Coues 'n' Sheep

it was jason(shortypants) you can tell he was liking it, and still is smiling! Are you sure....???? I thought Jim was the one on his back and the one standing kinda looked like Bret (GTT)..... ROFLMFAO!!!!!!! JK..... Nice to meet you Bret and Pops. It was great to get to sit with you guys! I'm blaming it all on you guys that our table didn't win anything.....

Oops.... it has hair on it.........

I agree!! Hey, I want to put in for the deer hunts with your daughter.... Maybe, then I could get a good tag!!!!

That is great. It is awesome to see them side by side, hope you left the sheds with the buck, Josh...... Maybe some kind of trade for that GIANT elk side rack!!!

Agreed.... If one has the opportunity to close the distance and doesn't.... that is lazy. When you can't close the distance and still make a clean and ethical harvest..... you were prepared. Thanks, for making it clear that both our points of view are very close to the same, Bill. It was a pleasure. CnS

That about sums it up!!!! I'd rather sit on my butt at home than have to guide another hunter in that late hunt!! ....... unless Snow Bowl has a 72" base... ... then it would be a good hunt.... there are some decent bulls in that unit..... you just don't see them unless there is lots o' snow up high.

I'll buy that...... And there is know doubt in my mind that you have as much Hunting Experience as any 2 or 3 guys on this site combined. I guess what I meant is that with the awesome optical equipment that we use today, we are able to hunt areas that were once thought to be too difficult or impossible to hunt.... in doing so we often, but definately not always, are forced to make longer shots due to the terrain. I think that you open up your opportunities a bit if you are as proficient at 500 as you are at 200. Further more, having harvested 5 coues deer with a bow all between 12 & 33 yds, I am certain that we are talking about two very different forms of hunting based on the terrain. Many places that I have hunted these past few years to avoid crowds has put me in possitions where you shoot from 500 or you just don't shoot. There is no option of closing the distance..... unless you have wings. Again, it is not all the time...... but there is that possiblity, and it is good to be prepared. Prepared is the key to that statement....

WOW..........WOW.........that about gave me a chubby! That is one bad Cat right there! Please, share the story!

I would agree with you in most cases...... but if you believe that you can close that 200 yds all the time you have never hunted some of the country that I do..... We often have Nothing but air between us and the game animal.... meaning that to clost the distance you might have to get to 50yds and no animal in the county that I am talking about is going to let you get to 50yds.....In really heavy cover and rugged country some times you are NOT getting any closer... and you may never see that buck again. Finding a deer in country like that is very difficult in the first place and finding them is what defines hunting and the hunter, IMO..... other wise it would be called killing. How we dispatch the animal after we find it does not matter as long as it is done in an ethical manner.....bow, muzzle loader, rifle, or at 12yds or at 610 yds. We should not judge that hunter or classify him unless given a reason to believe that it was done in an unethical manner...... Casey, I also agree that a 1 MOA rifle should Not be shot at long distance..... If I cannot get it whipped into shape I would never dream of using it as a long range rifle..... but I believe that it just needs a bit of work, as you said. And since I have yet to shoot this rifle,yet, I don't know what it will take, but look forward to the challenge. CnS

The ballistics are better and it is worth it..... I Love my 300 wby. But you should read my post in Long Range shooting. If it is straight out of the box it might be worth it to spend some of those "discounted dollars" with a good gunsmith..... a quality muzzel brake, glass bedding/ aluminum pilars, and a little customizing of the trigger, action, and barrel. These things will cost you up front, but man will she shoot! You might think that it is great out of the box, too..... I never shot mine untill I had the work done and it is the finest rifle I have ever shot. That gun is very flat shooting and is very versitile as far as what you can hunt with it. I shoot only 180 gr. bullets out of mine even for coues and have wasted very little meat at all and a hunting buddy of mine has the same gun and shoots 150's and has found the same. Oh yeah, and they put a serious smack down on elk! Best of luck with the new gun..... PM me if you have any specific questions...... You'll love the caliber. CnS

Mike, If you are getting into long range hunting to shoot accurately then FORGET THE NOTION OF HOLD OVER. If you have a desire to ETHICALLY AND HUMANELY kill big game animals at long ranges you need to get a quality scope WITH TURRETS OR a quality scope with A BALLISTICS RECTICLE. I somewhat agree with TAM that a 30-06 will do......I would recommend a larger caliber for shots over 450 yards. You need a round that has the capacity to project a high BC (ballistic coefficient) bullet at higher velocities if you are going to ETHICALLY AND HUMANELY kill a larger animal at those yardages. A 300 Win Mag will do that for you. Just because one has a nice rifle......he also need to be able to shoot it CONSISTENLY AT THOSE YARDAGES!!!!!!!!!! A properly calibrated turret is Far more ethical than a "hold over", or a Balistic Recticle...... IMO.... I have never been a fan of the 30-06..... I am a 300 Wby guy.... .... Like it or not the Wby is a ballistically comparable to a 7mm. I can zero @ 200 yds. and still be holding on hair (barely) at 400 yds on an elk, with a 180 gr. factory load...... But to shoot beyond that does require a Quality scope, IMO....and you are not buying one for $400....no way. I also don't have a whole bunch of faith in a gun tha comes right out of the box, being able to shoot sub-MOA groups.... I spent over a $1000.00 on my Wby and the best group I have gotten with it are right at .5 inches @ 100 yds. The 300 Wby I got from AzOneCam is straight out of the box and Jason told me that the best he could get out of it was just over 1 MOA groups @ 100 yds.... That is over 6" at 600 yds..... that is a lot when shooting at coues deer. I have posted in the past that I am looking to put a LR Scope on my Wby.... and have settled on the Huskemaw Optics scope and after I have it set up I will post and review about it, as it is a fairly new product built by hunters for hunters. I also really like the Idea of practicing personal technique from a bench, but there is no substitute for prcticing in hunting conditions, too... Also,because ammo (and reloading ammo) is not cheap and to save the barrle on my rifle, I am in the process of building a .22 cal target pistol.... simlpy for cheap technical practice (I'll let you know how that works out, too).... CnS

A non-hunting, but supportive friend of mine sent this picture to me today with the phase.... "You are the only person I know who would find this amusing."..... She was right! ......and it just so happens that I know a bunch of other "sick-o's" that will find it amusing, too!

They say the camera adds 10 lbs to you...... so exactly how many cameras did you have on GJ in that picture??! Oh, and you forgot to mention that you shot that rifle bull right where I told you to go look..... ...... Sorry, GabesCoues..... not tryin' to hyjack..... Just bustin' my ol' buddies balls!!! Anyhow, good tag....Congrats on being drawn. I'd be lookin' for a 330-340 bull on that hunt, but I would not go passin' up bulls in or about the 320 class..... IMO...... The bulls that Huntn Coues posted are average 5B South bulls.... You can do better. But I would plan on being realistic based on what you see in your scouting at the end of summer. Good luck and Good Hunting!!!

Thanks Amanda! That is cool! It was awesome to see a couple of our bucks from the last few years on there!

SWEET!!!!!! That is a Toad!!!! Bet you'll be puttin' for hunts in that area this year!!!

That is Exactly what I told my friend that sent it to me..... Ha Ha.... I knew someone else would point it out...

Dan..... I WANT YOUR JOB!!!!!!!!!!! Nice find!

Man those are great!

Elk are not a domestic, non-game animal.... ..... They are a native species that has done so well after reintroduction that they have evolved into the dominant game animal..... uh....and the elk on the Kiabab came from Utah on their own..... ... and I don't aprove..... but Mother nature makes the rules not us...... even in 2007. ...... And Please.... don't compare this to the Desert sheep issue...... That is a Completely different lack of management all together..... Lions, domesticated and wild livestock, and poor herd management could all be fixed if AZGF could pull their heads out of thier rear and also quit listening to the environmentalists......Which happens to also be the USFS's problem as well....

Just wondering if you all have ever tried to shoot that kind of a pistol at long range in a hunting situation? I bet it is one heck of a shooter off of a bench, but factor in hunting conditions and I'm thinkin' 200-300 yds would be a long poke with that kind of a weapon. Just curious...... not pickin' or nuthin'.... just curious....

You guys are frickin' Whacko's.... .... Have you ever heard of survival of the fittest.... or natural selection..... Where the elk go and how they flourish is not within our control..... This was inevitable since they re-introduced elk here..... We can only manage them with reason and carrying capacity in mind.... The over growth of brush in our forest is just as much to blame for the demise of the Mule Deer as the elk are..... but there is no turning the clock back.... Mule Deer do best on grass.... Elk and Coues do just as well or better in the brush. I agree that many of the management techniques are very poor, but there is far more at work here than just herd management.... The forest management of today is just as much to blame as th AZGF..... Keep in mind the Coues Deer has benifited greatly in the units of central AZ due to the same factors that have hurt the Mule Deer. Just a bit more complicated than drawing a line..... .....IMO.

Don't tell my wife!! We use to shoot ground squirrels off the wood pile all the time..... but they are more rat than squirrel IMO.... .... And we use to eat fried squirrel, too..... but those days are long over.

Hey, TwoGuns....... Looks like you got Double Trouble on your hands. Your gunna need all the help you can get!!!! Better learn how too hobble those wild critters you got there..... er' else they will be runnin' crazy all over before ya know it!!!

Don't sweat it, Jim..... I think we all must have been dropped at some point to be as "nutty" about Huntin' as we are....

Nice! No greater treasure in my eyes than finding coues sheds or pick-up heads.