singleshot

Way to go!! and with your own reloads!

Yeah it hurts real bad to fork out that cash. A habit that I got into about ten years ago was putting aside a seperate account just for hunting. Buying one adult licence and applying for elk and antelope for each of us I was out over 11 bills. I bought the other three licenses back in October for the 2009 spring hunts. It gets under my skin that I can go to Walmart and show my ID and hunting license and buy a tag for every over the counter hunt available, but can't buy a " super conservation " license and save some cash without appearing in person at a GF office. What a bunch of BS. I sent an E mail once expressing my distaste for this "cost saving approach for family's" and was told that my e mail had "been forwarded". To the round file?

I had a couple of arrows in it from 1987, then the top six feet broke off and took my arrows with it. Back then there wasn't very many, maybe 30, and we all thought it was cool.

Way to go man on a nice pig!!!!

+1 Our family has a 6.5x55 swede that has taken well over 30 coues deer in 3 generations, and elk. A 257 Roberts that is making waves. and a 7mm-08 that my daughter has a streak of one shot dumps with. We do have a couple of magnums around but plan your hunts around the 200 yard shot. Your boy will become a better hunter and when that 400 yard shot does present itself any of the previously mentioned calibers will do just fine. The older he gets the harder the elk tags will come, buy him something that he's comfortable shooting from rabbits to yearly deer hunts and the occasional elk hunts. You can never have enough guns, think about the ultimate rig as a graduation present?

Look at the 7mm-08. My daughter shoots one and has taken deer, elk and javelina with it. She's a hundred pounder and doesn't seem fazed by the recoil. We shoot some pretty stiff reloads out of a New England Firearms youth model. You can pick one up and put a good scope on it for less than five bills.

Not only do they smell really bad but they are very difficult to skin. You can't pull the hide off with your hands like you can coyotes, cat's and foxes, you have to cut every inch off with your knife. And they have a layer of heavy fat and grease that sticks to the skin. Back in the old day's the fur buyers that came through wanted them rolled and frozen because because the hides had to be hand fleshed to remove the grease ( coons ) also.

Putting the coding ammo bill rumor to rest Published on Sunday, January 18, 2009 7:09 PM MST Editor: I would like to put rumors to rest about the Ammunition Accountability Act proposed last legislative session and let the gun-owning community know it is my intention to make sure this bill never sees the light of day. Many within the gun-owning community are nervous about this legislation and rightly so. But I want you to know this bill was never put on an agenda in its originating chamber, which means it died and never had a chance of passing last session. For background, last year's proposed legislation required the manufacturer to code all ammunition in a database on every ammunition sale. Doing so would track how much ammunition was purchased, by whom and what calibers. All ammunition that is not coded must be destroyed. The provisions of this bill would also charge gun owners an additional 5-cent tax on every round. If this same legislation is introduced again this session, I will work to ensure the bill dies once again. Let me be clear about my position on this issue: Every single one of those provisions is totally unacceptable. I will work to ensure that this bill goes nowhere again so gun owners can rest easy. Opposing this legislation is at the top of my agenda. The gun-owning community has nothing to fear regarding this issue in Arizona. This issue received no support in the Legislature, and given the new makeup of the body this year, this bill will have absolutely no support again. Bill Konopnicki Arizona House of Representatives Phoenix

Thanks for all of the positive posts on everyone's topics. Good things happen for people that work hard and go to work every day. Best of luck, I'm sure you will climb the ladder. Bruce Bingham

Apply for an archery javelina hunt in October 2009, in January buy an over the counter archery deer tag when you get here and hunt Javelina, deer , and quail call some coyotes visit your daughter and see massive amounts of public land. Arizona is the most diverse state in the union, offering more species of plant's and wildlife than any other state in the union. Yeah, go ahead and look it up it's true, Yawn......... Enjoy it while you can!

Great footage Amanda! I was fortunate to have ran a trap line as a teenager and caught quite a few animals. Unfortunately a few "non-target" animals also. I never had a furbearer chew his leg off to try and get out, never even a toe. Most catches seemed to be more confused than anything. While walking into one of my sets one afternoon I found My traps lying in the middle of the wash beside some bootprints. Further inspection of the trap site found lot's of big lion tracks and two empty shotgun shells. Years later while riding in a carpool to work at the Morenci mine one of the guys started telling a story about quail hunting with his dad and finding a big lion in a trap. I was able to finish the story for him. It's a small world. And it's illegal to disturb the trap site or catch of a licensed trapper in AZ.

Ghostluvr I'm with you man. I ran traps all through high school and into college and 25 years later I still can recount almost every trap that had chains rattling. I was very saddened when trapping was banned on public lands in AZ. The fur market had dropped off and the number of licensed trappers in the state fell dramatically. The anti's reworded the bill and it passed the second time around. A coyote is not an easy animal to catch in a trap, call in, try to spot and stalk one, yeah right. I have a pile of 3's and 4's gathering rust, if somebody thinks it's easy or unfair come get a few and give it a try. I guarantee it will be a thrilling, humbling experience. I still get excited catching gophers in the yard, the rock squirrel population on my place has suffered a serious setback, it's that powerful. I feel like I'm rambling but like Scotty boy said, " every day was Christmas " dang it was fun!!

Great pictures of some really nice bucks. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Great pics. and story. That was really nicely done. I'm still drooling over the wood on your over and under.

Suzy was good fortuned enough to draw the last allotted tag in her first choice unit this year. Being a devoted wife, mother of four, and a fifty hour a week office manager, we were excited that we would have the opportunity to spend more than just a day here and there in the field together. We were able to get out on Saturday of opening weekend and spent the day trying to keep our balance in the 40 mile an hour wind gusts. Harry, a good friend of ours glassed up two spikes and a doe, and though we covered some pretty serious ground that day, those three were the only coues we saw. We did find two different groups of mule deer does in the same area we were hunting and were kind of surprised no bucks had shown up yet. Sunday, the weather had taken a turn for the worst and we went out for a while in the 26 degree snowstorm and never saw a deer. Katie, our oldest daughter, had mentioned that she was concerned about staying in shape over the holiday's because the Karate school she attends and teaches at was closing until the new year, and Suzy convinced her that a day out hunting with us was just the ticket. Yesterday found the three of us leaving the truck a little after daylight and we started climbing up into the cactus strewn, rough, nasty stuff that keeps the majority of people out and gives the bucks a chance to mature. Fifteen minutes into the hunt I picked up a doe on a distant hillside and set up my tripod to see what else might be lurking amongst the boulders. I picked up a couple of other deer but could not make out any antlers. Katie came over and looked through my bino's and when she figured out just how far away they were declared me insane. ( And i thought it was just a good spot, I didn't know I was CRAZY! ) We continued on and jumped a curious Grey fox that hung around long enough to admire his winter coat at ten yards, and made our way up the ridge. We set up to glass and I caught three does running across the hillside at about 600 yards and thought that we must have buggered them. They made a tight circle back too where I had originally seen them and a couple of more ran out. In all twelve different does eventually apperaed and played the same game of tag across the hillside, in groups, and alone. I knew what was going on but it took me about twenty minutes to find him. He was located at home base in the game of tag, hooking a mesquite tree and acting like Billy bad arse!! One of those does was really hot and had the whole countryside excited. A three point joined in on the saddle above them but I liked the looks of the first buck better. We made our move and got into 405 yards but because of the terrain we could not relocate the better buck. We waited for 30 minutes or so because every once in awhile I would catch a glimpse of a doe, but eventually crossed the canyon to try and make something happen. A few does went out in front of us but I had a feeling that he must have crossed the saddle into the next bowl. The three of us crawled over the top being careful not to skyline ourselves and a minute later I had him across the bowl standing under a mesquite. Why do they always bed down, step behind brush, disappear into a cut, before you can get set up? Why do they do that? I spent several hours weeks earlier waiting for a great buck to stand up that our daughter Sarah eventually killed and here we go again. He bedded, we waited. I took our daypacks and placed one under the foreend, and the other under the buttstock of Suzy's 257 Roberts, cranked the Leoupold up to 9 and settled in for the duration. We could see just his antlers over the grass and when I picked up the three point that we had seen earlier, bedded under a mesquite, was able to compare the two bucks. Both were mature, both had decent mass, but the two point was over twice as tall as his ears, decent width, good main beam, and we just liked him. To make an even longer story shorter, the three point got up, the two point got up and started hooking a tree, and Suzy let the air out of him at 376 yards with a 115 grain Nosler ballistic tip backed by 46 grains of 4831. Oh and then there's Katie, the Karate kid, well it turns out that she is one heck of a deer dragger. She's a little sore today in places she never thought about, but I'm a lot less sore than if she hadn't been there! Thank's Katie!!

Absolutely beautiful buck! Breathtaking! I'll say 117

That looks like a really good buck! Congrats!

We shoot 139 grain SST's in our 7mm-08 and have had excellent results on deer. Both deer shot happened to be broadside though and both bullets exited. I shoot Nosler ballistic tips in my 7 mag. and the recovered bullets look about like the one you have pictured. I was a little shocked to find the nylon tip just under the skin on the entrance hole of the buck that my wife took this year. It was a 115 grain ballistic tip that entered just in front of the ham angling forward. I recovered what was left of the bullet in the area of his heart. No jacket, just the core wich weighed about 55 grains. Internal damage was extreme, and the deer was recovered so I guess the performance was fine. I agree with you on never shooting an elk with one.

That has got to be one of the hardest hunts in bowhunting. Congrats on a nice bull!!

Thats a nice looking buck! Good job on the stalk and write up.

Coyotes and cockroaches, that's what will be here in the end. I always feel a little guilty about killing them since the fur market fell off, but they were meant to be here for the long run. Good shooting with a unique looking firearm.

My daughter Sarah is 15 years old and 2008 marks her 5th year of hunting big game in Arizona. She is quite the little huntress, having taken Javelina, Turkey and Elk but until yesterday things just never seemed to come together on Whitetail deer. Sarah has a great attitude about deer hunting and she has covered some serious miles in really tough country, been on hunts when deer have been taken, in the sun and in the cold, but we just could not put things together to get a good opportunity for a shot at deer. A 45 minute quad ride and 35 minute hike up a ridge line found us setting up to glass. The wind was gusting pretty hard and I concentrated my efforts in some steep cuts and small pockets out of the wind. We picked up a bunch of Mule deer does and a couple of whitetail does before packing up our stuff and hiking up the ridge into some higher country. We set up again and I started panning the hillsides focusing most of my time in the cuts and pockets out of the wind. I picked up a bedded doe and a doe up feeding in one steep cut and a few others here and there. Eventually I panned back to the bedded doe to see two does running over the ridge into the cut with the bedded doe. He stood up. Big mistake. The commotion of the deer running into the cut must have been to much and he stood up to check things out. I assume he had been bedded in the thick grass and weeds in the cut because all of a sudden he was there. I watched him for awhile and even at a thousand yards the 10 power Swaro's showed some impressive headgear. I looked over at Sarah and she was curled up in a ball sound asleep in the sun. ( one of her favorite pastimes during extended glassing sessions ). I watched him until he moved out into the open and then poked her with my walking stick in the leg to wake her up. I said " take a look through these binos and tell me what you see". Her reply was just a big smile, she was stoked. We watched the buck until he bedded to make sure he wasn't going to leave the area and marked him with a few landmarks. We slid off the ridge we were on into the bottom of the canyon and climbed out in a place I was hoping would put us across the canyon from him within shooting range. As luck would have it when we topped out he was still bedded but got up and started moving across the ridge. He traveled about 50 yards and bedded under a big juniper before we could get set up for a shot. I thought about trying to move down the ridge we were on to get a different angle on him as we were unable to see him from where we were at, but we had a good wind in our face, he was a big buck, and I just didn't want tp push our luck. Sarah popped out the legs on the bipod, turned the Leoupold compact up to seven power, rested the buttstock of her rifle on my Badlands and we hunkered down in the sun to wait him out. We talked about where to hold on him when he got up and when he finally did two and a half hours later, Sarah was ready. At first we could only see his head and neck and then he took a couple of steps into the open. Sarah said she was locked on him and sent a 139 grain Hornady SST backed by 40 grains of AA 2520 out of her SINGLESHOT (just had to throw that in ) on its way, 286 yards across the canyon. I jumped at the rifles report and found the buck again running like his arse was afire across the hillside. He had covered about 50 yards when he went down and disappeared out of sight at the edge of some steep bluffs. No ground shrinkage here. He has four points plus a two inch point between his bases and G1 on the right side and two on the left. 18+ inch wraparound main beams and good mass of 4.0 and 3.7 through H3. Gross score of 108.1.

I have a question for you guys about what you do when you encounter seemingly "lost" hounds on the road or in the woods while out hunting. I have stopped and had them load up in the truck, run away, follow me etc. I have had the owner drive up while standing there wondering what to do so I have made it a policy to just leave them where I find them. I found one today in Klondyke chewing on a deer hide, collared, radio collared, one eye sewed shut and extremely thin. Not just skinny but starved in appearance. My wife gave him the leftovers from her pack and we continued on. Any input from the houndsmen on here? What do the rest of you guys do?

1336 beans. Final Answer!

Thanks for the input. Their was not a phone number on the collar that was visible or we would have called it. The hound was beside the dirt road next to a steel cattle gaurd about 6 miles southwest of cedar springs on the Klondyke Aravaipa road. I picked up a Springer Spaniel in the desert one Quail season and the phone number was from Nebraska. I called the number and the mans wife told me where he was staying in town. It was a happy reunion.