recurveman

Head down to the outdoorsmans in Fountain Hills. They have all the glass to look at. Personally I found the Swaro EL's to be the clearest. You can look through everything and decide what you want to buy. I was out sheep hunting last fall and had the opportunity to look through 10EL's, 12EL's and 15's. Very interesting hour of my life. I was switching glass like crazy for the better part of an hour. The one thing I can say is the 10's and 12's EL's are clearer but it is so very close. The biggest difference to me was the field of view. The 12's gave me almost the same field of view as the 10's with a 20% bump in magnification. After looking through the 12's I was wondering how I don't go buy a pair. The 15's field of view was much, much tighter. The difference was massive. I like the extra magnification of the 15's but it comes at a price. I hear the new 12's are even better. Haven't looked through them yet but there is a very high probability of me owning a pair in the next 6 months.

They don't make the EL's in 15's. I have 10 power EL's and they blow SLC's out of the water for clarity. I also have the Swaro 15's and they are just incredible.

Go get a rock chucker. That last thing you need is a progressive. Do it slowly and learn. It is hard to beat a RC and they aren't that expensive.

Find a buddy that reloads and go help them reload. You will learn a ton from someone that has done it for years. It isn't hard but can be a bit intimidating to learn it the first time. Reloading isn't cheaper either. It costs more money to reload than to buy ammo. The more you go down the rabbit hole the more expensive it is to shoot. To me spending the money for the better performance is worth it but not everyone feels the same way. A quick "other option" is to buy a quality brass ( I buy Nosler) and just prime the case, add powder and a bullet. Then go shoot. Depending on how much you are going to shoot it might be a good option too. Then at some point you will have a ton of brass to either work your brass or sell it and get more new brass. The work is really in the brass prep. Once I find "a load" that works out of my gun I will typically buy all the needed components for the expected life of the barrel. Let's say that I found a bullet and powder that work great out of a gun and the barrel will last 1000 rounds. I will go buy enough powder to fill the cases 1000 times and get 1000 bullets and 1000 primers. Then I have the components to reload for the gun for the life of the barrel. Components can change and then your load will change. Sometimes you can't buy the components.........So buy a ton once you find your load.

Don't try to do to much with one rifle. If you want a classic wood stock sportter barrel gun then do it. If you are going to put some money into a gun that you want to shoot REALLY accurate then do it. I'm not against either but trying to accomplish to much with one rifle will drive you crazy. No reason not to have many rifles. Also not a fan of "magnum" rounds. They cost more to shoot, they beat you to death or you put a muzzle break on the gun and beat your ears to death. In today's world you can do great if you know the velocity of the round and do some practicing. A 30-06 will kill anything and then some in the lower 48. More gun than a guy needs but.....if they came out with another 300 super magnum a bunch of guys would buy it and say you can't kill a deer without the new super magnum. I shoot a 6.5X284 (basically a .270) and I would point that at anything that won't eat me. It's also a pleasure to shoot.

I run load range E on every vehicle that goes on dirt. You will get less flats for sure. Load range C and D don't hold up like load range E. Learned the hard way over many years.

FYI - The Kiabab has a youth only doe deer hunt

Why not in AZ?

For the most part barrel break in is done after about 50-75 shots. The biggest issue I've found with barrel break in is that the speed of the barrel changes until about 50-75 rounds. What this means in layman terms is if you are doing load development nothing really matters until about 50 shots because your bullets are going different speeds until it settles down. If you aren't using a chronograph and doing load development then I don't know if it matters much to be honest.

Keep the head and get the outdoors compact medium tripod. I've got that setup and it is incredible for back country glassing. A bit heavier than the vortex summit (got that too and it is nice)

Well that does look like crap. But then again I haven't seen a really good chamber/barrel from a production gun. Honestly I've seen quite a few custom chamber jobs that looked like crap too. I think you have a couple choices. You could take it back and get another gun (don't know if that is even an option). You could see if it shoots good (you have shot worse looking barrels before but just didn't know it). If is shoots poorly then sell it. You could try lapping the barrel but I don't see those grooves coming out. You could put a new barrel on the gun. Would run about $700 for a top quality barrel and a quality chamber job that will shoot better than this barrel. I would shoot it. Then decide to keep it as is or sell it if you don't want to put a new barrel on the gun. long guns that aren't awesome don't get a spot in my safe.....EVER!!!!!!!

So......I told my buddy that if he drew a muzzy tag I would buy a muzzy (probably need one anyways) for his hunt. He drew the Kiabab east side muzzy hunt. So I bought the Remington Ultimate Muzzy and put the new Arrowhead breach plug into the gun. So I'm now to the point where I'm looking for loading advice. Only shot a muzzy once and I know little to nothing about them. I'm leaning towards BH209 powder and I'm guessing a 250-300 grain pill. Any advice on bullets, powders, velocity, cleaning tips, expectations would be great. I'm super familiar with reloading rifles but I need an education with muzzy's. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Chad

By weight not measured.

shot the muzzy this weekend with the arrowhead BP installed. Shot the remington 250 grain bullet and green sabot with 90-100 grains of BH209. Was shocked at how accurate the gun is. Shooting 100 grains by weight will likely end up being the load. Bullets were literally touching each other. Can't ask more than that. I was using a lead sled but recoil wasn't bad. Now my buddy just needs a deer to stand still at 100 yards.

I shot one off of water. I sat all day for quite a few days. Start you day with as many ice bottles (frozen gatorade, water, ect)as you can carry or get to the blind. Might even want to bring a YETI style cooler and put it in the blind. Bring a towel and dunk it in the cooler or find a way to put the ice bottles on you to keep you cool. Bring way more fluids than you think you might need. I think anytime after about noon will be your best time to sit but I would spend as much time as you can take in the blind. Personally that was a really tough hunt for me and the next time I hunt goats I will be using a very large caliber gun.....I don't care if it is a monster or not........I just want revenge!!!!!!!!

They are like $20 from Outdoorsmans. Some models have to be installed by Outdoorsmans which will be a different issue and I think they run about $100 or so.

So last year there was a sheep clinic was in the morning and the banquet at night in the same location. The clinic is worth going to if you aren't very comfortable with scoring sheep. You will learn a bunch about what to look for in a good old ram. They do spend a bit of time talking about really basic hunting which got a bit old at times. Though I'm sure that some hunters needed that too. The best part is almost all of the rams that were harvested the prior year were displayed at the clinic. Complete with unit # and score. It's very cool to see all the different sheep in one location and be able to compare them. That in of itself is worth the trip.....unless you are a sheep bad butt. If so, then sleep in and get drunk at the banquet.

this will last about 5 minutes. I wear XXL or I would buy it all.

Well now......that sounds like fun. Guess I'll make my buddy do all of the load development!!!!!! Luckily I have a lead sled.....but I won't tell him until we are done.

What would this load kick like? 300 win mag? 30-06? I'm fixing to dent primers this weekend.

If I was going to do another build today and wanted to use factory ammo.......First off I would get a custom action and build from there. Leave the original gun intact. If it is a money thing then sell the gun and put the money towards the new action. In regards to caliber I would probably do the 6.5 PRC because it has great ballistics and great ammo options. I would have a great debate with myself and look at the 6.5 SAUM too but only if you wanted to reload.

Just last year. My daughter shot a deer up on the Bab at 200 yards with a .243 and it went 10 yards. Bang flop. My buddy shot a deer at 100 yards on the strip with his 300 win mag (horrible shot placement) and it took us a ton of tracking, 4 guys, spotters, 4 hours and even more shots to get this animal killed. Big guns are rarely the answer. Being able to hit exactly where your supposed to hit the animal is the answer. If you hit the animal where you are supposed to then almost any caliber will do the trick. The big difference......I take my kids shooting quite a bit so that when it is time to pull the trigger they hit exactly where they are aiming. Both my kids killed deer last year with one perfectly placed shot.......Unfortunately I can't get my thick headed buddies to spend time at the range. I've seen or personally shot probably close to 50 deer and elk sized critters killed with a .243 (mostly with a 90 nosler BT). I've yet to see one make it 75 yards. 90% make it less than 10 yards. For the longest time my wife thought that when you shot an animal with the .243 they just dropped in their tracks and you would just go pick them up.

I typically don't shop price. I shop quality and pay the price. The difference between incredible and crap isn't that much money. Keep in mind you are going to look at this critter for the next 20+ years. Crappy taxidermy work will drive you crazy. There are also taxidermist that specialize in certain animals. I would look to see who does a great job with the species you are looking to get done. If you want a sheep done then use a sheep guy, CWT then use a CWT taxi, Africa, ect.

OR......you can just hit the animal in the correct spot and it will die with a .243. Magnums have their place but very few animals really need a magnum. Most guys would be a ton better off if they shot a much smaller caliber and spent more time behind the rifle. Most guys are also more comfortable shooting a smaller caliber and will shoot it more accurately.

Had a buddy miss one and it ran into a barbwire fence..........died shortly there after......