yotebuster

Thats an amazing story!!!! I always think of that in the back of my head, kinda half hoping a lion trys to take my deer away!! I'm always prepared if not over prepared!! Congrats!!!

Personally I prefer a 140 gr. accubond sitting on top of 82gr. of 7828 SSC coming out of my 7mm STW. I don't have any idea how fast its going, but it gets there just in time to kill the crap out of whatever I shoot it at!!! My thought is, I would rather have an animal with a .28" entry and a .50" exit that is dead FOR SURE (might run a bit if its through the ribs), then risk anything else. Yes you may kill faster with rapid expansion, but why risk it just to see them drop? I like being able to pick up my gun and shoot anything from coyotes (its actually very nice to pelts!) to buffalo without changing bullets. I know none of you would consider going after a buffalo or brown bear with a VLD or ballistic tip, so why get good with a bullet that you can't use for everything, and then have to switch when you decide to go after very large game? I have shot a lot of big bodied ND bucks with 140gr. ballistic tips,(before accubonds came around), and all of them were out scout, actually all of the bullets exited too, sometimes leaving a softball size hole, but I think we owe it to the animal to prepare for a worst case scenario, and use the bullet that will handle that best. If you take out the heart or lungs, even if it is a .5" hole, that animal is dead, 100% of the time, if you dump 1500ft lbs. of energy into his shoulder blade and don't get the lungs (highly unlikely I know, but possible), you're gonna have a bad day, and the animal a much much worse one.

I will admit, those folks in Montana are about as nice as they come, with the exception of us ND fellas! I will tell though, if you wanna see nice people, go to Saskatchewan. If you stop in to a farm to ask permission to hunt, pretty soon you're sitting down to a home cooked meal and a cold canadian brew. It actually becomes kind of problematic as its hard to get any hunting done without feeling rude about not staying to chat!!! I have to admit there are a ton of nice folks down here though, there just happens to be quite a few more pricks mixed in with them then back home.

Headed out early this morning with the shotgun and AR-15, looking to explore the countryside a bit. Went north of Glendale on 17, then jumped off and bumbled into the darkness not exactly sure what I was after!!! Found a nice looking canyone at daybreak that allegedly had a spring a half mile up it (according to my sorry map!). Hiked in about a half mile with the AR and a predator call. Set up overlooking the canyon, and just barely got going on my first set when this fox came roaring in!! I'd never seen a gray fox before, but had a pretty good idea that was what it was. Stopped him at 75 yards, for a nice chest shot, but unfortunately my 50 gr. Vmax exited his back on the other side, messed his hide up really bad! I was ecstatic to have success in my first 30 minutes of hunting in AZ, but sad that I couldn't salvage my first gray fox. Loaded up the .12 gauge and made my way up the next canyon, bumped a huge covey of quail (75 atleast is that normal?) They flushed to far for a shot, but lit in the side of the canyon above me, (which turned out to be more like a cliff covered in prickly pear!). I naturally clawed my way up to them, but they made a complete idiot out of me as I gasped for air and tried to shoot at them! I missed a few before I was able to get my breath and killed one. I ended up picking a few more up after that, which was plenty to make this guy happy!!! Didn't see any deer, and no tracks at any of the springs and tanks I saw. This surprised me as the country I was in looked excellent for deer. I didn't do a lot of hard glassing, but thought I would have bumped into something in the course of the day. It was a lot of fun, I'm definitely gonna get back up there and try it again, only this time I'm gonna get above the quail before I try to flush 'em!!!

Haha, I have an aunt in Wessington Springs! Don't know the folks you speak of, but I'm sure my aunt and uncle do. Thats beautiful country along the missouri river, unbelievable hunting in there too! My cousin killed a 200" muley with his bow a few years back west of wessington springs, he had some POS 1982 model Jennings with 5 mismatched arrows, an accident waiting to happen, goes out his first time and shoots this pig in the neck, drops it in its tracks... anyhow, nice area, nice people, beautiful roosters! Look like wild birds too! More and more of the lodges down in that country are stocking roosters. Not to much wrong with stocked birds I guess, but its kinda nice to know you are shooting wild birds! Kinda like stocked fish, they both bite, fight and taste good, but its cooler knowing someone didn't raise it before you hunted it. The stocked ones do a lot more cackling when they get up though, gotta love that!

Where'd you hunt? Not trying to find out your spot, so don't tell me if you don't want to, just curious as my mom and her 12 brothers and sisters are from north central SD (land of huge catholic families!!!). They've since dispersed and had a bunch of kids of their own, who've had a bunch of kids of their own, so I'm most likely related to someone where you hunted!!! Thank god my dad decided to move us to ND!!!

Haha, I'm not one of those guys, but I did take my dads 30-378 wby to the range back home one day to sight it in for an elk hunt, this bad boy has a break on the end that looks like an anti-aircraft gun. Anyhow, there were only a couple other guys there, so before I shot it I said "you fellas may wanna back up a few feet", cause dad told me its loud as heck. When I touched the first one off, I knocked all of the barn swallow nests off of the roof!!! The mud from them fell all over the place! It was pretty funny, I absolutelly hate muzzlebreaks, after using that thing at the range I figured I'd go back to my smooth barreled 7 STW instead!!

Yeah, I did a little recon on my map and google earth and found a neat little place, sure you've been there. The quail definitely like that area as the wash was full of tracks, it would be fun as heck with a dog, those dang things wore this flatlander out! Fortunately I was able to retrieve every bird I downed, I could see them being impossible if they werent killed DEAD. I'm excited to cook those bad boys up, remind me of little Hungarian Partridge, which are my favorite bird on the table by far! Thanks for the advice Rob, we'll have to go back up there and clean up the rest of the varmints too, lots and lots of tracks, I need someone to run shotgun for me, this is way different than hunting the open pastures like back home!

I didn't do it!!!!!!

Holy cow!!! I dropped my keys at that same water hole last week, having a hard time remembering where it was. If you could just send me the GPS coordinates so I could go out there and grab my keys that'd be greeeaat...

I'd say big old whitetail, but I'm not an expert with y'alls deer down here yet. We have whitey and muleys at home too, if I found it up there, there'd be no question its a whitetail. It'd be one heavy butt muley thats for sure!!! With killer eyeguards to boot!

Jeremy, I ordered an AR-15 from Dtech a couple months ago in .243WSSM, eagerly awaiting it!!! I've done a ton of research on it, but never experienced it firsthand. What I will say is that th 87-95 grain Berger VLD's look to be the ticket to me. I would shy away from the 55 grains stuff, as you're gonna be washing a lot of powder out the end of the barrel. You won't lose that much velocity by bumping up, and you're gonna keep it way longer. Those 55grain pills have a terrible ballistic coefficient, which is kind of a waste if you ask me. Im gonna load the 87's I think, then use them indescriminately for everything from big ND whitetails to coyotes, prairie dogs, and song birds! ; Hunting shack has a heck of a sale on .243 and .223 WSSM brass right now, I'm not good at picking mine up when I hunt, so I ordered 1000 of em, I guess I better hope I like my gun!!

That looks like a good time, didn't know they had pheasants in Mexico. Are they wild birds if you don't mind me asking? I can tell you that I'd way rather go down there than to the Dakotas, of course I'm from the dakotas, but the weather, women and food are alot better down there!!!! Not to mention the beaches!! Can a guy get into duck hunting within a decent distance of Arizona on the baja? I'd love to get into some Brant also.

Clay, the clicks on your scope are 1/4" at 100 yards. This becomes much different at longer ranges, at 400 yards, one click = 1" etc. Just thought I'd point that out, as this could cause considerable confusion to people trying to use a turret adjustment for long range shooting without actually practicing at distance. .270, gravity has the same "hold" on the bullet at the muzzle as it does at 1000 yards, 9.8 m/s/s, its just that the bullet is going so much slower at 1000 yards, which makes the drop between every 50 or 100 yard increment so much more noticeable. Gravity is always a constant, this is the cause of true distance vs. actual distance when shooting up or down hill. Rookie, to give my 2 cents on your original question, your '06 does have plenty of energy to kill a deer at 5-600 yards, and your rifle is very likely plenty accurate for use at that range, but as my dad used to always say, "its the loose nut behind the trigger that causes a gun to miss!" Simply put, it takes a lot of skill to take shots at those types of ranges, many people are very good at it, but they weren't born that way. Considering you've got the talent, wind drift and distance measurement become the two determing factors. It is IMPERITIVE that you know how far the animal you are shooting at is... knowledge of ballistics is worthless without this... always always always carry a rangefinder, I rank that as the #3 tool a hunter has, after your boots and binos of course. I would rather have a $300 gun and a $700 rangefinder then vice versa any day. Wind is the other factor that can make long range shooting nearly impossible, and when i say that I mean, something that shouldnt be attempted on game. My brother and I had a big new mexico bull at 575 last year, with no way of getting closer, his 30-378 Wby with him behind it makes a prairie dog nervous at that range, but the wind coming down the canyon was noisy enough to be heard, but not felt where we were in the timber, needless to say, there was no possible ethical way to make that shot, and he didn't. I've notice the wind doesn't blow near as often down here as it does back in ND, but it's definitely something to keep in mind. I've whiffed coyotes at 150 yards (chest on...just how I like 'em for furs!!) with a 15 mph crosswind a lot of times, a shot similar to that on a broadside deer is gonna make for a bad day for both of you! Good luck, and keep shootin!

Dang!!! I don't know much about coues deer, but I know that both of those bucks look dang nice, your bro's is a toad!!! I love that mass. Awesome, thanks for sharing...

Had an awesome trip home to hunt with my uncles, dad, and brothers. Killed limits of ducks every morning, as well as real easy limits of pheasants. The geese and crane were few and far between, so I didn't get to kill any this trip. I killed a banded drake pintail on my first morning, first banded pintail I've seen (you can see the band on the pic i just noticed, you can also tell by the bags under my eyes that I partied to late and got up to early!!). Actually killed my first limit of Hungarian partridge in quite a few years too. Brought home a nice cooler of meat to boot!!

Hey guys, new on here, just got misplaced down here from ND for a few years for school. I missed my first archery whitetail opener back home this year in 17 years, it made me sick!!! My buddy arrowed a buck that would have been mine for opener, ended up grossing 174. Anyhow, figured i'd put up a pic of my buck from last year, grossed 162. It was the biggest bodied buck I've ever seen, I didn't weigh him, but would guarantee he went 250-275 lb on the hoof. He was a 7 1/2 year old that my bro missed the year before at 15 yards (lucky for me!!). Well, hope you guys enjoy a few pics from back home, let me know if you want me to put more up!!! Yote

It hasn't always been that way... the ducks have been a lot better I guess, but our pheasant hunting is unreal right now... if we get one more "normal" winter they are toast... The term normal doesn't mean much anymore, since we haven't had a nasty winter in ten years up there. My dad and I plant a lot of food plots and try to leave cover for them, I think that all helps, but pheasants aren't designed for our type of country, and one bad winter can thin them out real quick. I just got done filling my belly full of creamed pheasant and wild rice, nothing better!!! You should move yourself up there after you graduate! Rural ND is screaming for dentists, the state will pay off 80K of your loans if you work in a rural area for 4 years... most people would kill to have a good job in rural ND, but unless you're a farmer it's a tough place to make a living. I also know of a town or two that have dentists that are of retirement age that are trying to give away their practices to anyone willing to take them!! Of course you'd have to learn to get along with the winters, but ice fishing and coyote calling can keep a guy warm all winter!

We use .243's a lot back home in ND, my dad actually shot a 22-250 for 20 years. He killed more deer with that gun then anyone I know. It has a lot more to do with the guy behind the trigger then the caliber, I killed a 250lb. buck back home a couple years ago when I was coyote hunting with my AR-15 in .223. I am so used to shooting jackrabbits and fox with it that it felt like i was shooting at a barn, needless to say he didn't make it far. Not that I recommend .223, I have plenty of other guns that are more suited for deer, but if you know how to shoot it, you're 99% of the way there. I actually killed a deer with a .17 Remington once too, shot him through the lungs and it absolutely vaporized them! Wouldn't ever risk a shoulder shot, but I use the gun for shooting pheasants in the head cause my neighber can't bite into pellets (dental probs), so a deers lungs were a pretty easy target!!! Moral of the story, the .243 will be perfect for what you're doing with it... the 100gr bullets too, I don't know that the make anything factory much heavier.

Haha, I like how us hunters refer to things in yards instead of blocks.... Most likely the people in my school don't even know what the heck a yard is unless they watch football!

I have a bushnell elite 15-45x for sale, its about 4 years old, just bought a leica 20-60 the other day, so I guess I could part with my other one. I think I paid around $500 for it, would sell it for $250 if you're still in need of one.

My brother and sister in law drew elk tags for unit 16d last year, is your tag a wt or muley tag? There definitely wouldn't be any whitetail in 16D, which is the far north of the 16's. If anything, I would try the very very south end. We saw some muleys while hunting, but the biggest was probably only a 20" 3 pointer, and we hunted for a whole week. Lotta elk in there, bugled up a 390 bull the night before the season, i know how big he was because a fella killed him the next day within 100 yards of where we saw him

Hey guys, I am a member of the National Guard, and am currently on active duty orders down here. As far as I can tell that is what you need to hunt Ft. Huachuca. I'm assuming you also have to draw a state tag in the same unit also? Anyhow, I was just checking to see if any of you have hunted it, if its better or worse than hunting outside the fort etc. Thanks in advance for the info. yote

very cool, i love the blood trail shot, that gets my heart pumpin!!! I'd like to see what the "big" one looked like after seeing the one you got (i'd have to call that dang big personally!!) I'm trying to get my bro talked into blowing our colorado points on a high country hunt, but he's draging his feet about it! He's the saver and im the spender in our family, doesn't work out well when budgeting points!! Congrats...

Sorry fellas, didn't mean to get your panties all bunched up!!!! I am on a National Guard Scholarship to go to dental school, in Glendale. I have never even been to Huachuca, but understood the regs to say that you can hunt it if you are active duty military... I'm under active duty orders currently while at school (if its bothering you guys that bad I could show you my orders ) Sorry for the confusion, and I really would appreciate not being called a liar as several of you did. The reason it took me so long to get back to this post is that I was home for a weekend of pheasant and duck hunting. If you have any other questions or concerns as to any other aspects of my life feel free to ask me through personal message rather than tearing me apart publicly for being willing to serve my country while trying to further my education.... moving on to my original question, did I misunderstand the regulations, or can I hunt on ft. huachuca since I am active duty military, or do you have to be actually stationed at the fort. I apologize for the confusion again, I am in no way lying to try to get information out of you guys, that is why in my first post I was very clear to offer help to anyone interested in hunting in the dakota's, becuase that is my area of expertise, I know absolutely nothing about hunting in Arizona, which is why I've been asking questions. If I am asking to many questions please notify me, and once again sorry for the trouble... 2nd LT. Buntrock/Student Dentist Buntrock