forepaw

Guys, Like many of you, I am an optics bug and spend a fair amount of time behind binoculars and scopes. My question has to do with image quality when you are near-sighted and take your glasses off (to get better eye relief). I can dial the distance part of my prescription (sphere or diopter) more or less exactly, using the bino adjustments. But I won't have any correction for astigmatism (axis and cyl., where the eyeball is not symmetrical front to back and side to side). Does anyone know how this will affect image quality on a neutral colored target possibly in poor light, say a whitetail deer at sunup or sundown at 700 yds.? Will it be less 3-dimensional, or just less sharp? It is a nuisance to take glasses on and off, so I generally just put up with the poor eye relief, or try to find binos with 20 mm or so eye relief which is ideal. Thanks for any input, I know there is a ton of knowledge and experience among members on this forum, so I expect others may have had the same question. forepaw

Nice paint on your Tikka. forepaw

It looks like a CS. forepaw

I would stay away from the army altogether, and definitely be talking to other recruiters, from all branches. Your son is to be commended for his patriotic attitude and willingness to serve his country, and If he is of a mind that he wants to be in the field, doing hands-on type stuff (certainly nothing wrong with that) this could be accomplished via the enlisted route, but he should focus on air force or navy, as they typically have the better basic schools and definitely the better advanced schools. None of the branches are any bargain IMO, whether officer or enlisted (agree with the other posters re: this subject) but far better than the post-Vietnam era military. Still many drawbacks, the difficulty of transitioning back to civilian life, delay in completing post-secondary education, and the scandals involving VA medical care notwithstanding. This latter is nothing new (just newly-discovered by the media). Read the book about Pat Tillman if you can find it, or get it through interlibrary loan. Have your son read it before he makes any decision. It is a heart-breaking true story, but also an eye-opener about some of the idiotic (and life threatening) decisions made by military leadership and the attempted cover-of by military brass of Pat Tillman's death. I believe it is entitled "Where Glory is Won: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman". NICE buck and gobbler by the way! forepaw

Dahlgren. forepaw

It is over 170, less than 180. I would say about 177. Very nice mexicana ram, a lifetime trophy. Appears to be 7 1/2 yrs. old. It reminds me of the ram taken in 44BN by Skip Rimsza (which is in the lobby of AGFD HQ at 5000 Carefree Hwy.) I believe that ram scored 176 or 177. forepaw

You might try the following: Clean the bore with JB Borepaste. It is a mild lapping agent, and will thoroughly remove lead and copper fouling, and polish out some of the tool marks. It won't remove the worst ones, but that is what you are faced with when you have a factory barrel. Then find a good all around gunsmith, and have them recrown your barrel. After that, go back to load workup. Ditto the comments from earlier posters regarding bedding and guard screw tension. forepaw

DBArcher, Many will be down by the river until the temps. go below 100 deg. F (which should be any day now) then they will be infiltrating back into the canyons and on the ridges. Don't forget, they are just now coming out of the rut, possibly some still rutting. Best of luck. Stay positive. Sheep hunting is a mental game, as much as it is a physical one. forepaw

Lucky Draw, sent you a PM. forepaw

There are a couple of things to keep in mind. While your choice of a T-3 is a good one, you might want to stick with the standard lite version. It is already very light, to the point where it is difficult to shoot accurately from field positions. You will be able to do it, but you can't just flop down willy-nilly like you can with a 12# rifle. Also, recoil is a problem with the Tikka. If you can find a Hunter with the wood stock, it is more forgiving, but at a cost, that being added weight. The T-3 lite is much improved by discarding the factory pad and installing a limbsaver or decelerator. On mine, I pulled off the OEM pad, filled the buttstock with gunsmithing foam (to deaden noise) and then added a slip-on limbsaver - perfect fit, and resulted in a length of pull reduction of about 1/2", also perfect if you will be wearing a pack, or heavy clothing. I expect the fluting on the ultra-lite may help stiffen the thin barrel, but how much this can be depended upon to improve accuracy I have no idea. With respect to caliber, and my sense is that you are looking for an all around caliber that will also take game up to elk reliably, I would stay far away from any magnum caliber in the T-3 unless you handload. My rifle is a .270 Win. and is very satisfactory, accurate, smooth, and lightweight. I believe a 7-08 would also fill the bill nicely, though I have no personal experience with that round. I would not advise either for 600 yd. shots on bull elk. If you are willing to put in the time and effort to practice at long range, the .270 with the right loads and optics is up to 600 yd. hunting accuracy, no question. I expect the same for the 7-08, in fact, possibly better due to quality of bullets available in that caliber. I believe the 7-08 also has a wide selection of good factory ammo available, as does the .270 Win. The rifle you seem to be leaning toward will need to be a series of compromises. Too much of any one characteristic will be paid for somewhere else. The one I am using now has been, and is, highly satisfactory for a rough country rifle. In addition to the limbsaver pad, it also wears a Leupold VX III 3.5-10 CDS, with parallax calibrated to 400 yds. I have dials etched for 110 gr. Barnes TTSX at 3400 fps, and 130 Barnes TSX at 3060 fps. This is with handloads, but these dials also match factory ammo which has the same ballistics. Using the TTSX, I run out of elevation at 800 yds. using the factory grooved receiver, and Warne 1" rings. If you install a 20' pic. rail, you can extend your range to well beyond reasonable hunting distance for a light rifle. If you want to bang gongs the size of a car door at 1200 yds. this would be one way to do it. I occasionally shoot F-class (600 yd. prone or midrange) matches, and if I can get the wind right, I can stay in the 10 ring pretty consistently from a field rest, sometimes better than the 10 ring. Shooting benchrest silhouette, I am dialed to the 715 yd. targets, and can pretty much count on making hits at that range if I can hold correctly for wind. With this setup, I have a reliable 500 yd. deer rifle (my original intent) with no custom gunsmithing and a cost of less than $2k. Nice thing about the Tikka is you can adjust the trigger for weight of pull down to I believe 2 or 2 1/4 lbs. This would be much improved if there was also a way to adjust overtravel, but for a factory trigger, it is very good. Depending on how diligent you are, using a similar rifle/scope combo. you can probably take cow elk reliably at 500 yds. and maybe further. Bull elk at long range (which to me is 600 yds. and beyond) is altogether different, and in spite of the you-tube videos (which are great fun to watch), is not something that should attempted without a lot of practice, IMHO. It can be done, but the rifle you would need to use is probably not one you would want to carry very far from your vehicle. forepaw

It might help to take a felt-tip pen and make a tic mark on either side of the centerline of the peep, on the string. That way you can see if it is moving, and have a witness mark if you need to get the serving tightened up. Also, did you keep your old string and cables for a spare set? Agree with the other posters, you should have everything settled in after 50 - 100 arrows or so. forepaw

The first two items are something NV has been doing for years. If you draw an area, scout it, and don't like the looks of it, you can return your tag. You get your BP back, but you can only get your money returned if you can document a medical reason for the return. Not a big deal for residents, as NV resident tags are basically dirt cheap. Re: prior opportunity for surrendered tags, this is also something NV has been doing through their software and drawing contractor, Systems Consultants (Fallon, NV). Basically, you check the box on your app. to volunteer to receive an alternate tag if one becomes available. This sounds good until you realize you may get notified at the last minute of availability, it may be a difficult or depredation hunt, the alternate tag may be one that someone else with better knowledge of the area has already rejected, and you burn your bonus points on a hunt you may not know anything about and have no opportunity to research - your credit card gets hit and your bonus points sucked away as soon as the alternate tag becomes available. The "Hunting Club" idea has no appeal to me whatsoever. forepaw

PM sent. forepaw

Looks good! Tell us about it. What load? Man that is screamin'. forepaw

Yep, understood. The .40 packs a punch, but I have been told the Glock 23 is about as easy to shoot as the model 22. The Gen 4 guns have the added recoil spring which supposedly tames the muzzle flip a little. One good thing about the .40 is ammo is easy to find, unlike the .357 Sig (I guess the Secret Service and Texas Highway Patrol buy it up). forepaw

The Gen 4's are pretty nice. Any reason you want to stay with that old hard-kicking .40? Seems like a 9mm in the Glock 19 or 26 would be more shooter-friendly and with +P would do pretty well. forepaw

Another bump for first sales. Rec'd. my lanyards today, and am VERY impressed with materials and quality of workmanship! These are much nicer than I had expected - and will be a welcome addition to my outdoor gear (as well as useful gifts). The drops cinch up nice and tight, and the extra drops will be useful for LED light, compass, walkie-talkie, GPS, or diamond sharpener (or . . . you name it). If I had had one of these, I may not have lost my calls (which I am in the process of replacing). Always glad to support a fellow CWT member and small business that delivers as promised! forepaw

Assume this was 7E? 7W is mostly Kaibab NF. But no doubt the same coyote pop. These guys are kind of the "black ops" for land management/conservation/multiple use agencies (except maybe the NPS). Used to be known as Animal Damage Control in the old days, then they became Wildlife Services, which apparently was considered a more PC euphemism. They generally keep a low profile. Depending on their budget, they sometimes show up in town to do some coyote reduction where the little old ladies claim Fifi or Fluffy was charged by a poodle-eating coyote. forepaw

PM sent. forepaw

Becker, I know the year you are talking about, and somewhere I have a CD with photos of some of those bucks. What you describe makes sense, and indicates it may take a number of generations for the buck numbers to catch up anywhere close to where they were that year. I have always thought of 13A as a sleeper unit, positioned as it is between 13B and 12AW, with good bucks but nowhere near the PR and hype of the other units. forepaw

32 - 33. forepaw

The yoke is the right size, but I would need the M waist belt, and it doesn't appear that it's an interchangeable item. Someone will get a good pack for a good price though. forepaw

I have seen that pattern a lot with my own groups. I don't think I can recommend any one thing as a remedy, but that pattern usually tells me to change powder. You might try to switch seating depth, but I would look for another powder. What is your load and cal. forepaw

Have not used either the bullet or the caliber, but have used the Barnes 110 gr. TTSX (b.c 0.377) in my LH Tikka T3 Lite in .270 Win. Loaded to 3400 fps using Re17, it is fast and flat shooting to 600 yds. (longest distance at which I have used it, checking zero during F-Class). I killed a mule deer buck with this load, held for 300 yds. and hit right where I aimed, though deer was actually at 250. Deer took a leap and turned a sumersault and that was that. I have recently started using H4350. Accuracy is better, but I am not able to get quite to 3400 with safe pressure. That is ok, much prefer consistent accuracy. Hope that helps. forepaw

Just got a cc hit for $650. That will be NR archery bull either unit 9 or 7. Whooo hooo. Life is good. forepaw