do any of you own a synthetic bar if so how do you like it i was considering one in a 243 for coyotes and wood chuck's.
todd

 

I don't own the bar, but I do have a couple other synthetic rifles-one model 700 remington in .30-06, the other is my varmint gun-a Remington 700 VSSF .223 with Kevlar reinforced synthetic stock, heavyweight fluted stainless barrel, topped with a Leupold 6.5x20 long range target scope with tactile *****, adjustable side focus and mil.dot reticle. Damn nice setup in my opinion, and true as hell! I honestly don't think that for hunting purposes, I'll ever buy a non-synthetic rifle again. Seems no matter how good of care you take of them, no matter how careful you are trying to make your way through the thickets, or how well you try to keep the snow off in the middle of a blizzard, trying to be sure-footed and not slip and fall, chances are you will stumbled at one point or another, wind up back at camp with a nice new scratch our gouge in your beautiful wood stock. That really irritates me, and during elk hunting we see the most unreal weather conditions you'll ever imagine. My buddies all take excellent care of their rifles, yet it seems every year they come home with a nice new scratch in their stocks. Me on the other hand, with my syntetics, go out in the same conditions, face the same elements, don't worry near as much about caring for my rifle in the field, etc., and always come home with it looking just like new when I bought it. A good cleaning is always necessary after the hunt, and if rain or snow is bad, not a bad idea to do a light clean and oil around the fire at night just to be on the safe side, but still, no scratches, no ugly mars or burs, no gouges. And, synthetic won't swell like wood will in extrememly cold weather. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with a synthetic for hunting purposes. And, for your coyotes and woodchucks, that .243 will prove to be rather potent medicine. I say go for it.

Best of Luck, happy hunting,

Mike

 

that sound's like a sweet set up i also like your choice of scope's i just bought two vari-x 2,s one for my model 700 .280 and one for that .243 i will probably order that gun today on my way to work. i don't need that one til dec. that's when we start running the coyote's with the hound's,that's more fun than three in bed. i would like to give that elk hunting a try even if i was just filming it i would like to witness someone harvesting a animal of that caliber.just one more question how cold is it during elk hunting we have below zero weather for most of our hunting after bow and arrow but even then we get snow i love all three season's i don't care how rough it get's.
todd

 

-when you say "I'd like to witness someone harvesting an animal of that caliber"-do you mean an animal of that size? Elk are huge critters-like the size of some horses, though not as big as a big bull moose. Just making sure you're talking "caliber" as in animal size, and not as in rifle cartridge-I assume there are guys out your way who hunt whitetail with large caliber rifles??? Maybe not that often, but I did see a hunting show one time where a guy was using a .338 for whitetail! Talk about overkill!

Anyway, as to how cold it gets, I'm sure it varies in different areas across the states, but where I elk hunt, the cold is really not the problem. Hell, sounds like you guys have it a lot colder than we do actually. I've been hunting elk for going on 5 years now, and despite the weather, there is nothing like it-I haven't shot one yet, but I am hooked on the hunt, it is that much fun. I'd say that over the last 4 years from past experience, if it got down to zero a couple times, it really didn't seem that bad. I think mostly it's anywhere in the 15-40degree range. We had one year with no snow, and I think it was mid 50's for the first several days of the hunt. The problem is the weather can change from warm, sunny, 50 degree T-Shirt weather, to 20 degree cold, with the worst blizzard you've seen in ages in all of about 10 minutes-literally.

That's what you have to be ready for-not so much the extreme cold, but more the change in the weather. I found that out the hard way on my first year up there. My partner said to bring some good warm clothes up along with us, just in case. Well, we had about a 10 mile hike up to where we were heading, and when we started out, it was down right nice weather, probably around 50degrees actually. It was nice for most of the day, consequently I got tired of packing around all that cold weather gear, and sweating like a pig in the process. As we settled up around this clearcut towards evening time, not a cloud in the sky, no wind at all, just nice warm weather. Then, about 10 minutes later, Steve radios me, says hey, we might want to start heading back. I said what? Why? He said from his location, he could see a wall of grey heading right for us. I couldn't see it from my location, but as this was my first time, I trusted him and started heading down towards his location. About half way across to where he was at, the snow hit. Now, I'm not talking just light, neat little snowfall, I'm talking flat out white-out conditions. It snowed and it snowed hard. We had to head back down immediately, and try to find the winter clothing I'd left along the trail under a tree. Thing was, being soaked in sweat previously, I was now freezing cold, this snow wasn't letting up. We found my gear, then had to stop right there, build a fire under a bunch of tree branches to warm me up, and dry out my clothes a bit, once everything was dry, we headed back down the mountain. It started snowing somewhere around 3:00 in the afternoon, we didn't make it back to camp till nearly 2:00 am!

Along with snow, if it's warm enough, you'll get terrible rain storms. The ground is pretty wet for the most part, and won't soak up that much water for very long periods. So, you'll get a lot of flooding around camp, and water running down the mountains all over the place. The first thing we do after setting up our wall tents, is to dig big drainage ditches around the perimeter of the tent, and around our main area to funnel water away from us, should it rain. Last season, it rained hard for 4 days strait, not letting up in the least bit for a solid 4 days. Then, the night of the last rain, it got cold, started snowing. We woke up to around 6" on the ground, on top of the now frozen water runoff. Usually that's basically how it goes, but one year we had all this happen with about a foot of snow, then middle of the week, it got hot, everything melted, became a real mess. So, like I said, it's not so much the cold you worry about-it's more the weather change.

But, the cool thing about it is when you're down behind a fallen log, or under a low lying tree branch in full camo, a huge big 6x6 bull elk comes out and lowers his head, starts bugling, and herding his little herum right there not 10 yards in front of you, you can smell his awful stench from pissing all over himself, and while he lets out his high pitched bugles, the hair on the back of your neck stands strait up, as if saluting the flag or something. It is totally awesome, nothing like it in the world. Now, after being in that position a couple times now, you're wondering why I didn't shoot. It's a "spike only" area for rifle hunters, unless you are lucky enough to draw a branced antler permit! So, no big bulls for me, only spikes, or this year, I was lucky enough to draw a cow tag, so hopefully I'll get one this year.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, as you an see, I really love this elk hunting stuff. Best of Luck with that new rifle, should be a great little varmint rifle for ya, and definately potent medicine for those coyotes! Hell, alot of guys use the .243 for deer as well.

Happy Hunting,

Mike

 

i ordered that rifle yesterday on my way to work it will be here friday they do hunt moose here it's a lottery they only give 275 permit's for the whole state and it's only four day's talk about pressure. and then you have to no someone with pulling horse's or a skidder because there big enough and usally in a swamp so retrieveing them is a big problem i don't even bother sending in for one. .338 for deer are they scared of them hahahahaha. my sister lives in wa. near seattle and she has mentioned it raining alot i don't mind hunting in the rain but those mt. snowstorm's can be bad, we got three feet once on the first day of rifle season that slowed us up for a few day's .
i put up my baby grand last weekend for bow hunting i usally get one every other year i only shoot buck even though you can take either i like those horn's. i didn't think your message was long winded if i could type and spell better mine would be to ecspecially when it comes to hunting.
do you no any one that has tryed that scope from zeiss called a conquest it's only 400.00 and they do have a good reputation i might try one and i will keep that leupold for my muzzle loader.
todd

 

Hey, congrats on the new rifle purchase! Hope it shoots well for ya, you bag a few of them coyotes! As for the Zeiss scopes, no, I don't know anybody with one. I have a friend who uses Zeiss binoc's, really likes them, they are a good looking pair of glasses, unfortunately neither of us has any experience with the Zeiss scopes. I have all Leupolds on my rifles, my other buddies use a mix of Leupolds on their best rifles, then whatever they get the best deal on for the other plinking rifles. Sorry I can't help you with that one. Hunting seasons coming up real quick like finally, can't hardly wait!

Best of Luck with that new rifle, and good luck with the upcoming hunts as well!

Mike

 

hey mike,
do you do any black powder hunting a couple of my buddie's just purchased bush whacka's it's a break open one with the 209 primer's there cheap and they also shoot a good group at a 100 yard's i use a tc and i'm not ready to change just yet they make a good product. well i guess today i'm going to put up my last tree stand and then i'm going to hitch up my new wood splitter to my kubota tractor and stat putting my fire wood in i like to get it all in so it dosen't ruin hunting. we only hunt here for about 6or 7 month's i would hate to miss a day due to work.
well i guess that's it good luck to you to
todd

 

I say good choice on your purchase. I have no brand loyalty when it comes to rifles, but I do like the synthetics. This last year's deer season the weather suddenly turned awful. Went from partly cloudy to blowing snow in no time. There I was, with my synthetic stock Ruger M77 stainless, wishing I remembered a small balloon and rubber band (to put over the barrel to keep the bore dry) walking back to civilization (OK, it wasn't very far, maybe 1 1/2 miles, but I didn't want to stay out there in the snow). Anyway, I was still on the lookout for deer, and considered it an inconvenience having to carry my rifle muzzle down to keep the snow out (had my hand over the top scope lens to keep the snow off), when I look over and see my hunting partner with his BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL model 70 Featherweight (blued) with it's hand-rubbed stock barely poking out from under his coat. I can't say I blamed him, as his gun was just too pretty to let the elements attack. On the other hand, my 'ugly' gun was only maybe a second or so from being ready for an opportunity shot (stumble across a bedded deer in the snow at 30 yards, if you are ready & get the shot off before they spook up, how can you miss?) We didn't stumble on any deer, but if we had, I wonder how he would have unzipped his hunting coat, fumbled his rifle out, and aimed in time. Synthetics may be 'ugly' but I don't carry my rifle around to impress the game, I take it to shoot them with.

 

well farmr 123 i like wood gun's but i buy gun's to use them so that was my reason for that choice of gun . i would hate to think i had to walk around all day with my gun under my jacket i have enough problem's keeping it on my shoulder. all this talk of deer hunting is making it very hard to wait for it to come.
todd

 

Hey Farmr, how are ya?

Griz-
Sorry for the delay, I don't seem to be getting email responses anymore for some reason-makes it hard to know when there's a response anymore! Anyway, at this time, NO, I don't do any black powder hunting. That may change next year for elk though. Our season is "spike only" unless you get lucky enough to be drawn for a branched antler or a cow tag. In 5 years of elk hunting now, this is the first I've been drawn for a cow tag. I have a buddy who got into some trouble with the law about 5 years or so ago with an incident involving BB guns-air rifles. He lost his firearm priveleges for 10 years, still has 5 more to go. The funny thing is, he can carry either a bow, or a muzzleloader for hunting (strange law isn't it), as they're not the same "firearm" as a true rifle is. Anyway, he really wants to go hunting, but can't unless he uses a bow or muzzleloader. I really want the opportunity to take a branched big bull-something I've dreamed of all my life, shooting a huge trophy bull (at this point, any branched bull with do!). So, as my elk hunting partner also happens to be the "dad" of my buddy, we're both trying to convince Pop's that next year we need to try either bow, or muzzloader instead of sticking with rifle. We'll see how it goes-he's pretty much against anything but rifle for some reason.

Course then again, bow and muzzloader are earlier in the year, which means I'd need all new hunting gear-new camo, new bow and all that gear, or muzzleloader and gear, warm weather stuff-gee, more shopping for hunting gear? LETS DO IT! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Sorry, I'm all for anything even remotely close to hunting! I love it!!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Get to go out for bear next week!!!

Oh, not sure if you guys have seen anything in the news out in your area concerning the huge fires we've been having out here in Washington or not. Anyway, the St. Maries fire, Crawfish Lake fire, and One of the Lake fires are all right near my property. One came within about a mile or so of our place-hundreds of thousands of acres are burned. Anyway, while up there last thursday and friday, seems the fire have pushed the critters over onto our land. We saw 4 black bears the first day alone! One of them was feeding on some berries right on the edge of the road, less than 6' from the truck! Went back the next day with a camera, he was back, but moved off the road into the bushes a little more. I got out to try and take a picture, but couldn't through the brush, then he started walking up the hill, so I chased him for a little bit, as when I approached, he moved a little further back. It was fun running after a big black bear, but still, he was too quick to get a picture of. Maybe next time. Sure hope hunting season here next week produces similar results as far as sightings go, if so, I'll get my first bear for sure!!!

Best of Luck with the upcoming seasons!

Mike