mason a

the camera i used is a 200$ moultrie , they are cheaper now, the fourth lion is in front of the boulder in the grass , behind the tank. Over the coarse of about 2 months I have approx. 100 pictures of lions and bears and black hawks. Its hard to tell for sure but it looks like about 7-9 different lions total and 8-10 different bears along with some huge boars, oddly enough not one picture of a deer but plenty of fresh tracks about 30 yards up from the tank at the actual muddy seap, I think with that many predators around they dont want to loose there peripheral vision, a spring not to far from this tank we have another camera with 12-15 different bucks on it , but nothing very big,I dont understand because this place is a 2 hour hike each way from the nearest nasty road. I figured for sure that far in the middle of nowhere I would get some great pics of some big deer ,but I was wrong.

308 nut, I have read some of your posts, so i know you know your stuff about ballistics and long range shooting, I have had great success with the berger vlds, Is there something out there I should also be experimenting with, besides the berger? I shoot a 30-06

I will be hunting a ranch near caborca for coues this next week. We are hunting about half way between sonoyta and caborca,It does not look like good coues area, but there are some whoppers there. Were abouts are you guys hunting?

I'm heading to mexico for my first Mexico coues hunt , and I will be going through the sonoyita border(the one that goes to rocky pt.) I'll be hunting about halfway between the border and caborca , Is there anything I should know in advance about that border crossing, with my gun permit or the cape. I do understand that i must check in on the mexico side going in and going out, and that the cape must be frozen, I will be hunting with some friends from Mexico, and this is a self- guided hunt. Any extra info or help on procedures would be helpful thanks. Mason

That is a beautiful buck , well done , I'm heading to mexico in two weeks , love to get something even close to that deer, also that is a nice gun ,I assume it's a 308 ,who built it and what scope is that?

This hunt turned out to be a little more difficult than i planned on. I think my problem was I just figured, that if i just hunt hard I can find me a trophy. We had glassed up 10-12 bulls over the first couple of days of the hunt , but they were all rag horns and spikes. Those big boys are tough to find in the late hunt in 3a 3c. At this point i'm ready to take the next bull that gave me a good kill shot opportunity. On Monday I glassed up a couple of rag horns at 1050 yards feeding along a ridge at first light, I wanted to get in for a good shot, but when i made it over to the spot where I had seen them last, they had worked there way in to the thick stuff , off to the right on another ridge I found 2 more bulls feeding , I ranged the one feeding broadside,got into a good prone position and dropped him with a high shoulder shot at 460 yards. not the biggest bull , but it was a fun hunt , and will have lots of good meat. We dropped him off in Heber at millers southwest trailer and his carcass weighed 325lbs .It was great to just be out there seeing all the deer and elk . fun hunt!!

It's all good, dude that was funny

I have no idea who this dingleberry guy is,. Idont even share his same views , I made my peace on this a couple of days ago, what more can I do? but since my name did come up again, I will share this quick story about my cousin who is a member on cws.com. After the first day of getting blasted,i called him to see his point of view on this post i made (thinking he was following it on the forum), And he told me that he had not been on cws.com for months, because everytime he would start a post or a topic ,members would belittle him,and blast his point of view, and make little snide remarks, Just ask the guy from show low who shot a 117inch for his 1st buck ,some of you guys were very excited for him ,but others said oh it was luck, if your so good try it next year, or what about the newbie who has little experience with this site and harmlessly posts "hey fellow hunters drew my first tag in unit 32 ,can anyone out there point me in the right direction? " and the 1st 3 responces are "dude whats up with the e scouting?" or " If your a real hunter then get out and scout yourself. Dont get me wrong there are some great guys on this forum,like the cooseandsheep guy and others .but man some of you guys are ruthless, as some of you guys say " thats my 2 cents take it for what it's worth adios for a while, Mason

I will apoligize if I offended anybodyon this forum , I admit it could have been worded better, there were a lot of good points brought, some not so good. I think had an administator posted a better worded concern about having there camera turned off , we would have seen very different responces. IMO , there are only a few cases to turn off someones camera off,(or just cover the camera and remove later ) if there have the older cameras with a non infra red flash ,or they pointed it at your treestand or blind, but you would think they would want the picture of the seep and not the hunter, but to puposefully turn off someones camera and leave it off . That's unsportsmanlike. Even if you don't agree with game cameras! Again I aplogize for anyone I offended .

well it looks like I'm in the wrong, I need to find those hunters and apologize for messing up there hunt ,I guess when that INFRA RED flash goes off it scares everyone ,I need to thank him becouse he had every right to steal that camera but instead he only turned it off.WOW but do understand it probably came off like That was my spot, I did not intend for it to sound that way,but at least now I know how some of you guys feel about game cameras ! Thats good to know! It's been a good discussion ,when I get home from work I'll take it off

good point, first of all it rained only 2 days before so the roads were still pretty muddy , there is only 1 rd that gets you close to this tank, there tracks are the only ones going in or out , we leave are truck farther back on the road so we can see the area better, plus we followed the tracks in the mud from were there truck was straight to the camera, plus we watched them walk in there, trust me I understand your concern , I would never want anyone to be accused of something they did not do.They probably thought it was no big deal to turn off someones camera , so they did not worry about having there picture taken , and after reading some of the earlier posts , it may be more common among than I thought.You guys may be right , I may have overreacted,and was a little harsh, but there is no doubt they are the ones.

obviously you don't have any game cameras, or you would understand my frustration, i see game cameras all the time , I just wave and leave them alone , i could care less if they shoot a bull while my camera is taking pictures . And trust me i have nothing against archery hunters , i've killed more elk with a bow than i have with a rifle. Bow hunters deserve the most respect .And yes i am justified to call them dirtbags for turning it off , That is true they did not steall it, so what does that make them just half a dirtbag?,either way ,it does not give anyone the right to turn off someones camera on public land.

I did the same thing you are planning on doing , Build a long range gun on a budget. I ended up using my browning a- bolt 30-06 , but more importantly i chose the best scope i could afford(ziess conquest 6.5-20x50 clearanced at sportsman warehouse 599$) worked up some berger 168 grains then ordered my kenton turret. Everyone kept telling me I was crazy to use a crappy ,slow, outdated cartridge like a 30-06 to use as a long range gun . I started to doubt it myself until my son shot his first elk at 580 yards and dropped it dead in its tracks with one shot , and 8 days later dropped his first coues at 537 yards . you can see the little story on the youth hunt section. But my main reason for the reply is about your question on what caliber to go with. After i was close to finishing my gun , Not convinced that my 30-06 was the best choice , I continually would ask my brother (who knows tons about guns and especially long range hunting) If i could start over what calliber should i go with and his answer was always 6.5-284. And everytime i would say but what about a 300 rum or a 30-378 . He said there fine but you asked ,what would i choose . By the way the scope you are using is awesome, I also agree with one of the other posts about going with the kenton turret.

Well it's been a pretty good 8 days for my son Mason jr. Last week his first elk at 580 yards and on Saturday his first deer at 537 yards with one shot through the chest. It was a great trip because it was, 2 brother in laws , 1 nephew , and a cousin, and of course my son and me. It was to say the least, a memorable time for all of us. First day , Friday- A lot of glassing, a few naps, and quite a few deer, but the bucks were just too far, and never stopped for a good shot. So on Saturday we had the same game plan lots of glassing from a good vantage point. Then my cousin Nathan Yetter (Who personally glassed up more deer than all of us combined),Says , I got a deer , its a buck, Mason Jr. your up. 537 yards. So my son gets positioned behind the claw on the tripod,turns the kenton turret to 537 , turns the scope up to 20 power , And quickly says i'm ready but Nathan says, not yet , I need to watch through the binos so i can see if you hit it , it's a lot smaller than your elk. Finally mason Jr. gets the go ahead, and he makes the shot , And in typical Nathan fashion, he yells, "you whacked him. he's down, great shot". Now it's my turn, the other bucks start running , Nathan is yelling out yardages and I'm turning the turret to the correct yardage ,and I miss twice ,I really wanted to blame the gun or the distance or something ,but I didn't because I don't think my son is going to hear any excuses blaming the gun, when he had just calmly made the same shot ,so I just kept my mouth shut. But, I was sure proud of him, and his uncles were too. They were happy to take part in his first deer kill. It was just of of those days for my son on the way out he found a dandy mnt. lion kill, you can see it tied to his back pack. On one of the photos you can see a cone shaped steep hill, About half way up that hill is where we glass from, the shot was made from there. You can see how far it was.

That's a very nice 2 pnt. what a shot at 300 plus yards . It looks like your using a fantastic set up with that gun and scope ,but you still have to hold it steady.good job

The shot was almost directly straight across. So we all had to hike down the hill and back up the other side .about 300 fett down in elevation then back up almost 400 feet in elevation , it took about 20 minutes.it was steep on both sides

My son, Mason jr. drew his first cow elk tag . We had done some scouting ,so we had a good idea where to start,but we had not taken into account other hunters messing up our plan(not there fault they had no idea we were there). needless to say the heard of elk we were watching took off over the hill , so by the time we made it up the hill they were on the other side 500-600 yards away. My son said he could make the shot ,becouse the day before he was hitting the 12 inch metal target at 800 yards. We quickly got the tripod and the claw set up ,ranged it , we turned the kenton ind. turret to 580yards,he took his time,pulled the trigger and dropped her with one shot . I was so proud of him. He was so calm, despite my buck fever , we had the tripod raised fairly high becouse of all the thick brush,so he had to do a standing shot, but the gun claw was awesome. We both have 30a tags this upcoming weekend for coues ,we are hoping this will be his first deer also,we bought him some new camo for the hunt, that blue coat will stick out like a sore thumb. I dont post much but i love learning from everybody thanks Mason Sr. sorry still learning how to post pictures

I know some people don't like to disclose were they hunt , but this was a cow hunt ,We were near pinedale its a fun place ,and i know the area pretty well. your right you have to take your shots when you get them . I had a cow rifle tag in this unit 2 years ago , and i thought the hunt would be over opening morning and i was wrong ,i did get one but i had to hunt my but off. your right about the steaks my family cant wait for the day we pick them up from the processor. we have 7 kids so they go fast around here. I agree , Mason jr. would love the challenge of bow hunting,he loves anything to do with the outdoors. He also loves spearfishing in mexico , I guess thats kinda like bow hunting. Im going to try and post a couple of pictures of fish we have speared ,I hope i don,t get cussed at to bad for posting pictures of fish on a hunting forum,but we did hunt them i guess you could say sorry the good picture of my sons fish he shot is more than 2mb so it would not upload ,and im not smart enough to shrink it

Hogwash. If the kid can make the shot consistently which it sounds like he proved he could then why not. Everything was legal, ethical, and humane. If you put enough time and $$ into your rifle, amo, and rest then you can be consistently lethal at those ranges. My wife shot her first deer at 500 yards with a similar set up. Double lunged it with one shot. As far as the experience and essence of the hunt who is to say he didn't experience it? Look at the smile on his face. Isn't that what it is all about? I personally love long range hunting. Adds to the challenge. Some people like to sneak in close for the challenge which is fine if that is what they enjoy. Not everyone's essence of the hunt is the same. As long as you are legal and humane and it puts a smile on your face then Mission Accomplished! Nice job kid! Those coues bucks are in serious trouble! thanks brian, my son was right there with me every step of the way as we worked on every aspect of being able to shoot long range . we watched the best of the west videos ,had mark at kenton industries build us a turrett for the scope ,not only did we buy the claw but cade smith shared with me lots of good tips on how to use it effectively, so it became my sons passion also to be able to make the long shot if he had to.Trust me he will never pass up the short shot if its there ,but man it was great to see his face,he was so excited,he turned to me as i was screaming myself.and said,DAD I DID IT. He new I was proud of him. I do appreciate buckhunters comment, he may not have know the whole story, As we left for the hunt my wife reminded my son to make a good humane shot , dont just wound it.

Yes , we both practice a lot at longe range, browning a bolt 30-06 with a zeiss conquest scope6.5-20x50,hand loads with berger 168grain vlds ,for some reason that gun is freakishly accurate. we ranged the distance with my leica 15x56 geovids so i knew that distance. the other post about that maybe too long at such a young age. I agree but we had put a tone of time in reloading, and practicing.He knew he needed to be good at long range for our coues hunt ,becouse he was with me last year on my coues hunt ,so he was ready. my son wanted this picture instead

I have hunted unit 30a (dos cabezas) area for years ,with good success in the october hunt, I have never hunted it in the rut. couple of questions 1.what should i do different,if anything?I have heard they come out of the nasty stuff and chase does more in the open & lower terrain. Any idea to help me bag that 100" plus buck