EricF

Here's a photo I took in Montana...kinda blurry trying to use a multiplier and manual focus...but you get the idea: At 190 yards.........

Looks good to me bro. Real good actually. Good job!

Wow! Nice deer there. Enough nicer to be able to witness such a find as that!

Outstanding is the only description!!! Congrats to you and her for such a successful outcome.

I'm not savvy to lease costs in Illinois...so bear with me...as this may be way outside what I'm considering. Consider me 'ignorant' on the issue...so simply saying "are you crazy" is an acceptable reply. Couple questions and comments: -I can pull off probably two weeks vacation time. -How much $$$ and how many acres? -Is this what us Easterners consider "big buck country"? -How does this compare to "using an outfitter" vs "this lease deal" vs "hoping for good buck on public land"? I have one, maybe two, friends who had planned to simply try to get into a 'public land' hunt for a week or two next year. However, if this somewhat 'lucrative' versus the 'public deal'....we may be game. Sorry for the questions....but, honestly, I'm clueless on this issue as it may applie to Illinois. Here in NC, I can spend $400 to $1000 for membership in a club with a three month hunting season...but, nothing really above 110 inches...and that's a dream for most folks around here. Thanks!

Wow! Great job! The Marlin 336 was my first gun as well....still have it....my daughter shoots it. 150yds is cake with that gun. Congrats!!!!

Here's a few more, draw your own conclusions on size. Anyway, he seemed to be a likeable person. I hope I didn't offend him, as I can be somewhat to the point and upfront.......:poke: Sorry for the 'gruesome' aspect here.

Congrats. I was in my 30s before I saw a buck like that....Good Job, and keep at it!

Sorry, been gone a while with fishing season and work. Anyway, did another trip with Milk River Outfitters. Met Mike Waddell while out there doing a shoot. Nice ten I got, very happy with it...and the staff as usual. Great bunch.

I hunted MRO last season and going again in 2010. Here's some info: -they're not the "designer lodge" atmosphere you see on TV with fireplaces and big leather chairs...these guys are real ranchers who get down and in the dirt like the rest of us. Their setup is as nice as most of us live in...and they feed you well. -they will go the extra mile and put in full days to get your animal. -Darren, the whitetail expert, knows where every deer is on the leases...he drops you off at your stand and continues to scope the other areas until he picks you up...if he thinks you should move, he'll move you. -after you score, you can stay your remaining days and tag along with the guides or go home. Great pheasant and praire dog spots within a quarter mile of the lodge. -they want you to tag your animal...not shoot the first one...but don't pass one up that you'd shoot the last day either. -I was there for two weeks...everyone who came and went got their animal within the first three days...except one antelope hunter. The goats had already started dropping horns so that made it tough. A great group of guys, just like us, your typical down to earth hunters who simply love to hunt.

I have one. My wife bought me the 28", black, for a birthday gift...without my even knowing. I got it on last Friday, shot it Wed and again today, Saturday. The mag extension is not necessary, as there will be an extended magazine available...the magazine comes completely out the forearm, accomodating a different and longer magazine...a three second evolution. The trigger guard is quite different, but I feel it adds to the "new look altogether". It's very very light, coming in at a hair over six pounds. The typical Benelli accoutraments are in the case, shims/chokes/wrench/thread cleaner/oil/etc. I do think the bolt assembly is a trick to remove as compared to my SBEII...actually making it a slightly longer breakdown evolution. It feels good in the hands all the way around. Function: I haven't 'patterned', etc. this gun yet. I've put about 100 rounds through it today, just loosening it up a bit. I fired twenty five as quickly as I could load it, getting it nice and hot. I fired three from the hip, as fast as humanly possible using 7/8oz loads...just to see what would happen...nothing happened, it ate em like candy. I did this four consecutive times, as quickly as I could load them. So I've qenched my 'nervousness' about it eating light loads...it did, and I'm pleased. Overall, I was somewhat set aside by the looks, but it really grows on you. It has nice lines and feels good in the hands. I am a Benelli fan however, and might be somewhat biased. The price tag on this one was $1375 out the door. I should also add...recoil. I shot my SBEII equally as much as the Vinci today...interchanging guns through the time period. The Vinci has recoil, don't think it doesn't, but for the loads I shot I really noticed only a slight difference in feel, not a remarkable difference between the two. My SBEII is walnut/black...NO comfortech. With 3" loads, maybe I will see a marked difference...I'll let you know.

....and be thankful. Here's what I just did: I just got back from the jeweler picking up a pair of diamond earrings...$533 bones! Here's why I did it: Her sister had breast cancer, with the typical surgery involved and preparing for follow chemo and radiation treatment. Her mother is facing the same thing in the next few weeks. Her two aunts have already been through it. As you may have guessed, the BRCA1 gene mutation is present in her family. We went to Duke University Medical Center last week for the test....today we got the results...SHE IS NEGATIVE FOR THE GENE!!!!! The way it works is that the children have a 50/50 chance of having the genetic mutation. We won the 50/50 lottery!!! I tell ya...this mutation is death sentence...bad mojo all the way around. My wife was/is extremely lucky...and extremely grateful, as am I. We had planned to celebrate our Valentine's Day this evening instead of tomorrow...since she is working her second job tomorrow...what a celebration it will be!

Nothing wrong with a career change later in life. I'm assuming you've achieved fruition with a prior one, or not, don't matter. My aunt went to school after age fifty, became the charge nurse on the baby floor (whatever it's called) a few years later. Doing great. Good Luck!

....to do some shootin! Took the fifteen year old daughter out yesterday...beautiful day, warm, light wind. Shackled her up behind the .22, SBEII, .30-30, and....the 7mag!!! After a hundred or more rounds of .22, a box of .12ga, half a box of .30-30...she said she wanted to take some shots with the 7mag on the 150 yard mark. So I set up the shooting bag and turned her loose. She was making good 2-2.5 inch groups at 150...with no "magnum flinch"!!! I tested her with a dead round when she wasn't watching... With her (my first rifle) .30-30, she was grouping them very tight at 100, even with that aggrevating Marlin trigger (gonna get her a new trigger)...minus the first one which was off a little more than we would like. Get em out there guys...she's showing up all the boys at school already, they're not shooting magnum rifles yet!!!! So needless to say, she went to school this morning with some new braggin rights!!! And a small bruise to show em!!! Sorry, no pics...but will be sure to get some next time.

Eric Holder was sworn in today!