GWHunter

Antlerfreak... what kind of optics do you have? Here is my thought. Most people I run across who struggle to take a deer usuaaly have crappy optics. Their is absolutely no substitute for quality optics. I learned that the hard way. Spend that extra $$$ on a pair of high end optics. You will be amazed at how many more deer you will see with a pair of swarovski or eqaul optics.

I have owned a pair of the 15x56 kibabs (Vortex), I liked them, but used them for one season then ended up selling them. A few years before I purchased them, I bought a pair of 10x42 Swarovski's. Eventually, I determined I needed something that would allow me to see more detail on the deer I was looking at. That is where the Kibabs came in. A buddy of mine told me not to settle, and that if I did, I would regret it. I ended up buying a pair of Swaroski 15x56 and have not looked back since. Looking through both the Kibabs and the Swarovski is totally different. The Kababs are good... I give them that. But they just are not on the level of the swarovski's. If hunting is something you will do your entire life, my advice is to knuckle down and buy one pair of binoculars that will hunt as long as you do. And unless you are just meat hunting and planning on hunting timber where you will be a few hundred yards at most, I wouldn't even look at anything smaller than 10x. With 8x's you will be able to see them, but if you will be really struggling to determine decent shooters with them. Oh... and a tripod is an absolute must. Just my 2 cents

Couesmagnet- We are hunting for elk this year. If they offer a leftover deer tag, I may pick one of those up also. That will give my boy some flexibility.

Go to http://www.phoneskope.com/ Easy to order, easy to use. Tell them: 1. The phone you have 2. The Optics you have Decide if you want one that fits your optics, or one that is adjustable to fit all optics. They come in two pieces. the case that your phone snaps into, and the piece that slips over the eye cup of your optics. Those two pieces connect to each other. Easy to use. Great product. Enjoy.

The 30.06 will work just fine. I have a tikka T3 in 30.06... killed one at 300 and one at 170.... I also hunt them with my new 300 WSM and have never blown one up to bad. Just watch shot placement.

Really funny to hear that I'm not alone..... First off, I love to help hunters in the field. I do a lot of scouting and as I meet folks, I usually ask them if they are meat hunting or horn hunting? If they are meat hunting, I will ask them for their phone number and tell them that if I see anything i will text them and give them a heads up. With that said, there are some folks that are just dumb as a stump and are beyond help. Last year, I was hunting a ridge I like. For a few days I had noticed another hunter on a parallel ridge to the east. He spent the majority of his morning and afternoons standing in the middle of the road on the ridge and only glassed the tops of the opposite ridges... don't know why, if he did see a nice buck, it would have been a 1000 yrd shot. One day a really nice buck busted out on us and headed into a wooded area on the slope away from where this guy was. After some time, we expected that this wise ole fella could have doubled back and headed down the west face of the ridge we were on. To cut him off, we headed up to where this guy usually stood around. We had not seen him, and thought he wasn't there that afternoon. Unfortnately he was there... so when we got to the top of the ridge, we went the opposite way from where he was to see if we could catch this ole crafty buck moving.... we didn't. We decided to go over to where this guy was and appologize for coming up on him. He was not a nice fella and when we asked how he was doing, he told us "Not all that good, you guys spooked off a big 5x5 I was watching all morning... I was like really? I have seen you up here for several days and all you do is stand around or sleep on your quad? How you see that so called 5x5.... anyway, we left. The following morning, I went back to my ridge.. this guy was in the same spot.... around 1 pm, I saw a really nice 3x4 (no including eye-guards) about 100 yrs below him. I headed up the ridge I was on to get a better look at him. When I decided he was a shooter, I was like I cant shoot him with this baffoon there. So I stood in the open on a big rock.... glassed him and when we looked my way, I started waving at him. He got PO'd, got on his quad and left. I moved down my slope facing and took my buck at 275 yards.

Some sound advice from ylclaret (JIM).... Just to add. A lot of bucks that feel secure in the hills also like to spend their nights in the flats. The smarter bucks will start moving towards the safety of the slopes just prior to the crack of dawn. If you can, position yourself where you can catch them as they start to creep into canyons or the slopes. They will feed along the slopes up into the ocatillo line and bed down during the heat of day. They will start their trek back to the flats in the afternoon. Best advice... get the best optics you can afford. I can't tell you how important a good set of optics are. Where I hunt, I talk to hunters every day during the season who tell me they were out all day and didn't see anything. I actually hunted the same area one of those hunters did the same day and glassed several bucks and over two dozen does.... I know you said you have 15x, but make sure they are quality optics. Good luck this year.