deer hunting...
 

Well, I lived, and so did all the deer... Crap. 90 miles north of Elko, 8,400 feet, 8* F at 6 am, hiking up and down mountains looking for deer with horns on them for a whole week, and I came up with NOTHING! DAMMIT!

I only saw one buck the entire time, and I even got a shot off at him, but the som-bitch didn't even FLINCH!! Come to find out that my scope on my rifle is BENT, and I missed that sucker by about 6 feet at least. :mad: Me on Monday: "hey dad, did you check all the rifles/scopes for accuracy, or do we need to go out and sight them in?" Dad: "Yep! They're fine!" Me: "you sure? I think we should go out and at least check them. My rifle hasn't been used in TEN YEARS!" Dad: "Nope, they're fine! And we don't want to waste any ammunition!" Nice... 6 days wasted. Got a perfect shot lined up, and it turns out I was right about needing to check things out...

Guess I'll just have to eat my tag, since there's no venison.

That sounds like a reoccuring theme this hunting season. Everyoone I know is 0-for...

So, instead of wasting bullets re-aligning your scope, you get to waste bullets shooting 6 feet off a stag?

^^ Exactly! Me: "dad, if the scope is just fine, it'll only take ONE bullet to figure that out!!!"

There wasn't enough adjustment in the scope to actually bring it back into range either. I think it's been smacked around at some point in the last decade since I've used it... I'm just gonna buy a new one. Maybe a new rifle all together. Time for that Remington 7mm Mag. I've had my eye on... :twisted:

Sounds like you learned your lesson. Whether I have a tag or not, I still sight in my rifle every year. Besides, its just plain fun to shoot the things. Plus I reload for every caliber that I have.

Here is the results of two weekends ago. I am taking this rifle to Kentucky with me in hopes of nailing a big whitetale buck.

Yeah, it wasn't really even MY lesson, so much as my Pop's. He was the one spouting "no we don't need to check them! They're fine!" dammit.

Good luck dude! Hope you fill your tag!

I'm surprised you didn't bust out your nine, and try to bust a cap in his ass!

It wouldn't be the first time he busted a cap off into a deer's ass. :lol:

Just Bow hunt, then you can shoot and re-adjust your sites a few times, and reclaim the arrows so there is no lost ammo.


I wish i went hunting back when i lived in Michigan (the land of deer) . Oh well. I need to get some 45 lbs arms for my bow (or a new bow) and some practice to be ready. I've got 55 lb arms on my bow (Recurve) and its just a tad heavy for me to keep held back long enough to aim well. good thing i didn't go for the 60# ones,

I've got a crap #30 bow with a twist tie tapped on for a sight, and I can aim that one well. but it lacks enough force to hunt with .

A box of shells costs a whole hell of a lot less than completely changing how you hunt. If Cory's cheap ass dad won't use 3 shells to check the zero and grouping on a rifle, you think he'll spring for bows and arrows? :lol:

We had one of those in the backyard last week. Noise in the backyard about 3am, apparently he was looking for something to eat amongst the shrubbery. We think he or his friends have been back, too, because someone has gnawed down a tall plant since last week.

Yes, it is a good shrubbery. I like the laurels particularly.

If you find me all cammo painted, hiding in some bushes in your back yard, with a knife chenched in my teeth, don't be alarmed... just looking for your little friend... :twisted:

I thought about it... :D

Cory --- if you need any weapons parts/advice/tuning help just let me know. The accurate rifle game is one of my side pursuits. Sorry to hear about the tag dinner --- I've been there too.

NVSti --- didn't know there was another reloader in the bunch. Glad to have some company.

Oh, I thought about you Scotty! Thanks for the offer! I may be getting in touch with you when it comes time to make some equipment upgrades!

Good deer hunter scam. See attachment.

sarcasm being missed aside, good point! Though Cory could just borrow my bow , then its cheaper :P

I killed two bucks and a doe on the way back from elko my last trip and I dont hunt they come to me :D

I reload, been doing it for about 9 years, I think. List of what I load; 17 Remington, 223 Rem, 30-30, 30-06, 264 Win Mag, 45-70, 45 ACP, 20 ga., 12 ga., 8x57mm, I think thats it.

Tag soup is expecially good with plenty of garlic.


That was funny, although I didn't like it when they scared the little kids with it.

Bow hunting is about 50 times harder then hunting with a rifle. I have been shooting bows sinces I was 6 or 7 years old. I bow hunt too, small game like rabbits and quail. I drew an archery buck tag for units 101-103, ie Ruby Mountains / LaMoille Canyon. My brother and I saw 13 legal bucks, but couldn't make it happen. If I had a rifle I would have shot a great looking 4x4 the first day we were out there. Oh well.

Tagless soup is really good too!!

Yeah, I've been at it for a while too --- since I was 16, anyways. I'm currently doing 9mm, 40SW, 45 Colt, 44 Mag, .223, .22-250, .308, .270, and a few others ;-).

Cory, I didn't know you were heading out with deficient gear, I would have set you up with some GOOD loaner stuff if nothing else. If your rifle is decent (Mag, shmag), then spend money on glass and mounts and tune the gun yourself. You don't have to buy good glass at the $$ store, either. $200 buys a very good used Leupold online. Just let me know when you decide to mess with it all.

^^ Good shit! I will! I was just thinking about something with a little more *umph* as I've taken an interest in Elk hunting in Wyoming with my god-father... A well placed shot from a well prepared 30-06 would do the job tho! I've got the well placed shot part taken care of, as long as the equipment is good!

Man, you guys and your reloads. :lol:

I had a roommate in college that did all his own reloads. I helped him on occation w/ some .223 reloads. While it was cool to learn, damn did it get tedious fast! I don't know how you do it.

Also, this was my roommate that was a huge gun nut. He paid rent in our house just so he could keep his gun safe in a closet. He actually lived w/ his GF at the time. :lol: Back in '99 I walked into the house one day to find him w/ his foot up on my coffee table, using my hack-saw to cut a barrel down for his shotgun. He told me "I'm sawing it down to the minimum legal CA length... I gotta get ready for Y2K!" :lol: That fucker messed up the edge of that pine(!) coffee table pretty good!

Heheh, here's what my wife had to deal with in our apartment --- she took it with very good grace.

What was she gonna do? Get in a fight with someone that's litterally making bullets in front of her? :lol:

It's a simple economics formula.

Primer = 0.02
brass = 0.30 (re-usable up to 5 times)
powder is a little more complicated
you buy a 1lb can of powder for about $18. There is 437.5 grains per ounce by 16 ounces, = 7000 grains in a can.
18/7000 = 0.002 cents per grain. I load 62.6 grains into my 264 win mag,
62.6g x 0.002 = 0.16
powder = 0.16
bullet / projectile = 0.25
for a grand total of about $0.73 per round to reload.

Now granted this is for my 264 win mag, results of price tend to very with powder type and bullet selection used, and if you buy new brass every time you reload. I generally use my brass about three to four times before throwing them in the dumpster.

Now a box of equavilant factory loads for my rifle are generally about $38 for a box of twenty or $1.90 per round. As illustrated aboves, its a lot cheaper to reload your own ammo rather then buying factory ammo. Plus with your reloads you can tailor them to your rifle to make it shoot better then any factory ammo could.

So, thats how I do it. I started when I was in college and poor.

But you still have to sit there for hours, trimming brass, measuring loads, installing primers and bullets.... my time is worth far more than the money saved, especially when I'm wasting my time on something so tedious!

Like your car isn't tedious? or cheap?

Your right about the time, but once you have everything set up it only take but 10 minutes to load about 20 rifle cartridges. With the progressive loader in the posts above you could crank out about 20 pistol bullets in about 1 to 2 minutes.

To each his own.

My car is tedious... I *hate* working on it these days because it's no longer doing stuff to go faster, it's doing stuff to fix what's broken. :mad:

No doubt, once you've been reloading long enough it gets tedious. It still works out for several situations, although I now do shoot some factory ammo now and again.

For specialized high-performance guns that are used in competition, reloading is mandatory. Fitment, pressure tuning, function, and accuracy all must be developed for the individual weapon.

For guns that simply are expensive to shoot, reloading (especially progressive) is the only way to go. My .45 Colt is the perfect example of this. I can load it for 1/2 the cost of new ammo, and get the bullet and velocity combination I prefer. With the progessive machine it only takes 30min to load a couple hundred rounds.

For hunting rifles, premium ammo often costs $2-$3 per round. I can load my own with the same projectiles for like $1 or less. Then I can use the same load with a cheaper projectile for practice and not have to worry about large differences in point of impact and trajectory.

Before saying that reloading is cheaper, you gotta account for the cost of the equipment you use.

The basic equipment is actually pretty cheap. You don't need much more than some specialized pliers, cutters, and a scale.

The crazy ass home assembly line stuff though can't be all that cheap. But I'd guess it still pays for itself pretty quickly when you're saving $2/round on really expensive ammo.

So reloading is making your own bullets?

Here I thought it referred to shooting your gun fast and dropping the clip and slamming another one in and continuing to fire in succession like in a competition or something.

Not quite "making"... more like "assembling" your own rounds. Basically you trim a used brass case to the proper length (they stretch when their fired), prime it, pour the correct amount of gun powder into it, and press a bullet into the tip. It's not complicated, just tedious.

Equipment costs are a factor, especially if you buy the high-speed stuff. Still, if you shoot 1000's of rounds per year it pays for itself pretty fast. I bought my progressive over 12 years ago, so that's taken care of.

"specialized pliers, cutters, and a scale" --- dude, that is the funniest description of reloading gear I've ever heard.

Let's say for example that you could get a basic kit (new retail) for....oh....$250 tops. That's good quality stuff that will last a lifetime. To add a caliber is only like $40 (new retail). To go progressive and get a bunch of other time-saving devices say $1000 total.

It's not like the tools wear out, either. You're still only talking a maximum of 50% depreciation as long as you buy the good brands. In the case of my antique tools, they are actually appreciating even as I use them.

All the accuracy gear is pricey, but you aren't trying to save money with that --- you are trying to win.


Oh, and a few reloaders "make" their own bullets too --- lead, linotype, molds, and a sizing setup....personally, I just drive over to West Coast Bullet at Mound House and pick them up cheap (handgun bullets, that is).

Yup, the first box of ammo you produce generally costs you about $300 for a box of 20. LOL I've had my stuff for about ten years, bought it all the first summer after graduating from HS (97). Only time I buy new stuff is when I buy a new firearm.

now if I had access to my friend's full auto MP5 in 9mm Luger all the time, I wouldn't reload for that one. At $7 a box of 50, its not worth it to reload considering how many round you can put through it. I burned up 180 rounds of 9x19mm rather quickly.

for teh lazies that dont wanna go there it is exactly what it looks like.
http://www.seasonshot.com/

Dude that's sweet :) until they come up with cajun or BBQ flavored arrows i'm gonna have to say gun hunting is now cooler.

Q: What did the Doe say as she staggerded out of the woods?

A: I'll never do that for five(5) Bucks again.

I wonder what would happen if gang members started using that.
http://indi.ca/images/lanka/tyrone_biggums_crack.jpg
"god damn that nigga shot me with some spices! That nigga shot me!! Its burns nigga, it burns! It tastes like thanksgivin! DAAHHH!

insert anecdote here!

I should have dropped this on the thread at first.

A guy I work with told me he killed an Elk a while back. He said he waited 6 years for his tag, and has to wait a decade now before he can even apply for another one.

Anyway I didn't pay too much attention until he showed up this week with the stuffed head in the back of his truck. This thing was huge! I told him to take a photo of it and send it to me so that I could post it here. The room has 10' ceilings, and the top of the horn is about 2 inches below the ceiling.

BTW his wife has given him 1 week to get it out of her house :lol:

:whammy:

I'll take it off his hands and out of his wife's mind.

Bump. Anyone get any tags this year?

Hell no...

If anybody wants to try to pull antelope tags next year, I can describe to you an excellent place that was literally crawling with them. I saw over twenty individuals while I was out by Wells on BLM/ranch land which is open to hunting last week.

They were literally crawling?

My problem isn't finding them, so much as actually getting a tag within a decade... that and shooting with a bent scope rail. (see page 1)