singleshot

Great looking rifle!! Oh and a nice dog also.

Hunting and fishing is a privelage, NOT a right.

Good job, Coyotes are probably the smartest and most adaptable species out there. Killing them with a bow will come less frequently than deer.

The mule deer herds were awesome in the 80's Because of rain! Look at the average rainfall statewide since 1987. It sucks! If we get five straight years of continuously heavy winter and early spring rains like we did in the 80's (in AZ.) we will see a significant rebound in the desert mule deer herds.

There's not enough bandwidth in the fiber to mention them all.

Once the G & F takes something away it never returns. Be happy your out amongst them. The season dates of our archery season make it a bonus for everyone. I also have a late rifle whitetail tag, finally, but those late extended bow seasons have created a tremendous amount of opportunity for everyone. It scares me to death to think that those dates will get shorter and shorter as we all have seen happen this January.

Remington 870 express in 2/34 and 3 inch. Less than $300 at HATE TO SAY IT "WALMART" with a 30$ mail in rebate from Remington. Comes with a modified screw in choke, laminated stock, matte finish. Proven in the trenches.

I have one of those Cabelas grinders and use it quite often. I bought a box of sausage seasoning from the local grocer that makes 25#. I mixed some up with elk meat, 16# of elk and 8# of pork. It was very good. I buy the pork butts or shoulder roasts because the fat content is very high and grind them 2 game meat to 1 pork for sausage or hamburger and the results have been excellent. We also get the beef roasts when they are on sale and grind them into extra lean hamburger. You will get excellent burger for less than what you would pay for ground up trimmings that sell as ground chuck. The sausage we use as patties, not cased. Really easy.

7mm-08 is a .308 necked down to .284. Case capacity is the same. They really don't kick much. If you handload you can shoot 120's. We shoot 120 grain Nosler Ballistic tips for deer and 140 grain partitions for elk. Good caliber.

If your looking for a new one consider the New England Firearms singleshot in youth model. The length of pull is about 12.5 inches. My daughter who weighs about a buck shoots one in 7mm-08. If you plan on someday hunting elk with your boy's this caliber would be a better way to go. I purchased hers for $250.00 and added a Leuopold 2x7x32 scope. $450.00 in the complete setup. Shoots fine, she took her first elk with it in October. When he grows out of it pass it down. Plus a singleshot with a hammer to cock it, is very safe. They also have a youth model out in .243 that comes with a scope, I think it's a Bushnell. In my opinion NEF can't be beat for the price.

My chocolate Labs can't tell the difference between a skunk and a cat while I'm out irrigating at night and I douse them in dish soap and throw a few sticks in the ditch to fetch and they seem to come out smelling pretty good. The skunk juice is an oil and the dish soap really breaks the surface tension and cuts it.

I agree with Lark! My father always told me that he measured peoples animals for the animal. Not for the individual who shot it. Coues deer just don't hold the status of the eastern bucks. Pray god it stays that way.

I just think it's funner to shoot my own handloads, I think It would be a lot cheaper when you add in what your time is worth to buy factory loads, but every guy needs a bunch of hobby's. 6.5x55 swedish mauser 40 grains AA 2520, 120 grain Nosler ballistic tip. 257 Roberts 46 grains IMR 4831, 115 grain Nosler Ballistic tip, 117 grain Hornady Interlocks, 100 grain Partition's, this gun just loves to shoot. 7MM-08 40 grains AA 2520, 120 grain Ballistic tips, 39 grains AA2520, 140 grain Ballistic tips or 139 Grain SST's 7MM rem. Mag 68 grains IMR 4831 140 grain Nosler Ballistic tips or 139 SST's. The Ballistic tips seem to shoot better. 120 grain Ballistic tips with the same load shoot awesome in my Ruger Number 1, but these are pretty hot loads. I like to use my Fathers manuals from the 60's and 70's, back before the "McDonalds hot coffee" and other frivolous law suits were filed. Take that statement for what you can read into it. I like the Nosler Ballistic tips...... a lot. They shoot great, do a lot of damage and still hold together in a coues deer, and punch holes through coyotes with minimal pelt damage but most times pile on impact. Another plus when shooting at the range with the wife and kids is that every caliber has a different color tip, 257 roberst, 25 caliber blue, my wifes. 6.5x55 or .264 brown, my sons. 7mm or .284 red , mine and my daughters. A little extra safety.

Years ago in unit 28 my brother killed a big four point mulie in full velvet in november. He had no "boys" though.

Take a look at AZ. Rifle hunts page 12. My wife Suzy killed this buck, minimum 130# dressed weight. Big ears, big head, big body, mulie face, standing right beside a respectable 3 point that he completely dwarfed. All coues whitetail? Conchran J, killed less than two miles from another monster that you know well!

Watched a rock squirrel in unit 31 kill and eat an 18 inch bull snake. A friend and I were turkey hunting in unit 27 on Eagle creek and we saw a small water snakes tail sticking out of the rocks in the creekbed. He reached down and pulled the snake out of the rocks, and pulled out another water snake that had the first one in it's mouth!

A good friend came back to elk camp at Hannagans Meadow in unit 27 in 1989 stating that he had been followed by a ferret for several hundred yards through the woods. We teased him about the "squirrel" That had chased him for the next few days but he would not back down on what he had seen. The last day an old man stopped by camp to visit and he said " Ive lived in these mountains my whole life and I saw something today that I have never before seen, an Ermine." I knew what an ermine was and immediatley knew what our buddy had seen. They are a small weasel. Never heard of one being seen since. In memory of Delbert Dean Hall, September 18th 1962 - September 28th 2007.

Congrats Jeff, I was up in 1 with your brother when Jennifer called and told him the news. Time will fly and at times you will be glad it does. Ive always felt that being a father can make you feel like a woman, mad as heck one minute and laughing the next. Great looking little boy. My son turns 18 next week and graduates this year. I'm going to miss the football games and wrestling matches. You have a lot to look forward too.

Jeff, Too bad you have not gotten into reloading. I still think my seven mag is awesome! I load up 120 grain nosler ballistic tips in my Ruger #1. That falling block is indestructable and it shoots 120's at speeds the short mags can only dream about. I would never shoot an elk with this load but it's great on coues. The damage is severe, the blood trail is in inches. The only bullet I have recovered was actually a really good mushroom, (the rest have passed through ) I dropped it in some hay before I got a chance to weigh it but I estimated 75% retention. The coyotes I have shot have piled on impact and it didn't blow them up either. Really great flat shooting load. I just bought an NEF singleshot for my daughter who is about 95# in 7MM-08. Shoots the same bullets as my seven mag and we have been burning up the 120 grain NBT's in it also. She's shooting a minimum load with no complaints. She's going to use it this fall for cow elk but will be shooting 140 grain partitions. Just something to think about, versatile caliber, available in youth model ( upcoming hunter ) capped it off with a Leupold Rifleman in 2x7x32, Leupold high rings, total investment $430.00. Not the ultimate tack driver but the first load I have tried breaks Ultra Amber bottles as fast as I can drink them at 100 yards, and at seven power the scope is much better than anything we had as kids. 300 yard shots are very doable. If not get a 25-06. Cartridges are readily available, great caliber.

Rabbits = TOO (targets of opportunity) Enough said!

Remington at one time made a duplex load of 1 1/2 ounces of BB and 4's mixed. We killed at least ten birds with those loads out of a full choked 12 gauge some at over 60 yards. It rolled turkeys like lightning. I can't find those any more so I now shoot 4's. Personally I have never thought that turkeys are as tough as all the hype. The only turkey that I have witnessed get away was hammered with steel shot at thirty yards, twice! I have killed several with my Ithica double gun using the first barrel which is improved cylinder at thirty yards. With a full choke 12 gauge and number fours hold at the base of the neck and you'll roll every turkey out there at fifty yards.

Too bad it wasn't a pit bull, best use I've seen for one.

In the old days we had what was called the " Fruit salad", if you had an archery elk tag you could also hunt deer, bear, turkey and squirrel at the same time. BUT ONLY IF YOU POSSESED AN ARCHERY ELK TAG. I feel that this was a good thing offered by the G&F. Once something is taken away by the commission it's pretty much gone forever. Look what happened to the multiple southern unit whitetail hunts. It has always bothered me that they even ran archery cow tags at the same time as the archery bull hunts. Look what they did to the junior deer hunts? Overlapping them with the two week whitetail hunts. Bad decision, I seriously doubt we will ever see things change unless sthe state recieves the rainfall that we saw in the early 1980's and the mule deer population comes back.

The dates they start the hunts on leave a lot to be desired, start on Wednesday end on on Tuesday etc. But then again at least you have an opportunity.

Just one more reason to shoot muzzy's. That thunderhead just couldn't keep him out of the Darwin awards!