Preparing for a Western Coues Deer Hunt

Over the years, I’ve found that my business rarely involves training someone for a weekend and never seeing them again. More commonly, I work with people for years. I get to know their families. I learn how they think. I watch their shooting abilities develop, sometimes from the fundamentals all the way into advanced precision rifle work. Somewhere along the way, many of my clients become lifelong friends.

Firearms training, and particularly long-range precision shooting, is a huge part of what people come to me for. But during that process, something else often happens. They become exposed to experiences outside the traditional firearms training environment. Sometimes that’s clay shooting. Sometimes it’s predator hunting. Sometimes it’s their first introduction to hunting altogether.

I think that’s an important responsibility within the shooting community. If nobody introduced you to hunting when you were young—maybe your father didn’t hunt, or you weren’t raised around it—you could go your entire life without ever experiencing it. Hunting is part of our community, and I believe those of us who hunt have some responsibility to usher new people into that space. That’s exactly what I’m doing with one of my buddies this year. He got drawn for a Western Coues deer hunt. I didn’t. So now I get to prepare him for it.

Shooting Is a Major Part of the Preparation—But Not All of It

Firearms training is a big part of how I feed my family, and long-range shooting will naturally be a major part of preparing him for this hunt. But being capable behind a precision rifle doesn’t automatically make someone prepared for Western hunting. There is much more involved.

I’ll be with him on the hunt and helping guide him, so I’m not particularly concerned about making him an expert at glassing before we leave. He’ll learn a lot of that on the job. What I need him prepared for beforehand comes down primarily to two things: shooting and fitness.

On the shooting side, I know exactly what I want from him. On the physical side, there is considerably more work to do.

Western Hunting Is a Different Beast

I grew up in the Midwest, where I’m very familiar with lever guns and iron sights getting the job done at relatively close distances. Western hunting can be very different. Taking a deer at 300 yards isn’t unusual. We may spend an entire morning scanning huge sections of terrain through binoculars before we ever find the animal we’re looking for.

Once we locate that deer, we’ll have to determine how to approach it. Where is the wind coming from? Where can we move without being seen? What terrain can we use? Where can we establish a stable shooting position? Then we start moving.

Ideally, we’ll work into a location that gives us an ethical shot. That shot will most likely come from a tripod, although a hasty prone or seated position may make more sense depending on the terrain. That’s where his shooting preparation matters.

He needs to understand his rifle, be comfortable shooting from a tripod, know his ballistic data, and build a stable position quickly. He also needs to control his breathing and execute a good shot after physical exertion has elevated his heart rate.

Fortunately, he’s been predator hunting with me lately, so we’re already working on many of these concepts. But I can teach him how to make the shot. What I can’t magically give him on opening morning is physical conditioning. That has to be built beforehand.

Get Off the Treadmill

My biggest focus outside of shooting will be physical fitness specifically related to the type of hunting we’re going to do. That means hiking. Not just walking on a treadmill. Get outside. Hike trails. Walk across uneven rocks. Climb hills. Learn what your boots feel like after several hours. Then, once you’re comfortable doing that, get off the trail.

That’s important because the trail is only going to get us part of the way. We may follow a trail to our glassing position, but once we identify a deer, we’ll likely leave that trail behind. Now we’re moving across rocks, loose dirt, washes, steep slopes, and uneven terrain. That takes more than good cardiovascular endurance. It requires stability.

Train the Muscles You Don’t Think About

Moving across uneven terrain forces your body to use smaller stabilizing muscles that get far less attention on a treadmill. Your ankles matter. Your calves matter. Your hips matter. Your core matters. Your balance matters. Those systems need to be prepared before the hunt.

A twisted ankle during a walk around your neighborhood is inconvenient. A badly twisted or broken ankle on the side of a mountain near Sonoita, Arizona, where we’ll be hunting, can become a legitimate emergency requiring outside assistance. That’s not where you want to discover that your body wasn’t prepared for the terrain.

It brings me back to an old military concept: The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat. Obviously, we’re not preparing for combat, but the principle transfers perfectly. Do the difficult work while the consequences are low. Don’t discover your weaknesses when you’re miles from the truck.

The Shot Isn’t the Finish Line

New hunters can easily overlook another part of physical preparation. Suppose everything goes perfectly. We glass the deer, develop a plan, and hike into position. My buddy builds a stable position behind his rifle, controls his breathing, confirms his data, and makes an ethical shot. The deer goes down. Congratulations. We’re not finished.

Now we have to get to the animal. Then we have to process it, quarter it, and get that meat back out. And there’s a pretty good chance we’re doing all of that away from the trail. A successful shot may mark the beginning of the hunt's most physically demanding part.

That’s why I don’t want his preparation to center entirely on something I’m already comfortable teaching him: shooting. Being able to make a 300-yard shot doesn’t help much if you’re physically incapable of safely getting to the location where that shot needs to be made—or getting the animal back out afterward.

Train for the Hunt You’re Actually Going On

That’s really the lesson. We’ll spend plenty of time shooting. We’ll practice from tripods. We’ll work from hasty prone and seated positions. We’ll elevate his heart rate and then make him control his breathing behind the rifle. We’ll make sure he thoroughly understands his equipment and ballistic data. Those are skills I teach professionally, and I want him completely comfortable with them before we leave.

But we’re also going hiking. Then we’re going hiking without trails. Because I don’t want the first time his ankles experience loose rocks on the side of a steep hill to be while we’re stalking a Coues deer. I want those weaknesses exposed now. That’s what training is supposed to do.

My buddy drew the tag, but preparing him for this hunt has reminded me that preparing a shooter for Western hunting involves much more than teaching him how to make a long-range shot. I already know how to teach the shooting. Now I need to prepare him for everything that happens before and after he presses the trigger.

And hopefully, when it’s all over, I’ve done more than help a friend take a Coues deer. Hopefully, I’ve helped create another hunter who will eventually bring someone else along.

About The Author

Rob Orgel enlisted in the USMC in 2004 as an Infantry Rifleman (0311), serving with 3rd Bn 1st Marines in Iraq, including roles as a point man in OIF-3 & team leader in OIF-6. Later, he joined the 1st Marine Regiment, achieved the rank of Sergeant in 2010, & continued service in Afghanistan. Upon returning, he became a Combat Instructor at the School of Infantry West. He transitioned to private military contracting with Securing Our Country (SOC), where he instructed at the American Embassy in Iraq. In 2018, Rob became Chief Instructor at GPS Defense Sniper School and revamped its program. Now, as owner & lead instructor at Emergency Response Tactical, he trains novice to advanced shooters on the range over 300 days a year. Rob also hosts the Silencer Analytics channel on YouTube.