Hoosier--Yep sorry, I have not had much time lately, hunting, work, and now basketball games.
Ok...
More details:
I drove down to Iowa on November 11th from Minnesota. The roads were icy from freezing rain and snow. Delayed me an hour or so, but I still got in stand around 1:15 on my 120 acres which is near the Warren/Lucas county line.
It was snowing hard, I'm used to that I'm from MN!! Within 45 minutes I see a 140 inch 10 pointer on the opposite ridge. I grunt him in, he circles down wind of me but still gives me a 30 yard shot. Shot sails just under his vitals. I'm bummed but not too bad, as I saw him leave, I realize he is young and will be a nice buck in the future (if he survives).
The rest of the day is kind of slow?
Next morning, I am in the same stand NW wind, snow on the ground and the first hour is slow. I decide to move to my go to stand...back in the timber.
I get up in the stand and within 5 minutes I see deer, bucks are chasing, this is the place to be. A bit later I see this buck chasing three does. I grunt at him and immediately he comes over and trots toward me.
He comes right in front of my stand at 15 yards and stops just exactly where he should. I draw back and double lung him. He runs back up into a thick bedding area and crashes.
There was just enough snow on the ground to follow the blood trail and there was a lot of blood! He went about 60 yards.
Deer were still moving after I shot, matter of fact I saw a total of 25 deer and 7 were bucks that morning. One buck chased a doe right by me when I was dragging the deer up the ridge and never saw me!!
I know there are bigger bucks on my farm, but I was happy with him, and I am still learning this property, so next time I will have more stands/blinds in key areas. It is kind of tough to get down to Iowa to do the little things that will increase the chance for success.
Big thanks to Skip who planted food plots for me, and he has helped with the habitat management he knows what he is doing.
Had a real good time, and as mentioned before 3 of the 4 guys at deer camp shot bucks and saw plenty of action....all on different farms.
Good luck to all of you!
