Just curious. I’m shooting my bow a lot more & find myself daydreaming more often. What day you?

Well I’d say loading and working up new loads but it’s mostly been thinking about those more than doing. Bout to go into the “it’s too damn hot” phase of the year and then put off all the things I meant to do last month and the spring before that until after the season.

I did join an indoor range 5 minutes from my new office so I intend to get more trigger time than most summers this year.

I went fishing on the Gunnison today...saw deer and elk though which makes me daydream about my new Mathews V3 and September.

Sighting in rifles

Working up .308 Win load for antelope hunting using 155 scenar.

Getting all the work chores or projects done BEFORE season. Got a lotta time.

*Marking Days OFF the Calendar*

Jerry

Right now just thinking about hunting and trying to get the house sold and moved before hunting season.

Dinking around with handloads for my 9.3 Mauser...

I am still waiting for the draw in Washington and Oregon. Did not draw in Wyoming (for the first time ever), but will be looking hard at the 2 nd chance elk draw offerings. There may be something there that will interest me. Did shoot a nice group a couple of days ago from prone at 635 yards. Had two touching and one just shy of 8 inches out. My range card and my real life impacts, did not match, so that will require some work.

Good luck on the Washington draw. That has been a fiasco for me the past 13 years except for 1 spring bear hunt. The “bonus point” system is just a money scam for WDFW with point creep. I think I have 17 points for bull elk as do 90%+ of the elk hunters here. Bah humbug!

Waiting on my MI draw results for bear. Bout it.

Need to order limbs for a recurve soon.
Or else buy some wheels.

Bow deer opens here 10-1 but i dont get wound up til Halloween

My .35 rem and .3006 rifles are already zeroed.

As a younger man - I'd get downright giddy about Oct 1 bow opener. But then spend 3 weeks not having much fun - few deer, warm temps etc. Halloween was always when it got fun for us too. Month of November is the best month on the calendar.

I received my pronghorn tag in the mail yesterday from G&F dept.
Do some scouting next month for the mid August hunt.

Still trying to get a good, fast, accurate load with my homegrown, 400 grain cast bullets in my 460 Smith. Then, hopefully use it on antelope, deer, elk! memtb

Good luck in the draw. I drew a tag in 2019, so I'm starting over

My 10th year applying - I'm not holding my breath lol.

Working on cobbling together a new 17 Remington ....a Death Ray for hogs!

Same things I'm always working on:

1. Physical training: recovering from hip resurfacing. 12 weeks since surgery. Squats, deadlifts, overhead squats, front squats with light weight only right now, tons or rehab exercises and elliptical time. At 6 months can start adding real weight. Looking forward to putting it to use during hunting season.
2. Shooting

A new focus this year:

3. Streamlining my pack/gear to be more mobile with saddle hunting in hard to get to areas

Not much now, working all the OT I can. I need to load some rifle shells, put on a couple of scopes, sight in. I’ll start shooting my bow September 1

I have a new Boyd's Heritage stock for a TC Compass in 7mm-08. It arrived yesterday. I got this one in standard grade Walnut. I think I got my money's worth.

I have everything ready for a load of 150 rounds of 30-06 -- 50 rounds each for #2 and #3 son and myself.

I've been working on sheep hunting loads for three different rifles:

1. Kimber Montana 300 WSM
2. Kimber Montana 270 Win
3 Tikka T3 Hunter 260 Rem (1:8)

The 300 WSM is my son's and that's what he's taking. It's going to be 150 NAB's at a pedestrian 3,100 fps.

I'm still on the fence regarding #2 vs #3. I think I've got a JOC load (60 gr H4831) with a 130 gr (actually a 129 LRX) dailed in. Keep seating those things deeper and they finally respond. Problem is that I'm going to run out of them and finding more bullets is an issue.

The .260 setup is a full 1# heavier than the .270, but it's a Tikka and just shoots day in and day out. Definately going to be a death-by-Scenar with this rig. Originally was going with the 139 Scenar, but my go with the 123. The 123 is still a slippery bullet at a BC of 0.52.

Working on getting the body in sheep shape and breaking in a new pair on Meindls.

Testing loads for a new 308 Win. I have 18 different loads ready to shoot on paper to see which one will get used on whitetails this fall.

Drew a Pronghorn tag this season, so getting geared up already- went to the range this morning with the 6.5 PRC and two different loads, shot them at the 425 yard range- can't decide yet between the Berger 140 gr. VLD, or the Hornady 143 gr. ELD-X- both are shooting to the exact POI with sub-MOA accuracy, so it's a tossup on which I'll use. Getting my longer range work out of the way before the 100 degree heat of summer sets in.
Also changing out my old pack for a new Kuiu Pro Pack lightweight system.

Seriously considering buying a snow machine and a 4 season toy hauler or building out a utility trailer for that task. Now is not a good time to be shopping for either. I need new snowshoes and sled anyway


mike r

Looks like I'm going to have to stunt shoot something with a .17 Remington this year.

I 'member reading stories 'bout people shooting burros with the .17 Remington or similar .17 wildcats. I guess it must work. Not sure where they were shooting them. I think a shot to the noggin oughta work.

Too bad we don't any woofs huh Tom, make good test medium.

I am still.on hold following shoulder surgery at the end of April. The bows are sitting across a chair in the basement and those 356 Win test loads of AA2015 are collecting dust on the reloading bench. Hoping for August.
Of course given the primer and power shortage, it might be for the best right now.

walking 2-3 miles every day since mid April , had a back surgery with plates and screws so its been tuff but will be in the mountains hell or high water September 1st.

Just got a .45/70 with a 2-8 Nikon Monarch.

First time hunting with such an animal. Far cry from what I am used to.

The 338-06 has been ready for two years and will likely sit idle for another year given the kook of the north actions. I will be chasing pronghorn in north Texas this fall though. The 308 Win Mauser M12 is ready with 150 gr Hornady's.

One of the most accurate combos in my safe. Insanely accurate.

Got scopes mounted yesterday while it rained, need to get some loading done.

Getting my sorry tail in shape. I've started my annual routine of taking my llamas on a couple 5 mile hikes in the hills each week plus climbing stairs at the local fairground arena. I have a 5 mile route that gains about 900'. I'll start loading them with sandbags this week.

Working on shooting further using field positions, specifically off a pack.

Wasn't that PO Ackley in his Handbook?

Waiting on the Wyoming draw results. Then I can plan everything. And start putting things into motion. A shoot my rifles weekly, so that dialed in. Definitely wanting to archery elk hunt out of a tree stand this year though. So I’ll need to start shooting arrows a few times a week.

I drew another big 0 here in Montana (that's 42 years straight for no goat tag), but still hoping for an antelope tag, and a cow elk tag behind my house which would be a fairly easy less than 400 yard downhill drag home.

I did book an Alaskan Brown bear and Moose hunt for September, so I dug my .375 RUM out of the back of the safe, mounted a Leupold CDS scope on it, and discovered that I didn't have enough and couldn't find any new Barnes 270 gr TSX bullets for it. I then found out about Hammer Bullets, and have been working out a load with their Hammer Hunter 281 grain bullets. My most promising load so far is solid 1 1/2" groups at 3000+ fps. I also worked out a practice load for it with 250 grain Sierra bullets that I am fine tuning on paper out to 430 yards.

Waiting on Missouri elk and bear draw results. Low odds of drawing. Doing land stuff for fall turkey/deer and then conditioning for my NM lion hunt in December.

Working on a few stand/blind locations in KS. Chainsawing a few cedars. Guess I'll sight in the 9.3x62 for a bear hunt. Kid needs to sight in the new scope on his 7mm for his elk tag.

Practicing archery regularly. Shooting rifles about once a week or so. Hiking a lot!

Yup, looking forward to hunting season. As always.

Best of luck to all this year!

Regards, Guy

I seem to have a large number of irons in the fire nearly every year (like many), but important stuff still gets done.

Of my lever actions - my 45-70 is stocked and zero'd, and my 30-30 is likewise stocked up. That leaves my 35 Remington left to develop a couple of new loads for, and stock up. Would like to get the Barnes 190 gr Original load finished for the 30-30, but the Texas summer is coming fast.

Of my bolts - my 260 Rem just needs some restocking - Hornady 129 gr are the go-to's here. My load projects here are for the 325 WSM and the 7mm-08 Rem. Someone around here mentioned that Big Game was the go-to powder for the latter...

Then...there's my beloved 8mm Mausers. One (Czech 98/22) is stocked up and ready to roll. The other (VZ-24) needs a new scout scope.

Five rifles are inactive safe, needing various items of work to be done. My semis are getting spare use until loads are finalized for the them, and primers become more available)

Got enough for deer season already, and enough little gun/reloading projects to keep busy with until then.

Wife and I are working our asses off around the place! 🤬 But, to better answer your question. We’re awaiting the results from our hunting applications to determine what, when, and how we will hunt!

I’m trying to get a good, fast, accurate load for my S&W 460 XVR.....hoping for consistent sub 4” groups ( using a 3 moa red dot sight) at 100 yards with my 400 grain, homemade cast powder coated bullets @ around 1500 fps. Should make it shootable and pretty lethal oit to around 150 yards.

Sometime soon, wife and I will run a few rounds downrange with our hunting rifles.....just for a little familiarity and comfort gain and to verify zeros! memtb

Have a CO muzz elk tag, gotta get my gun sighted in with irons . Waiting on WY, hope to have an antelope tag, need to get my 7-08 kimber montana scoped and work up a load with nos 120bt.

Gotta get going on my workout routines. Way behind as usual.

Sitting on a bull and bear tag for late September in CO then just drew a MD tag in WY about 20 miles away for the first week in October. Cant wait.

Hiking the Cascades several times a week. Checking for bear tracks along with deer & elk sign. Finding grouse too!

Have a mule deer hunt planned with my son, probably black bear too. Hunting elk with my old recurve, solo hunt. I can call on two sons to help me if I get an elk down. I'm the only archer in the family though.

Practicing with my bow. Practicing with my rifle. Nothing new in the way of rifles, ammo, arrows... All the gear is proven. Just trying to get into better physical condition and learn what's happening & where in "my" mountains.

Best of luck to all you hunters!

Guy

Need to start shooting my bow again as I've been slacking, other than that working on seeing which load my new to me 6.5 CM likes best. The 45-70 is ready to hopefully go on bear patrol, other than that working out and hiking like usual.