catclaw

I went there and all my kids EXCEPT the one wearing the shirt went there! I guess he stole it from his brother!

I made it back tonight. I stashed 150# of fish in the freezer and am headed to bed. Thought I would check the computer while I cool the house down. Had sunshine the ENTIRE time I was there. I guess the Pacific Northwest had a heat wave- 103 in Seattle!!! I will work on some pics tomorrow and start another thread. Dennis

Well, I made it to Ketchikan yesterday. Nothing but sunshine- this is going to be a good trip! Had dinner at Annabell's - some of their famous seafood chowder and homemade bread. More to follow~

Well, I am headed to Phoenix. I'll have pics and a story next weekend. Dennis

My last trip was to Kodiak but the only salmon I caught on that trip was with fly tackle in the river. We always have a good time in Craig and catch lots of fish. This will be my son's first trip to AK. He has already been to Hawaii and Philippines this summer. He is going to be sooooo spoiled. Here is a silver from Kodiak Island in Oct 2007.

The 1-13 twist is NOT your friend with these heavier bullets. I think you will be limited to 168 VLDs. You can possibly shoot 180s but not VLDs. If you want to try a good bullet that is designed for a 1-12.5 but will usually shoot good in a 1-13 twist, try some 187 BIB bullets. They are tangent, 10 ogive, FLATBASE target bullets. I think they will handle your velocity. Call Dave Tooley and ask him!! He is a pretty smart guy. Forget the 180s and 190s with that barrel though, only the flatbases will work. If you want to try a really good bullet that is commonly available but doesn't have the highest BC, get a box of Sierra 180 pro hunters. If it won't shoot those, it won't shoot any 180s. I can't help you on the powder choices other than to say that I know Karl used R25 at one time. You are going to wear out that barrel looking for the magic bullet if you aren't careful. They are probably only good for about 1200 rounds at most.

It's Boo Boo!

I got three photos of this. Anyone have any ideas? Bigfoot maybe?? These were the only three photos in the time frame- No bear photo or anything else. Did find fresh bear tracks on a nearby tank though?

They are carnivores and they live in troups, not packs. They are heck on dogs that don't know what they are. They will let the dog chase them and then fall on their backs, ripping the dog's throat out. I had to shoot one once in self defense in New Mexico while deer hunting. We watched them every day and one afternoon, just after killing a deer, I was sitting down next to it and this lone male came up the draw. He got within 25 yds of me before he saw me and ran straight at me. I grabbed my buddy's rifle, as it was closer and shot him about 10 feet away. I think the limit is one per year now. I know ranchers that used to shoot all they saw! I guess they lose too many cow dogs to them. I have seen them in unit 22 &23 in NM, and22, 31, 34A, 36B, 36C, 27, 28, 29 and as far north as Timber Camp Mountain in 24A. I killed my first one in 24B near Roger's trough about 30 years ago. I don't shoot them anymore but should I need to fill out a spot on a pot shelf with a trophy, I might shoot yet one more. I have only seen a couple of ringtail cats before and one of them stole a package of bratwursts from my icechest while camping at Timber Camp one year. I had to chase the bugger down to get my wieners back!

who do you exclude so they can?

If you use the right lock, you can't get them with bolt cutters. I like the combo locks so they are not as good as the one in the last photo. A good lock costs MORE than the whole box! I am going to make one with a deadbolt instead of a padlock. If you lag them on good enough and use though bolt cutter resistant locks, you are going to keep 75%of the thieves from getting it. It they take power tools with them, all bets are off. My last box cost about $5 for the steel and $2 for a hinge. They take about and hour and a half. Dennis This is one discretely mounted on a tree- no chains or cables to give it away! Besides, can you imagine how long the chain would have to be to get around this sucker!

My Covert cam is dead in the water. I have no idea what happened. My buddy just checked it and couldn't breathe life back into it. I am having the worst luck- just when I think they are the cat's a$$, they go and do this!!!

I had a camera up over the 4th and popped 1300 pics in a little over 2 weeks. I was a busy trail. Not nearly as many deer as I was hoping but there were all manner of other stuff.

Yeh, but don't expect an epic like the buffalo hunt

What is hunt # 1082?????

August WT in 22C

I build mine more as enclosures. You can always use the bolt cutter proof locks and make them haul some heavier equipment into the woods!! I am more worried about bears and pigs than people. They always mess with the cameras, people don't.

I've been into Jackass a number of times and it is amazing how cold that water is!! Every once in a while you catch a whopper too! Thanks for sharing the photos!

When my kids were younger, they used to raid my hunting pack everytime I got home for left over granola bars, candy etc. I used to carry smoked oysters. They dug into them now. All my kids love them! Got to start them out young!!

Jake- did you get this ironed out? Dennis

Forget the 100 yd group, you need to shoot it at 400, 500 and maybe further. A Warbird is completely unnecessary at 100 yds- it was meant to reach out and touch. I am surprised you are having that much luck with an uncoated pure copper bullet at those velocities. Someone suggested that you switch to Berger- the hunting jacket Bergers will NOT hold up at those velocities in fact, when I was shooting 1000 yd BR, Karl Hunstiger had a Warbird and blew 210 Bergers up and had to switch to 240 grain SMKs. You are on the right track with the Barnes and if it is shooting that well, test it at long range and see.

Thank goodness for cell phones! Glad you connected!

If you are wanting a scope that is more than 14x magnification, I would go with one of the 6-20s or 6-24s. The most overlooked scope out there is the Burris Xtreme tactical scope. They have accurate dials and are very robust. You can get the mil dot but why? Unless you are a military sniper, mil dots are like ancient history. There are far better reticles out there. I personally like the Leupold 4.5-14 LR with M1 dials. M2 dials would be better but they don't offer it. If you are going to be dialing, then dial, if you want to use a reticle for long range, then get a reticle that is set up to use with LASER range finders like the B&C or Varmint reticles. I have no problem shooting to 500 yds with my 2.5-8 VXIII with a B&C reticle. A 14x will take you to 800+ with ease. The big advantage to the higher powers is the ability to resolve bullet holes in targets at longer range. If you want to see bullet holes at 500 yds, you will need a better scope than what you have suggested your budget is. Plan on spending at least $2K to do this!

I was trying to lure the bigfoot in but I didn't have any Jerky I don't know about sardine juice, but smoked oyster juice will make an elk wet all over himself. I had eaten lunch one day and poured my juice out on a lot and laid down nearby to take a quick nap. A bull came in and stuck his nose in it, did the lip curl thing and then wallowed on it! I dunno what tripped his trigger but he must have liked that oil I poured out! It has rained so much that I don't think there is much left of the juice I poured out. So far the bears haven't been very cooperative on this camera!

Doug- I have had as many as 1350 images on my camera and the batteries were still good but the card was full. I have used every brand of card you can imagine and they have all worked. I stuck a 4 gig card in mine and it really screwed it up. I had to remove the batteries and start over from scratch. My batteries have lasted as long as 3 months when getting limited images. Do NOT use rechargeable batteries. They only lasted a few days. I just buy Kirkland AAs from Costco and they seem as good as the Duracells. You should keep the camera out now so that you can at least learn the ins and outs- even if you put it in your back yard. I have used my for security but it took too many photos! Dennis