catclaw

I've had one person contact me but unfortunately it wasn't his.

I couldn't find a suitable belt so I had Rocky Minster of Gilbert make me one. It's he11 for stout. Hard to find a decent belt these days.

Did anyone lose a GPS on Mt. Ord last year? I found one yesterday along with a couple of other things. Let me know roughly where and what model it is and it's yours. I was in a pretty remote area. I washed it up, put fresh batteries in it and it still works fine. Looks like it just fell off while someone was hiking.

Biggest I have measured is 7 1/2" wide at front paw. Central AZ.

22 WT I always get the 2nd choice IF I draw a tag.

The Education branch at G&F is run by a bunch of libtards who want volunteer instructor led classes to go away. They have all but come right out and said as much. I think you will find that most of the instructors are hanging up there orange hats. I taught for 15+ years, teaching some 100+ kids and dads a year. They have made it impossible for us. The Mesa group has put more than 10,000 kids through their biannual program but we haven't taught a class in 2 1/2 years now thanks to the ED branch. You pretty much have to take the online class which is way to much for a 10-year-old. Any talk about new hunter recruitment is just empty words. I wish we could take back our department but they have dug in and made it tough.

I am an advocate of allocating some hunts at higher prices for a two-fold reason, one for revenue and the other, to steer only serious hunters towards those hunts. I don't think it needs to be all early bulls across the board but there is room for improvement. The other thing I would be in favor of is a 3 year wait after drawing a bull tag and a 5 bonus point minimum or some other filter to keep 10 year olds from drawing early bull tags. Before you all go ballistic, think about what this means. How many 'kids' really need a September bull hunt? I think the guys and gals that have been applying for a while should have the preference on these types of hunts. The kids have their own hunts (junior tags) but the adults don't have their own hunts. There are many ways to do this, raising the price across the board is NOT the best way in my opinion.

Anyone know of a place in the Phx area that actually does a good job repairing hunting boots- resoling? I have had Lambs fix a pair for me but the soles came unglued twice. Don't want to take a nice pair there and looking for input before I send them off to Danner or some other out-of-state place for new soles!

OK, nice to know.

I found that out- I originally bought them for a mule deer hunt in British Colombia. The bobs are pretty slippery on wet dead fall I found out- something that BC has a lot of! They said they would resole them with a SIerra sole. I guess I will send them to Danner.

I think they are unique to ruminants

A number of years ago, when fur prices were good. I was driving home from Payson or somewhere on the Beeline. I just passed Ft. Hills and the car in front of me hit a coyote. I pulled over and threw it in the bed of my truck, with my lab. (back when I didn't know cars were not a legal method of take). Anyway, I drive on into Mesa (before Gilbert road went through) and stopped at the drive-through on Country Club/McKellips. I placed my order and pulled up to the window to get my burger. The gal came to the window to bring my food and she cringed and gave me a dirty look. She said something and went and got her manager. She pointed and then told me that I was disgusting! I am thinking I have a huge booger hanging of my nose or something. I then realized that they were looking into the back of my truck. I turned around and the coyote was alive, blood all over my white tool box and staring at the cashier! About that time my lap grabbed the coyote and shook it- blood was flying and it got on the drive through window. I just put it in gear and took off- laughing so hard I drove over the curb! Then must have really thought I was a redneck! I think I got $20 for that coyote though!

I need to do something as I have three pair that I rotate. My Danners and Meindls which both need resoled and my Kennetreks which are pretty crappy in my opinion. My stitching is good on both it's just the airbobs that break off that bothers me. I wonder if Danner has a different sole they can use?

This may be true but they charge a flat rate to "recraft" the boots and nothing is wrong with mine other than their defective air-bobs soles broke off prematurely. $115 is a lot to put new soles on.

Don't make it on here much anymore and just saw this. I killed about a 175" muley buck in 1998 that had bot fly larvae in the sinus. The buck was emaciated and only weighed about 130#. The meat was so bad that the dog wouldn't eat it. Now muley meat is never as good as WT but generally, it is edible. I attributed his physical condition to the parasite infestation. I have had a hard time eating mule deer now, period. I would probably not be able to eat WT if I found one in this condition, either.

You have had a hunting style boot resoled there or just general shoe repair?

Industrial metals at 5150 S. 48th Street in Phx has them cheaper than anywhere else I have seen. I think a 10" with tabs is about $40.

I have used Magpro in 260AI and 6.5-284. It gave great velocities in each and very good accuracy. I really like the ball powders as they meter so well. I had good luck with the 140s in 6.5 and 140s in 260AI. It might be a tad too slow for the 140s in the 270WSM. Try Superformance and Ramshot Magnum. I use R17 in my 6.5-284 but I shoot mostly 130s in it. In a hunting rifle, I look for velocity first and then tweek to get the accuracy that I need. I don't need 1/4 MOA for hunting so I don't look for it. Once I find a load under about .75 MOA, I quit wasting time and powder and start shooting for real. Most of the time I end up with something in the .5 MOA range and never look back. I rarely use 4831 for hunting rifles anymore as it cheats me out of at least 100-150 fps compared the the more modern powders. If you think shooting a load that shoots .4" groups is going to help you kill something any better than a load that shoots a .75" group you are dillusional. The little tiny groups are for winning matches, not killing deer

I'll make a couple of comments: You have a 1:8 twist barrel, right? Not sure why you would twist a barrel that tight and then settle for 168 grain bullets. Also, if you are going to use 168s, you should probably push them about 300 fps faster than what you report. Having just worked extensively with a 7WSM, I found that I can push 180 Bergers to 3100 but accuracy is better at 3020 fps. I could push 168 over 3250 but they never shot as well as the 180s so I quit bothering. With a 8 twist barrel, you can shoot the 195 Bergers; the 180s are a given. PM me if you want some load data that can help you stretch that thing out. I have been able to shoot about .5MOA to 800 yards, the furthest I have tested it.

Im a little late chiming into theis thread but FYI I believe the 5 round magazine capacity in the past pertained to semi auto centerfire only and there was never a magazine limit on bolt or lever gun centerfire or any rimfires. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that's how it reads. The rifle looks awesome! Great job with it. That is correct, the mag restriction only ever applied to semi automatics and shotguns.

Getting the barrel very hot (fast strings) and shooting long, heavy for caliber bullets with big charges of slow powder are the biggest culprits of reduced barrel life. Unless you are shooting prairie dogs where the action is hot or shooting across the course matches, don't worry about barrel life. Even the horror stories you hear about some barrels wearing out don't mean much to a hunting rifle. You can take a "worn out" 6PPC barrel, rechamber it to 243 and shoot another 2000 rounds through it as a hunting rifle and have better accuracy than you might deserve.

Geez, I clicked on this expecting to see a thread about the newest Berger bullets...

We are jumping to a lot of conclusions here but there is certainly a lot of he-said, she-said going on. We may never know exactly what happened as far as who authorized what, whether officially or unofficially. What it looks like, reading between the lines, is that a lot of people wanted it to happen but nobody wanted any responsibility for it should it backfire. I do think the way the department, as an entity, handled it was very unprofessional to say the least. It is unfortunate that the cat died and there is a lot of back-peddling going on. Sounds like the reports that were released were highly redacted to protect some folks. If they were not guilty of something here, they should be completely transparent. How does the Federal agent whot got referred to the US attorney's office for multiple felonies not even get reassigned after this was over? Arizona G&F aren't the only ones with mud on their hands at this point. I suspect that there are some pretty high level politics involved that have something to do with the border fence. I really hope there are no more jaguars in AZ. As much as I would love to see one, I think it would cause more problems than it can ever be worth. Look at the wolf fiasco and that a small potato compared to a rare kitty.

Having tried many of the brands and models listed here I will add my comments. First off, Danner Pronghorns and Meidl Perfekts are just glorified high top sneakers. That is why they are so comfortable and don't last too long. They don't provide much in the way of foot support (read rocky nasty country) and have marginal ankle support. I have Meidl Canadas and Alaskans, Danner Santiam (top of the line Danner), Kennetreks, Lowa, Whites, Hathorns, Red wings and I could go on. The Kennetreks are far better than anything Danner ever made, they are, however, a distance second to either the Lowas or the Meidl Canadas and Alaskans. I can get through two seasons with a pair of Meidls and the Kennetreks had to be sent back after only 4 hunts. Danners ALL have somewhat narrow lasts. I have to order EE in a full size bigger than I normally wear to get some that I can fit my foot into. They are too long this way. Rocky doesn't make a decent rough country boot. If you are bird hunting or get out 4-5 days a year, it won't matter much what boot you get. I hunted 270 days last year and can really wear out boots. If you are hunting in Rough country a lot and especially if you have to do it several days in a row, you will really benefit from the better mountaineering type boots. These are the better Meidls, Lowas, Hanwags, Crispis and even the Kennetreks.

I set up this morning settled in, turned on the Foxpro and within 45 seconds I had a fox in. I really wasn't even ready, still positioning my dog. I threw the shotgun up and the rear sight was broken. Dang Truglos are fragile. I hesitated just long enough that the fox moved as I shot and I missed. It the very first time I have missed with my shotgun. I was horrified. Guess I will have to be readier tomorrow!! Dog is staying in the truck too!