chas0218

My area (8F) he would be 4 1/2.

No it doesn't turn me off but getting parts on the other hand might be harder. I'm not sure if Weatherby would stock parts for the Vanguard or you would need to order from Howa. Tikka is a Finland made gun so I'm not against buying a gun from other countries. I have to agree as of lately foreign made guns are of better quality (excluding Smith & Wesson). I can't bring myself to buy another Remington Product with the QC issues I have had and I haven't found a newer american made gun as accurate or as quality as the Tikka. I have picked up and cycled howa's and they are nice never shot one though. I like the howa 1500 with the hogue stock but have read if you need replacement parts it can be hard to get or long wait periods. There isn't a very big aftermarket selection for howa rifles to bridge that gap.

That is my fault i thought it was Chinese, fixed it.

My current Tikka .270 will clover leaf at 100 yards, it is sub moa but I figured I would throw out the weatherby because I haven't heard anything bad about them. I'm not sure if I like the Japanese made action, not sure how hard it would be to get parts. I have heard the howa 1500 rifles shoot nice but it is very difficult to get parts if needed.

Wow in 8F I had 7 in a field taking turns sparring with each other kind of cool to see. They weren't going full out just kind of messing around. The last 2 to step out were much much larger deer. I couldn't see the racks as it was about 7:00pm and I didn't really want to spook the deer by climbing out so I just sat and watched through my binos. Really cool experience. Here is a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old. The 2 1/2 year old actually has a nicer rack than the older 3 1/2 but the bodies don't compare. My guess is the 2 1/2 will score around 110" the 3 1/2 will score around 105" missing the brow.

We had 2 other witnesses, my wife and my father. I tore this guy a new one because he was shooting over top of the hill and the slugs were whizzing through the treetop my wife was in. Scared her senseless, it took every ounce of strength for me not to pummel the idiot.

One of the reasons why I wanted .308 was availability of ammo and price. I could reload the weatherby mag cheaper than I could buy it that is for sure but I was planning on using my dad's match grade dies he already had for his .308.

I have never shot a browning but I have never heard anything bad about them. The nikon you mentioned earlier is nice glass for the price, I too bought one for around that price. You can find them for around $175 now. If you get a chance look into the refield scopes I bought one for my wife when I got her 1187 slug gun and it is a very nice scope for the money. I think it is actually a little more clear than my Nikon for around the same price maybe a little more. @Bowguy1 I mentioned earlier why Savage are junk, if they don't understand why they can read my earlier post.

I like my 06 and .270 but I was thinking the .308 would be a fun long range shooter and I can play with the loads a little more. The .308 has quite a bit more energy than the .270 downrange and the 06 I have is pretty picky with which bullets it wants to shoot and for some reason it isn't super accurate out past 200 yards. It shoots 2" groups at 200 yards, not horrible but I like them closer.

I will say savage isn't my cup of tea they have a huge following and no where near the quality of a Tikka or similar gun. The only "cheap" "ready to shoot" rifle I would buy would be the remington 783 or the Ruger American. I have the older brother remington 770 for my wife in .243 and it shoots sub-moa with the bushnell sportsman it came with. I can not stand savage and the accu junk trigger they are literally opposite of what a trigger is supposed to be (zero creep and break like glass). Also I'm not sure if you guys knew it or not but the way they do their head space is horrible (hence the "innovative barrel nut"). They either do not have the means to properly headspace a rifle or just make one barrel to fit several different actions instead of making the action fit the barrel correctly. Ask any gunsmith the barrel nut is a crap way for fitting a barrel.

So If I dropped elk off the list and used my .270 or 30-06 would you guys be more inclined to get the 25-06 or still stick with the .308? My father has a Remington .308 VTR cool gun but not my cup of tea. The .308 is a heck of a round and like mentioned readily available at any place that sells ammo, even walmart has it. I like the ballistics of the 25-06 but I think I would be able to get close to those same ballistics having such a large bullet variety for the .308.

Maybe they don't I did talk to a remington rep last year and he said the same thing as you. Maybe it was their early production T3 but either way I really like the action on the Tikka.

Ok so I am throwing around the idea of a .308 or 25-06 in the Tikka T3X stainless lite or the Vanguard series 2. From what I have read they both utilize the howa action fitted with the weatherby or sako barrels. What are your recommendations for caliber and brand. I already own a Tikka and love it but I haven't owned a Weatherby but with the name I wouldn't be afraid of buying one. I won't buy a Remington or Savage so don't recommend one unless you know of a used older Remington before they went to crap. I'm leaning towards a .308 because there is such a wide variety of bullet options as I like to reload and try different things.

I like the Tikka T3 I own the hunter in .270 Winchester. I haven't taken any bear with it but given the opportunity I wouldn't hesitate. The ammo is readily available and won't break the bank. My next is going to be T3 stainless in 25-06 or .308.

This one is priceless, we have had this so many times during gun season just so they can push our property. We no longer allow retrieval unless they show proof it entered our property and the "it went right down that trail" isn't proof in my book. I need to see blood otherwise no entry. I actually had a guy go get his kid to try and tell me his kid shot the deer. I was hunting on the hedgerow of our AG field and watched these guys setup and push the neighbors property and try to use his kid as leverage. The worse part is the kid wasn't old enough to be hunting and not to mention what is he teaching that kid. I have a lot of dirtbags around our area and my step dad has property down the street and has the same problems. He is a little more extreme falling trees that have tree stands in them on his property and leaving these nice little notes. most of the time he gets a little scrap metal from the trespasser.

My family has the same reputation after we pressed charges for trespassing. It was getting ridiculous and we were sick of it. We have good hunting property and want our family to wreak the benefits of our hard work not some good for nothing trespasser. We have had people ask permission and we are civil with them it's the trespassers that under our skin and aren't the nicest to. The last 2 years we had a zero tolerance policy and whoever we catch we call the state boys and press charges. Take their picture in our section of woods along with a picture of their back tag.

Would that be considered baiting if he shot it too? haha

Holy does it take a little while to get there.

No I understand completely, I'm not trying to start anything or come off as a jerk I just wanted to know if it had happened to you before and if that was your reasoning. I usually can see my shot with my lighted nock as it hits the deer and can make a judgement call from it. I would like to clarify that I wouldn't leave a deer overnight if I shot it in the morning. I would wait at least 4 hours possibly more depending on the shot.

I'm lucky enough that we don't have a bear population to worry about. Coyotes roam the woods where I hunt but have never lost a deer to them. I have had deer that were poorly hit and die on my property to never be touched by coyotes.

I haven't had an issue with yotes destroying the deer I have left overnight, done it couple times to find the deer 100% intact. How many times has it happened to you?

That's laughable, it's New York Times article!

I somewhat agree, if you hit far back the deer will generally lay down in a short distance (at least this has been my experience). My wife shot a really nice buck one year and said it was back but we had some blood. We had given the deer 2 hours from when she shot it till we got down to look for the arrow and blood. When we got to where her arrow was (complete pass thru) we heard the buck jump, backed out and came back the next morning. When we got there we immediately found his bed, it was less than 20 yards from where she hit him. There was a descent amount of blood in the bed, the trail quickly dried up and were finding droplets of blood less than 1/4" across about every 50 yards. I would rather back out and make sure the deer is dead. Granted it isn't going get more dead after it has died but sure beats bumping a deer that is wounded and not finding it.

If it is considered a weed you can mow multiple times a year to keep it knocked down. We have about 40 acres of hay fields we mow each year around July before the weeds go to seed. We have lots of wild clover in these fields that seems to do very well after we mow it it usually takes off the beginning of August. Unfortunately the food plots we have made in the past are just passed by into the 30 acres of Ag fields (corn and soybean). The farmer usually doesn't take the corn off until after gun season when he plans to use it for his cows. He doesn't store it in a silo just cuts it when he needs it.

Purtty sight right there! Wish I was in the woods instead of work. Posts like this keep me sane during the long work days.