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

You'd think after "practicing all summer" the barrel would be toast on that 264......

Why? I like to hunt deer. Not take pot shots from 600 yards away, that is not hunting, that is shooting. Coues deer are pretty skittish but you can get within 400 yards of them. How in heck do hunters get them with the bow and ML?

Can't see how a guy would think that if he'd actually owned and shot a 264 barreled with modern steel in an action less than 30 years old...

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent so bear with me....


One can search my past posts or click on my signature to see where I stand on this, but ignoring anyones personal ethics, sportiness, etc., if you really want to be able to consistently make 600+/- shots it isn't going to be a cartridge change. The first question is what scopes/mounts are on your rifles? What are the average 5 round groups at 100 and 300 yards? That's average, not every once and a while but what your rifle will do every single time with no excused flyers? What is your distance shooting experience?


I do not have any experience with the new 27 caliber bullets such as Matrix, but I do with just about every other caliber and given your two choices and the small size of Coues I would lean heavily to the 300Win with 155 Scenars. As I'm sure you know, Coues are small deer and I would say that an 8-10 inch target would be target size to work with. Given that, while not the most important criteria, drop will be important. The 155 Scenars will give a good balance between drift/drop at your ranges. Then get a scope that is truly built for shooting at long range. Not a rebadged hunting scope.

The most important piece of it, and the one that will have more bearing on whether you will actually have the skill to make 600-700 yard hits vice just talking about it, will be going to a course and getting taught how to do it by someone that honestly understands LR shooting at animals, and honestly knows what they're doing.

The cartridges that the military selects for sniping is not based on ballistic performance first. In fact it is rarely a factor at all. All one needs to do is compare the standard issued military ammo for the 300WN (A191) to a 7/08 with a 162 AMAX at 500 yards..... It's illuminating.


The no fuss, no muss, top choice for med-long range is a 7mm Rem Mag (or like cartridge) with a 162 AMAX. It is a plug and play performer.

John_Gregori,

Still a lot of good common-sense info in this post from Jan. 2012. Keep in mind, even a big Coues Whitetail buck has a vital zone about the size of a football, and a rifle that can consistently make first-round lethal hits at the ranges you are talking about is not one you are going to get very far from a vehicle with, unless you are a world-class athlete or equivalent, or maybe have a couple of sherpas (and a spotter with high-powered optics who knows what to look for).

They are very wary, blend in perfectly, and the wind can be all over the map. If you don't make a good hit, how many aimed shots do you anticipate as they are getting away? It can take an hour just to get to where the buck was when you fired, to look for blood or hair.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._foolin_best_factory_rifle_s#Post6084758

Best of luck,

forepaw

One GOOD thing about Coues deer, is their comfort zone seems to be right about 300 yards. I killed a coues deer a couple years ago at 296 yards. He knew we were there, but wasn't bothered... Until he stood up and got a 100 TTSX through the lungs.

On the other hand, a 100 pound Coues deer can take up lead like you would not believe. I hunted with a guy in Mexico a few years ago who was shooting a (it was either a 338 win mag, or 300 RUM, cant recall). Anyways, his statement was "As long as I nick him, hes dead..." 5 shots later, the buck falls over dead.

How many hits in the vitals?

He finally managed to get one into the lungs.

I put 3 into the lungs with a .270 wsm before a spike finally died, and this buck, hit with a .257 wby, 115 VLD at 575 yards took about 25 minutes to die.

The answer to this question is fairly simple-

Can you, with any rifle you own, consistently hit a Coues-size vital organ area, at 600-750 yards? How about in a 10 mph crosswind? Maybe a 20 mph crosswind? How about uphill or downhill, say, at a 30 degree slope?

If you can pull off a killing shot, with 99 percent confidence of a clean kill, under the above conditions, then go for it.
If you can't answer this question with confidence, then don't even think about it.
Either find a new, more competent, outfitter, or just get closer.

John,

The humble .308win is used reliably out to 1000m by the tactical crowd and even at that distance, i am sure it has a enough steam left to deal with a small bodied Coues deer.

Truth is, distance shouldn't really be too big a factor in this choice. With high BC bullets, both the .270win and the 300win mag are more than capable of reaching out to 800yards.

The problem at extended ranges is estimating the wind, and you can't "buy" that type of experience, it only comes with practice.

Again, high BC bullets help and help considerably, but reading the wind is still very tricky..

Assuming both rifles are accurate enough,unless you have a suitable scope already, and I'd look at getting a decent scope with turrets and a mil dot reticle of some sort to match, preferably one where the reticle is in the FFP, plus a range finder and a Kestral wind meter.

I would then set up steel gongs out to 800yards, and practice, practice, practice like crazy.

Take a note book and record all the conditions for each shot, ie wind strength direction, turret settings and the result, even (or especially) for misses. That record will be an invaluable learning tool as you progress.

Best of luck,

Peter

WTF?! Seriously? You can't get closer than 500-750 yds? Sounds more like prairie dog shooting rather than hunting.

Good idea. If you can hit prairie dogs at 750, then a deer is no sweat

I've seen Coues take longer to expire with monometals or hits outside the heart/lung area. I can't honestly say they're any tougher or different than any other game, other than that is a smaller area to hit, on average.

Absolutely they're not any tougher, I can't imagine anyone thinking anything to the sort.

A quick twist 22/250 or Swift is about ideal for them to most sane ranges.

Dober

the one with krieger barrel.

the one that you win the f-class matches at 600 yards with. the one that shoots a 5 inch groups at 700 yards.

obiviously you have never hunted coues.

I have hunted Coues every year for 33 years now. To each their own, but I have to chuckle at the thought that you "need" to shoot them at 500+ yards, or that they could take 3 lung hits to put down. Go ahead and shoot them from as far as your skills allow, but be able to finish what you started, it's often more likely to wound at long range than miss clean.

After 33 years... Lets see some pix.