Coues Sniper

Congrats on a great hunt! It's always a blast to help someone kill their first deer, and that's a great buck.

It would sure do the job, I just don't know if AZ has a min. caliber law. I want to say that they don't, but not positive. Sounds like it shoots really well, does your son know my Santa? Maybe we should introduce them

Looks like an awesome bull man, he's HUGE! I'd like to kill a big ol' bull one year too. Congrats on a great hunt!

I saw pics on another site, and it said it was AZ. Absolute pig of a ram.

UPDATE Just wanted to give an update on my cousin's deer - he had him officially scored and even though after the drying period he was only 19 3/4" wide he ended up grossing 231" and netted 221 3/8"!!! I've never heard of a buck going that high with a spread of less than 20"! Lucky kid

Sweet gun. That 17 Remington is a heck of a round. What kind of groups are you getting?

pics please

That's one of the reasons i got that Leupold VXL - that cut out of the bottom lets me mount a 56mm scope as low as a 40mm scope, and lets as much light in as a 52mm scope. Field of view is unaffected and is 56mm. Best of both worlds. Thanks, Casey. Do the shoulder straps "cut on you" under heavy weight??? G Gino, I have the J104, and i have never thought that it needed any more padding... It's got plenty in my opinion. The straps do not "cut" whatsoever (still laughing at Mikes theory, LOL). Very comfortable pack and well worth the money. It can carry a really heavy load exceptionally well.

I agree with Bill. I'm no expert, but in my experience Coues bucks will definitely wander a ways during rut, however i don't think they have traditional rutting areas like mule deer and elk seem to (areas they will travel to from their summer hangouts to rut year after year). I've hunted areas and i thought i had every buck in there pegged, then rut comes and everything goes haywire. The bucks i knew about are nowhere to be found and other bucks come in and leave pretty much daily looking for a hot doe. If a hot doe is around, there could be a dozen or more bucks in there. But it seems to be hit or miss. One year a certain spot will be loaded with deer during the rut, the next year you can hardly find a deer. Go a couple canyons over and they're everywhere. It just like wherever a hot doe ends up, that's the happening spot. During the rest of the year they occupy a pretty small area unless food or water forces them to move.

Score schmore - Nice bull

A really old, 70lb sow javelina, with worn teeth... YUMMY! Even the gravy will be tough on her. That is a trophy pig man, congrats.

That's pretty amazing for one year. That coues buck was the one with the broadhead in his nugget wasn't it???

That's freaking crazy! Did you take any pictures of the skull? I'd like to see those if so. A buddy of mine killed a Coues in 8 a lot of years ago that had about an 8" section of arrow stuck in his ham that was embedded in his hip bone. You'd never know it except he had about 2" sticking out. But to have a arrow in his head, that's nuts.

Nice work dude! Good luck to your sis and old man on their pigs too!

I bet there's not that many people that can say they saw that! Cool story.

Nice buck! You should be proud of him for sure! What's going on with his G3 on that left side? Was he broke there??? Congrats again.

Sweet finds man. Good luck on finding the matches.

Mike, i just found this thread. Seems you have the turret thing figured out, but as far as the power on your scope goes... I have a 4.5-14 Leupold and have had no trouble shooting out to 1000 yards and i would feel comfortable shooting at a coues deer out to 700 (300 RUM), and I'm no pro. You should be able to shoot out to 600 with 14 power with zero issues. Nothing wrong with the other scopes you mentioned, just wanted you to know that 14 power would be very adequate in my opinion for what you are wanting to do. And for what it's worth, I've found that scopes with a 6X low end were too much magnification for close up shots, especially if they were moving. But i didn't have a 56mm objective either which would have made a difference. Anyways, my 2 cents. Good luck with whatever you decide. Kevin

I use a Leupold VXL 4.5-14 x56mm (the one with the cut out of the bottom) with custom turrets from Leupold and really like it. Not that i would shoot at game that far, but i practice with it out to 1000 yards and have been very impressed with the setup. You can get much fancier depending on your wallet (Nightforce, etc) but Leupold has always worked great for me and the 14 power allows me to shoot far pretty comfortably while still having a 4.5 power low end for closer shots and better target acquisition on moving animals. Just my 2 cents.

I agree, that has to be fake. I have no proof except that it's ridiculously gi-normous and the whole world would have known about a deer like that being killed.

Doug - Beautiful write up and pictures. I really enjoyed reading your story, but am sorry it had a tough ending - for now. I hope you are able to get back out there soon and find your deer. I too know the sickening feeling of losing a bloodtrail; I lost blood on an elk this year and thought for sure he was lost. Some good friends however came to help and somehow found blood 800 yards later, and we found my bull. I hope your story ends that way too. Good luck. Kevin

Sweet buck, and even better story man! Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Careful cubsfan - it only gets worse! Wait till you get an arrow in one! Good luck on your hunt.

I hope it shoots as good as it looks. Sweet rifle.

Wow, great set. And you found it together which makes it even better. You did get robbed on that 5, but those 2's are crazy man!