Handsome Rob

Short & painless call to the bods in the Nashvegas office this morning. They have me a carcass number over the phone & the tenderloins were delicious! Thanks for all the help & moral support y'all. I rarely worry about much, but in my immigration situation things like this keep me awake. I appreciate all the help!

https://imgur.com/a/LWgWtPx

I will never not refer to my mud button as a "sin socket" now.

I've always known it as "the Australian upward inflection?" But i'm foreign. I'm not totes up on my english........

Thanks Chris. I actually checked the deer in, the same as if I'd hunted it. I'll call it in in the morning, since TWRA keep bankers hours () It was more the discharge of a firearm on a public road that worries me.

So tonight I was driving to winchester. There was a traffic holdup a few cars ahead of me & it turned out a lady had hit a deer. It was still very alive & bawling, trying to get off the road. 4 or 5 folk were stood around doing nothing. I had a rifle with me, so after moving everyone back & checking for a safe direction, I put her out of her misery. Obviously, I was also stopped in the road, so I loaded her in my truck, drove a couple of miles & called Winchester police to let them know what had happened & what i'd done. The lady I spoke to seemed unconcerned, but told me she'd log it, just in case. I feel like I did the morally & ethically correct thing, but i'm concerned that there may be a legal repercussion. I didn't really consider the law, at the time, I was more concerned with ending her suffering. Do you think I could end up in trouble for discharging a firearm on a public road? This was way out in the country, by the way, not in any municipality or city limits, if that matters.

Looks great Doug! The stock sheen/ conditioner will knock down a lot of the gloss. You'll need to go slow & steady with very little pressure & probably 5 or 6 applications, but it'll take less than an hour. It smooths everything out beautifully too. Do small areas, then blend it all in in large sections. You think it feels nice now, just wait! Night & day difference. You'll be honestly astonished at how many of those teeny tiny flaws you're not 100% happy with, just disappear.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020789393 These, in medium height, will work perfectly for you. They're out of stock right now, but it's worth waiting for them. I have them if several rifles & they've been flawless. Also, before mounting, read this: https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/scope-mounting-to-maintain-zero.78482/

https://www.fulldrawoutfitters.com/price-list

One outfit you might want to try, that fits your budget, would be Full Draw Outfitters. Fred Eichler is one hell of a nice dude & i know his hints are very, very well run. He runs bow & rifle elk hunts from his ranch in Colorado for about 8k for (i think) a 5 day hunt. Success rates are about average at 50-ish percent. However, getting a Colorado rifle tag is a tough prospect for a non resident, during the best part of the season. Usually, we only get chances at 3rd rifle season which is super late November & you'll be hunting highly pressured elk. I know a guy hunted archery antelope with Fred & Michelle (their specialty) and he has nothing but praise for them. I think their elk hunts are run out of camps, rather than the ranch house, but sleeping on a cot, to me, would be a pretty minor inconvenience. Comparatively.

Addendum: If you're not prepared to 'rough it' elk hunting probably isn't for you, unless you're prepared to shoot one inside a Texas fence. I've been looking at a Wyoming Thoroughfare hunt for next year (it HAS to be outfitted due to the Wilderness laws there) 6 days total, 2 on horseback just getting to & from the area. Wall tent style camp. I've got the points to guarantee a draw. It's my best shot at a real, public land, free range, trophy bull. I've spoken to 2 outfits out there and both are fully booked until 2022 & I wouldn't get a penny back from 11 grand. Doing it from a cushy lodge? The only places I've found are New Mexico & unless you've got 12 years worth of preference points, a landowner or governors tag are your only options & neither can be done for less than 14. That's fourteen THOUSAND for a 3 day hunt........

Couple of quick pointers: If you can book a 2021 hunt now, chances are the outfitter ain't that great. The good ones (at least in Wyoming & Montana) are generally booked 2-3 years out. Do you have the preference points to be able to get a tag? If not, you're going to be investing your deposit with an outfitter for a few years anyway. 5-7 grand, whilst still an absolute arse-load of money, probably isn't going to get you a decent elk hunt. Realistically you're looking at near 10, after tips. If I might make a suggestion; start buying points for the state you want. Research how many it's going to take in a state/unit you want to hunt & book your hunt one you have enough points to guarantee a tag. Your only real alternative is landowner tags on a private ranch & 10 grand would maybe just get your toe in the door. They generally run 12K+ for a chance of a 350+" bull. The only 2 ways of having a half decent chance of a trophy bull are DIY sweat-equity hunts, year after year of becoming familiar with a unit, glassing, driving & hiking, OR...... throw a crap load of cash at it. Sorry, probably not what you want to hear, but after 10 years of chasing the big buggers around Colorado & Wyoming, that's my experience.

Does anyone have a recoil pad grinding jig could have a borrow of? Like a complete nerk, i didn't test fit the recoil pad that came with my stock, before doing the finish work & it appears that is been ground just a hair too small. Not normally an issue, but I've invested significant time & money into this & anything less that perfect will not do. I've ordered a new, red pad & a using a jig is going to reduce my heartrate stress levels significantly!

It's hot, there are no elk, I bought a co-ax press, .223 is more than enough for antelope at 400yds & we've probably lost the election. . . . Also, there are no elk. That is all, please continue......

M' little cutdown 336 in .44 magnum. This will be the lastest rifle I'll ever part with. I had an octagon barrelled Rossi 92 in .45 colt that I kinda wish I had back.

Yep. The are 4 of us this year with 3 antelope & 5 elk tags between us! Tough hunting though. We're at the tail end of the goat migration & it's too damn warm for the elk to be out of the high country. 64° here today

Drunks will be drunks! I'll probably keep the lee setup for a specific caliber & maybe invest in one of those switcheroo mounting plate thingies, so I can change from one press to the other. I'll probably dedicate the Lee for .45-70 since all my dies are perfectly setup for it & I only have one load I use. Everything else I play around with, but that I leave alone.

Just up late actually! 3 glasses of wine can't really be considered drink pudding......

So, here i am in wyoming. I had to run into town to buy a tire (f@#$ you, sage brush! ) and I run into an old buddy. Long story short, after a few tacos & more than a few margaritas he offers to sell me his Forster Co Ax for $150. Kinda couldn't turn it down since it's never even been mounted....... I'm coming off a Lee single stage that's done everything I've ever needed for the last 10+years. Is there anything i need to know about this rascal that's radically different? Do i need to replace dies, shell holder's etc?

It's actually not difficult, just time consuming. Even with Tru-oil, you really need to wait 24hrs between coats, sand down between every coat. You need to wet sand the first few applications to fill the grain & after 15 or so coats/days, you need to leave it 10-14 days before you can polish the gloss back to a nice satin sheen. The stock I just posted was 28 coats & is literally as smooth as glass now, but it took a lot of work. It took a lot longer, because my initial batch of finishing oil was contaminated & after 26 applications, it would no longer cure. I had to strip it all & start from scratch. I was heartbroken.....

I just refinished a walnut M70 stock. 46 days start to finish. I can completely understand why folks charge hundreds for this......

Get it, shoot it & hunt the hell out of it. That's what they're for man!

Thats borderline treason

If you have an M200 & ever feel like a straight trade for my 206, gimme a holler. I'd be real interested in that!