fatfootdoc

Bret, I have the hiker and love it, never had any trouble with it and it is not really that slow to fill up a canteen or a water bladder. Carry it with whenever I am in the woods and never even notice it. AG

That is funny, I was out scouting and heeding the call of mother nature(spaghetti chili ouch) and trying to get the deisel fuel off of my camos that I had packed in mothballs and that same buck came in from upwind except it was in unit 23 in NM, how on earth did he get to AZ? AG

We stayed with some friends up there and the guy we hunted with is a taxidermist so my son came home with all sorts of loot. He helped him skin some porcupines and coons and now I have to boil out a bunch of skulls that he gave my boy as well as a buffalo skull. So my son had a blast the whole time we were there(he also got to watch some movies that his mom does not let him watch ) Cant wait to go back next year. AG

Thanks, I am going to tempt fate and try and load another pic of my buddies buck. Oh and I cant leave off the pic that made this trip worthwhile, the smile on his face is what I will remember 30 years from now when he has to take me hunting instead of vice versa, I already promised him that I will take him up there when he turns 12 to kill an antelope( his bday is 10/9 so I can tell the wife it is a present .) I guess that is really what it is all about, he is my oldest and then I have 3 daughters and so we get picked on alot It was awesome just spending time with him and enjoying watching him enjoy the hunt and the cameraderie. He also did not blow cookies when I gutted it so he passed the first test!! AG

I second that emotion AG

I have the BL 2800 and love it the only problem is that it makes me feel like less of a man because of all the hunts I have been on I have never even half filled the stupid thing, I knew the 2200 would not be big enough but the 2800 seems huge but man is it ever comfortable. Holds all my optics, tripod etc with room to spare, the only thing that is a pain in the butt is adjusting all of the straps when you need to get into the back pack part of it. AG

Apparently there was a massive outbreak of CWD in unit 23 targeting all of the whitetail bucks with at least 3 points on one side. It is just awful out there and all that is left to hunt are forked horns. There are big bucks dead or dying all over the unit. If I lived out of state I don't think I would even bother driving over to NM to hunt, would probably be a waste of your time!! I am heading out on the Friday before the season, if you see a 3/4 ton Gray Dodge cummins with a headache rack and a large wall tent or travel trailer pull on in, dont drink beer but will have a cold pop for you!! good luck to all and shoot straight!! I will be North of mule creek most likely unless I find something better south of the road next weekend. AG

They are usually thick in there, if only the deer were as obvious as the road hunters. Some big booger eating moron on a 4 wheeler just about put a cap in my you know what a few years ago on a muzzleloader hunt in 23. The idiot rode(off road I might add) through the flat I was glassing and then drove right up to where I was glassing from to look around!! Anyway of course of all times to trip and stumble I did it walking out from behind the tree I was glassing from and the big goober cocked his muzzleloader and started to lift it, I was waiting for the impact of the bullet(and thinking about how you crap yourself when you die violently) when he realized that deer walk on all four and I was stumbling on two legs. Anyway, that was the last time I hunted anywhere near a road. AG

I will post pics when I can download them off of my camera, I got a new computer and my camera software is at work, so I have to load it first. AG

Well I just got back from sighting in my new rifle and boy howdy does that thing shoot, holy cow, minimal kick and it just flat gets out there. I usually use a 300 wsm for whitetail and I got this baby for antelope but it may become my new deer rifle as well. I am shooting 100 gr nosler BT's and my first 5 shells I used to adjust it and the next 15 were all in about a 1.5 inch spread. Could not believe, I have never had a gun come out that accurate without adjusting loads to it but I think I just got lucky. Now all I need is a blind, deaf 3 legged 16 inch antelope to walk into shooting range. AG

Well the gun definitely performed well in WY this year, first shot was a kill on an antelope about 200 yards out, used ballistic tips and demolished the liver and the left lung. IT was in those nice WY high winds also, used the compensator on my leupold boone and crocket and worked like a charm. My son was with me and saw his first kill, I think he was way more excited than I was. AG

going on with what coosefan wrote, your scope is of the same amount of importance as your rifle, if you spend 1200 dollars on a rifle and 100 dollars on a scope all you have is a one hundred dollar rifle. Stay away from the Trashco and lower end models. YOu need to mount a quality scope on that like a top of the line nikon, leupold(my favorite) or something of similiar if not better quality. AG

When I lived in Flag we used to hunt 6a for coues but we always hunted the deep canyons off the stoneman lake road area. Be warned, requires lots of time on your butt with glasses pressed against your eyes and if you kill one you have a through canyon hike on your plate to get the deer and then back. get a topo map and look for what you think is a deep manageable canyon and go and glass it. We used to hunt one canyon that had an indian ruin out on the end of it full of arrowheads and pottery, also lots of COues, in 4 years we killed 5 deer out of it. You can also call Dan Caputo(I think that is who it is who is warden in that unit) and ask him where the best concentrations are right now. good luck AG

I have a 300 wsm and a 257 weatherby, either is a great gun, the 257 kicks less and you can load it with light bullets for varmints and heavier bullets for deer, antelope etc. The brass is about 20 bucks a box. YOu cant really compare the 257 weatherby and the 25 wssm, the 87 gr bullet in the weatherby is almost 400 fps faster with about 2 inches less drop than the 25 wssm, there are rumors that they are discontinuing that round(25 WSSM) due to lack of popularity. AG

When I tried the Leicas at sportsmans the glass seemed good, but I just could not get them adjusted right for my big fat head. The Swaro's were great and fit me well , You really need to try the different glasses to see which ones fit you right as they are both great glasses. You cant go wrong with either of them. AG

coueshunter, What type of ballistics are you getting with the 115 gr bullets, are you shooting factory or reloads. What have you found with wind drift, I am used to shooting 150 gr minimum bullet weight so I am kind of in unfamiliar territory. AG

That seems like fraudulent advertising to me, I would send them a letter from your lawyer. They demonstrated online that the binos were the real thing for the price he paid, as long as there was no disclaimer they are obligated by law to provide what they advertised and what your buddy paid for. If you dont want to have a lawyer write them a letter advising them of fraud then call them and threaten them with it and also report them to the better business bureau. If you can find out what state they are based in you can also file a complaint with the state business bureau as well as let the attorney general know about it, may seem like extreme measures, but how many people have they pulled that crap on?! Anyway your buddy should be able to get a full refund, he should also report it to his credit card company as fraud. That will get the companies attention. Friggin Jerks. AG

DesertBull, I was wondering the same thing. Why is he wearing camo? They have a picture of that thing eating out of a grain bin, what did he do, hide above it. If he really wanted to wear camo he should have just dressed up like the farmer who raised that elk or at least an employee there on the game farm. Maybe he just put that camo on after he killed so we would think he was a real hunter, would not have looked as cool with him in his carhart overalls and a piece of Grama grass sticking out of his mouth now would it. Nonetheless, those are some huge antlers!! AG

GO to the Sportsmans Warehouse and compare them side by side, I was set on the Leica but when I was using them to look at their test target I could not get them focused at all and they were a poor fit for me, the swaro's on the other hand were great. AG

I will be going out to 23 as soon as I get back from WY to start scouting. That will be around the 20th and will go both weekends. Hopefully will see some good head gear, saw some huge mulies while elk hunting so looks like there may be some good antler growth in there this year. AG

Well I am back from my elk hunt and had a blast! Told my wife that was the most fun I had had in 10 years, funny thing was that I never even saw an elk. There was so much standing water and good forage that they were scattered all over the place and not bugling at all until Sat. and then just in the am. Now if I had been hunting turkey(16 toms walked right in front of me at 10 yards), deer(saw the biggest carp that I have ever seen in NM about 32 + inches wide from inner velvet to inner velvet and was with 6 other bucks at about 80 yards), Bear( about 350 lb black bear at 300 yards, 180 lb cinnamon bear at 24 yards, and 300 lb cinnamon boar at 12 yards oh yeah and no archery tag as I was in too much of a hurry to get out and hunt!! , I called the last 2 in with a calf call!) and one grey fox which I did not want to take the time to skin so I did not shoot. Overall it was a blast and made me remember why I like to hunt so much. I got to take some time and think about how lucky I am, the life I have , the family I have and the hobbies I pursue, and the friends and family I am able to do it with. Life is awesome and I hope my antelope hunt in Oct is half as fun, I am taking my 10 year old son with me so it will be great I am sure. Thanks for all the guys that thought about my fat bald butt out there doing what I love. Take care, AG

Well I am off tomorrow on the belated start to my unit 16 b archery bull hunt. I was supposed to have 2 other buddies going in with me but they crapped out on work schedules and will not be there until Friday. So I need all the help I can get, so guys keep your fingers crossed for me(or say your prayers) whatever is your pleasure, I am in a long drought for elk. I just hope they are bugling like mad out there. Hopefully next time you hear from me you will see a picture of me with a big poop eating grin on my face and my large portly body framed by a 5pt or better BULL ELK!! YEE HAW AND AWAY I GO!!!!! AG Oh and by the way if the rack looks small it is just because I am so fat!!!

Welcome home, sounds like you should post that outfitters name so none of us use him! Sounds like a good hunt but it sounds like your outfitter never established a working relationship with you so you knew what you would be dealing with. That is poor customer service if you ask me. At least you were able to make lemonade out of your lemons. AG

So I have been reading how there is a whole bunch of Spinach from some farm in CA that has started this terrible E. COLI epidemic. I was wondering how on earth you could get E. Coli from Spinach as it is related to cow(and human )feces. I called the factory to see how on earth this could happen and the lady I talked to said it is simple, The spinach farm happens to be next to a slaughter house and there is some serious cross contamination occurring. , Yep it turns out that the cattle are wiping their butts with the spinach. MORAL dont eat spinach!!! yech ag

GEEZ, Enough already, I will call the guy and see if I can get my money back!! AG