KoosCrazy

I get your frustration but it’s public land open for all kinds of recreation. You just have to deal with it. You can always pay big money to hunt on private where that kind of stuff doesn’t happen. Creating conflicts for hunters doesn’t help anything

Beautiful bull. Curious were you able to recover any parts of the bullets? How did the bullets react on the 2nd 3rd and 4th shots?

Congrats on bull, je’s A beauty!!! All long range type bullets will have same problems at close range at RUM velocities. LRAB will be your best since at least core/ base will hold together If your going to change Edlx at Minimum of 212. I’ve had good experiences with both. EDLX have been not as accurate as bergers for me. LRAB seem to be finicky too, all my loads needed .050 jump. In my experience when muzzle velocities exceeed 3100fps you need to start looking at more high retention type bullets for just the occasion you experienced. Under 3100 any of the above bullets will do you if your rifle likes them.

Not much difference between a. 130-140 An experienced shooter could tell a difference doubt a kid would. How the gun is set up will be a bigger difference. I have a 12lb and 8lbs 6.5-06. The lighter one definitely bucks more. For kids light guns aren’t always the best. I bought my kid a light/ short 20 gauge when he started dove hunting. That gun beat the chit out of him, bruised his shoulder, my 12 gauge kicked less. As said above muzzle break solves the recoil problem.

It happens more archery just because archery is more primitive and arrows don’t kill as well as high speed bullets when shots are bad. I hate people saying unethical, everyone has slightly different ethics who’s to say which is right or wrong. Unpracticed hunters are in all types of hunting the equipment has nothing to do with ones hunting/ shooting capabilities. If a guy practices 80 yards with his bow and can hit a pie plate every time or shoots at 800 and can hit a 10 in gong ever-time how are those bad shots! Not to mention chit happens in hunting and we all make a bad shot once in awhile. The real issue is tracking and putting forth the effort to recover game, that is what has been lost in all types of hunting. Hunt responsibly.

I don’t see what’s mid leading, rule looks pretty clear and makes sense. A little over board with having to debone the quarters but not that big of deal in the end. Having to boil your skull before you go home in you want a Europeon would be a pain. There is a good # of AZ outfitters that haul elk back to Az from NM so it’s a worthwhile rule. It would sucks to see CWD show up in the strip because someone thru out a positive elk carcass unknowingly.

Mediums should be best fit

Rifle, you can get as close as you want with a rifle too. But if your hard core bow guy hunt with a bow the first 3 days and then switch to rifle if needed

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Pass for next one, you will find bigger

They are big diggers get ready for it to dig up your yard, that’s how they escape. Guarantee someone is looking for him, put him on Facebook

Half the fun of these kind of tags is the experience. Don’t let the “trophy” get in the way of your experience. Sounds like you are on the right track enjoy and you will get a good deer

Never have regretted letting the little ones walk except on one hunt. It was a mule deer hunt and the first day there was 2 130 class bucks together. My buddy shot one, the other just hung around and I passed on him. We were hunting wilderness horse back and blizzard conditions came and went for the next 4 days. We hunted in it and froze our butts off. Sure wished I had shot that deer so we didn’t have to hunt in that!! haha

Yes the late December hunts are worth it. With the points you have I would keep going for them, draw odds are moving in your favor. They are not a slam dunk that your going to kill a 100in. deer. You got realize there has been 1-4 coues hunts before your hunt depending on the unit. Also hunting pre rut/ rut coues is still tuff, you still have to find them, not as easy as other deer species. The success rates are skewed since some trophy hunt and don’t harvest, some don’t report. I would just look at type of country you want to hunt, deer #s, and units history of quality deer produced, apply, and hope.

15’s and a tripod is all I carry in the field. No need for two sets of bino’s. I use a spotter but it never gets far from the truck, too much junk to haul.

Yes antler restriction did not work in NM and won’t ever work. All they do is increase harvest on middle class deer by forcing everyone to be trophy hunters. In turn less deer will make it to be older. Allowing people to kill smaller bucks actuals leave more of different age class bucks to get older. Othing wrong with folks shooting fork horns if that’s what floats their boat. Look at elk popualtions, no antler restrictions just very limited license. Bulls get old and big. Simple functions low license # = older animals. Same old argument do you want big deer then you have to restrict licenses or would you rather go hunting every year and be happy with younger deer? Antler restrictions don’t solve anything.

Nice catch, you should have skinned him though.

I personally like 8-10lbs rifle, scope, bipod and all. Too light is hard to shoot accurately at distance. Heavy is nice for long shots but a pain to carry. I’ve hunted with 338 to 243 for Coues. My favorites are my 280AI and 6.5-06 both at 9lb fully equipped. I’ve found the longer barrels 26+ are more a pain than an extra lbs or 2. I like 24 in max barrels.

I bought a franchi compact 20 for my kid. It was extremely reliable and light recoil. They are a little spendy at 700-750. Shot the snot out of it for 2 years trap, skeet, doves turkey and sold it for 600. Semi autos aren’t the best for youth but don’t recoil as bad as single shots and over unders. Remember too light in a shotgun is not good for kids. If your just using for turkey hard to beat an Rem 870. Cut the stock down put on good recoil pad and when he is older you can go back to a full size stock

We have killed a couple of cow elk, antelope and Aoudads all with the 142 out of 6.5 (3000fps). Bullets have all performed great at short to medium distances. They are a little softer than the regular accubonds and I have had 60-80% retention. I have had the nose separate and the core stay solid. They shoot great out of my gun. I also found they like a little jump, mine shot best at .050 another friend found the same. If your shooting them at 3200 fps you might see some big fragmentation on a close shot but the shank should stay intact. Don't think you would have any issues with them killing but might destroy some meat a close high fps shots, that would be the only down side. EDLX are the same, all the bullets that are designed to expand at low velocities tend to explode more at close range high FPS shots

My experience has been the opposite, out of the hundreds I have been around only 5 ish didn’t rattle. The ones that don’t rattle usually aren’t ready to strike, they are moving away so no worries there. Only 1 that a can recall didn’t rattle and was striking. He was a grumpy little prairie rattler.

We run into them all the time. They are no big deal at all. When you get near they rattle and let you know they are around, simply move away from the rattle if you cant see them. General when you first encounter them they will coil and rattle, the second encounter is more likely to provoke a strike. Meaning the first guy walking the trail steps near or on him isn't as likely to get bit as the second guy right behind him. Be in the lead hahaha. August Sept when monsoons hit snake are most active and odds of encounters increase. Humid river bottoms are hot spots for snakes, odd are better to find them. Avoid those kind of places if you can. They shouldn't concern you much just be aware and keep eyes open, they are actually kind of cool to see. I use to kill them all, now I let them be unless they are in a bad spot. I had a big black tail a couple years ago stand his ground on a trail when I was leading a pack string. Middle of now where on a steep hill side and I couldn't get him to slither off so he had to go.

A sea of red for me.

As you type on social media, a bit of irony eh!! You are correct that social media changed everything but there isn’t an age group at fault. Some poor decisions by a few have made huge ramifications for all of us. Hopefully we can get smart and quit lighting torches on our own a$$

Selling some stuff I'm not using so I can buy more stuff that I wont use!! 1) Semi custom 6.5-06, built on savage 110 action, Timney trigger, true fight barrel 24in barrel (.770 at muzzle), Boyd Varmintor stock with adjustable cheek piece. Shoots excellent, 1/2 MOA with 129 LRABS. Comes with EGW 20 MOA rail and Talley one piece rings/base, brass and loaded ammo. Gun weighs 9 lbs without scope. Scope not included. $850 OBO 2) Glock 23, ,40 That's the mid sized frame, night sights, 3 mags guns in new condition. Gen 2 I believe. This was a LE buy back that was never issued, just sat it safe. The armors is a good friend of mine $400 OBO Pictures to come 3)Elite XXL 32 in models. Bow is a 2008 or 9. 60-70 lbs limbs New limbs and strings in 2016 $175 4) PSE Phenom 2016 50-60 LBs limbs Black Its the long draw version adjustable from 28-33 with spot hog 5 pin sight $300 with sights $250 without sights 5) Luepold Gold ring HD Binos 10X42 $350 Pictures to come Everything is OBO and trades. Located southern NM, and I will be in Tucson/Phoenix area in early March.