Luke E.

Palmetto State has daily deals that are tough to beat! You have to check everyday as the deals change but they had lowers a while back for like $49 which is going to be all but impossible to beat. My best bit of advice would be to spend some time figuring out exactly what you will use this rifle for, shooting beer cans in the field, plinking at the range, serious training, hunting, etc... Knowing that will really help in building your parts list (the hard part for me) because it sucks to spend a bunch of money going one direction only to decide you really wanted "that" handguard rather than the one you bought and now have to sell and take a hit on it. If you can find a member in your area that's willing to come lend a hand when the parts all come in that would be awesome.

:up:

   I wasn't meaning that training couldn't be found for less just that they obviously have more to offer than the guy most any of us would casually run into at the range. There are many other instructors around the country that are less than Gunsite but I think your are paying a little extra for the name as well as knowing 100% that anyone operating under Gunsite is going to have their ducks in a row. Not saying that other individual instructors don't but they haven't achieved the level of recognition that some of the big name schools have and typically they can't get away with charging as much. 

 I've not ever taken a course through Gunsite but I don't think anyone can dispute their success and good reputation, well at least not a legitimate dispute. Like I said I've not taken any of their classes so I don't know what it is but they obviously have something to offer that isn't found when taking advice from the guy in the next lane over from you at the local range. I agree that $1,500 sounds and is high but they have no problem filling roster openings at any location that I've ever seen, read or heard about. Also as stated already, this is a 5 day course for $1,500 and I see others charging $300-$600 for 2-3 day courses fairly regularly so other than the total number being higher due to the length of the class, it doesn't seem to me that they are missing the mark when all things are taken into consideration. I hope to get some training in this year and it likely won't be a Gunsite class but mainly for other reasons besides cost. Hard to put a price on information that might potentially save the life of a family member or yourself. And as always, this is just my opinion.

 Once you pic up a few more you'll have a nice small collection  :rofl: Only kidding obviously. Very nice LARGE collection!

 That's an incredible looking stock!

 As mentioned above, you need to be shooting at least 5 shot groups when testing IMO.    When comparing the tighter groups to the larger groups, were the larger groups opening up left to right or up and down? (I guess both is an acceptable answer as well)   ED and SD can effect windage but for the most part deviation effects elevation. Reason being that when one round carries a higher velocity it won't drop as much at a given range as a lower velocity round.

 Good thing you're doing Kurt!

 This thread has gotten a ways from the OP but just a thought on Erik spring issues, What type of shotgun was it? I have seen a few folks have problems just like you when leaving a standard hunting shotgun fully loaded (3 of them Winchesters and one Mossberg). In each of these 4 cases they had removed the mag limiting plug to load a couple extra shells in. When the limiting plug is removed it's duties are then shifted over to the spring which limits the number of added rounds once coil bound. Like others have mentioned coil bind can damage the spring even though it hasn't been cycled an abnormal number of times. This may have not had a single thing to do with it but it seemed the only reasonable excuse other than poor quality or defective spring. I'm not a spring engineer by any stretch and most of my spring experience has been with motorcycle suspension where for the most part the old "a spring constantly cycled will sack out faster than on under constant, consistent load" adage holds true. I guess this is due to modern motorcycle suspension being designed to have a hard stop before coil bind.

   I'm far from the best but punctuation can totally change the meaning of a sentence sometimes.

   So will the rescue group be keeping the dog or will you guys keep him while they search?

   A chrono is definitely not a "must have" but it is a "great to have" item for a reloader. I don't own one personally but I do have access to one (that's the reason I don't buy my own) and it has been quite helpful especially when developing rifle loads. 

   I tend to think he got scared, he sure scurried past and didn't let up until he was on down the trail.    Not saying he was in the right or the wrong but did seem a bit jittery to me. I understand that it was a young moose and all but wouldn't he still be 4-500 pounds? I know a 150 pound Whitetail deer can shred you with it's hooves so why would I expect a moose 3-4 times the weight to be any less capable? Yep, the guy shouldn't have turned off as soon as he saw the moose but once the mistake was made should he have sat there and taken a stomping? I wouldn't have put myself in the position he put himself in but if I found myself threatened by a Moose or anything else there's no question in my mind as to what the fate of the moose would have been.

 Come on guys, let's just go ahead and commit and go get TGO neck tattoos, you know the whole go big or go home thing ;)

 You realize that if you guys aren't able to locate the owners and decide to keep him that you'll be on the hunt for a part time job somewhere right? I've had 3 friends with Danes and they all 4 (one buddy had 2) ate like a horse! :rofl:  Good dog food ain't cheap.

     Sounds like you're almost ready to have fun. Once I started reloading I realized that I enjoy it almost as much as I do shooting (but not quite) and then along came casting which I thoroughly enjoy as well. If it had not been for these two hobbies the shooting hobby would have been all but non existent for the past couple of years while all the craziness has been going on. For some folks reloading is just a necessary evil that is only put up with as it is a means to shoot but I hope that you'll find some enjoyment in it. 

   Who's responsible for allowing PETA to be involved in the first place? Whoever or whatever agency it was that allowed them to have a say so needs to be flushed and restaffed. The "bleeding hearts" over at PETA don't amount to anything more than a groups that gets their rocks of by stirring up trouble where there was no trouble. I had a good run in with a small troop of them in Florida while trying to make a living and learned first hand that nothing would make them happier than to cause someone to go out of business and loose everything they own. It may seem like i'm being a bit harsh towards them and I 100% am meaning to be as I wouldn't piss in one of their mouths if their tongue was on fire. Between them, Green piece and state and federal "environmental" agencies you couldn't find a half ounce of respect coming from my direction. I also have many run-ins with the FDEP (Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection) before and almost every one of the cases came down to them not liking the way something looked rather than them trying to mitigate any environmental damage (because there was nothing to mitigate). Rant over, thanks for listening ;)  What most non hunters fail to realize is what true wildlife conservation is, they fail to realize that responsible hunting actually improves the health of different species and seem to think that having massive areas of un-hunted land that's over run with wildlife is good for them animals. Little do they realize that by protecting the hogs they are effectively causing great harm to almost everything else with legs in the area. I'm sure i'm preaching to the choir since all this is going on in your back door huh.

   I think shot placement is pretty important but I know for a fact that a 125gr nosler bullet fired from a 300aac at just under 2,000fps will flip one over on it's side. I think the next one I take a shot at I will try Dave's suggestion and make a neck shot.

   I was already aware that they can spread really quickly but after making that trip to Graceville in Jan. to hunt an 80acre tract of land that 1 year before did not have a single hog on it that now has around 70+ that come through regularly and 30-40 of those don't seem to ever leave. The property has swamp land on the back portion so they seem to move from there to whatever area they feel like ripping up and back to the swamp.  I know there are some in random places in deep mid TN like you are talking about but we're not having the widespread damage yet that other areas are having (that I know of anyways) A TWRA officer that used to be in our area was friends with a buddy of mine and they were actually trapping them on an island in the middle of Percy Priest Lake and that's right close to me. Why they only seemed to be on that island and not the surrounding land is still unknown to me but those young pigs he would bring out for bbq's sure were tasty!   I just can't imagine why the TWRA can't see the error of their decision, it seems so painfully obvious. There were much better ways to deal with the problem at hand than to say "okay since you boys can't behave we're just gonna let the suckers breed like mad!" Maybe i'm missing something but like you said, one look at FL, AL and Texas and the numbers they kill of every year should be evidence that it's going to take every willing gun out there to keep them bayed.  As I read your post and came across the word PETA I kinda through up a little ;)

  Exactly

   Thanks! Depending on whether or not my in laws end up coming down Saturday I may make it to check things out. If not i'm glad to know it happens each month, definitely something i'm interested in.

They will continue to spread, just don't see anything stopping them right now. They are edging further and further West into Mid TN and i'd say once they start coming from Alabama things will speed up further. It's just a shame that the situation will likely be allowed to get out of control before anything changes.

 May just be me but this situation seems to share some details of the Zimmerman/Martin fiasco. Both "to-be shooters" made a mistake in pursuing causing them to be attacked then shooting to get themselves out of it... 

 Where is it located?

Lookin' good!