Coues deer, which gun?

mjcmichigan

Handloader
Dec 26, 2016
2,307
134
Have a friend heading to West Texas for. Coues Hunt.

He has 3 Rifles.
A) model 70 in 270 Win
B) Wby 30-378
C) Wby 340

I’m of the mind to tell him to take the 270 with 130gn Etips.

I’m not familiar with the species. Seems to me a 180gn any caliber is too much for this deer.

I’d appreciate the thoughts of my experienced colleagues.

Thanks, Mark


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.270 every day and twice on Sunday.

The main problem with Coues is finding them. They're a subspecies of the whitetail on the smallish side- a .270 is plenty of gun bordering on ideal in open country.
 
hodgeman":1591wkwd said:
.270 every day and twice on Sunday.

The main problem with Coues is finding them. They're a subspecies of the whitetail on the smallish side- a .270 is plenty of gun bordering on ideal in open country.


THIS!

The 270 is as good as it gets. I hunted a ton of them, albeit, mostly in Arizona. From memory my husband and I used the 257 Roberts, 257 Weatherby, 25-06, 256 Newton, 6.5 x 55 and the 270. If I was going today I would take the 257 Weatherby, but the 270 is an excellent choice.

Invest in a good spotting scope!
 
For smallish deer like the Coues, the .270 Win. is enough gun for the job. I would take a Coues anyday with my 6.5 Creedmoor.
 
Europe":2zguexcu said:
hodgeman":2zguexcu said:
.270 every day and twice on Sunday.

The main problem with Coues is finding them. They're a subspecies of the whitetail on the smallish side- a .270 is plenty of gun bordering on ideal in open country.


THIS!

The 270 is as good as it gets. I hunted a ton of them, albeit, mostly in Arizona. From memory my husband and I used the 257 Roberts, 257 Weatherby, 25-06, 256 Newton, 6.5 x 55 and the 270. If I was going today I would take the 257 Weatherby, but the 270 is an excellent choice.

Invest in a good spotting scope!

Heck yeah... 270’s reputation was born on this. A good sleek bullet at 2900-3100 and it takes a bunch of guess work out of the shot.
 
Thank you all!

I was curious if anyone would mention optics.

I’ll make sure to comment on that as well.

I guess I need a mid-range gun so I have experience.


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Of his rifles, the 270 Win makes the most sense.

If he is looking for even faster velocities and flatter teajectories, he could try loads with either the 110 gr AccuBonds or Barnes TTSX's.
 
.270 Winchester and any deer bullet i.e. Sierra Game King or Pro Hunter,Nosler Ballistic Tip,Hornady Interlock,Speer Hot-Core in 130 grain weight. Coues deer are not big nor tough,think pronghorn antelope size,100 lbs +/-.
 
elkhunternm":5surlam0 said:
.270 Winchester and any deer bullet i.e. Sierra Game King or Pro Hunter,Nosler Ballistic Tip,Hornady Interlock,Speer Hot-Core in 130 grain weight. Coues deer are not big nor tough,think pronghorn antelope size,100 lbs +/-.

Plus the danged 150 ABLR if they will shoot for you. The extra BC wouldn’t hurt my feelings. Even Hornadys 145 ELD would be tailor made for that action.
 
Well, I'll make it unanimous--270 Win. I don't recall Coues deer in TX, or am I out of the loop. Is this hunting on private land?
 
You'll want to get to high ground, and glass. I've always used my 7x42 Swarovski, but more then a few people I knew used 10x-15x. I like the wider FOV W/the 7x.

Speaking of which, when I hunted them I owned, and used my Browning 270 BOSS! Perfect for this type of Game.
 
DrMike":2vngqe4v said:
Well, I'll make it unanimous--270 Win. I don't recall Coues deer in TX, or am I out of the loop. Is this hunting on private land?

I was wondering the same(TX). I assumed it would be west Texasdessert but all references I saw were further west. He got a cousin and uncle out there. I was wondering if he got confused with Axis deer.


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elkhunternm":zzfhofn6 said:
Coues or Axis deer,the .270 Winchester will still work. ;)

+1

Southwest whitetails are found in west TX. I suppose it is possible that some people refer to them as Coues, though I question whether the DNA would substantiate that. I did find hunting leases that advertise Coues Deer in TX, but these hunts appear to be high fence hunts.
 
I don't know about Coues deer in Texas but there are Carmen Mountain Whitetail in several counties in the big bend area. In any case, I'd opt for the .270 Winchester. I'd like to load up some 120 gr Ballistic Tips or Accubonds for these small deer, but Nosler doesn't make one. Yet?
 
Which would you take for a 'Lope hunt? Just about the exact same environmental conditions, on the same sized game. Finding one is a hellva lot harder than killing one.
 
I would think that the 270 Winchester with a 130 gr BT would be just about perfect. Good optics will increase your success.

JD338
 
Thought you’d like to see the results. Matt went this weekend. Took the 270win.
Here’s the Axis deer from this morning, he’s going out this afternoon for a “black deer”?
2f4b687eab70b8659a27fa769338c51b.jpg


DRT.

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