater to light. After some attempts the pilot light would light, but when you turned the heater up it would flame out. Turns out it had air in the lines. I let the pilot light run for about 5 minutes, then turned it up, and it worked perfect.

They make 1 of the hoses that has a built in filter or screen. I keep the vents open and the bottom of the doors unzipped. I also keep a battery operated Carbon monoxide alarm in the tent. We have never had it alarm, even with 2 heater running when it was super cold out.

I spent a couple nights in my 10x14 flexblow north of Flagstaff in December. It was low temps in the 15* area, but windy. We had a single canister buddy heater running on high all night hooked to a BBQ tank, and another buddy heater on low running on green bottles. It wasn't cold in the tent, but it wasn't warm either. When the heater on low ran out a green cylinder you knew it, and would wake up to put a new one on. Our bags are probably +20* sleeping bags though so that doesn't help. If it hadn't been windy I think it would have been manageable with just the 1 heater on high on the BBQ tank. A big buddy dual cylinder heater hooked to a BBQ tank would probably rock it in one of those tents.

What is the reamer setup to set the overall cartridge length at? I need to see if it will fit in my magazine.

I dont go on a trip without each tagged hunter having a backup rifle they know how to shoot now. There is no reason not to if you have the hardware. I have only had 1 occasion to resort to a backup rifle, but last year it happened in Kaibab. My buddy needed it. He was carrying one of my rifles, and dropped my 257 weatherby on the scope, and had to resort to the 13lb 300 win mag. It was still better to carry that pig then have to drive back to PHX to get another rifle.

Look at Burris Veracity or the step above. I have two of the 3x15x50 veracity's and like them better than my Vortex 6x24x50 HS-LR. The Vortex is nice enough, but at 24x, it seems like the reticle get really light like an over exposed picture. I like the scope overall, but I like the Burris better.

Let me know how they act on an animal. If they kill well it just may be the info I need to push me over the edge and rebarrel my 257 weatherby to a fast twist to run the blackjacks...

Those are pretty big.

Dont overlook toyhaulers. I bought a 21' weekend warrior last year from a buddy. It is really nice to open the back door to load up trailer with totes and stuff. I even roll my traeger right in and secure it with the vehicle tie downs. I have 1 queen bed overhead, 2 twins on the sides, and a pop out queen in front. I love it. It is small enough to be easy to get into places, and with the pop out queen we can fit alot of people if necessary. It is easy to put a 3rd queen bed down with an air mattress in the toy box floor.

I will take the koa please.

I am going to test the scope and mounts soon. They are new, but I know I double checked and torqued them correctly, so unless the scope is the problem, it is probably the barrel.

I did that before my elk hunt and it was all over the place at 500 yards, that is what really prompted this thread.

My guess is at least 800 rounds down the tube. I am not in a rush. I am going to try the scope and rings first, but I am sure i need to have it looked at sometime.

I would like to look at the Browning/FN if possible. Do you work out in QC too? I travel town alot, but Chandler is about as far as I get east usually.

Looks awesome. I might have to try some of those in the 6.5x55s I need to load for. Good luck to her. I am jealous of her luck to draw awesome tags. I hope to get another opportunity up there in the next 10-20years....my luck sucks most of the time.

Do the auto parts stores rent it? O'Reilly and autozone rent alot of tools.

Is the fn/browning setup to shoot 2.75" shells or just the 2 9/16th shells? Is the barrel fixed full choke, or what choke does it have?

It is always a little weird to see the antelope in the pine trees. My last hunt in 7e a few years ago we spotted a small herd in the middle pine elevations in early December. Congratulations, 7E is a tough hunt. The December cow hunt is even more of a challenge.

After opening day they ghost pretty hard, and go nocturnal. You are going to have to get into good glassing areas and get deeper. I would be looking in the transition areas between the 225 road and 220 road. Road 224 will take you down the hill if you need to go down to the 220. From the 220 you can glass back up the canyons up high. We had the hunt last year, and it was much tougher then I thought it would be. I put down a decent buck the first morning, but after that they were ghosts. We ended up pulling out a small fork horn near the highway south of Jacobs on day 6. We hunted pretty hard for days 1-5. 6 we resorted to road hunting because of my buddies knee being beat up, but it paid off with that little fork.

20a general javo here I come...as long as there isn't 18" of snow like last year...

It was pretty darn cool. The field work was tough but rewarding. We were covered in blood, and our knees and backs were not happy afterward, but it was well worth the experience and the meat.

congrats to your daughter, and you. I am sure you are a proud papa.