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so, just wondering desert diesel, how many folks have you killed while in the sniper community? what's that? i'm sure it has happened, but i don't recall even one person getting killed by a sniper in Az. in a long time. and i've lived here quite awhile. enquiring minds wanna know. again, just wondering. .308, thanks a lot for the info. i truly appreciate it and appreciate your serious and thorough explanation. it's a lot to ponder and a lot to learn. along about august when i get serious about shooting paper again i'll put it to use as best as i can. i saw a balistic computer the other day. are they worth it? it was a couple grand. money is no object to a rich good lookin' guy like me. guess i'll never be a pro sniper, but i might be able to shoot a deer at a fair piece on occasion. like they say, it's better to be lucky than good. did shoot a running coyote with my .223 at around 350 or so last week. didn't get to range it until after i shot him. shot a turkey too, but didn't bother rangin' it. it was somewhere between 30 and 300. and all i had was a 12 guage with some 00. i sure have been lucky a lot. been lucky on at least 7 or 8 hunnerd coyotes alone. at least 50 deer, probly quite a few more. dozens of elk. all bulls. but some of the deer and elk were with a bow, so that don't count. too bad i'm just a wannabe neverwas. then there is all the bears and lions i dreamed i killed. but i dreamed that most of em were with hounds, so they were just up a tree a little ways. except the ones i dreamed i called in or trailed up in the snow or shot with a bow while elk hunting. i sure wish i was a somebody. guess i musta "wet dreamed" up all them hunts. i'm sure dissapointed in myself. all i've learned from this excercise is that if you don't think the same way some folks do, you're a dang liar. later dudes, it's turkey and trout time again. if ya ain't been to the mountains yet, ya best get there soon. all that water is a sight to see. .308, thanks one more time. it's appreciated greatly. i plan on being in 'Lasky later this summer. if you're close to anchorage, palmer or yakutat, i'll look ya up. Lark.

the highway to big lake from eagar is dry and wide open. there was still the big drift at st joe reservoir on the water canyon road. the gate was locked going west from crescent lake and there is a big drift between sheep crossing and lee valley reservoir. it might be awhile before you can get to reservation lake. the lee valley road is open from alpine to big lake. by this weekend i would think about everything should be open except the big drifts going to the rez. Lark.

news said somebody fire bombed a medical marijuana store in billings montana today. (i didn't know they legalized it?) also said there were folks lined up down wind halfway to north dakota. Lark.

bill, it was a welcome experience to see so many deer. when i first moved to RV in '78 there were more deer and big bucks in the mountians than any place i'd ever been. any area, any state. man, i shot a buncha big ol' bucks up there. took me awhile to figure out how to hunt the timber for them, but once i did, i had some fun. when the elk population exploded along towards the mid to late 80's, the deer population really suffered at the same time. i still think the elk herd increase had some to do with the deer demise but after awhile it was real apparant that unchecked bow hunting with guys riding around in the back of trucks with compound bows, wounding every young buck too dumb to get off the road was having a really adverse affect. game wardens hated to even see me because i'd give em heck about it. all they ever wanted to say was that the buck/doe ratio was ok. buck/doe ratio doesn't matter when there ain't any bucks or does. anyway, when they went to a draw for u1 archery i thought that at least we'd see if i was right. the population shot straight up. i'm sure thinning and some other factors help, but nothing helps like letting bucks grow up a few years. can't imagine what kinda reasoning went into this decision. when i realized what was happening to the deer herd was when a buncha guys i knew had a big camp set up, over a dozen of em and many of whom were cops too, and everyone in the camp wounded at least one buck. one tag got used. one guy told me what a great hunt it was and how they had stuck over 20 bucks, like it was a good thing. not everyone has that kinda attitude, but a lot of young bucks were getting gutshot and dieing. heck, that time of year a superficial wound can be fatal because of the flies. anyway, it was great to see the deer. big herds everywhere. hope like heck it continues, but i'm pretty skeptical. Lark.

i got a turkey thursday. pretty nice. 9 inch beard. not much for spurs. i left the beard, neck, head and neck feathers on it so mr bunny sherrif wouldn't hassle me for no proof of legallity. i thought it had a sorta skinny beard. when i cut it up for fryin' today i cut the beard off and could see why it was skinny. looks like one o' my 00 bucks cut about 1/3 o' the beard off about 1/2 inch from where it starts. we grilled some o' the trout over mesquite yesterday. put a piece o' pork shop bacon in em. mmmmmmmmmm good stuff. my boy is gonna smoke the rest this week. my buddy still has a tag and we're gonna go back up for a few days before the end of the season and see if we can't get another turkey. my youngest son got a really big ol' tom. big son of a gun. still can't believe all the deer. i'd recommend anyone to go catch some fish. caught one about 16 inches and a lot of em in the 12 -14 inch range. all holdovers from last year. pink meat. the cutthroats were real red. only caught a couple brookies. hit it 3 times tho and caught a lotta fish. you ever fry turkeys? i don't mean in a bucket o' grease. we like to take em, cut all off the meat off into strips a few inches long and an inch or so wide and maybe about that thick. bread it like a chicken and fry it up. man, it is good stuff. amanda, if i had a clue how to post photos i would. i did take some. Lark.

i got this in an email from a guy that is closely involved in this. removed the name of the guy that wrote and the guy that sent it. anyway, i found it real interesting and it sheds a lot of light on things. comments? some of the numbers about the murders in mexico seem high, but i didn't check them out. Lark. Here is a report we should all read. This is what is happening on our border and we are not being made aware of. I received this e-mail from a friend and fellow resident of Santa Cruz County who recently retired from border patrol. He is trustworthy and honest. I believe the content to be true. It gives me great cause for concern. I have sent a copy of this to Senator Kyl's office and Senator McCain. Unfortunately McCain must be contacted through a mail "form" and it's questionable if anyone will read it. __________________ "As you know, one of the local ranchers was murdered in Douglas two weeks ago. His funeral is tomorrow. I received three messages similar to the one below from different officers within the Rangers and law enforcement. Yesterday afternoon I talked to another rancher near us who is a friend of ours and whose great grandfather started their ranch here in 1880. These are good people. He told me what really happened out at the Krentz ranch and what you won't read in the papers. The Border Patrol is afraid of starting a small war between civilians here and the drug cartels in Mexico . Bob Krentz was checking his water like he does every evening and came upon an illegal who was lying on the ground telling him he was sick. Bob called the Border Patrol and asked for a medical helicopter evac. As he turned to go back to his ATV he was shot in the side. The round came from down and angled up so they know the shooter was on the ground. Bob's firearm was in the ATV so he had no chance. Wounded he called the Cochise County Sheriff and asked for help. Bleeding in the lungs he called his brother but the line was bad so he called his wife but again the line was bad. Several ranchers heard the radio call and drove to his location. Bob was dead by this time. The ranchers tracked the shooter 8 miles back towards Mexico and cornered him in a brushy draw. This was all at night. The Sheriff and Border Patrol arrived and told them not to go down and engage the murderer. They went around to the back side and if you can believe it the assassin managed to get by a BP helicopter and a Sheriff's posse and back to Mexico . So much for professional help when you need it. One week before the murder Bob and his brother Phil (who I shoot with) hauled a huge quantity of drugs off the ranch that they found in trucks. One week before that a rancher near Naco did the same thing. Two nights later gangs broke into his ranch house and beat him and his wife and told them that if they touched any drugs they found they would come back and kill them. The ranchers here deal with cut fences and haul drug deliveries off their ranches all the time. What ranchers think is that the drug cartels beat the one rancher and shot Bob because they wanted to send a message. Bob always gave food and water to illegals and so they think they sent the assassin to pose as an illegal who was hungry and thirsty knowing it would catch Bob off guard. What is going on down here is NOT being reported. You need to tell people how bad it is along the border. Texas is worse. Near El Paso it's in a state of war. 5000 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez last year and it's over 2000 so far this year. Gun sales down here are through the roof and I get emails from people wanting firearms training. Something has to be done but I don't hold out much hope. These gangs have groups in almost every city in the US . Please read below. This is serious business. The Barrio Azteca and their sub gangs are like Mexican Corporations and organized extremely well. If this doesn't get dealt with down here you guys will deal with it on your streets."

looks like real bad halloween costume. do they make em in javelina? if they make an inflatable one i'm sure bullwidgeon would be down for one. Lark.

bill, i've felt for a long time that there ought to be a true old timers hunt for at least deer and elk. say they have to be 70 or so and lived here a long time. if they ever do have one it might not be a big success but it'd sure be fun to watch. Lark.

"In over a decade in the sniping community, " wait a minute, you guys live in a commune of snipers? that is just, well, weird. Lark.

ok, does anyone still "not" get it? shot a cop, shooting at helicopters, does anyone still truly not get it? Lark. http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/a...grant30-ON.html

ok you morons, listen up. this weekend, instead of enjoying a nice trip to the mountains to blast turkeys, catch trout and get this stale flatland air outta my lungs, i get to bury a real good friend. i know he didn't plan it that way and i'm a lot more upset about him dieing than i am about missing a day or so of turkey season. he was 58. good guy, hard worker, cared deeply for family and friends. just a real good all around dude. he also smoked and ended up with lung cancer that did like it always does and went to his brain, stomach, hips, legs and bone marrow. he knew he should quit. talked about it a lot. in fact, just before xmas i picked him up and we went to lunch at our favorite place and he was proud as heck that he hadn't had a smoke for over 2 weeks. about mid january he got sick and went to the dr and got the long face. the thing that bugged him most wasn't the fact that this illness was self induced and what it was doing to him, but the thought of what his family was going through with him being so ill and with the emminent fact of his death. bugged him bad that he didn't take better care of hisself for his family. anyway, just want to tell you guys that if you smoke or chew tobacoo you need to get somebody to kick ya in the nuts everyday until ya get smart and quit. and if ya know somebody that does then you kick em in the nuts every time ya see em until they quit. i don't care how screwed up you are, there are a lotta folks that depend on you and need you in their lives. and they will be devastated if you croak. look at any package with tobacco in it. it says right on the package that it will kill you. i've seen a lotta friends and family go through some horrible crap because of tobacco. don't be one of em. if ya don't use tobacco, don't start. if ya do, get nut kicked until ya quit. and for heck's sakes don't start up skoal or some other crap to quit smokin'. chunk them smokes in the trash and just quit. i know that none of ya want your kids to grow up to be smokers or wormdirt dippers so don't give an example to follow. that's my rant for this week. like mr mackey says, "smokin' is baaad, mmkay". Lark.

noooooooooooooooo, not the 7mm08!!!!!!!!! you don't want your daughter growing up with that kinda stigma and reputation. get the .243! i traded for a .243 mohawk remington about 25 years ago. it's killed more deer than chronic wasting disease. i cut the stock off and then added the piece i cut off, back on to it, in about 1 inch incriments, until they all moved up to bigger rifles. found a uncut stock for it at a gunshow and now i shoot it a lot. my buddies kid shot his first buck with it last year too. there are several youth model rifles out there that are really good. you can't go wrong with a .243. there have several elk put down with that dinky mohawk too. whatever ya do, take her with ya. Lark.

good on ya. Lark.

don't know much about the tucson area, but i know your predicament. we have all these youth hunts. why ain't there a geezer hunt? my dad is on the other side of 80 and it gets harder and harder to get him on a buck every year. and he gets yanked off at hisself because he can't get around very well and thinks he keeping me from hunting. but it ain't a big deal to me. i'll still take him. my aunt who is 72 got a late bull and a pronghorn permit this year. but she can go like heck still. i really look forward to those hunts. don't have much advise as to what unit, but i do that you're taking on an admirable task. good luck. i'm starting to feel the years. won't be long until my kids'll be lugging me around. good luck whatever you do. Lark.

ok, all i have is the same barrel that the marine and army snipers use. all m-40's are fitted with one now. schnieder. oh yeah, a guy named tubb really likes em too. but what does he know? ever hear of him? you probly have his number on speed dial. so if there's a better one, who makes it? i'm sure the military and david tubb's competitors would like to know about it. heck, i wanna know. you want the name of the smith, send me an pm. if you're a shooter you probly know him. if you ain't, you probly don't. but trust me, he's real good. and again, i can shoot. so can lotsa folks. and with today's rifles and equipment, it's a fairly easy thing to do. just takes time, money and commitment. i could shoot before, just using experience and kentucky windage. now that i have a laser range finder, a neat rifle and a scope that tells me where to aim, i'm real good. after i get my angle indicator mounted and get me a cheat sheet for it, they might outlaw me. it's pretty easy to tell that 308 and a lotta other guys are shooters. but because i don't post specs and groups, i can't? camp perry accuracy and shooting a buck across a canyon are completely different things. the only tangible is that you use a rifle. i shoot bucks across canyons. Lark. p.s. .308nut, why to you use a .308? just wondering. seems like you'd use one of the flatter shooting .30's. i mean i know all about the accuracy of the round and all that. just wondering.

i remember watching no country for old men. only place it was on was in coolidge, quite a ways from the house. but we went anyway on a friday afternoon. on the way home my wife was really upset about the way it ended. and i was too, sorta. but being a big tommy lee jones fan i kept thinking about it. what they were saying is that evil never quits and the bad guys may not neccessarily win, but they never really lose either. if they get whipped, they start a new game someplace else. and the good guys eventually fade away and turn it over to other good guys. but evil is always there. we have laws to govern the way we live and we all try to at least stay within sight of the line you're not supposed to cross. the bad guys, the truly evil ones, don't have any rules to live by. the worse they can be, the better. they kill in horrifying and spooky ways and the only way they can continue is to keep getting worse in their ways of slaughter. they take it up a notch and so do the good guys, so they have to take it up a few more notches in order to keep the upper hand. basically all the good guys can do on this side of the border is react. hard to go on offense when the bad guys just creep and slither back across the border and regroup. this is going to turn out badly. even with new laws, the bad guys don't care. it just gives the good guys more legal ways to try to stem the tide until the bad guys crank it up more. i know this much about this situation. i'm real good friends with Rob Krentz' cousin. never met Rob. his cousin said that from what he has been told by family, this email looks to be pretty accurate. it is just really overwhelming when you sit and think about what "our" gov't has done to us and now even "our" president is joining in the chorus of those who think we have no right to enforce the law. Lark.

whatever catclaw. this ol' boy can shoot and i have a helluva rifle. i load more ammo in a year than a lotta hard core shooters load in 10. my rifle ain't a "sporter". it is one accurate sob with the best barrel, with a slightly heavier than factory taper, money can buy, installed and set up by one of the best gunsmiths there is and topped with an extremely expensive scope that is set up to shoot long ranges and with ammo loaded by someone that really knows how to make it fit the gun. Lark.

well, ok. when capt ed land started the scout/snipers marines in veitnam, there had been no official snipers in the military for around a decade. the regular military didn't even like them because they were considered out and out killers and after wwII they were just sort of forgoten about and after korea they were pretty much done away with. when carlos first went to vietnam the m-40 hadn't even been dreamed up yet. the scout/snipers had almost everything to do with it's development. the first ones were ordered in late '66, the better part of a after he arrived there. i think before '66 was over they had some in service. the m-40 was built on the scout/sniper ideas of what they wanted. the standard arm then was the m-14. not a great sniper rifle. they were so dissapointed with what they had to shoot they actually went into saigon and bought rifles of the shelf and used them for awhile. his model 70 was also an off the shelf rifle. it was winchester's version of a sniper rifle, but it was basically stock. after the m-40s were available all the snipers used them. they also usually always carried an m-14 so they could have fulla auto capability in case they got caught. the spotter always carried something full auto also. carlos only weighed about 120 pounds or so and he was like 5'10". he musta been a strong sob. the m-14 is what chuck mawhinney made his famous 16 shot, 16 dead vc floating down the river legend with. he saw them preparing to cross the river so he waited until they took all their clothes off and had them and their weapons on their heads to keep them dry and when they all got out in the river he started on one end of the line and went to the other. these guys were absolute badass and liked what they did. and knew their weapons. but as far as accuracy there are hundreds of guys now with no military experience that could be just as deadly because of the advancement in rifles. the current m-40's are fitted with schnieder barrels. made right here in the nazi racist state of Arizonia. up in payson. i also happen to have a schnieder on Farkiller, the resurection. in .300 win mag. and it is an absolute amazing shooter. i had so much fun tinkering with it that i had to knock it off because i'da wore it out before deer season even started. i have a prostetic joint in my right shoulder. big long spike down the arm bone with a a titanium ball on the end of it. sawed off the end of my shoulder blade and glued a new teflon socket in. then tied it all back together with enough kevlar cord to land a marlin. it's really good and is almost completely pain free. but it can get tender. i put a simms pad on it and had the gunsmith install a muzzlebrake. i also had him put a really long barrel on it so i could good get velocity with less powder, further decreasing the recoil. it still bucks pretty good, but nothing like it could. with it loaded and the sling installed it's just under 9 pounds. left the factory wood stock on it. it shot so good i never even bothered to bed it. Lark

a great deal of the first rifles the marine snipers used in viet nam were purchased in saigon right off the shelf of local sporting goods stores. scopes too. the sniper program had been inactive for many years and there weren't any sniper rifles. the target rifles the rifle teams used were too heavy and bulky for combat use. and they were mostly single shots. he used a 700 remington with redfield and then an unertl scope for some time before more suitable rifles were available. even after they got the m40's and model 70 sniper rifles, those rifle paled in comparison to the rifles we're talking about here. carlos, mawhinney, waldron, england, they all used rifles that are junk compared to what is available now. and made spectacular shots at guys that shot back. the point i'm trying to make is that if you have the know how and experience you don't need all the stuff that is available now. those guys usually all packed an m-14 with them too and killed a buncha folks with them also. if these guys did have access to laser range finders and calibrated scopes and handmade barrells and so on, you can bet your butt they would have used them. but they didn't and they still got the job done. i don't care for heavy rifles and it is possible to shoot stuff with with a skinny barrel. if you do like fat barrels, that's fine. i'm not bashing anyone for it. like you seem to want to bash me. too many folks seem to think that if you don't have a rifle that hurts to pack it won't hit. it has more to do with the internal part of the barrel than it does the outside. fat barrels have their place. my rifle just doesn't happen to be one of those places. shooting targets from a bench where you only have to pack your rifle from the car to the range is a lot different than punkin' one around in the hills. go ahead and pack around your heavy rifle. i'll use what i use and be just as happy. the guy that started this thread had a question about rifles. i told him what my opinion and experience was. then you said my gun had to weigh 12 pounds. guess i'll have to put tire weights on it. shoot what you want and i'll shoot what i want. but don't tell me i'm wrong when i'm not. Lark.

alright now. read this article. texas governor packs heat while he's joggin' and greases a coyote. my kinda guy. didn't say if it was human coyote tho. i ride a bicycle a lot. i've dusted 2 coyotes with my .45 while stradlin' my bike. Lark. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/201...ots-coyote.html

you don't believe me about tiny town? wanna bet some money on it? Lark.

i never seen broke back mountain. is it any good? i did hear that game holler made his acting debut in it. said he was a stunt double. deliverance is a cool movie. and the best line from josie wales was "it ain't for eatin', it's just for lookin' through". and the correct quite for jeremiah johnson ain't "elk can't count". rather it is "elk don't know how many feet horses got". i know that movie by heart. and i have seen "the rounders". great movie. filmed up around sedona and camp verde. another one of my all time favorites is Junior Bonner. but if you wanna see the classic all time best western you gotta watch "the terror of tiny town". a western filmed back in the '30's that has an all midget cast and they all ride shetlands. i mean everbuddy is a midget. dance hall girls, cowboys, bad guys, black smith, bankers, everbuddy. great movie. Lark.

the searchers. Lark.

it ain't ironic, it's prophetic. good luck on your quest to quit. hang on tight and you'll make it fine. there ain't nothin' i like better than a smoke. well, except livin'. i like livin' better than smokin'. so i don't smoke. it's just a real slow way of committing suicide. i have a good friend who has to turn off his oxygen machine to have a smoke. he's younger than me. it just don't make sense. there's lotsa things that ain't good for ya. tobacco is flat out bad for ya. outside of wormin' a hound, there ain't anything good about it. everytime you use tobacco you take time off the other end of your life. and remember, i'm the smartest guy there is. Lark.

i only plan on shooting one or two times when i'm hunting anyway. like i say, i killed a purty nice bull at a shade over 900 yards with it last year. one shot. i can shoot 1/2" groups at 200 yards all day long. inside an inch at 300. i do have to wait for the barrel to cool after about 3 rounds. this ain't a target rig. it's strictly for killin'. google on the name Carlos Hathcock. see what he did with a stock 700 adl '06 and a redfield scope bought off the shelf in a sporting goods store in saigon. last i read they put his rifle in a museum. most target shooters have fat contour barrels because they don't get hot as fast. but once they get hot, they take a lot longer to cool. when they get real hot they pour cold water on em and start over. but one of the main reasons is they don't have to spend a buncha time and money doing machine work to turn the barrel down. thread it, chamber it, spin it on. and stuff like putting grooves in the barrel doesn't do much other than take a little weight off. does next to nothing as far as cooling. looks kinda cool. if folks wanna pack big fat barrels around, that's fine. i have several. i have a literall needle driver .22/.250. i seldom take it after coyotes. too heavy to catch up with runnin' coyotes with it on a regular basis. but that ain't a long range deal. 4 to 500 yards is all i can do regular on runnin' coyotes. my preference is a lighter rifle. with a muzzlebrake. that shoots really, really good. but then again, since Carlos died, i'm about the best shot there is too, so i have an unfair advantage. there's lotsa ways to skin a cat. i prefer the lightest catskinner i dan get. Lark.