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Last Time I Hunted Iowa

Spysar

Well-Known Member
Hey, I've been a member on this site for a while, I guess it's time for a post. I'm a die hard deer hunter. Just wanted to say hi. I'm hoping to be hunting Iowa again this year. Here's what I got my last time there on a DIY hunt.

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And this is the buck I had to pass up on two different days, after I used my buck tag, and was doe hunting. DOH!

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Glad you finally started posting Spy.

How about Venisonfest pics?

Venison tour is a name I give to my annual hunting trip. I will travel out of state, and try and hunt 2 or 3 states a year. Some public, some private, and mostly DIY. I have been on guided hunts too, but DIY is my preferance. The first "Venison Tour" was in 2005. The buck in this thread is from the 2010 "Venison tour" I have all the stories recorded so I will post the whole 2010 story in my next post.....It's long, hope I don't bore anyone. :drink2:
 
Heck of a deer! I've lived in IA my whole life and never connected on a deer of that caliber. Hope you are able to come back.
 
Here's the story from 2010....

Here goes....the trip started 10/18. The truck was packed and I was ready to go. I had several tags in my pocket, and I was anxious to fill at least one of them.Oh, and I'd also have a paddlefish tag this year. I'd be heading to SD, NE and IA for a do it yourself bowhunting vacation, with a little bit of paddlefishing thrown in.
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My plan was to get to Iowa on tues the 19th and stay till the 22nd, while on my way to my cabin in SD which I would arrive at on the 22nd. The first stop in Iowa was to scout the land I had been given permission to hunt, and also check out the public land that I had been "cyber" scouting all summer.
I was staying at a small one room cabin on a 640 acre farm. The farmer also got me permission on his neighbors 100 acres too! I couldn't believe it, the farm looked great, it was a mixture of cut crops of beans and corn. Some was in CRP, and cattle was on some. There was the typical wooded ravines. The farmer even left a few acres of standing beans in a hidden corner of a CRP field! And it was connected to a honey suckle and rose thicket with mature oaks. A real deer sanctuary. Anyway, I scouted the whole farm and then some, and I was one my way to SD and NE.


I arrived in SD friday evening, got stocked up on groceries, and got a good rest for morning. The first few days would be spent hanging stands and scouting. I was the first one there, Kyle was coming by sunday and Dom and Timmy would be in camp later that week. I got my zodiak ready. I later found out that there was record water levels, and that would wind up changing my water/boat hunt stratagy.
I was able to boat into a favorite spot, and get a couple of stands set. The next few days, a record low pressure system came in and the winds made it to hard to even set tree stands and made scouting difficult.
 
Paddle fishing
I had waited three years to get my paddlefish tag. I had seen people catching them all this time and I wanted to try it. On the days it was too lousy to hunt, I went "spoonbillin" as the locals called it. Although it was cold and brutal, I was able to tuck in under the dam which blocked the fierce winds somewhat. I tell ya, what a freaking blast! I must of caught 30 of the prehistoric looking plankton feeders! You can only keep one fish. That one fish must be 35 inches or under, or 45 inches or greater.(measured from the eye to the fork in the tai, the overall fish is much largerl) Although I tried to get one over fortyfive, I wound up keeping one that was a shade under 35". I caught one in the "slot" that must have been 40 lbs or so. The big one in town was 91lbs!!
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First One Of The Season
Just when I got done spoonbillin, the weather was getting good for hunting. It was getting toward halloween time. That's the signal to start getting serious. I hunted and scouted and set up stands. I had seen several, tempting, but too small kind of bucks. Usually we start seeing the bigger ones getting up around the 3rd or 4th of November. Then we would all start getting shots untill it was time to go home, this year would be no different.
We stay for about three weeks and hunt a mix of mostly public, and some private land. We have a deal with a rancher where we pay him to bowhunt his land for eight days before the opening of the NE gun season. I think we're the only ones that bowhunt except for a farm hand.
I didn't get a deer while hunting the public land, and now it was time for us to hunt our private ranch. We all can't wait to hunt the ranch as there are quite a few nice bucks running around, and we don't have to worry about other people being one the land. All my buddies were here now, and we went down and met the ranchers and sais hello.It was Nov 5th. Then we went our seperate ways to scout and hang stands. Each of us has over 500 acres to ourselves, sweet hey?
I was heading to "my" section. I parked my truck, got dressed in a light hunting layer since I'd be walking. Me and Dom park at the same spot and hunt opposite sides of the road. Since we were carrying in stands, we both contemplated carrying out bows or not. I decided, that despite the extra weight, I'd be carrying mine, and he agreed.
So I walked in with a hang on stand and a set of climbing sticks and some screw in steps, and of coarse, my bow. This was my 5th year hunting this area so I had a good idea where I'd be going. I got to a tree that I used in the past, but things had changed a little due to trees falling in the good route. Plus there was the activity I had always observed 100 yards up the draw in years past. So I set my stand and sticks down, and headed up to check some sign, and possibly pick a tree. I got there, and yes indeed, I found a new tree that I had to relocate to. Just too good of a spot.
I was staring at two different tree deciding which one, when all of a sudden I heard deer crashing through the woods. They were coming right towards me so I took a knee. I was glad my bow was in my hand. Suddenly there was two does right next to me panting, and I knew it was a buck chase. Then I heard more crunching in the leaves and a couple more does came up on the other side of me. And the wind was good. So now I have 5 does in a semi circle in front of me and more crunching in the leaves.
Here he comes, I could see the rack, and I just knew he would be near me soon, and things were happening real quick. As he trotted in a small dip, I drew my bow from one knee. The buck popped up less than 15 yards from me broadside. He looked dang good to me, and I hit the release. He didn't know what hit him. He died 20 yards from where I hit him, and 35 yards from where I was standing. A perfect heart shot. I couldn't believe my hunt on the ranch was over in about 5 minutes!!! And I didn't even get to set up my stand. Since I had never shot a deer on the ground with a bow before I was stunned at the experience.
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The Next Day
I was pretty excited about getting a nice ten point buck, but I couldn't believe I was done hunting on the private ranch as the owner lets us get one buck there. In Nebraska you can buy two statewide archery tags. Each one good for 1 buck, and 1 doe. So I went to town to the archery store, and Scott from Dakota Archery (check out their web site) let me use his computer so I could get my second tag. I did, and I was back in the woods that afternoon.
Since the private ranch landlocks some army corp of engineers land, I used my access via private to get to the ACE land. My plan was to walk with the wind in my face to scout out a draw, and pick a location for a stand.
As I walked up the draw, bow in hand of coarse, I encountered quite a few deer. Most of them I spooked, but some were unaware. I filmed a few, and it's kind of neat to watch the footage from the ground, as most footage is from a tree. I had marked several spots where I was gonna put in a tree stand. My plan was to exit the draw, and walk the prairie and go get a stand and walk the prairie back in and hang it. But my plan got interrupted by a big buck.
I was standing for a few minutes contemplating my next move. I was at the end of the draw, and I was either gonna climb out, or go check a near by pond for a pinch point around it. Just when I decided to climb through a small ravine and out on the prairie for another view, a buck decided to come out of the prairie and come across the ravine I was in!
I seen him and was stunned at such a big buck in front of me. And he was gonna cross the most unlikely nasty est part of the ravine. When he moved a little, I crept up as close as I dared. Then I didn't see or hear him anymore. Had he slipped through the thick stuff when I moved? I waited.......he must of been waiting too, cause all of a sudden, off the top he came, down to the bottom, and was now heading up and out.
It was thick but I saw an opening, and decided to shoot.
CRACK!!! The arrow disintegrated and the buck took a couple of jumps the way he came from.Total miss. Now the buck is standing about 25-30 yards away, stomping and looking, and on pins and needles. Way to thick to shoot, and facing me, but the wind was from him to me, and no way for him to smell me. It was about a 10 minute stand off, then I seen his tail flicker, indicating he would start walking.
He took a few steps, and miraculously, his whole body and head was covered in sticks, except his chest. I got as low as I could cause I wasn't sure how much my arrow would arch. I let it rip. The deer started running at the sound of my arrow releasing, but it still smoked him. He ran into the prairie from which he came, did a little druken dance and then, CRASH, he was down in seconds. Holy!@#$ my second archery buck in two days, from the ground!! Another day of not setting a stand.
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Buck 3
Wow, I couldn't believe it, two nice bucks in two days, and on the ground. But it's not over yet. That's the beauty of this place, your never tagged out. I still had my SD tag, and I could get another tag in Nebraska. Let me explain.
Where I hunt there is a reservation . It is a big chunk of land, mostly privately owned, but a portion of it is owned by the tribe. They have control of managing the deer on their reservation. So I can buy a tag from the tribe as long as I'm hunting on reservation land. All I did was go talk to the game warden and he sold me the tag, and gave me a map. He said the yellow is land owned by the tribe and I could hunt any of it. There were other colors on the map that matched up to names of tribe members that allowed you to hunt if you called them and asked permission. And anything else was private(unless you knocked on the door and got permission).
I had heard the reservation land gets pounded pretty hard, especially during gun season. Oh well, what public land dosen't get pounded?
So I took my map, and got to scouting. I decided to check several areas until I found one I liked. The first place was loaded with does, but it was accessable, and I knew I would be bothered by other people. The second place was nice and I bet no hunted that much, but it was thick cedars, almost impossable to walk in. Although I thought about this spot and put on some miles here, I thought I could do better. Same with the third spot, I just thought I could do better.
Then I got to the fourth spot I scouted, and still hadn't hung a stand. At first I thought it wasn't going to be good. It was nasty on the outside, but then, wow, it opened into an oasis of a deer spot. One of those spots you look at and say, yeah, I can definatly kill a buck here. My scouting was done, and it was time to hunt again.
The first time I hunted the stand, I passed (and filmed) a decent 10 point. I passed him a couple of times, and there was plenty of does in the area.
The next time I hunted there I was just gonna do a morning sit and then go over to SD as I was hunting both states at the same time. I packed a light snack that day and dang it if I didn't have my base that mounts my camera to the arm, oh well.
The deer activity was steady that day. It was just one of those days where at least one deer was in sight all day long. So I decided I had better go with plan "B" and make this an all day sit, it was Nov 9th. As the day wore on, 18 does were within sight at one time! I had passed that same 10 pointer I had seen on the earlier sit, three times. In the last half hour of daylight, two does caming running by me at ten yards with their tongues out, so I grabbed my bow in anticipation. Right on que I saw a nice rack heading my way, a very respectable buck especially for the public reservation land. He stopped at ten yards broadside and got a Hellrazor through his heart. Was I lucky or what? I had to pinch myself, what a year, and I still had tags.
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After years of waiting, and the million dollar tag in my pocket, I was headed to Iowa. I spent all summer researching the area I would hunt. I picked the area because of all the public land in the area, and the fact that much of it was on waterways. I thought I might be able to use my zodiak here. After I narrowed down the area I wanted to hunt, I had to find a place to stay. I almost called a hotel, but first I decided to try and find a cabin as I like those so much more than a hotel. I tell ya, I really got lucky. Not only did I find the perfect cabin, but that cabin sat on a 640 acre farm, and the owners gave me permission to hunt it! And the owner got me permisssion on an additional 100 acres! Talk about hitting the lottery!
So as my story started, I had been here in October and scouted the farm. Now it was November 14th, and I had three spots I wanted to set my stands up, which I did.I wasn't the only one hunting the farm. The owner had a guy that had been helping him around the farm since he was a kid, and he had been hunting the farm for over 20 years. He is a super nice guy named Bret. Bret shared his info of the farm and his trail cam pics from this year. There were a few nice ones on the farm, including what I thought was a droptine ten. Back in October I left a trail cam in, and when I checked it there was a nice one on it. So I really wanted a crack at that droptine 10. Here's the one good pic I got at the time.
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I knew about the droptine 10, another bigger hoss size 10, an 8 with a extra droptine brow, another nice regular ten, and several other not quite shooter for me bucks. I kept dreaming about the droptine 10, I really wanted that one.
Through the week I spent my time sitting on stands, and exploring and scouting. I went through the farm back in October, so I spent my scouting time on public land. I didn't want all my eggs in one basket on the farm...just in case I needed a backup plan.
I hadn't been seeing a whole lot on my sits, but I felt I was closing in on what parts of the farm the deer were using most, and I had found some really nice spots to try on public land. It was pretty apparent that the deer prefered the side of the farm where the standing beans were. It was an awesome spot with a small river through it. There was a nice peice of timber with large oak, walnut, and locust trees. Years ago there was cattle that kept it free of undergrowth, but years of no cattle and it turned into a honeysuckle, and north american rose bush deer sanctuary!
You ever notice how you can kill a buck when the wind is "almost bad" for the spot, but not quite? The kind of wind where a buck might still feel comfortable traveling, and your ambush is right on the edge of where he'd smell you?Well I had a spot to try and the wind was just like that. It was almost blowing the wrong way, but just enough that it wasn't blowing into the bedding area. I almost didn't go to the stand, but I did.
The stand was in a hedgerow. It connected the honeysuckle, briar patch to a couple of other small timber peices. On both side of the hedge was CRP, and the bean plot was about a third of a mile away.
It was November 18th, and the bucks were really active this afternoon where I was. I heard a doe crashing through, and I could hear a buck grunting like crazy. My heart was racing and it turned out to be a small 8. Then more louder grunting, and more chasing. A real lot of noise,and too thick to see. Then another bigger, almost shooter 8 is chasing a doe around. A lot of chasing and grunting and then it got quiet for a while. Then I hear another doe crashing up the hill, and more grunting, and the doe hops the fence into the CRP field I'm on. And then I saw a buck in the bushes. Thinking it was probably one of those pesky 8's, I raised my bino's. Holy crap! That's not those 8's! So I ditched the binos and got a death grip on my bow!
Now the doe is in the field, and he's in the woods, behind the fence. And to make it worse, I can swear that deer was looking right at me. I was sure he was looking at me, but then he looked at the doe. Maybe he wasn't looking at me, I guess I'll never know? He had that look where he didn't want to be in that open CRP, but when he saw the doe, he was changing his mind. He actually walked in a small circle twice like he was leaving, but the doe overpowered his senses. He finally jumped into the field, and at that moment I thought I might actually get my chance.
When I entered the stand that day, I layed down a scent trail. I took a four foot piece of grass, and dipped the tassle in the lure. I made a trail that just happened to be near where those deer were, to my stand. The doe and buck were over 50 yards away, and it was getting towards sundown. I was shaking just thinking about the possability of getting a shot.The doe was just taking her time browsing, while the big buck was tending her. She was slowly getting closer to me, and if she got more than 15 yards from him, he would move closer too.
Then she hit my scent trail. And she smelled it , nose to the ground, 10 yards closer to my stand! She was pretty much coming into range now. Then he hit the scent line, and followed it even closer than she did! I could have rushed a semi far shot at any time, but I felt I could do better, I wanted tehm closer and they were doing it. Dang they were slow! I remember how majestic that buck looked tending that doe. Then my opportunity came. He was right in front of me at 30 yards broadside. Everything was perfect when I let go.WHACK! Perfect hit.
He traveled pretty far after being double lunged. After 150 yards he jumped a sturdy 5 foot fence, and I started to doubt my shot. I found him in the thickest stuff ever about 50 yards from there. I could smell him before I found him.
I guess I'm over ranting about my $566 tag! It was worth it.


Other pics of the buck
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Oh, and remember the droptine 10? Well it turns out I got a couple more pics of him. After I tagged out on my buck, and I was doe hunting, guess who showed up under my stand, broadside at less than 20 yards? Oh yeah, he's not a droptine I found out. When I wiped the tears from my eyes, I noticed it was a flyer, sticker point off his left G2. Anyone ever have to pass a buck like this?
Not only did he come under my stand the day after I tagged out, but he came under me while I sat ANOTHER stand the next day, two days in a row, two different stands!!!
I filmed him both days and I'll post it if I ever figure out how. Enjoy
Click on the second pic, its a vid.
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That's the power ball of deer hunting. One deer is a success let alone 4! I'd guess after it was all said and done that ended up being a 5 figure trip too!
 
Wow now theres a story and some great pics to boot. Man take em when you get them because dry spells can go on for years. I shot my 2 best bucks 2 weeks apart...and I thought that was good...na
Post this years trip as im sure it will be great.
 
The most impressive part of your trip was probably the taxidermy bill!:grin:

Great story and a fantastic and successful hunting trip. Can't beat that!
 
That's the power ball of deer hunting. One deer is a success let alone 4! I'd guess after it was all said and done that ended up being a 5 figure trip too!

Not anywhere near a "5 figure" trip. I can do a few weeks DIY, for the cost of a 5 day guided trip. The most expensive part is gas, next to the NR Iowa tag and pref points.
 
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