AZ deer results are out....

[IdahoCTD]

If it's getting charged to a credit card, check it. Mine got hit the 9th for our Coues deer tags.

 

[PowellSixO]

Yep. They're getting hit. Results should be posted in another week or two. My buddy and I are going hunting this year. Can't wait to find out which unit.

 

[IdahoCTD]

We drew for unit 33 Coues deer. So if anyone has any pointers on where to go I'm all ears. We will backpack in to get away from the crowds.

 

[PowellSixO]

We drew for unit 33 Coues deer. So if anyone has any pointers on where to go I'm all ears. We will backpack in to get away from the crowds.

How do you know what you unit you have already? Or did you just put in for one choice?

 

[IdahoCTD]

We only put in for that unit.

 

[PowellSixO]

Well the AZ portal results are posted. I drew a 35B tag. This will be my first coues deer hunt. I'm looking forward to it. My buddy and I are planning on packing 7 days worth of supplys up into the mountains and hunting hard for the duration of the hunt. He's hunted the unit a couple of times, and knows it pretty well. Good thing I've got a new load for my 243 dialed in. I've also been running 4 miles 5 days a week for the last 6.5 weeks. I'm going to be in as good of shape as I can possibly be for this hunt. Wish me luck.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I almost put in down along the border too but thought it would be better to not possibly run into illegals while camping several miles back in somewhere. While we would be armed I still didn't want to be in a situation like that. We don't know anything about the area either so we don't know where to steer clear of.

What season did you draw for?

 

[PowellSixO]

I almost put in down along the border too but thought it would be better to not possibly run into illegals while camping several miles back in somewhere. While we would be armed I still didn't want to be in a situation like that. We don't know anything about the area either so we don't know where to steer clear of.

What season did you draw for?

Yeah I'm a bit worried about it too honestly, but my friend says it's not an issue if you leave them alone. He's actually found a couple of bails of weed on his last trip. Lol. We drew the November 4th through the 10th hunt. How about you?

 

[IdahoCTD]

Our hunt is Nov. 25th to Dec 4th

 

[PowellSixO]

Our hunt is Nov. 25th to Dec 4th

Nice. You got the better hunt dates. What rifle do you plan on using for your hunt? I've killed a lot of white tail in Oklahoma, and a lot of mule deer here in Arizona with my 243, but I've never hunted coues deer before. I'm pretty confident that my 243 with a 95 gr Berger Classic Hunter will do the trick though.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I'll take the one I'm the most confident with at the time. I've built my own guns since 1992 and have a lot of custom rifles even though I only shoot about 8 or 10 of them. I just built a 300wsm and a 300wm that I will probably use here in ID for elk, deer, and antelope. I have a 6.5x68 Shuler Imp in the works that should push 140's 3300+fps and a 7-338 Norma Imp. that will push 195's 3200+fps. I also have a pretty accurate 6.5saum, 6.5-300wm (I shot a deer at 1006yds with this one 4 years ago but it's pretty heavy), a couple 7-300wm's (I shot my elk at 533yds last year with one of them), and a couple 6.5x47 Lapua's. I'll shoot several of them right up to the time to go and the one that impresses me the most at long range will get the call. Who knows I might build something else in a lighter weight rifle between now and then . I do have a .277 8.5 twist barrel coming that I will probably make into a 270wsm.

I wanted to go as late as possible because we have other hunts going on here until Nov 8th for elk and Nov. 20th if we get whitetail tags. The rut hunts are almost impossible to draw without points so I searched the latest season dates with good odds of drawing. I wanted to go when it would be cooler down there as well. November is in the 40's and 50's around here versus probably the 70's and 80's down there. I'm sure we will be sweating our butts off hiking around in those temps. Those are our normal temps in September.

 

[PowellSixO]

I'll take the one I'm the most confident with at the time. I've built my own guns since 1992 and have a lot of custom rifles even though I only shoot about 8 or 10 of them. I just built a 300wsm and a 300wm that I will probably use here in ID for elk, deer, and antelope. I have a 6.5x68 Shuler Imp in the works that should push 140's 3300+fps and a 7-338 Norma Imp. that will push 195's 3200+fps. I also have a pretty accurate 6.5saum, 6.5-300wm (I shot a deer at 1006yds with this one 4 years ago but it's pretty heavy), a couple 7-300wm's (I shot my elk at 533yds last year with one of them), and a couple 6.5x47 Lapua's. I'll shoot several of them right up to the time to go and the one that impresses me the most at long range will get the call. Who knows I might build something else in a lighter weight rifle between now and then . I do have a .277 8.5 twist barrel coming that I will probably make into a 270wsm.

I wanted to go as late as possible because we have other hunts going on here until Nov 8th for elk and Nov. 20th if we get whitetail tags. The rut hunts are almost impossible to draw without points so I searched the latest season dates with good odds of drawing. I wanted to go when it would be cooler down there as well. November is in the 40's and 50's around here versus probably the 70's and 80's down there. I'm sure we will be sweating our butts off hiking around in those temps. Those are our normal temps in September.

Awesome! You've got an armory to choose from. Lol. I'm pretty limited with my arsenal. I've got a few shotguns, a 204 ruger, 223 remingtion, 243 win, and a 7mm rem mag. I'm in the process of getting a custom 7mm Rem Ultra Mag built, to shoot the 7mm 195gr Berger EOL. But the 7mm just seems too much for coues deer. I've taken 3 mule deer, and 5 white tails with my 243, and I think it should be perfect. I can shoot it sub moa out to 600 yards. Beyond that, I don't have enough practice. The last white tail buck I shot weighed in at 200+ lbs, and was 476 yards. With my old round (87 gr berger), he went about 5 yards and was dead. I hit him in the last rib quartering away from me, and it made soup out of both lungs and his heart. I haven't taken anything with the 95 gr Classic Hunter yet, but I have no doubt it will perform just as well. I too put in for later hunts, due to the fact I drew a late rifle bull tag here in AZ too. I've taken off a week and a half for the deer hunt, and two and a half weeks for the elk hunt. I'm burning up ALL of my vacation this year for the two hunts. My wife is not very proud of me right now. Lol. But my goal this year is to get two animals worthy of mounting. I'm shooting for a 90+" coues deer buck, and a 300+" bull. Maybe not trophies in most peoples eyes, but trophies in my eyes. Hopefully my plans on paper will play out as planned. Haha. Or I might get buck fever and shoot the first deer and elk I see.

 

[IdahoCTD]

My buddy and I drew good bull tags this year too. We have pretty good odds of shooting something over 300". I've never seen a live Coues deer so I'm sure a 90+" deer would be totally fine with me as well. Before last year my buddy had only killed one bull elk when he lived in CO. Last year with me he killed a bull and a cow elk plus a mulie buck. He is a big duck hunter and we hunted ducks together for years before I got him talked in to going after big game. This year we went all out and I'm even building him a rifle. We have 3 elk tags (2 bulls and 1 cow), 4 deer tags (3 bucks and 1 doe), and 1 doe antelope tag. All are in ID but the Coues deer and a UT cow elk. We put in for points in UT and already had to buy a license so I talked him into a late 12-17 to 1-31-17 cow elk hunt. We can actually go after duck season is over if we need to. The UT cow elk hunt was 70% success rate in 2014 with a average of 1 day hunted. Hopefully it's that easy this year too.

If I primarily hunted deer I'd consider a 6.5saum. It's plenty big enough, has 3-4x the barrel life of a 7RUM, has less recoil, and will fit in a short action. If I wanted a hot 7mm I'd do a 7-300wm or a 28 Nosler. 300wm and 28Nosler brass is easier to get and they fit in magazines much easier then 7RUM's do with big bullets like the 195's. I've killed 3 elk with my 6.5-300wm which is only about 100fps faster than a 6.5saum so I'd have no problems killing an elk with a 6.5mm. My wife is going to shoot a cow elk here in about 2 weeks with my 6.5x47L and she has a cow moose tag for October. I'm sure she'll use the same rifle for it but I'll take one of my .300's along in case she needs to shoot over 600yds.

 

[Farmboy876]

I drew a mule deer rifle tag in 34B for november