recurveman

To answer the OP's original question. The best coues deer rifle is the one that you actually learn to shoot and practice with. Most guns can shoot sub 1/2 MOA but most guys shouldn't be shooting past 400 yards and struggle to hit animals (on the first shot) at that distance. So, pick a gun, any gun and get really, really good with it. That is the perfect gun. FYI - this is the perfect time of the year to be sending pills down the tube.

Agreed. I think it is a great option for rifles that are only looking to shoot 500-600 yards. My 308 gets out to almost 700 yards and I think that is plenty good for that rifle. The Z5 scope isn't on my "long range" gun

They weighed in right at 16 ounces.

If you like one of these rifles and it shoots accurately then spend the time and money on ammo and practicing. 98% of the misses out in the field are due to the operator not understanding how his rifle shoots. Practice, practice. The best time to practice is coming up too. I shoot 90% of my high powered rifle rounds from February to May. If I'm shooting a bunch of rounds in the fall I have failed to be a good hunter. Guns should be setup in the spring and only double checked in the fall. When you shoot in the spring there is no pressure to get it done fast and you can make adjustments to your gun or loads. Go dent primers!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to through out there the Swaro Z5 in 3.5 X 18. Great glass for around $1200.00. I own two of them and wouldn't hesitate to get a third. Put a custom turret on top (which I did to both) and it is hard to beat for a quality hunting scope.

Both are plenty accurate, both will easily kill deer sized animals at 600 yards. From a practical hunting standpoint there is no real difference. If you hit the animal in the right place they all die fast. If you miss they live to get shot at again. The biggest difference is this equation is the connection between the rifle and the ground. If the operator doesn't practice then it doesn't matter. I also see everyone say "oh yeah I will practice" but they don't. Then they spray lead at critters and are basically adding lead to the hillside. So.......pick one and practice, practice, practice......all the ballistics is not relevant for hunting applications out to 600 yards. The other huge problem I see with guys is they want to own 10 rifles for all types of purposes. Get ONE great rifle and practice. One great rifle that a hunter is comfortable with is more important that having one in every caliber. I typically use one rifle. I can consistently kill animals from 75 -964 yards. When I pull the trigger, the animal dies. My last animal was a desert sheep at 462 yards (a chip shot) and I hit exactly where I was aiming and only took one shot. That is the goal. The animal prior to that was a coues deer at 815 yards.....bang flop. You need to be comfortable shooting the gun at different distances and conditions. Caliber is completely irrelevant. FYI - I shoot a 6.5 X 284. It's a bit more powerful than the CM but that doesn't make it better than the CM. I love the 6.5 caliber, but I would never own a CM. I want one rifle that will kill deer and elk and I think the CM is a bit small for elk at distance. So why not get a gun that will shoot all animals instead of needing a different caliber for elk. One rifle that does it all is the answer!!!!!!!

I have tried the Outdoorsman rail. Absolutely no reason to get the rail. Wish I could get my $150 back. Not that it was a bad product I just don't see the need for it.

Time to upgrade the wife!!!!!!!

Don't look through the 115's. It's another level of awesome!!!!!!

Sell all 4 guns and buy a custom gun that shoots lights out. Have yet to meet the person that wasn't happy with their custom gun.

Just an FYI - This information will be public knowledge in a very short period of time. The G&F will publish your name, unit, score and days hunted. But why not keep us in suspense!!!!!

Stud ram for sure. Congrats!!!!!

Holy cow was this an adventure!!!!!!! First, I started off by spending $2300.00 on a sheep tag. Then I didn't know if my wife had the tag or if it was mine. Luck ended up in my favor and I got a rebate for the additional money spent on the tag. In all I made 5 scouting trips and one trip down for the hunt. As it turned out I had 14 days of scouting (buddies had probably more days than me towards scouting). After scouting ended, we had only seen sheep 1 out of the last 8 days of scouting. I can't begin to tell you how difficult it is to sit there and glass for days on end and not see sheep. We had a 3 day and then a 4 day stretch with seeing no wildlife. We didn't even see a deer, rabbit, nothing. As opening morning rolled around the feeling in camp was different than any other hunt I have been on. Normally everyone is super excited and ready to go but everyone knew this could be day 5 with seeing no sheep. We also knew this would likely be a hunt that lasted more than 10 days to get the job done. Either way we knew that heading out before first light would need to happen. We developed a plan and sent everyone to their spots to find the elusive ram. After a solid hour of glassing, I decided to grab some grub out of my daily bag of food. That went so well that I decided that grabbing something else would be even better......little did I know that would be the last food I had before dinner. I kept on glassing and finally found a few white butts moving in the distance. I told my buddy to get eyes on them and then grabbed my BTX's after he obtained them in his glass. He started off by saying he could see 3 sheep and one was a ram. Then he said that there were 4 sheep and all of them were rams. Then his voice changed a bit and he said that one of the rams was really, really good. Once I got my glass on the rams I could see one that was well above average. We were sitting about 2.5 miles from the sheep. We knew he was big enough to look at but we really couldn't judge him from that far away. Luckily, we didn't have heat waves yet so we could tell that I needed to go in for a closer look. I grabbed my pack, glass and rifle and off I went. My buddy was going to stay and keep an eye on the rams. My other buddies were off in the general direction of the rams so hopefully we could all meet up if this came together. After a 2 mile walk (seemed like the longest walk of my life) I would see the rams up the mountain and decided to take a look at the bigger ram with my spotter. He was with 3 other rams. One of the rams was probably in the 150 class and he just looked tiny compared to this guy. I was fairly confident that this was going to be my ram. He had great mass all the way through. He looked like he was turning up at the tips and seemed to have good length. I'm far from a sheep expert but he looked good to me. Well after looking at this ram at 1000 yards I decided to make my approach. Off I went through a wash moving slowly (mostly because it was hot and I was tired) and gaining ground on the rams. They were starting to look like they were going to bed. I continued my stalk. The rams decided to bed down in a spot where I could take a shot if I could get into position. After a good chunk of time, I finally got as close as I could to the group of rams. The bigger ram was at 462 yards and bedded down in a position where I couldn't have a good shot at him. I knew that I would have to wait until he stood up before I could shoot. I'm not a very patient guy so this was going to be a challenge. I found a good resting spot and laid my rifle down on my pack. At the time I could see the ram in my scope but I couldn't see his body. It was now right at noon and the sun was just beating down on me. This was not typical hunting weather in my book. After about half an hour two of the smaller rams got up. Now I'm on high alert because I'm sure the bigger ram is going to get up any second. At many points I was shaking like crazy.....not because of nerves but I was just tired of laying behind my gun waiting for my ram to stand up. Every so often I would put my head down and get off the gun just so I could take a few breaths and relax. Then all of a sudden I look through the scope and the bigger ram stood up. two seconds later there was a light click and then a big boom. Big ram down!!!!!!!! I was super excited but knew the work was just to begin. My buddies joined me for a photo session and then we did a life size cape job on my ram. After breaking the ram down into pieces, we went down the mountain and made the journey back to the glassing spot which was 2.5 miles away. Luckily, we barely made it back before dark. I was plenty thirsty. It was 6pm and I was looking forward to getting some water in me and hopefully a good meal. A few guys were heading to camp to help for the second day but their help would be needed to pack up camp. We might have celebrated a bit and had ribeye's for dinner. Life was good. I was spent. The reward was worth the effort and I feel very fortunate for all the help I received from many people. Many of the people I only talked to on the phone and have never met in person. I even had one buddy Greg that went down twice on his own to scout and found multiple good rams. It's hard to believe so many people were rooting for me to find a big ram.......but that is sheep hunting.

Hartland is great. I have 4 white geese with her right now. I've had her do a few ducks and a goulds turkey. All look incredible.

With the grass that they have down there this year it will be very good hunting. One of the big keys is to head down after a rain. Scenting conditions get good and it starts to get exciting.

This is the most important part. Sheep hunting is a team sport and I had a top tier team. I couldn't have done it without them.

I knew he was struggling through his scouting efforts. I called him right after I shot my ram and invited him to camp that evening. We spent about an hour going over all information I could provide him. I told him when and where was saw sheep and showed him pics of target rams we were looking for. I'm slammed right now but if he still has the tag after Christmas I will go down and help. He for sure needs as much help as he can get. I also believe they are doing the right stuff. It is just a needle in a haystack.

I don't mind sharing. Let's just say that this hunt isn't for everyone. Easily the toughest hunt I've been on. I just don't want a guy that isn't in very good shape thinking they are going to smash a giant. Even best case you are going to walk a few miles to kill a ram. Unit is 46AE.

I don't mind sharing. Let's just say that this hunt isn't for everyone. Easily the toughest hunt I've been on. I just don't want a guy that isn't in very good shape thinking they are going to smash a giant. Even best case you are going to walk a few miles to kill a ram. Unit is 46AE.

Oh caliber really isn't important. Given the two I would choose the 270 because most can't handle a 300 win recoil and I hate brakes on guns. In all honesty the 270 will knock down anything you care to shoot at. If you get serious and want to shoot more guns then fine but I would get a milder recoiling gun. I've got a few buddies that hate to shoot their 300's and don't practice because of it. And let me tell you......they need the practice. My guess is you will need a bunch of practice too. I have a caliber that is really close to the 270 and I wouldn't hesitate to shoot elk out to 500 yards and I've killed deer at twice that distance. Don't get all wrapped up into the "I need a big gun macho craze". Everything in the lower 48 will die easily with a .270 and a good shooter. Lots of animals are still alive because a hunter missed with their 300 because they were scared of the recoil and didn't practice. I've got a list of buddies you can talk to if you want. They can tell you stories about how the big one got away.

pm sent

So I was out taking some video of some rams this weekend with my I-phone 12, BTX and the outdoorsman digi scoping phone case and eye piece adapter. When I tried to zoom in with my phone in video mode it would just turn black or blink black and then a normal pic. Does anyone know of a solution for this. I never had a problem with my I-phone 10.

yes I can zoom in and out after I lock the lens with the 12. Quality of the images are really good.

So the phone skope app allowed me to lock in a camera and that helped with the issue. Crisis averted!!!!

mearns are pretty simple once you figure them out. Most guys will pile in on each other in a few "hot spots". Personally, I think the spirit of mearns hunting is to explore new country with your dogs and enjoy the experience. Here is what you need to know about finding and killing mearns. Typically they will be found between 4000-6000 feet of elevation. The canopy should be about 50% oaks and if you aren't happy walking up and down the sides of the hills then that is even better. Grass is a huge key for mearns. The taller the better. If cattle have it chewed down then move to a different location. Moisture is your friend. If it would rain on a Monday I would plan on hunting on Tuesday. The wetter the better for scenting conditions. I would never start hunting mearns before 9am and later is better. If your dog (or you) can only handle half a day then start at noon. Look for scratching. If you see leaves all turned up everywhere then there are birds in the area. Mearns will hang out in the same area all the time. If you find a covey in an area one weekend they will be within 25-75 yards the next weekend. I have had dozens of times where I've shot at birds standing in the same exact spot more than once. Lastly but really important. learn to shoot your gun. You walk to far to miss mearns and with all honesty. Mearns are very easy to hit if you flush them in front of dogs. You should kill birds with the majority of the shots you shoot. If you don't then you need to learn to shoot the gun before you spend all day walking up and down hills to only miss birds constantly. Plus, your dog will not think kind things of you if you can't do your part. I would shoot a 20 gauge with #8 or 9 shot and the most wide open pattern I could get. There were many times where the gun would go bang, bang, bang and 3 birds would hit the ground. I know it seems obvious that shooting is important but most guys don't kill mearns because they can't shoot their gun. There is an old saying. "Go to Gardner Canyon and look at the mearns country. Then go somewhere else and find the same country and hunt them" The point being is Gardner has some great country and WAY to many people. Typically the places I would hunt birds would have no hunters. I would keep searching areas until I found good country and no people. Once you get away from all the people and learn how to hunt mearns they are a ton of fun. We would easily shoot limits of mearns with 3-4 guys every time I would go out. The amazing part......I have many places where I've never seen another hunter after hunting the locations for more than a decade. Learn to hunt them and get away from people. Once you find YOUR honey holes it will be a blast.......and don't tell a single person where you went.