Opinions on a Coues Rifle

[firstcoueswas80]

Yep. Huge liar.

[POB]

If you have the money, buy it. A 25-06 should be a great coues gun. If not, no worrys. Guns will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no guns.

[roninflag]

If you have the money, buy it. A 25-06 should be a great coues gun. If not, no worrys. Guns will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no guns.

POB - That is an intersesting observation. AKA- there are a lot of good coues rounds, the 25-06 is one of them so is the 30-06. i do not believe the hawkeye will shoot better groups at 500 yards than your rem 700 . ( you could spend a lot of time and money trying to acheive it but i would have to see it ). I would look for a vanguard-moa, remington sendero or a weatherby accumark , or tikka . no guarantees. but you have a better chance with those. you do not say if you handload Edited October 23, 2012 by roninflag

[Md2Hunt]

120 gr is great for Coues. Shot my 2nd Coues with it and it did a fine job at 220yds. I also shoot 87 gr for varmint. Shot a prairie dog at 450 yds and was pretty amazed.

 

On the flip side I notice quite a scope adjustment needed when going to the lighter bullet. 87 gr seems to travel about 3" higher at 100 yds on paper so you should shoot both and document scope adjustments in case you have to change bullet weights without being able to range shoot.

 

My 25-06 is a Savage with a bull barrell. Great for varmints but heavy when I drug it around on a coues hunt.

[Guest akaspecials]

If you have the money, buy it. A 25-06 should be a great coues gun. If not, no worrys. Guns will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no guns.

 

I like your way of thinking! Haha.

 

And I'll reload for my 30-06 for a year or two and then I'll buy factory ammo for a year or two (when I run out of time to reload). So I have the capability to reload but I don't always do it. I would probably find a 25-06 coues load and a 25-06 varmit load that I like and then make a couple hundred rounds of each to hold me over for a year or two.

 

And I forgot to include that one of my main issues with the 30-06 is that it kicks a fair amount and I flinch. I have spent some range time trying to get used to it but I still flinch and I can't seem to shoot better than 4-5 inch groups at 200 yards when using just a front bag on a bench. I'm sure a lot of this is my technique, but I know I shoot better with guns that kick less so the 25-06 will hopefully let me be good out to 300 yards without spending much more time at the range. Some of this may be may scope too. I have a cheap ($100) Bushnell scope on it. Maybe I should just invest in better optics instead of the rifle. Ugh... I wish money grew on trees!

[STOMP442]

The 25-06 is a perfect deer cartridge and very effective on elk as well. Relatively light recoil and extremely flat trajectory. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a deer way past 500 if your capable of making the shot. A 115 Berger bullet at 3100 plus will drop anything you will hunt around here no problem. I shot a coues deer in 2010 with my little 250 savage with the same bullet at 2760 fps at 662 yards and it was just as dead as if I had used a 180 grain bullet from a 300 mag.

[STOMP442]

Just re read this thread and have to argue that the Ruger will shoot just as good as any Remington I have ever seen. Remingtons are fine rifles for sure but they are far from the be all end all of rifles. Just about any rifle on the market today can be made to shoot at least MOA with a good hand load and a simple bed and float job. Besides that the fit and finish of the Ruger I find to be far superior to any Remington.

[CouesWhitetail]

Coues Gun: A gun intended for coues.

 

Can we make this a sticky! We can start a CWT.com dictionary/wiki

 

 

We had a dictionary started years ago....I will have to look it up and post a link. It translated all the jargon we use on the site....pretty good one.

[POB]

If flinching continues to be a problem, youmight consider downsizing to a sweet 257 roberts or a 243. There's been a ton of deer killed with both. The only limit is range, you'll have to keep it to 400 yards or less, but people on this site kill some every year with a bow so it can be done. One other posible sulotion is to spend more (lots) time shooting a 22 compared to the amount of time shooting the bigger guns. In the meantime keep buying guns, just like money in the bank.

[elkster9]

The 25-06 with 115 gr Berger reloads at 3,092 FPS in a 20 year old Ruger M77 is my go to rifle for Coues.

[roninflag]

Just re read this thread and have to argue that the Ruger will shoot just as good as any Remington I have ever seen. Remingtons are fine rifles for sure but they are far from the be all end all of rifles. Just about any rifle on the market today can be made to shoot at least MOA with a good hand load and a simple bed and float job. Besides that the fit and finish of the Ruger I find to be far superior to any Remington.

i have shot against plenty of savages in competition (500 , 600 , 1000). Never a ruger. or a browning. i am ready though. grin.

[STOMP442]

You need to get out more. If your shooting competition your not using a bought off the store shelf Rifle anyways more than likely every gun on the line has a high quality match barrel installed. Were talking hunting rifles here in which case a Ruger can do anything a Remington can do.

[roninflag]

You need to get out more. If your shooting competition your not using a bought off the store shelf Rifle anyways more than likely every gun on the line has a high quality match barrel installed. Were talking hunting rifles here in which case a Ruger can do anything a Remington can do.

not true; i do get out , not as much as i would like. quite a few compete with factory barrels. i have shot and won with both a remington sendero and a winchester laredo. the custom barrels make it easier to find a competitive load. when talking 500 yard shots on coues ; they are a very small challenging target. i would like to see the ruger 500 yard target. i know what my remington will do.

[STOMP442]

I know what my Ruger can do so what's your point. A Ruger rifle is more than capable to hunt coues with even to 500 yards. What experience or proof if any do you have to prove that a Ruger rifle is less accurate than a Remington or anything else for that matter besides what you may have read online. I am a savage guy personally but I do own Ruger and Remington rifles as well and each and every one is tuned to shoot well beyond 500 yards with ease. Load development and the guy behind the trigger is more important than the brand of rifle.

[Coach]

My favorite all-around cartridges are .300 WSM and .270 WSM. With Nosler Accubonds, they do it all. That said, I'm in the process of reloading for my 25-06 as a "backup" gun for a strip tag. I'm going to load 100 grain Barnes TTSX on 50 grains of IMR 4350. That 25-06 is one amazing shooter - but as others have said, even though it's accurate out past 500 yards you lose a lot of energy, especially with a 100 grain bullet.

 

I'll be shooting my .300 WSM Savage 114 classic as my primary gun - it just kills anything in front of it, with the heavy barrelled Savage 110 in 25-06 as a backup. I'll also bring my kids' Howa .270 WSM with 140 grain accubonds, just in case. They're all inexpensive rifles, but with handloads and practice, they all are very deadly.

 

Who knows, if I like the way the TTSX shoot out of the 25-06, it might just be my go-to gun on this hunt. It's really heavy (1" bull barrel), but I've seen what it does to prairie dogs out past 400 yards. Shooting a 2"x4" target at 400+ yards, consistently, gives you a lot of faith. Add a solid copper bullet, and I have no doubt it's enough gun to get the job done.