Coues to Midwest Whitetail Conversion

[IA Born]

Anyone have any ideas how to run an apples-to-apples comparison of Coues whitetail and midwestern whitetail?  I entered my son in a youth deer contest on a forum back in my home state.  His buck scored 59-5/8" and my friends on that site and I are trying to figure out how to get a comparable score for the local bucks back there.  Thanks!

 

[lancetkenyon]

59?  or 95?

Not that I have ever hunted eastern whitetails. but I think eastern whitetails are much more like mule deer.  Common size is 110-150 depending on state?  Whoppers go 160-200+.  So a 95" Coues is like a 150" whitetail.  59" Coues is like a 110" whitetail.  B&C Coues minimum is 100".  B&C Whitetail minimum is 160".

[IA Born]

12 hours ago, lancetkenyon said:

59?  or 95?

Not that I have ever hunted eastern whitetails. but I think eastern whitetails are much more like mule deer.  Common size is 110-150 depending on state?  Whoppers go 160-200+.  So a 95" Coues is like a 150" whitetail.  59" Coues is like a 110" whitetail.  B&C Coues minimum is 100".  B&C Whitetail minimum is 160".

Thanks, Lance. 59-5/8" was his buck. A run of the mill Coues, but a great first buck for an 11-year old!  I've spent a few years "arguing" with a couple of my buddies back home that they need to learn to respect our whitetail down here and this is part of my attempt to help them learn!  My favorite is "You don't have regular whitetail down here, do you?".  Then I get on my soapbox of genetics and taxonomy and how much harder Coues are to hunt than the midwest whitetails I grew up with.  I think you're assessment is pretty close and about what I was thinking!  I've always told them that a 120" Coues is akin to breaking that 200" mark in Iowa.

[yotebuster]

I’m too big of a geek to not run numbers on this.  If you take 170 (b&c eastern) times 0.65 you get 110.5 which is darn close to 110 (b&c coues).  For p&y I had to do 0.55 to get 125 to roughly equal 70”.  So if you split the difference and use 0.6 and just divide or multiply depending on which direction you’re going that seems to be the nerdy way of doing it.  So your sons buck would be about equivalent to a 100” eastern.  I would say any coues is a bigger trophy then any eastern in my opinion, that’s even coming from a guy who spends much more time killing easterns then coues.   

[mattys281]

Yotebuster nailed my line of thought.  Look at the minimum entrance scores from p&y and b&c and you should be able to draw a pretty easy ratio to use for the score.

coues deer are fun and can be challenging, but having recently got my butt kicked on eastern whitetail I think us western guys often don’t give them their due.  Eastern whitetails on private land can be a slam dunk (sometimes).  Eastern whitetail on public land can be every bit as tough as hunting out here, at least with archery gear.  Five days of hunting Oklahoma public land, I never got to pick up my bow.  3 days on private ground in Nebraska and I had close range opportunities every day.

[johnrr65]

6 hours ago, yotebuster said:

I’m too big of a geek to not run numbers on this.  If you take 170 (b&c eastern) times 0.65 you get 110.5 which is darn close to 110 (b&c coues).  For p&y I had to do 0.55 to get 125 to roughly equal 70”.  So if you split the difference and use 0.6 and just divide or multiply depending on which direction you’re going that seems to be the nerdy way of doing it.  So your sons buck would be about equivalent to a 100” eastern.  I would say any coues is a bigger trophy then any eastern in my opinion, that’s even coming from a guy who spends much more time killing easterns then coues.   

+1

[IA Born]

3 hours ago, mattys281 said:

Yotebuster nailed my line of thought.  Look at the minimum entrance scores from p&y and b&c and you should be able to draw a pretty easy ratio to use for the score.

coues deer are fun and can be challenging, but having recently got my butt kicked on eastern whitetail I think us western guys often don’t give them their due.  Eastern whitetails on private land can be a slam dunk (sometimes).  Eastern whitetail on public land can be every bit as tough as hunting out here, at least with archery gear.  Five days of hunting Oklahoma public land, I never got to pick up my bow.  3 days on private ground in Nebraska and I had close range opportunities every day.

I agree wholeheartedly.  I have hunted a family (private) farm in Iowa (buck in my avatar) and most of my friends in Iowa and Kansas hunt private land over food plots.  Those are the ones I tease about hunting feeder deer.  I know of a handful of folks who archery hunt public land in Iowa and its definitely a different game.

Thanks for the insight, everyone!

[yotebuster]

Eastern whitetails are all in the preseason prep.  I have food plots of corn, rye, soybeans and sugar beets in my backyard.  My brother literally shot his buck this year (a 7.5 yr old 5x5) out of the guest bedroom window!  If you don’t do any prep work it can be an absolute grind.  To just show up on a piece of public and hang a tree stand and kill a big buck would be a feat.  I get more enjoyment out of growing food for them and watching the pheasants and deer utilize what I’ve built for them then I do actually hunting.  I know honestly too much about the deer in the area.  I spend so much time watching them that I’ll talk myself out of shooting a buck in hopes it gets bigger the next year.   I rarely shoot a buck anymore as I worry that he’ll get bigger and usually the neighbors shoot him anyhow.  I really enjoy spot and stalk hunting in areas where the animals are new to me.  Fortunately where I live in ND I can be watching whitetails on my place one morning and I’m a 20 min drive from endless public land spot and stalk muley or whitetail hunting that afternoon.  

[IA Born]

10 minutes ago, yotebuster said:

Eastern whitetails are all in the preseason prep.  I have food plots of corn, rye, soybeans and sugar beets in my backyard.  My brother literally shot his buck this year (a 7.5 yr old 5x5) out of the guest bedroom window!  If you don’t do any prep work it can be an absolute grind.  To just show up on a piece of public and hang a tree stand and kill a big buck would be a feat.  I get more enjoyment out of growing food for them and watching the pheasants and deer utilize what I’ve built for them then I do actually hunting.  I know honestly too much about the deer in the area.  I spend so much time watching them that I’ll talk myself out of shooting a buck in hopes it gets bigger the next year.   I rarely shoot a buck anymore as I worry that he’ll get bigger and usually the neighbors shoot him anyhow.  I really enjoy spot and stalk hunting in areas where the animals are new to me.  Fortunately where I live in ND I can be watching whitetails on my place one morning and I’m a 20 min drive from endless public land spot and stalk muley or whitetail hunting that afternoon.  

Exactly. Wasn't trying to bag on eastern whitetail hunting and food plots.  If I still lived back there, I'd be doing the same thing.  I just like to bag on my friends who say we don't have real whitetail down here.