Iowa Whitetail Forums

[sep0667]

Come mid-December there will be a large herd practically living IN Venbury, you watch. Never fails. That bike trail goes through my folks backyard, and that area isn't worth jack anymore since it got paved several years ago. I don't see near the amount of deer I used to... Do you do quite a bit of hunting in the runnells area? I just gained access to a new farm north of town...waiting on some corn to get picked before I go in there. Looks like a good spot, we'll see!

I'm not talking about the part of the bike trail in Venbury, I mean between 64th and Pleasant Hill, the Venbury part would be worthless lol. I'll have to check it out over Christmas break. I bet a big reason they go over there during the winter is because right behind the water park there are a bunch of pine trees and I guess it is bigger than it looks. One of my friends said last spring that there was a dead deer that had been hit by a car on 8th street over by Adventureland Estates, I still don't know if I believe that, but other people say they have seen deer crossing 8th street too, I guess they could cross by that tiny creek by the campus and go up into Lions Park, there is a little bit of brush in there but I just don't know.
I use to hunt the public in Runnells but there are just so many people in there now that I don't bother, especially after shotgun. Last year I got two button bucks over behind the baseball fields in the public. Thats actually a decent area for public because most people just go towards the river. I saw a few decent 140s in there last year too. Right now I am hunting on my uncles farms in Mahaska county but I do have a stand up across from Toad Valley. Jean Burch owns it, I don't know if you had Mrs. Burch for English in junior high. She's nice but doesn't like hunting at all, but said that there are too many deer eating her flowers, so I said I would help out:grin:. Her land is actually really good, there is a lot of sign with some big scrapes, everytime I go out there I see deer gauarentee, biggest bucks I have seen so far are only in the 120's or so, but you never know. I've always had a hard time getting permission anywhere in Runnells, half the people that live on acreages or have like 30 acres hunt it themselves, and nearly anywhere else I have asked they say they already have someone hunting it. When I was younger I would just explore the woods everywhere, not knowing what tresspassing is, and I can't believe how many stands are out there all over the place.