CouesPursuit

Wonderful photos and what a long and amazing life you shared together. RIP, Rica. Hang in there, Doug.

I've shared this on CWT before but I was wade fishing in a local river and had one follow my frog back to me while I was semi-stuck in the mud. Had to fight and flick this little bastard away for several minutes before he moved on. Haven't been bitten by one in 30 native years but this was close.

VMax factory 55gr had proven to be very deadly for me on coyotes so I started hand loading 53 gr (better BC). Not fur friendly.

DB, send me a PM and I can get you what you are looking for.

Love the solo DIY on a class IV. I bet a piece of you will forever be left on that mountain. Congratulations!!

I've really been looking hard at these rifles, just not in the market yet. Nice optic too, good luck on the sale.

That's meat processing music right there.

I never thought watching a video of someone else shed hunting would be as enjoyable as that, good stuff bud.

Just migratory birds. Not turkey or quail for example.

Glad to hear your dog's training worked! Thanks for sharing. Would you mind elaborating on how the dog alerted you? Specifically was the wind in their favor? My boy has been trained but we haven't run into the real deal yet. Thanks!

What are your experiences, positive and negative, with predator calling with your companions dogs tagging along on the hunt? I'm curious how common it is, if anyone has any advice, or has had any major problems they'd be willing to share. i.e. Keeping them leashed, away from dead coyotes, always carry a shotgun, etc. Thanks!

You could get an absolute gem buying used, but if I was on a budget spending everything I had, I sure would want to know how a barrel has been treated in its life.

Lot of good advice here, hard to go wrong with most of it. But there is nothing wrong IMO with getting into a Savage Axis when there is a true limit in budget. Regardless of how they feel, they SHOOT, accurately! Savage has the $50 rebate now through April. For reference, the "XP" distinguishes that it's a scope combo. Personally, my Axis, although a heavy barrel chambered in .223, shot factory bulk ammo at 1 MOA and is stupid accurate with reloads after a proper barrel break in.

Very cool. Way to keep it interesting is right. Job well done bud!

There is a lot of content posted here if you search back a ways that will get you thinking more like an Arizona waterfowler, but don't discount your Wisconsin knowledge. Consistent waterfowl success here requires scouting, coordinating with the weather and moon helps too. I live in Mesa but I'd be more than happy to meet at a park sometime with Drake, my 6 year old BLM. We aren't experts, but we don't lose any and have taken a lot of birds together in the last 5 years. You can always PM me with anything specific. Thank you very much for your service.

As of a week before the opener, I had 4 cameras that didn't reveal a mature buck at all through the entire summer. Does, spikes, forks, bulls, bears, lions - everything but a mature buck. No problem I thought, figured I would just spot and stalk an area I'd been looking at for a while and make the most of my new archery setup I have been shooting so well. Leaving straight from work on Thursday, I got to deer camp smooth and steady with an hour of light, just enough time to go check one last camera at a stand we have taken a few bucks from that wasn't tended to in a couple months. There was exposed soil in shaded areas around a few of the trees, but the hope that the area was getting hit hard by deer was hit hard by cattle crap, a first, everywhere under the stand and camera. I checked the SD card, FULL, then the camera batteries die immediately, which was my only way to view the photos. I take the entire camera back to camp and dug some old AA batteries out of a solar lantern and got the camera to turn on again. I was in disbelief, the card only had 60 pictures and the last 3 were from the day the camera was last setup. Weird. No problem I thought, I know cameras only mean so much, but the cow sign everywhere did bother me a bit. I woke up early opening day and just felt like giving the stand a chance as I haven't sat there in a couple years. I hiked in and was settled in the tree by 6am. I had a very quiet first couples hours, interrupted by a small bear cruising through at 60 yards, followed by a colorful coati at 20 yards, 2 minutes after the bear passed. Then, hours later at 10:45 the sound every bow hunter sitting in a tree wants to hear, intermittent tip toeing through the leaves. Finally, the sight I've been dreaming of, a big black eye and glowing silver antlers expose themselves behind a large oak. His body is 95% covered, only his antler tips are showing as he stands alert. The wind is perfect for this big coues buck shall he proceed on path, if he took 2 steps, he would be broadside at 15 yards. Another deer appears from behind him, but decides he wants to take another angle into the area, he heads directly downwind of me and his nose hits the air repeatedly as he stares up into my tree. Luckily, he was so close, say 10 yards, my scent was blowing right over him, and he just couldn't figure me out. I shook, and I calmed. I made a plan to stop focusing on the second deer, a fork, and just keep my eyes on the big 3x. Everything about the situation told me the big deer would follow the fork's trail instead of his own. I shook some more as I twisted my body awkardly around to be able to draw behind me without moving my feet around in the stand. The 3x walks backwards and gets on the downwind trail. Again, when he appears just his antlers were showing, opposite side of the same big oak, 10ish yards. I shook some more, but quickly put myself in focus and calmed to composure. Knowing the fork was still checking on me and directly underneath my scent, I stood ready to draw. The second the big buck's body appeared, I would dump him. He moved forward, I drew, and as the peep covered his body, all I could see was rump, he quartered away for a split second, and whack. My dedicated 15 yard/ elevated tree stand pin buried my 450gr VAP straight through him. The 3x ran, the fork watched. 40 yards, 5 seconds, and 1 final death kick later, it hit me that I just killed my first Pope and Young coues. I am blessed and ecstatic with this incredible buck.

Amazing. That's pretty much all I can say. The buck, the support from my wife, my good friends, my family who doesn't even hunt in the slightest, and now thanks to the amazing artistry by Clay and his folks at Mogollon Taxidermy, the memory that will watch over me forever. Thank you all who posted on this thread and anyone else here on CWT who I've learned from over the years. Everything came into play on this absolutely amazing coues deer. I hope I get the chance to share many more, but if not, here is my deer of a lifetime. Thanks Adam for helping with the second rotated photo.

I've never had a tougher time settling on something than which 6.5 I would like to eventually get into, and as a novice hand loader, I figure I better understand this aspect of the trade-offs. I keep reading how much easier it is to load for a 6.5 Creedmore than some of its variants, such as where I have been leaning, the 6.5x284. I'm wondering if anyone can elaborate please. For 6.5's, I've read about properly matching twist rate to barrel length. Is this bullet specific or pressure specific, if at all? If you are buying say, Lapua or Nosler brass and loading from scratch, how does this apply? Thanks.

I've been leaning toward the 6.5x284 because it is offered in a factory Savage, either the TH or LRH. Which model is an entirely different conversation. However, looking back at the reloading aspect, which is pertinent to any caliber.. Lapua brass is $132 for 100 pieces. I would need to load it, and fire form it. Nosler Accubonds are ~$250 for 100 rounds, where I could fire only what I need at a time, and begin load development going that route. I then would be able to keep the remaining factory rounds for barrel fouling and practice, and not "waste" hand loads. Considering a rifle that may only last 1000 rounds. Thoughts on the trade-offs here? Is there something to gain in loading virgin brass? For example, are ladder tests similar enough with virgin brass that they are useful in identifying nodes once the brass has been formed to the rifle? Thanks.

I have the same pair and I could see spikes on a coues at 450 yards when I could NOT with Viper 15x50's or Diamondback 10x42's. Thanks to the Minox, we took home the spike that night. Great, sturdy glass and unbeatable at the price point. Mine have been through a lot. Good luck with the sale!

You made that entire experience look easy, except the hauling out of two dressed pigs! Congratulations on the successful trip with Peg and a couple more javelina through the processor!

Appreciate it guys. It's hard to pick one, period. Thanks for pondering!

Thanks! I am not looking at building a custom for a while. I would probably go custom when the time came to rebarrel, hence why I'm not really afraid to love long range shooting so much that I burn out a 6.5x284 and decide what to do with the gun from there. I'm not afraid of investing into it but I don't want to drop thousands of dollars into long range shooting until I decide it's for me.

Thanks for the response, metau. I wanted this to be specific to reloading but I'm always open to suggestions, here it goes - I honestly can't answer this until I understand my level of satisfaction with the rifle, and if I have any further talent as a shooter. I can tell you I don't have the time to put hundreds of rounds down the barrel a year. I also have an enjoyable, accurate to 500 yard rifle to do that with already. Everything. Target to 1000+ if I develop the talent. Deer and elk to 600 with complete confidence if I had to. A gun that will buck the big Wyoming winds at the Antelope 440 yards away like I had last year. This is where I start deciding against the Creedmore since I won't be shooting hundreds of rounds a year. I practice out to 500 yards consistently. I'm confident my current rifle selection, at least in part, is limiting me from shooting farther, accurately. I would consider weight of the rifle once I had a bullet and cartridge in mind first. Something manageable, potentially correlated to expected recoil. Nothing extremely light or heavy.

Understandably, a boring month after duck season, the dog let out a whimper as I was trying to leave the house in camo yesterday for a short evening of calling after work. I said heck with it and let him jump in the truck. We ended up getting a good half mile from the vehicle as he needed to burn some energy and I needed to make sure I had an extra good vantage point for this new experience. I began a couple short sequences on the hand call and the dog started with some whimpering calls of his own. He stared into the wind, relentlessly searching for what the heck we were doing. On the 5th or 6th sequence, getting near full volume, the first coyote appears. As Drake sees the coyotes from our overlook, he jumps from belly to butt, and the coyote takes notice and immediately comes charging in! My partner drops the coyote after stopping it with a bark. Drake starts howling in excitement! 10 seconds later, a second coyote comes barreling in again on my partners side. He fought to get his crosshairs on yote but couldn't do so before it eventually got downwind and disappeared. We looked at each other in excitement and kept ready as Drake wasn't giving up his howling, wishing he had the freedom to run around. A full minute later, a third coyote, or possibly a return of the second, comes out into plain view 150 yards to our side. I dropped him and after a few minutes of Drake calming down, the excitement was over. The first coyote ended up in some cholla so we kept some distance and took a quick snap with the second. My dog loved this experience more than bird hunting with how fast paced the action was. I guess now he is a retriever and a caller! Haha