The question of what caliber to use is up to the individual.
Have been hunting coues for over 20 yrs. During that time I have evolved through several rifles and calibers. I often ponder the perfect long range coues rifle. For me it has boiled down to having at least two rlfles depending on the situation.
A fairly light but powerful rifle would be my recommendation for a one rifle hunter. My fav is a short action Ruger M77 chambered in 284 win. It weighs 7 3/4 lbs with the 3-9 leupold. Uses 140 ballistic tips at 3100. It is chosen if there is a great deal of hiking involved.
The other while not much heavier (9 lbs) is usually used for glassing, ranging and shooting from one location. It is a 7 mag which shoots moly coated 120 ballistic tips going 3575. It always is carried with the longests S series Harris Bi-pod attached. It sports a 2.5-10 scope.
As a sidenote many one shot kills have been accomplished at distances in the 350-450 yd range using a scope with max magnification of 9 or 10. Tried some higher power scopes with adj obj lens and things can get too complicated especially with time constraints.
Naturally the search continues. This year a 6.5-284 and a 270 weatherby are being built. If they prove to be accurate enough they may be used. The 6.5 would be the hiking rifle and the 270 the glassing. May even consider using a 6.5-20 vari XIII on the 270W.
To summarize, I believe the 6mms to be a bit too light for most instances. On the other end the 30s and up are a bit too much in the recoil department for deer. It would seem, so far, that the 7 mms get the nod. While the 7 STW is a good one the 7 mag may be the most useful rifle chambering for this type of hunting. It is a good mix of power vs recoil vs weight.
Just discovered this site thanks to Diamondback.
Very useful imformation.
