recurveman

My kids are going to be using a .243 for elk hunting this year. We have shot quite a few elk with a .243 and they die really fast. I have also found that if don't hit the animal they rarely die. Can't tell you how many deer we have shot with a .243......Many on the Kiabab too. Or you can go get a brand new 500 super nitro mega magnum and be cooler than all the other guys up there hunting deer. Don't know anything about copper bullets.

Tripod was 32 ounces (plus 4 ounces for the center post. This is a must have!!!!!) and the head was 7.5 ounces. It is much stiffer than the carbon tripods that they had to try and the outdoorsmans. For the weight I don't think you can do better than this setup. Keep in mind that this only works when sitting down. If you want to stand then you need a bigger tripod. I personally never glass standing so this works for me.

Outdoorsman medium compact with extra center pole extension tripod. I use the outdoorsman micro pan head and it is awesome for 15's if you need light weight. Other great heads out there if weight isn't a obstacle. I think this setup is the best "light weight" set up you can get. You can get lighter and cheaper but both come at a price. There are a ton of great products depending on weight and price. For the most part you pay for quality and lighter.

OP - you should go down and scout at some time. There are a ton of turkeys down there and I find it enjoying to watch them gobble regardless of having a tag. Watched a group of 10 gobblers making noise towards the end of March. They would gobble every time I made a noise. Super fun hunt (did it back in 2015) and I would take a tag anytime I could get one. They are REALLY big birds.

Schedule a trip to a Texas game ranch. I learned a bunch about bullets in Texas and that is an opportunity rich environment. There really as so many variables it is really tough to perform tests that are accurate. If you shoot a deer at 75 yards the bullet may perform very different than if you shoot the same deer at 700 yards. The ELD-X bullet I'm shooting doesn't seem to want to exit an animal when shot under 100 yards. if I shoot a deer at 700-800 yards the bullets seems to stay together better and I will have an exit hole. How do you test that other than putting holes through hair? All critters died too so not sure that it mattered but just interesting to watch the changes.

I don't know what we use to be honest but I'm sure the endoscope is plenty good for what you need to look at your barrel. Basically you will look for copper fouling and throat erosion. Those are easy to see with just about anything. Only issue is getting something inside of the gun.

I don't think you need anything fancy (that one doesn't look fancy). I use one that is super simple. Can't tell you how many chambers I've look down. You will learn a ton by looking down chambers. Best thing you can do is look down a bunch of chambers and see the differences. After about 10 chambers you will notice a very bid difference and tell roughly how many shots are down the tube. The key area to look at is right as the bullet leaves the brass. Also the last few inches of the barrel will tell you quite a bit about how much copper build up you have going on too. Also there is a big difference between chamber jobs from a gun smith. Most factory jobs are rough and a good smith will have the chamber looking like glass.

I have a bell and carlson stock. They do very good and well worth the money. They will have plenty to choose from.

I have been very fond of using coyotes for this exact purpose. Not sure you will get the desired results with using a ballistic media. If I thought it would react the same in a critter I would do it but honestly I don't think most of the medias are going to work well for testing bullet performance. Going through hide, meat, maybe hone and then a softer internal organ is hard to duplicate with a ballistic media. I have found that bullets that work well on coyotes also do very well on deer. If the bullet didn't work good on a coyote the bullet also didn't do well on deer. Plus it is an excuse to go tip over a critter during the off season.

Go hunt says 39 points is max. Also says that if you have over 30 points and a resident that you will be drawn 100% of the time. I'm in that group with more than 30 points but I'm looking. Would like to apply but not excited about the hunt as it is right now. Sitting a blind for months on end doesn't seem super exciting. Or it could end in one day.

If you have 36 points and apply you will get a tag. It looks to me that they are only offering cow hunts this fall.

I was shooting the 6.5MM 142 grain ABLR bullets. I couldn't get them to shoot. My issue was huge elevation changes. I would shoot 6-10 shots right where I wanted them and then I would have a couple shots 2 MOA high. Then I would shoot another 6-10 shots where I wanted to and then I would have a shot or two go 2 MOA low. I chased that for months and months. I thought it might even by my shooting or form. Probably put 200 rounds down the tube until I threw in the towel. I'm a big nosler fan but I couldn't get those to work. I changed over to 143 grain ELD-X bullets and never had an elevation issue. Now I have a very nice water line out to a grand.

Well I've raised a few thousand bob white quail. Don't do it anymore. You can have fun with it but I don't think there really is any money to be made at it. You need quite a bit of space and it is nice to move them from space to space at different times. I would start the chicks out in an incubator and then put 300-400 chicks in a shed with a bunch of red heat lamps. They are very sensitive to temp changes. You can kill them with heat or cold. Then once they were a few weeks old I would kick them out into a bigger pen that worked OK. Then once they were old enough to sell I would move them into a "flight pen" and let them work on flying. At each stage the water stations and feeders would be a different size. At some point you will start killing some off slowly and you won't know why. My solution would be to fill up a sprayer with bleach water and spray down the entire pen and then bleach out all the water stations and probably change out the food. If you start with 400 chicks you would be lucky to end up with 250 mature birds. It is easy to make the 400 chicks turn into 75 birds though. We learned a bunch and it was a good time. Lots and lots of work for no money. Does take a little investment but I think your kids would enjoy it. Don't forget about chickens. I enjoyed chickens and eggs more than quail. You could sell the eggs and make money with much less hassle then quail.

that is a very young ram. I would guess he is at about 3 years old or so. They really need to be about 5-6 years old before you start seeing the age rings.

There are other options too. You can always shoot reduced loads. Everything in this state can be killed with a .243. I had a 10 and 13 year old shoot deer last year with a .243 with reduced loads. The 80 grain bullet was going 2400 FPS. The 10 year old smoked his deer at 75 yards and had a pass through. Deer went 75 yards and piled up. 13 year old shot hers at 204 yards and it went 30 feet and piled up. She shot a muley doe in the front shoulder and the bullet lodged in the opposite shoulder. Really no need to shoot big huge rounds at critters. For cow elk this year I am going to try and shoot more of a full boat load for elk out of the .243. Not worried at all.

The factory spring will go down to about 2.5# but it is all the way out and if freaks me out a bit. The lighter spring can go down much lower but I think 2# or so is a good spot and that will put a little compression on the spring. Seems like I have the screw about half way in with the light spring and it feels pretty good.

You should be able to find factory ammo that shoots MOA out of the Tikka. I have two Tikka's and they are both very nice guns. I've got one that shoots 1/2 MOA and I really didn't do much load development. I'm sure I could get it much tighter but I don't know as though I need too for its intended purpose. The 178 grain ELD-X's fly good out of my .308. Here is an inexpensive item to buy for your Tikka. They make a trigger spring that is lighter. It is really, really easy to install and it gets the trigger down to 2-2.5#'s. It breaks really, good and I think it makes a big difference. Now it isn't a Jewel trigger but it is much better with the lighter spring and it runs about $10-20 for the spring and about 5 minutes to install. Well worth the time and money. You can also get a 5 round mag for extra capacity really cheap. You will enjoy your gun.

Don't feel bad. I sent about 200 ABLR projectiles down range before I gave up. I could never get them to shoot consistent out of my gun. I switched to ELD-X bullets and have been shooting tiny holes since. Bergers are probably more accurate I just don't like how they perform on critters. I did shoot one MD with a ABLR bullet and it went bang flop. Just wish they were accurate at distance.

agreed. you can build an awesome custom rifle minus optics for under $3K.......Or you could spend 10K and build an even more custom rifle!!!!!! I put $2,700.00 into mine but it isn't super crazy with options. I just want tiny holes.

JUST BUY IT!!!!!!!! We all need more rifles anyways. Just an FYI - for under $3K you could build a custom rifle to your exact specifications.

Well yes and no depending on what you are trying to get done. If you want a longer thicker barrel then the carbon will do a better job at a lighter weight. If you are comfortable shooing a shorter steel barrel then you can get lighter with steel. I personally shoot a shorter steel barrel. I might give up a little velocity but my accuracy is spot on out to 1000 yards with a 22" barrel. I shoot a #3 brux barrel and it does really good through a 10 shot string. If you need to shoot more than that.......... In regards to your twist rate. You need to figure out what bullet you want to shoot and then build the rifle around that bullet. You can't shoot a really light bullet and a really heavy bullet out of the same barrel and expect match quality results from both. My advice would be to set the gun up for the longest and heaviest bullet you can. Typically you will use that bullet at the longest ranges and having the greatest accuracy with that bullet will make the most sense. When you chamber a barrel you will need to know the bullet so you can decide where you want the bullet to sit in the brass. Then you will be able to determine where you want to set the lands when you are having the chamber job completed. Typically when I chamber a barrel normally I will design it to be used with a grain weight of bullet and that is about it. So I might be able to use the 140 grain bergers, 143, 147 grain ELD's, I40 grain Nosler BT or AB, ect. I could shoot a much shorter and lighter bullet but it won't be sitting close to the lands like the longer, heavier bullets. The lighter bullets will probably shoot OK but they won't be match quality like you will probably want out of the gun. So the moral of the story. Pick a bullet weight (probably the heaviest) and design the gun around that bullet.

What are you looking to do with the rifle? To me a backpack rifle is shorter, lighter and will have an effective range of about 600 yards. Caliber is more than I would choose too for a backpack gun. Pretty much any caliber works unless you are really looking to shoot big bears. Here is my two pennies. I would go with a much, much shorter barrel. Think 20-22". You will loose a little velocity but not enough to matter at 600 yards. Having a shorter barrel will make a ton of difference in how it handles out in the field. I run a Swaro on my "backpack" gun and with a custom turret it gets me out to 650 yards with a .308. In a 300 you will easily get out to 750-800 yards with a custom turret. I also run a 3X18 power which is way more power than is needed for a backpack gun.

Your bigger issue is getting a tag and then getting a buffalo out of the park to shoot at.

I've got a few buddies that have Defiance actions. They all love them. Defiance makes a great action. Don't be afraid they are top quality and you will be VERY, VERY happy. I've got a Batt Machine action that I like. Batt says that they are like a remington 700 but their lug isn't in the same spot at a remington 700 so you need to do a little stock work for the Batt.

So, looking at the style of bullet that you are shooting it won't be a long range load. If you are shooting under 300 yards those bullets will do just fine. Might even be fine out to 500 yards but the BC of that bullet is like a brick so that is another set of issues. If the round goes boom then keep shooting them. I've shot the ELD-M's and ELD-X's and haven't seen the variations that you are in those bullets. Hornady isn't quite the quality of berger but they make a great bullet. I've had great results shooting the ELD's out to 1000 yards with great accuracy. I've also noticed that the bullets that are used for "longer" range shooting are where you are going to see less variance. Just normal bullets with flatter bases that aren't meant to be shot at longer distances tend to have more variations between bullets. Go shoot those 300 rounds and REPEAT!!!!!!!