Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best 600-750 yard Coues and Mule Deer Cartridge?

I like that....I'm gonna get some mileage out of that...

Kique--you got that right, both the 7 Mashburn Super and the 6/06 are incredibly fine Coues deer rounds.

I have a 105 cola blanco venado sitting above me here that I took out @ 438 yrds in a high wind with a neck shot near Arizpe with my 6/06. The 6 aught also worked wonders on those Sonoran Perro's as well...

Perro

Love Arizpe. What ranch?
Banamichi was my stomping grounds when I was down there.
Bet that 105 berger in the 6-06 would save powder and kill good too. You think its a 600/700 yard rig to get a DRT done?

I'd use the 300 WM with som fat, heavy AMax and shoot a bunch before you go. Get in the field and practice in real world type shooting. The bench and the field are completely different.

Lacienega Kique, and yeah I have no doubt about those ranges with the 6/06.

Farthest I shot a deer with it was 633 and it was lights out! Course it was a head shot with a 95 NBT right up the snout and out the back of the head so things happened fairly quickly...grin

Perro

If I was to shoot coues deer over 500 yards, out to 600 (been there done that, multiple times) then I would shoot my .257 wby.

But, when you get past 600 yards, I would actually change to at a minimum 270 wsm, but I would lean more towards a 7 rem mag, or even better yet a 7 RUM with 160 Accubonds. I have been threatening for the past year or so to send my dads Leupold from his 7RUM to get the turret treatment, load up some 160 Accubonds and get to the 800 yard range.

sietesuper

Lots of folks use the 300WM for coues because of distance, since you have one, go with that. High BC bullets and practice.

I've killed more coues with a 270 but farthest was 420 yds.

Course, you'll probably kill one at 50 yds... lol

Kent

I hear that KRP, last year I worked a lot at long ranges with my 300 WSM with 155 Scenars and then shot my elk @ 17 yds and my venado @ 38 yds.......arg

Dober

In my experience, that's how life is.....you expect/anticipate one scenario and usually get something completely different.

Guilty! But I have hunted the west more than some westerners,and seen the little dudes on Arizona elk hunts,along with some AZ coues country..... and it struck me that they are small animals,prone to disappear,tough to see in that scabby looking country,and not always easy to approach.I doubt they take much killing,like antelope.

I like Greg's advise and also Jordan's but not sure I'd run out and spend a pile on a new rifle if I had a 270 and a 300 Win Mag. Today you can find bullets for either coming within a knats hair of just about anything else.

I'd put the cash in a very top end optic,like a Nightforce or S&B rather than a new rifle,get to practicing with what you got and the best bullets for the chore,and be ready.It is really scopes and bullets which have made LR shooting practical today...not cartridges.

That said I would buy a 264 or 7Rem Mag if you want a new rifle for the hunt and don't mind spending the loot. 162 Amax's at 3200+ fps from the Mashburn makes things pretty easy to 600 yards,far as I can shoot,and that's what I would take,although I'd want more scope than the lightweight 6X it wears now.

Good luck!

Best to think of a coues hunt like a poor man's sheep hunt... rough vertical country, tough animals... and sometimes like sheep need long shots and 'breaking down'... Quality boots, pack and optics.

Kent

John-this is just me but my tuning fork tells me that the outfitter may be just a bit full of it or himself. I've been around Coues a fair bit and to date I've not seen a place/time where one had to go to that long of ranges to get things done.

It sure is helpful to have people come ready to rock, but I'd personally be concerned with them being able to plant them to 500 and not much more. IME, expecting hunters to come ready to go to 600-750 and do it right is expecting a bit much.

I gotta ask, who's the outfitter?

Many thx, and sorry if I sound a bit too skeptical this morn.

Coues are a fantastic critter, far and away in my top 3 right up there with bruins and yotes.

Dober

Sounds like the outfitter is preparing an excuse in advance..."if YOU (emphasis added) can pull off shots from 500 to 700 yds"

That ain't the way that I hunt Coues deer, but to each his own.

I did have a guest hunter one year that had bad legs thanks to a bout with polio when he was a kid. I glassed up a nice Coues buck at a little over 600 yds. While I was glued to the binocular, planning a route to get him as close as I could, his .257 Weatherby went "bang!" and the deer dropped like a rock. We were both draped over the hood of the truck and my ears rang for days.

Getting closer to Coues ain't always an option... or not a very good one at that. Can't fathom anyone who's never hunted them during an Oct AZ rifle hunt, or maybe even never been in the country he's likely to be hunting, musing about the ethics of shooting them at long range.

THAT said, back to the original question...
264 WM with 140 VLDs or AMAX is a tough combo to beat, delivering high BC bullets at high velocity with minimal recoil. I've had one or more since '02, and have since sold every 7mm mag and 300 in the safe. A buddy followed suit and last year got one, practiced all summer, and shot his buck at 672. To gain a notable increase in performance, you realistically have to belly up to the big 338s. That's a big jump.

Last couple of years, I've hunted Coues with a 22" 260, 140 AMAX. It's a good bit shorter and handier than the 264, and gets me to the 600 yard line with ease. And I've found that in most of the areas I hunt, I can get within 600.

Consider that military sniper rifles need to accurately take out targets at far greater distances than your deer hunt. And their choice is often the .300 Winchester Magnum...or larger! Maximum effective range INCREASES w/ bullet diameter. So why would you want a smaller bullet or feel inadequately armed using a world class, long range sniper cartridge?

You're better off scratching the spending itch by buying a sniper grade scope or working up a long range load and practicing w/ the long range rifle you already own.

I pride myself as a guide on getting it done with my client's ability. I'm not one of those guide's that says we have to get it done from here, hey if we have to get closer then let's try to get closer. Doesn't always work, especially on coues deer! It's their hunt!!!! First things that jumped into my head when reading this are a 115"+ coues buck at 600 and a 84" antelope buck at 300. Neither was comfortable with the shot so we attempted to get closer. Neither was brought to bag. I don't think either hunter was upset that he didn't try a shot but I KNOW both were upset that they weren't PREPARED for the shot. Oddly enough both were shooting a 7mm ultra mag and both were wanting shots around 200 yds and the whole time I kept thinking why the hell are we wasting all that power and burning that much powder for 200 yd shots?!?!?!

To the OP, like many have said already, If you want a new gun and have time to work up loads and get lots of long range time, then yes a 6.5 or fast seven would be great. If not the same process with your current rifles will yield the same results.

Hello Mark,

No worries, it's an outfitter that I found via Google search before realizing I'm just better off asking names of some good outfitter here

I don't want to single him out. In the discussion, it basically came down to, well, if you really want to increase your chances at B&C- class bucks, then with those ranges in mind, we'd have all of our bases covered. Again, he told me most clients luck-out under 300 yards, but of the few really huge bucks they've seen, most were spotted at 500 and up to 750 yards away and the hunters were unable to shoot at that range, get to them in time or spooked them.

Thanks for all the advice so far! I'll do the best I can this year with my 270 and 300. Maybe next year it will be with a 264 win mag and longer barrel