Russ E

Out to 200 yards, nearly any modern rifle is effective. There is not much difference in bullet drop until 250 to 300 yards. Where the 6.5 shines is the size of the bullet makes it less wind resistant, and it has less recoil than the 30 caliber rifles. If you plan on shooting long range competition or coyote hunting, the 6.5 has much less wind drift at ranges from 300 yards out and bullet drop is less out at that range. Most rifles you sight in at 200 yards. It will be close to dead on between 25 to 50 yards. 1 to 2 inches high at 100 yards , and dead on at 200. Nearly all high power hunting cartridges fit into this category. In my long winded answer: if you plan on doing a lot of bench rest long range shooting with a little hunting, get the 6.5. It is a good cartridge. The trade off: ammo is generally not cheap. If your main goal is hunting, nearly any caliber between 6.5 mm and .30 will work.

Unless you are planning on hunting out west, you will be passing up on the majority of shots on deer. Most Eastern deer are killed within 100 yards. In over 25 years of hunting,I have harvested deer from 5 to 250 yards. With a rifle, bow, Pistol, muzzleloader, and shotgun. The vast majority were less than 100 yards The 6.5 shoots a little flatter, because of a lighter, smaller diameter bullet. a 308 actually delivers more energy. and can cause more damage. Bullet type and shot placement determines how much damage is caused. If you are determined to take only long range shots, there is a much larger chance of damaging meat, or wounding an animal. Talking from experience,a lot can go wrong when shooting long range. Wind, how steady your rest is, and nerves all come into play when a deer is in your sights.

On my boat I have a full set of tools. If I am fishing from shore I carry a Leatherman wingman. It is light and compact, with most essential tools. Plus it is stainless steel.

H2O baits have been the most productive budget baits for me. Especially the jerkbaits and squarebills.

735C if you want it for all the baits you mentioned. I own both. I prefer the 734C for Texas rigged worms. With 14 to16 lb fluorocarbon. The 735 for anything heavier. It has more backbone for flipping heavy cover and setting the hook with heavy flipping jigs.

This^^. Sniper is my go to fluorocarbon line. i used Tatsu on 2 reels for one season. it is good line, but honestly I did not see enough advantage over sniper to justify the price.

my brother in law, bought a savage axis in 6.5 creedmoor at walmart. I think he paid $399.00 I was a little skeptical when he bought a gun from walmart, but that thing is a tack driver. it has a bull barrel and the savage accutrigger.

I was hoping to extend the early morning smallmouth bite with a shakyhead or Ned rig. That didn't happen. Whenever the bait hit the water a little bass grabbed it.

I don't think the day of week matters as much as the current activity on a lake. I have done will in the morning on weekends, but when the boat activity picks up, the bite often shuts down. I caught this fish on Monday. it is a heavy pressured lake that had a tournament on saturday. there were very few boats on Monday.

I like the shirt. I plan on getting one of those and a hoodie.

Took a reconnaissance trip to Perry today. It was my first trip there for 2019. the lake is still 15 foot high, but some of the boat ramps are now open. The lake sure looks different when it is that high. Smallmouth were hitting spinnerbaits off of rocky points first thing in the morning. caught 5 all this size. then the bite shut down. could not find any quality largemouth, but small fish were biting everywhere. Must have been a good spawn this year. Perry is loaded with 3 to 12 inch Bass. It could get interesting in 2 or 3 years. crappie fishermen were complaining because bass this size would not leave their jigs alone.

^^ this. I have owned a couple edge trolling motors. they are reliable and will take a beating. also reasonably priced. I currently own a Minn Kota Ultrex. it is by far the best trolling motor I have ever owned. It does not have a 12 volt model and is much more expensive than the edge.

Over the last 2 years I have been transitioning from lead to tungsten wherever possible. Problem with tungsten is the cost. I have searched all over trying to find budget tungsten weights. I ran across a Chinese company called OMfishingsinkers. During my search, I found an older thread on Bass Resource that mentioned them. At first I was apprehensive about ordering online directly from an overseas company. when I saw they accepted pay pal I decided to try it. The prices are about half of most other tungsten suppliers. If you spend $40.00, shipping is free from China. It took 15 days, but I finally received my order. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. Neko weights are similar to the VMC lead weights but much smaller. Also cheaper. the bullet weights are smooth with no burrs around the hole. shakyheads have wide gap scary sharp hooks. Not sure how viable buying from China will be if the Tariffs keep going, but for now it is a good way to get cheap, quality tungsten.

I have shot quite a few rounds through a 300 win mag. Honestly they are not much fun to shoot. if you have a chance, I would try to shoot one before investing in the rifle. they have a very sharp recoil. a .308 delivers around 12 ft-lbs of recoil. a .300 win mag delivers over 20 ft-lbs of recoil. That may not bother some people, but after shooting a dozen rounds through a .300 win mag I feel beat up. I grew up deer hunting Iowa with a 12 gauge slug gun. they have a very heavy recoil. A .300 win mag is similar, but the recoil is a lot faster. I can shoot a .308 all day. Also with the high velocity, the barrels wear 3 times faster than a 308, or a 30-06.

Now that would be overkill for deer. Probably would not half to trail a deer far if you hit it in the vitals?

308 is a very popular cartridge for whitetails. the 30-06 and 270 both deliver more energy than the 308. not sure how they could be better, if 308 is overkill.

There were not many boats on the water today. I have noticed La Cygne can get tough, if there is a lot of boat activity. With 5 fish only weighing 10 pounds, they must have used the state 15 inch length limit. 5 18 inch bass at La Cygne will weigh over 15 pounds. this was the only bass over 18 inches, that I got in the boat. I lost one other in the 4 pound range. It picked up my fluke and swam right at the boat. Never got a good hookset.

@pauldconyers Late summer/early fall is my favorite time of year. fishing pressure has gone down and the bass are starting to feed more frequently.

fished La Cygne this morning. huge schools of shad are up shallow and the bass are chasing them. bass are so keyed on the shad it is hard to get a bite on lures. I caught 8 bass in the 1 to 2.5 pound range and this 5 pound 10 ounce toad.

This is a good question. Honestly in a lot of situations I don't feel a leader is necessary. The visibility issue of braid is over rated for the small diameter lines used on spinning gear. My purpose for using a leader here in Kansas is zebra mussels. Mainly for bottom contact lures like shakyheads and neko rigs. Those little clams are hard on braid. I had quite a few mysterious breakoffs, before I started using leaders.

there are a lot of different opinions on leader length. generally I start out with the knot between the reel and the first eyelet. In my own experience, when the knot is on the reel it tends to slap on the first eyelet. If I keep the knot out of the reel this does not seem to happen. I get a new leader after it gets below about 3 foot long. usually I can retie around 3 times before replacing it.

good luck. One note: after you sight the gun in, practice shooting from different positions. (standing, kneeling, resting against a tree). A lot of hunters sight in on a bench rest and figure they are good to go. Only thing a bench rest does is show how well a gun will shoot. It does not show how well the hunter can shoot. shooting in real world hunting situations is a lot different than sitting at a bench rest.

.308 is a good all around cartridge for anything from deer to elk. ammo is relatively cheap and there are a lot of options. Not sure how much experience you have with rifles, but 300 win mag is a lot of rifle if you are targeting whitetails. If moose or elk are your target than it would be a good cartridge. The recoil can be brutal and under 200 yards it has very little advantage over the 308 on deer sized game. If long range is your goal the 6.5 Creedmoor is much more pleasant to shoot and just as effective on whitetails. In all honesty there are very few hunters that can consistently hit past 150 to 200 yards under hunting conditions, with any gun.

looks about like an adult bluegill. there are pics all over the internet.

Fished Wyandotte county lake this morning. caught a total of 31 bass. 7 of them were over 15 inches. the top 5 weighed 12.4 lbs. Caught a few on a swimjig, One on a berkley drift walker. Most were caught late morning on big worms dragged along outside weed edges.