THE ARIZONA STRIP BUCK

By Buck Pope

I recently completed a successful hunt for a trophy mule deer up in northern Arizona in an area referred to as “The Arizona strip.” I was one of the lucky 85 applicants who had drawn tags for this hunt. As a matter of fact my number drawn for the hunt was No. 85—how lucky can that be?

After receiving the news, I began making arrangements for the hunt. I did not know this country at all and felt strongly I would need the assistance of an outfitter. The tag was far to coveted to take a chance. The Strip is known for few deer, but if and when you locate a buck, he just might be a big buck because the genes are there for trophy-quality mule deer. For an outfitter, that was an easy choice. A good friend and very well-known outfitter, Chad Smith of Vaquero Outfitters, would be my choice. I was also lucky that he had an opening, so it was time to get ready for the hunt.

This could be a rather physical hunt, and a fair amount of walking could be involved. I wanted an accurate, lightweight, high quality rifle for the task. I called J.R. Nosler, vice president of marketing and sales for Nosler, about the possibility of using one of his custom rifles. Nosler, very well known and highly respected for their bullets, recently expanded their product line. They introduced their own cartridge brass and custom-loaded ammunition under the Nosler name. The ammunition is called Nosler Custom Ammunition and is currently available in more than 17 calibers loaded with various Nosler bullets. The cartridge product lines continually expanding.

The other really big news is Nosler is making its own custom-mad center fire big-game rifles. Currently there are two models available to the shooter and hunter: The first rifle is their Custom 2nd Edition, which is a beautiful, richly blued rifle with a handsome piece of walnut on it. It also comes with a matching serial number Leupold Variable riflescope. This rifle is limited to runs of only 500 for each edition, the current caliber being the .280 Ackley Improved. The second rifle, the Model 48 is a lightweight sporter-type made as an all-weather rifle with a stainless steel barrel and a composite stock with a protective coating.

Several years ago, just prior to its announcement, I was invited by Nosler to go on a caribou hunt in Canada to try out the model 48 Sporter rifle. The Model 48 was named for the year 1948, when John Nosler founded the Nosler Company. It was initially released in .270 WSM and, with this rifle, I took two bulls with impressive results. I had pre production rifle, and it shot sub-minute groups.

Now that I had a very important deer hunt coming up, I decided to go with the Model 48 again. I was originally very impressed with the rifle and felt if should be ideal for the Arizona hunt. The initial offering in was in .270 WSM, and the rifle is now available in three additional calibers: .300WSM, .325WSM, and 7mm-08 Remington. In addition, two more chamberings are scheduled for 2008: the .260 Remington and the .308 Winchester.

As Chad and I had discussed earlier, you can often get rather long shots, and he favored at least a .300 magnum. “A hard-hitting, flat-shooting cartridge with at least a 180-grain bullet” was his suggestion.

As he has been taking clients to the Strip for years, I was certainly going to follow his advice. As much as I personally like the .270 WSM for most deer-hunting application, I would go with something bigger. My two choices were either the .300 WSM or the more recent .325 WSM in the Nosler Model 48 model. I felt that either caliber would get the job done.

Several weeks later I received the rifle in .325 WSM, along with three boxes of Nosler Custom Ammunition with the 200-grain Nosler AccuBond bullet—certainly an excellent choice.

The next step was to mount a scope on the rifle that would ideal for this remote and rough country, along with possible long range shooting. I called Dean Capuano at Swarovski Optik and we discussed several models. I have used Swarovski scopes before and have found them to tough, reliable scopes with excellent optics. Several years’ back, on a bear hunt in Alaska, I fell with my rifle, and the scope took a crushing hit on the rock shale. The front objective bell was bent in, yet the scope held together and continued to function. Also, the Talley rings and mounts never broke loose.

One item I wanted in the scope was a range finding reticle. Swarovski now has its own bar/bullet reticle system referred to as “BR,” which was just what I wanted for long-range shooting. I had narrowed my choice down to two models and finally settled on the Swarovski AV 4-12 x 50 BR Ballistic Calculator riflescope. The scope was mounted to the rifle using Talley steel bases and medium-height rings. The scope fit on the rifle very nicely, and it was well-balanced. I reviewed the ballistics of the 200-grain Nosler AccuBond and placed a call to Kyle Hopp of Nosler and got the exact velocity, energy and bullet drop out to 500 yards based on a 200-yard zero with their custom ammunition.

I then contacted Rob Lancellotti at Swarovski, and he gave me the exact range drop from dead-on at 200 yards to 300, 400, and 500 yards plus, keyed off the bullet type, ballistic coefficient, weight, and known velocity.

In addition, the scope also has solid dots between each bar for addition measurements. I then knew just where the bullet would drop once I knew the distance to the animal. I even went one step further and wrote the drop data on a card and taped it to my rifle stock. I certainly was hoping I would not have to shoot at a long distance, but sometimes you can have little choice. As a rule, every effort should be made to get as close as you can before taking your shot. Shooting at long distance is not easy, but I have used this system before and it works.

I now sighted my rifle in for dead on at 200 yards. My groups at 100 yard were shooting approximately 1.8 inches high. The rifle using the 200-grain bullet Nosler ammunition was grouping between .550 and .850 inches at 100 yards. The rifle is guaranteed to shoot .750-inch groups or less, which is most impressive, as it should be with a custom rifle. Most hunters, me included, can’t hold this tight a group most of the time, but that is just how accurate the rifle is.

The following is what I had for data points for each bar:

200-yard bar = dead-on
300-yard bar = 270 yards actual
400-yard bar = 386 yards actual
500-yard bar = 485 yards actual
600-yard bar = 571 yards actual
700-yard bar = 646 yards actual

Without a doubt you need a highly accurate rangefinder in order to determine the range before you make any distance shots. One thin you must remember when using the system is you must have the scope set on its highest power—in this case, 12X. On my past two hunts I have used the high-quality Swarovski Laser Guide 8x30, which has served me well. I particularly like the orange-colored circle for the capturing your objective and identifying the distance. I was also using the excellent Swarovski EL 10x40 binocular and kept in my pack the Swarovski ATS 65 HD Spotting scope and companion Stativ/Tripod CT 101.

I also had support from Lennis Janzen of Crooked Horn Outfitters; he set me up with a new Model II of his famous Masterguide Pack. I used this very comfortable pack, along with their Bino-System, Wind Powder and binocular protection sheath. Crooked Horn has a number of quality products to aid the hunter. The thing I like about Lennis he is an avid hunter himself, who designs and field-tests his products before they are released to the public.

The Nosler rifle, as I hunted with, complete with cope, steel bases and rings, along with a Murray Quick Set Sling and a Custom Leather Buttstock Shell Holder and seven rounds totaled just over 9 pounds. In addition, I carry my rifle traveling to and from the field with the Murray Ultimate Saddle Scabbard Rifle Case. It offers tremendous protection for your firearm. I have been using Murray Leather products for years, and they are truly top quality.

The Nosler Model 48 receiver and bolt are Nosler design made of 4140 steel. The bolt and interior surfaces are coated with MicroSlick. The trigger on the rifle is a Timney, which is very well known for their quality performance. All Timney triggers are from materials mad in U.S.A. and components are milled on CNC machines to exacting tolerance of +/- .001-inch. All wear surfaces are hardened and polished to be trouble-free and last a lifetime. The rifle came from the factory with the trigger adjusted to right at 3.0 pounds. The trigger was very smooth with no creep, it breaks clean and is adjustable, should you want it lighter or a bit heavier. Timney Triggers and Talley mounts can be ordered from Brownells.

The action is a Nosler design with a push-feed bolt with dual lugs Just behind the bolt is a three-position safety. The receiver is also drilled and tapped for scope mounting. There are no open sights. Any bases that will fit a Remington Model 700 will fit the Nosler receiver.

I very much like the three-position safety for the added protection of being able to unload the rifle with the trigger locked in a safe position. The bolt is fluted and the bolt handle knurled. It had three gas releases that are directed into the magazine. It has a hinged floorplate with the release in the front portion of the trigger guard. The one-piece aluminum bottom metal is design of Ted Blackburn, and includes the custom Nosler-engraved initials.

The barrel is a 24-inch stainless light weight match grade made by Pac-Nor. The barrel is free-floating and the rifle is guaranteed to shoot ¾-inch (.750) or smaller groups at 100 yards using Nosler Custom Ammunition. For weatherproofing, all exposed surfaces are coated with a matted Cerakote finish. The stock is a Kevlar composite in dark-gray finish called Sniper Gray with black, gray and white speckles with a good gripping surface. The stock comes with swivel studs and a 1-inch solid-black recoil pad.

As mentioned earlier, I mounted a Swarovski AV 4-12 x 50 scope on the rifle that gave the rifle a nice balance. The stock design fir me very well and proved a natural pointer.

I think this is an ideal mountain rifle. For this hunt I was not too concerned about weight, but if it is an issue, since you’re starting with a 5 ¾ pound rifle (un-scoped), you could easily end with a 7 ½ pound or light rifle, depending on the scope and mount. The recoil of the .325 WSM was not bad at all. It is a quick recoil and similar to that of the .300 WSM.

I had not more than just had my rifle sighted in and it seemed like it was a long time to go. The season is for 10 days, and I was now into the seventh day of my hunt. The hunting was tough, with few bucks seen. There are not many deer in this remote area, but it is know for its big bucks. I had seen a few bucks, but nothing I wanted to shoot. This was an “all or nothing” for me—a big buck, or go home with an unfilled tag—it was just that simple. A good camouflage outfit is very helpful when hunting this rugged, remote country. I was wearing a Wayne Landrey Everywear West shirt, pants and coat, along with my 8-inch Irish Setter boots and Weatherby wool vest.

My personal guide was Aaron Overton out of skull Valley, Arizona, and he is one of Chad’s top guides. He did a great job, and he and several other guides were all working hard to try and locate animals. There were three of us in camp with tags. One of the hunters was also on of Chad’s guides, Blake Chapman, who had also drawn the coveted permit. He killed an outstanding buck the first morning, a buck that no one had seen before season. He and several other guides had spent about three weeks scouting this area before the season opened. We knew there were several other big bucks in the area. The guides had located several big buck tracks several days earlier, and one was seen crossing a road after dark by one of Chad’s guides returning to camp after scouting. The guide who spotted him said he was dandy with a spread around 30 inches and that he be a 200-point-class buck. This smart buck was not moving about during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, the other hunter in camp had to leave on the fifth day due to business issues. Now all of Chad’s resources were focused on helping me find a big buck.

Early on that seventh morning, Chad, who was glassing at first light on a high pint, spotted a big buck moving about in some thick cedars clear across a large canyon. He could only see parts of the deer along with several does. Chad said we would set up a plan and see if we couldn’t get in on him and get a shot if he were a “shooter.” Later in the day, watching the wind, we moved across and well below the thick cover of brush where we had last seen parts of deer. I was now with Chad, and he had Aaron and Blake go to vantage points to help us if they could.

We were situated on the far side of the long, sloping mountain and were easing our way up the slope, looking into the thicket of brush as the sun started to set. We would walk a short way, stop, watch, glass and wait…glass and wait. After a big, we were almost out of the thick brush and getting into open areas broken up with stands of cedars extending to the top.

Chad and I were keyed up. Would the deer make a mistake and come out of the cover? The wind continued to blow our way. Finally, two does suddenly came crashing out of the brush heading for the top. Then, about 50 yards behind the does he was following came the buck! He had been cagey and smart, but something had gotten them spooked and they were going out the top.

A trophy he was, and I sure didn’t have to look twice! It has been years since I have seen a big trophy buck like this. He had already slipped through the tree and cleared two small opening. I caught quick glimpse of his rack and right-side antler, which was high and showed many pints. We had one chance left to possibly get a shot near the top, but he was through the last clearing before I could get lined up on him. I was running up the mountain with Chad right behind me. I was thinking the whole time how I had blown a chance at a real trophy buck. However, for some reason, as he neared the top, he decided to turn back and move to a stand of cedars. Chad and I slowed down and eased over to look into a narrow side canyon. We spotted him standing about 140 yard’s up next to a cedar tree. It was now or never. I sad, “Chad, quick, loan me your shoulder!”

I clearly saw the buck in the scope, the Nosler rifle spoke, and the big buck dropped to the ground. Chad turned to me and said, “Buck, you got a really nice trophy buck.” As I walked up to him, I was really set back. He was indeed one of those famous Strip bucks I had hear about that few hunters ever get. There was no shrinkage on this buck. The 200-grain Nosler AccuBond from the .325 WSM had entered at the base of the neck and traveled across the buck taking out the vitals.

We got back to camp well after dark, and it was one happy bunch. Later that evening we put the tap on him. He was 31 inches wide with a heavy-horned 9x7 points and scored 220 6/8 SCI gross. The performance of the Nosler AccuBond ammunition and the Swarovski optic pulling in the light couldn’t have been better. I had some good luck in getting him, but I also had the best support to allow me the chance I got. It has been a number of years since I had seen a big buck, and I was one happy hunter. Chad commented most shots are well over 300 yards in this country, which is why hard hitting, flat-shooting cartridges are his favorites. I have shot several other head of game with the .325 WSM, and it really seems to put them down. As it turned out I did not have to use the ballistic reticle and make a long shot. However, it was a good to know, had the condition bee different, I was prepared for that long shot.

I was most pleased with my rifle setup: The Nosler Model 48 is a dandy rifle. Topped with the Swarovski scope and Talley bases and rings along with Nosler ammunition, it would make ideal hunting rig for any Western big game. I have to also thank outfitter Chad Smith, guide Aaron Overton, guide Blake Chapman, and Chad’s other outstanding guides. They all work as a team and do all they can to make your hunt a successful one. The Strip I tough hunting but, almost every year, several real wall hangers are collected. I was very lucky to have drawn the tag and harvested a buck of a lifetime.