308Nut

+1 RR. That is another very good point. Excessive headspace is another major cause of case/head separation. elkhunter, If you are seeing this with only two to three resizes, try setting your die back a bit (where the shoulder just kisses the die) or neck sizing. This will allow for much longer brass life than what you are getting.

That is to be expected when full length resizing the same case over and over. As the case expands and gets resized repeateadly, brass moves forward starting from where it os cracked. It gets thinner and thinner until you get what you just got. If this is happening with only a couple of resizes, it almost definately is from setting the shoulder back at least .005-.010" from when it was extracted. You might want to try neck sizing only and only run them full length when they start to get tight in the chamber. When you do FL size, try not setting the shoulder back more than .0005" (1/2 of on thousands NOT 5 thousands) per resize. That is one of the biggest culprits (setting the shoulder back too much). You will have to sacrifice some time and fire formed brass to set the die so as to not set the shoulder back more than .0005-.001" Hope that helps! M

A wee bit but not enough to sweat over it. If you're worried about it, have a brake threaded to the end of the barrel. M

Scenery The tools of the trade Rex (pwrguy) glassing 308Nut glassing My buck Rex's (pwrguy) buck

Very very nice. Congrats on a great buck! Glad to see that you caped him out for a mount. It is worthy of a mount for sure.

Oooooooooooooooops!!!!!! I knew that area was'nt the best spot to dump that toxic radioactive waste. SORRY!!!!

I know what I would want to do and I know what I would do. Regradless, if you decided to take the shot, I wonder if they would 'turn you in' to the authorities. I will probably loose some respect here but I will be honest anyway. If I perceived that they were illegal imagrants, I would cut them some slack and let them walk and pass on the buck. Despite the fact that I dont like illegal imagrant activities, it isnt worth it. If I perceived that they were drug mules, things might be different. Drug mules are like coyotes. I would seriously concider shooting the buck of my dreams. The ball would then be in their court as to what happened next.........If they chose to keep truckin, good on them. If they layed down to fight, I am more patient. Then reality would have set in and as I was concidering shooting my once in a lifetime buck, I would realize that a bad situation could turn into heck for alot of good people and I would end up passing on the shot. With mouths to feed at home, my pride and hatred for drug mules isnt worth death or jail.

Size of your target? Are we talking coues bucks or elk?

Carbs in the morning, mix of protien and carbs by day, lots of protien by night, lots of water all the time, cover you head while you sleep and dont sleep on the ground (use a thermal barrier). Dont forget the rain gear and fire starter.

It is hard to tell based on the ears alone because you need more of a frontal look so you can see how far from the center of his head they are and how big or little they are compared to his whole head. When you have the profile of one ear against the background, it can be very decieving. However, the fact that his legs appear long due to the very high ground clearence of this bear indicates that he is a smaller, imature bear. When his body fills out to the point that his legs look shorter, he will be a better bear. His legs will appear shorter because his belly will be near the ground.

Very nice!

For the most part, I agree with you on the age. Most would agree (including myself) though that the difference between a 10 year old bull elk in the peak of the rut versus a 1-3 year old in the peak of the rut is quite noticable in regards to quality.

+1 Age, how fast it is cooled, how much dirt or piss from the hide touches meat, how much it was pushed after it was shot (clean kill versus lots of adrenaline over time), gut shot, bladder shot, boiler room shot, etc..... all play major factors in how a critter is going to taste. For rutting deer, there is a gland on the hind leg that oozes a nasty oily musk. Get that on your knife or let it touch meat and it will not taste too plesent. M

I like the Harris. I am a fan of light weight due to the backpacking that I do. With that in mind, I like the 'Model L'. It doesnt have the swivel (to save weight) and it is a good balance between length and weight. It is 9-13" With a bit of practice, you can adjust one side or the other with your non trigger hand with the rifle cradled while watching your bubble level. There have been times the height was an issue being not enough. I have always been able to improvise using a pack frame or some other object. Most of the time though the height is perfect. For a non-packing rifle you could go a bit longer or have a double teloscopic version. There are certainly other good bi-pods out there. The Harris is just easy to find, easy to use, durable and economical. M The moment of truth 2009. Had to be used with a tripod under the butt of the rifle: Moment of truth 2007. SHOULD have had a tripod under the stock. Got her done anyway.

Awesome job guys. Congrats to the young man! I try not to confess too much but I have to say, where some guys dream of big Arizona Strip bucks, I dream of big desert mulies. What I wouldnt give up to take a buck like that out of the Sonoran Desert. That truely is the buck/location of my dreams. Congrats again, M

Find a more flexible boss. It takes days to find another boss. Years to draw a late CWT tag.

Good job Rex. Great first bull for the friend. If you took him where I think you took him, rugged is right! M

This is a hypothetical question. If you had enough points to put you in the max point pass for a few archery bull hunts (5BS, 6AS, 7E, 7W, 8), which would you pick as your first and only choice if these were your only options? The most important concideration is having a good fun hunt with multiple opprotunities at 300-330 class bulls with the possibility of at least seeing one or two 330-380 bulls. I realize many of you would not concider any of these units for an early bow hunt but if these were your only options.............. I talked with a really good outfitter today and I think he has sold me on a guided hunt. He steered me towards a particular unit but he had other units in mind as well. I just want to make sure I am not missing anything. Either way, he recomended a few of the above which I have some knowledge of but would like some of your opinions and perceptions. I realize that I need mental help. I am a long time elkaholic and I would love to hold out for a 'better" hunt. 'Better' is becoming a more subjective term all the time. Besides, I dont think I have that kind of patience and I know there is potential for a great overall hunt in all of the above units. Regards! M

Aside from the obvious and what has been mentioned already, I carry a full set of rain gear and a down jacket along with a head sock. Wind puffer, bone saw and rubber gloves. In addition, a E.L.K. 'deer talk/deer stopper'. It stops semi spooked deer including bucks dead in thier tracks. Either for one last size em up look or for a clean shot or both. With my metabolism, LOTS of food and water.

+ 1 Never heard of that one either

I have never heard of that unit before. Must be a real gem!

It depends on alot of factors but for MOST practical huntting conditions, the improved rifleman method is fairly close. Obviously, the further out and steeper the incline the further apart they become. For example, I shot a dall ram at 763 yards in 2002. He was at 4500', temp was 58 degrees and the incline was 17 degrees. The standard drop would have been 17.75 MOA. The corrected MOA was 16.5MOA. Using the rifleman method, (17.75 * .956) = 16.9MOA or about 4" of error which isnt too bad. For this example, it works out pretty good. On the flip side, in 2008, I shot another dall ram at 702 yards at 38 degrees incline which normally would work out to 15 MOA at 5400' and 52 degrees F. Add the incline and it works out to 10.25MOA. Using the RMM, (15 * .788) = 11.8 for an 11 inch mistake (11.8 - 10.25) * 7.02 = 11". Granted, this was a very long shot and a very steep incline. Most hunters will never encounter a shot like that. However, I know alot of you are sheep fanatics and you may just find yourself in that position or worse someday. One thing is FOR SURE! That is that the riflemans method works MANY times better when using MOA values instead of yardage. For the record, if you check my calculator against any other calculator out there including RSI, Exbal, JBM (online), Berger, Sierra etc.....the numbers are within anywhere from fractions of an inch to 2" at 1000 yards. You will see those variances in all programs when comparing them side by side. M

Another danger of using corrected yardage instead of actual drop inches is that line of sight still applies for MIL, MOA and click values at the line of sight range Example: By using the rifleman method of a 600 yards shot and shooting for 300 yards (600 * 0.5 COSINE). If you look at your drop chart and find that your 300 yard drop is 1 Mil from your 100 yard zero, and hold for 1 mil at 600 yards even though your drop chart at 300 yards says 1 Mil, it compounds the problem because 1 mil at 300 yards = 10.8 inches where 1 mil at 600 yards = 21.6 inches. If there is a bullet drop value of 79" at 600 yards from a 100 yard zero on a 0 degree shot, and you take 1/2 of that which is 39.5" and IF this method worked, holding for 1 mil which is the 300 yard holdover, an 18" mistake will occur. This is because 1 Mil at 600 yards = 21.6". You would be shooting for 21.6" where the rifleman method told you 300 yards or 1/2 the drop inch value which would be 39.5". 39.5 rifleman method drop - 21.6 1 mil holdover = 17.9" error. In other words, using a yardage cut of 300 yards will lead you astray because your drop chart says 1 Mil for 300 yards where you need a 1.8 mil hold for the shot. This is all of course based on the riflemans method which you all know I dont agree with and is for illustration purposes. Forget yardage cuts and go with drop inches. When the new drop inch is determined you will convert inches to MOA or Mils or clicks.

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Coach, You're absolutly right. We TOTALLY hi-jacked this thread. My apologies. Lionhunter, I am sorry we turned your thread into an abomination. Maybe in the near future I will send an article to Amanda and see if she wants to post it about the practical application of compensating for up and downhill shooting WITHOUT the vacume. rclouse79: Happy hunting. If I were to offer any advice, please dont take any shots up or down hill.