Finished Up My Coues Hunt

[JimP]

Well, I wished that I could tell all of you that I bagged a booner but my shot did not go true and hit it's mark and my other stalk was blown by some ATV riders.

But I had a fantastic time chasing these little gray deer of the south. My first stalk was for over a mile while the buck was on the top of a hill above us. We got within 500 yards and could not get any closer due to the terrain so we went for the shot. I got my rifle all set up and placed the cross hairs where the bullet should of taken out the front shoulder but only managed to hit just above his back. 2 inches lower and he would of been mine.

The second stalk started from about 2 miles away. We had to take a detour due to a mad cow or bull that was in the draw that we wanted to go up. We ended up at 400 yards and felt that the buck was mine. We set up and just as I chambered a round a ATV rider came down a road and stopped to either watch what we were doing or the buck. I doubt that he could see the buck since he was bedded at the base of a cactus and hadn't moved since we had started the stalk over a hour before. But such is hunting on public ground and the buck was gone with only his tail wagging in the breeze.

Now to wait until next June so that I can put in for the little ghost again and start the planning on a new hunt

 

[Alabama]

That's why it's called hunting. Sometimes failure pushes us harder next time.

 

[Horsenhike]

Nice. We are looking hard at spending time in AZ in the years to come.

Out of curiosity, do you practice out to 500 on a regular basis?

One of our goals this upcoming season is to spend more time practicing at those 4-500 yard ranges.

 

[JimP]

I had shot my rifle out to 600 just for this hunt but I didn't have a turret to adjust for elevation for my scope yet. I guess that I should of. My plans for this rifle is to have the chambered reamed out to 25-06 AI and didn't want to have to buy a second one once I came up with a load for it.

But afterwards thinking of the shot I thought that if anything I would of shot low and not just over his back. My shots at that range told me that I had a 32" drop and I held about 20" over his back so something else happened that I just haven't put my mind to.

 

[Tim McCoy]

They are awful small targets, fun to hunt and challenging to see for me at least. Not sure of their chest size, but suspect it is 15" ish, maybe less? I know with my LR set up I can shoot 1/2 moa to about 200, but have to work to keep it under moa at 600. Assuming you can shoot, under field conditions, to 3-4" at 500, it is possible you held just fine but the rifle put that shot on the low end of it's accuracy envelope, just under him. Just a thought that may help as you noodle on the shot. Hope you make it back soon and have another go at them.

 

[JimP]

They are small and hard to see. The first couple of days I was using some 10x42 Swaro's and all I could see was that they were deer. I then switched over to my 16x50's and started to actually see the horns. They are also a very spooky deer. On Wednesday morning we were 1/2 mile away from some does and they wouldn't stop blowing at us. But I can see where they could get addictive to hunt. Between the long hikes into very remote country and then the hours of glassing to find a buck to even try to stalk is not for everyone, but I'll give it another try when I draw another tag for this unit.

On the shot my rifle is a .25-06 shooting 100 grain Barnes TTSX bullets at 3200 fps and from my target shooting last summer I should of been 32" high at 500 yards. I placed the cross hairs about 20" above his back figuring that if I missed I should miss low but my partner who was watching through a spotting scope watched the bullet fly about 1-2 inches above his back.

Come next summer I'll get back out to the range and see just what happened even if I have to completely recreate the shot, both the range and uphill angle to see if I can figure it out. But then the rifle may be at the gunsmiths shop to be reamed out to a AI so that I can get a few more fps out of it.

 

[mcseal2]

Were you using a rangefinder that gives the true horizontal distance? I missed a big bull elk at 631 yds early in my mountain hunting career. I had a 7 mag I'd practiced with at that range and time to make a heck of an improvised bench from a couple packs and a down tree. I used the ballistic reticle and held just like I knew I should and shot over his back 3 times. Later I got to thinking about the angle and I checked the shot with my angle calculating rangefinder on the next trip out. The true horizontal distance was 400yds. It was all my fault the shot missed, but I learned a valuable lesson I'll never forget.

I had a 25-06 built I'm just in the process of getting perfected now that things are slowing down a bit after hunting season. It has shown a preference for the factory 100gr TTSX Barnes ammo over other factory loads I've tried but I haven't handloaded for it yet. I was disappointed running that ammo over the chronograph today though, I got 3007fps instead of the advertised 3225fps from my 24" barrel. Shot a coyote with it from the feed truck this morning at about 225yds though and it did the job there. I think I'm going to experiment with the 100gr Swift Sirocco II bullet as it's BC is darn good for a 100gr bullet and it should perform well on coyotes and deer. I thought I still had 25-06 dies but I guess I must have been using a buddies when I shot one years ago, I ordered some today.

Good luck getting your 25-06 perfected, they are a darn good and often under-rated cartridge.

 

[stevevan]

25-06 is at the top of my list for favorite chamberings. It was the rifle I used when I took my best Coues buck (4x5, 15 1/2") about ten years ago south of Tucson. I really like the overlooked Speer 120gr Hot Core. It actually has about the best BC of the 25 cal. game bullets and works great on deer/antlelope sized game. With my handload I'm over 3100 fps with a 23" barrel. The extra wt. of the 120gr along with that BC really shine at longer ranges out performing those faster 100 grainers at the muzzle. If you're set on the Improved then why not? However, I've owned and used the 25-06AI and the .257 Weatherby and settled back on the old 25-06 REM. I just didn't see any real world better performance in the latter two that was worth the added cost, recoil, inconvenience. etc. over the plain jane 25-06.

 

[JimP]

We were using a rangefinder that was suppose to adjust but I think that there was a problem with it. I am going to have my friend that had it check it out just to make sure that it is OK. If nothing else I can just say that I missed and leave it at that but some of what I experienced on that shot just doesn't make any sense to me.

On the loading I am using 54 grains of RL22 in new Hornady brass and a CCI large rifle primer with a velocity of 3200fps. This load will put 5 shots into a dime at 200 yards and will open up to about 3" at 600 so I know that the load will work.

As for the AI cambering, I just like having something that the next guy doesn't and I don't mind the recoil or having to load my own rounds. All the rounds out of this 25-06 have been hand loads except for the first 10 that I used to sight it in with. If I do go with the AI I'll step up to at least a 115 grain bullet for that little extra energy at the receiving end of the shot.

 

[Tim McCoy]

Wow, thats frustrating. That's the stuff that stays with a guy for a while, the not knowing why. Unless something went whacko on the scope/mounts, could be a range finder issue. I thought my range finder went bad, older Leica, when it did not match my brothers new Leupold. Got a new Leica and then found a tiny almost hidden Y/M switch in the battery compartment, turned it to Y and now have two accurate Leicas... Dang things have all sorts of menu options for various settings now, including true horizontal, as I've proven, it is easy to inadvertently change a setting.

I too use the 25-06 a bunch, took it on my only Coues hunt too. It is one of my two fav's, the other is my 280. Both very accurate and my only two custom rifles.

 

[Horsenhike]

Our intention was to sell equipment and buy a 6.5X55 and more powerful scope to help at distance.

What we have decided for the time being is to have Leupold install elevation turrets on our current 10X VX3 scopes, and keep our .308 rifles. We know they are accurate, and we are familiar with them. The money saved will go toward practice ammunition.

We are pretty new to big game hunting, but getting to a better place for sure. Our equipment is solid, game spotting ability is good, stalking ability excellent, and drive over the top. But, and it's a big one, the difference between a cool story and bringing home the buck of your dreams is the confidence and ability to hit your mark at 500 yards. Wyoming was a cruel teacher last fall. We will return this year with a better skill set, and hopefully realize our goals.

Sorry about your miss. Got any pictures to share? That country is amazing.

 

[JimP]

While I usually pack a camera I am not a picture taking type of person. The area was steep and covered in short mesquete bushes, nothing over 12' tall. It also had lots of small pocket canyons for them to hide in.

For equipment I believe that my 4.5x14 Leupold scope was just fine but don't skimp on your binoculars. My 10x's worked to see deer but not antlers at longer ranges. I could usually tell that they were bucks by the way that they acted. When I dug out my 16x binoculars I started to see antlers and when I had my rifle scope on him cranked up to 14x I could also see his antlers just fine, but when we were a mile away we really needed to use our spotting scopes to tell just what he was packing.

 

[prhunter]

Congrats on your hunt even if a deer was not taken. They are tough little animals. Good luck on your javelina hunt. I will be chasing the javs in unit 32.