pwrguy

I have spent most of the last half of December hunting whitetail with my friends Dave and Anthony. The hunt started on the 13th, but due to work, weather and my wife having surgery I did not get too involved until just before Christmas. We were fortunate enough to be able to hunt every day after Christmas and we even hunted the morning of Christmas day. On Monday the 30th we were down to the wire and both hunters had lowered their expectations. Anthony was willing to shoot just about anything in order to fill his tag and Dave was willing to look at anything around the 90 to 100 inch mark. I took Anthony and his friend Darrell up one ridge and Dave went up another. About 45 minutes in we spotted a small buck working his way towards some does. While Anthony and Darrell tried to track him I was setting up my custom 300 Win Mag for a long shot. After looking at the situation with the deer at 680 yards and heading over a hill we would not be able to see, we decided to relocate so that we could cut some of the distance off and see the shady side of the hill that he was heading towards....30 minutes later we were setting up on him again from a different hilltop. He did us the favor of standing out in the open on a rige top for 15 minutes and that was all we needed. Anthony was able to drop him with one shot at 621 yards. At this point Anthony and Darrell had work to do and were done hunting. I guided them to the deer and went to work looking for a deer for Dave. About 1 hour later Dave was watching some deer that I was not able to see. He said one of the bucks he would be happy with if he could get a shot, but he wanted help with the shot and watching the deer. It took me about an hour to get to Dave because I had to cross the canyon that was between us. When I arrived where Dave was, sweating and out of breath, he tells me the deer has vanished in the bottom of the canyon in the thick timber and scrub and he has not seen him since. We glassed the area for a couple of hours working on our sun tans in the middle of the day and never did see the buck that he had seen earlier. After a brief intermission for a nap, we both started moving around to look at other areas while still keeping an eye out for the deer in the spot where he had disappeared. I saw a doe grazing up a hill on the far side of the canyon and decided to keep an eye on her. For practice I ranged her and set up my rifle for another long shot just in case a good one showed up. After setting up the rifle for a shot I went back to glassing. In less than 5 minutes I spotted a buck slinking in from the right about 200 yards from her. I relocated the rifle while Dave ranged him. He was at 580 yards. Dave took the shot and the deer rolled. We thought it was over but a short time later the deer got up and walked behind a tree. After a little while he decided he wanted to follow the doe in spite of being hit and Dave was able to put a finishing shot in him. We looked at the sun going down over the ridge and made the difficult decision to leave him overnight and hope the critters didn’t get to him. The next morning we went back with all 4 of us and I was able to talk Dave, Anthony and Darrell right to the deer. Fortunately he was un-touched and we were able to recover all of him. I gross scored this buck at 97 inches, so Dave got to come away with what he was looking for on his second succesful Coues Deer hunt

Thanks guy's I really could have used one a couple of day's ago.

Congrats to the wife. Great shot, great deer. How are you mounting your rifle to the tripod?

Thats pretty cool. A seven year run in this state is saying something. Congrats.

Bump

Great deer!!! Thanks for the story.

I have a pile of used 7mm mag brass that I no longer need. Would love to trade or cash for some Remington brass in 300 win. If it is already loaded I don't mind pulling the bullets to get a hold of some more brass. Sorry I don't have any leads on new unfired brass for either caliber.

That is one cool buck, congrats.

I have a 308 savage already postef on CWT asking 700 http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/45341-wts-savage-model-12-stainless-26-inch/

FANTASTIC bull congrats.

Nice job Sarah!!! Great deer.

Bwaaaahhhh haa. I know you said besides binoculars, but I do have to say, you can't shoot what you don't first find. I would turn around and go home if I left my binos. Of all the other items none really stick out as essential...except of course the TP

Great deer!!!

Awsome, great write up. I would love to "settle" for a ram like that one

So...not to hijack the thread, but I have 23 sheep points. Knowing that I won't draw the top few units, what units would you sheep experts suggest so that I can get to go on a sheep hunt before I get too old to climb those mountains? I am primarily interested in desert sheep.

Hey Mike, while you are sitting around in the dark today maybe you could run those calculations. I think you will discover what you already know, there is no superior caliber. It is all about what you are after there is always a trade off. Are you after less drop, more foot pounds of energy at 800 yards, less wind drift, do you want to compare grain for grain bullet weight or are the other factors of more importance, do you want less recoil? I love both of these calibers but favor the .30 because of all of the choices you have for them these day's.

Definitely a moose hybrid

Can't go wrong with Leica, I have the 1200 and love it.

It was a good read. It is funny to read a first time coues hunters perspective, there really is a lot of things unique about how we persue these little critters.

That is a cool find..almost touching.

Awesome Ram!!

Congrats on your elk.

Great deal...wish I had room.

Congrats on a couple of great bucks!!

Great shot, well done on the video. I would love to learn some of those video tricks, it seems like I'm on one of these kind of hunts every year with someone.