How's it going everyone! I have been meaning to get on here to see how everybody did this season, but before I check out everybody's harvests I thought I would post my own story. It is long even though I left some things out so I'm not sure anybody will even read it, but it was an unusual trip so here it goes.
My bad luck buck,
Well, this year I finally decided to pay the big dollar and go to Iowa even though I said I wouldn't pay that kind of money for a tag. The hunting alone was not enough to get me to go. It was the kind people that I came to know over the phone and in one case on this forum that put me over the edge to a point where I decided I had to go. Shortly after I drew my Iowa tag the trouble started. I was on my way home from visiting family at a campground about 30 miles to the north when I started losing power. I pulled off the high way and found that my water pump had been blowing coolant out the bottom, but because it was dark I hadn't noticed. I had four gallons of water with me so I let it cool down and added water... she was bone dry. I was almost home so I started it up and it ran good. Whew! I thought WOW am I lucky.
After that I figured since I was replacing the water pump I might as well replace the belt, hoses and put in a new radiator as well as do a tune up. It took me a few days to get the parts, but I got to putting the new parts on, I break some things and some new words are created during installation
I saved the tune up for last. As I attempt to take the last spark plug out the ceramic breaks loose from the threaded base and comes out completely in tact, leaving the threaded portion in the head. I ask around (including the internet) and virtually no one has ever heard of such a thing. All the mechanics want to take off the head to fix it (about $800). Nope, not going there, so for the next week and a half I try all kinds of creative thing's to get it out. Finally, a miracle happens and I get it out! I am so thrilled that it feels almost as good as getting my first deer! I finish the tune up and fire it up. White smoke comes out of the tail pipe. You have got to be kidding me! A blown head gasket!
The smoke is not very heavy and occasionally goes away on a temporary basis. Very expensive fix. Nope, not going there. After a week of researching I think I find a solution called Iron tight that may fix the problem with out tearing the top off the motor. I get it, get home and go to start up the truck because it needs to be warmed up. It starts, then it starts knocking and freezes up. !%&*#$! The motor is ruined. :evil: :evil: :evil: I search all over for a good used motor and I finally find one that purrs like a kitten with 120k on it. Motor and labor is going to be around $900 or so. I take it in and a couple days later the guy gets to it and calls me up to tell me the clutch is pretty worn and may not last for very long. He said it wouldn't cost much to replace it now if I want him to since he already has the motor out. OK, so now I'm well over a grand along with weeks worth of head aches, but at least it's done. Time to get ready for hunting! I do a different hunting trip where I had some bad luck (I won't go into that), but Iowa is coming up!
Finally I'm on my way, when out in the middle of no where in Illinois, at night, I hear a loud BANG! It sounds like a 12ga went off under the truck. I start to fishtail and almost lose control trying to stop. (Which is more difficult because I'm towing a pop up camper.) I tried to get a tow truck for a couple hours, but all the tow truck companies were either out of business, wouldn't come out that far, or were closed! What kind of a tow truck company is only open 8am-6pm Mon-Fri! Finally, the police were able to find a tow company about 30 minutes away that would come out there to get me. They show up with one of those semi haulers. $250! Not much choice so off we go. The driver drops me off in front of an old tire shop in a nearby small town. I sit in my truck all night waiting for it to open. I wasn't able to sleep, but they got to me first thing when they got there. Before it was even time to open up. They located a used tire from another business and $60 later I was back on the road.
Starting to see a pattern yet!???
Even though I'm several days late, I finally get to my destination in Iowa. I meet with the land owner that was so kind as to offer his cabin to me free of charge. Now I'm finally starting to feel better. He tells me a guy who does some work for him on occasion has been staying at the cabin here and there and then shows me where it is. After the land owner leaves I check out the cabin. Before I walk in the door I notice dozens of flies on the door window. I start to get a bad feeling as I walk in. When I look inside I see that flies and black mold are every where. Mold is all over the refrigerator, toilet, shower, etc. A lot of it. It's so bad you cannot see the white surface below because of how thick and black the mold is. There is rotting, molded, shriveled up food on the counters and in the refrigerator. There is dirt everywhere and a clear thick liquid is oozing out of the cupboards. Every inch of the place is covered in filth. Literally every square inch. Obviously the guy that had been staying there does not appreciate a free place to stay. At this point I am afraid to touch anything, but it's way to windy for the pop up camper I towed along for my Kentucky hunt. Fortunately I have a new tarp in the truck that I can lay out on the living room floor to put my air mattress and cloths on. The next morning I wake up cold so I get the heat going and pick up some cleaning supplies. Day one wasted. Then two days of high (& cold) winds with rain so I don't get much done. Yes I was a wimp, but I had plenty of time yet. :ugeek: Then the rain quit and the wind became worse. At this point I was getting anxious and decided I was going to get my stands up despite what turned out to be sixty mph winds, but after clinging to a tree for a couple hours and not being able to get my stand properly positioned I gave up until the weather got better. I got that stand up a couple days later.
After this I found a six inch split in my rear drivers side tire (opposite of the tire that blew out) which had the cords sticking out of it. When I got it replaced I had them replace the left front tire also and in the process found out the wheel bearing was bad. Both wheel bearings had been replaced earlier in the year. The whole assembly was wobbling so bad it would have came off soon had we not caught it. I had them check the other side and it was bad too. They had to order parts for the second side so two more days were wasted with all this since I couldn't use my truck. Hundreds of dollars later I'm back on track again.
Now, over a week into my trip, I finally get a good wind for the first stand I set up and during the morning hunt I see something like 17 deer. Two were bucks. A four point chased a doe under me and about fifteen minutes later about a 110” 8pt came through and gave me numerous shot opportunities from 3-15 yards. That evening I hunted it again as I had good access and could enter undetected. The only deer I seen was the same four point from the morning and his twin. They came within fifteen yards at sunset and that was all for my evening hunt. Finally a good day with some beautiful weather!
After that I went to put up my new big dog stands and after some difficulties trying to get two of them to go in the same tree I found out all three had mismatched cables. Fortunately I had back ups.
While all this was happening farmers had started burning & bulldozing bedding area's where I planned to hunt. I did some hunting around there despite this because the only stands I had in good undisturbed spots needed a different wind than I was getting. I wasn't seeing deer so I was getting permission and scouting new properties in between hunts. I was setting stands based on the weather forecast, but each time I got a stand up the weather man was wrong and I didn't have a stand for that particular wind.
At this point I decided I would move back my Kentucky hunt. So I set up and hunted other spots during the next week, but it seemed every time I turned around the bad luck was back at work. I only had a few sighting's as I didn't have the right wind for any of my new spots and the bedding area's in my original spots were still being bulldozed and burned by the farmers looking to expand their fields. I had confidence in some of my new spots, but I just wasn't getting the right conditions. Then eight days after my one good hunt, the weather forecast was for stable weather with a favorable wind five out of the next six days. Wow, talk about pumped up! I planned to pull all day sits during those five days and I just knew I would get a hog! Come morning I'm in my tree ready to go and optimistic. Surprisingly I don't see a deer until almost 10am when I hear crashing to my left coming closer fast. Here comes a doe running by with her tongue hanging out and I'm thinking here we go!!! Unfortunately a couple minutes later a coyote came up the trail then angled away from me toward where she went giving me no shot. This combined with the two sets of eyes I seen (somewhat low to ground) when I pulled up to the field that morning had me unsure about the rest of the day. However, a few hours later I heard crashing in the thicket in front of me. I look over to see a doe squirt out of the brush and moving at a quick pace along the river to my right. It's obvious she is being chased and before I can react she is 15 yards to my right. I hear the buck back in the brush behind her so I look and see him come crashing through the brush. His rack gets hung up in some sapling's which throw him backwards a couple feet. He struggles to get his antlers untangled, giving me valuable time to get ready. As I reach for my bow and start to stand up the buck breaks free and shoots out of the brush toward my right where the doe had been been. As I move to get into position for the shot he suddenly and violently jumps sideways away from me as if a linebacker had hit him in the side at full speed. He paused and I thought it was over, but he started heading after that doe again. Up to this point I had been holding it together pretty well despite how fast everything was happening, but that Freaked me out. I didn't know what happened and I didn't have time to think about it. It seemed everything was going down hill fast and it started to unnerve me. I got into position, drew my bow and stopped him. One more step and there would have been no chance for a shot. There was a very small twig through part of the vitals, but I told myself to put it out of my mind because it was to small and to close to him to cause any real problem. However, as I released the arrow I still had that small twig in the back of my mind and I pulled my bow hard left. I seen my arrow fly right into the paunch. I stood there staring in disbelief that I had committed such a rookie mistake. Even though I didn't get to really enjoy the moment like I should have due to the bad hit, the Adrenalin was still flowing, my heart was pounding and there was still hope.
As I sat down I checked the time... 1:37pm. Man I love it when I see a good buck at mid day!
I wasn't happy about the hit, but at least I didn't have to sit for five full day's out of the next six. Now I just had to leave him overnight and hope the coyotes didn't find him. When I turned on my phone I noticed a message from a friend who was a county over. I decided to listen to his message before calling him back. His message said the wind had changed and he was getting out of his stand. He said he seen numerous bucks, but nothing over 150”. {Poor guy :roll: } Apparently it had been a good day for him too. I then called him back to tell him what happened. He asked me how big he was. I told him I wasn't sure because it happened so fast I only got a glimpse of the rack, but it looked like a 140”-150” 10pt, but I really didn't know because I only had time to get a glimpse of the rack. I explained what happened and he agreed we should wait until morning and that he would meet me there at day break to search for my buck. While I was sitting there waiting for everything to calm down I hung up my bow and noticed my full shadow on the forest floor right in front of where my buck had spooked. Aha! Now I know why he reacted like that. After about an hour I got down with extreme stealth and left the area the same way. I was so stealthy I think I might have been able to sneak past God himself. LOL!!! I wasn't taking any chances.
Fast forward to the next morning. My friend brings his son and the three of us start tracking. We are finding good blood. Then we loose the trail when we get into some thick stuff. We see a nice sized running track and my friend thinks it could be from my buck. I say “no, that can't be him, that's a nice track, but not the four finger track of the buck I was hunting”. Eventually we find more blood and continue on until we finally come to the river and to my disbelief (especially considering my recent luck) we find my buck! Near the end of the blood trail he had done a half circle so he could watch his back trail and bedded on the ledge above the river. When he died he must have rolled off the ledge as we could see where he rolled and slid down the hill. He was laying with his back half in the river. Awesome! The coyotes didn't find him and the river's icy water cooled him down quick so the meat would still be good! The celebration commenced with my friend hooping and hollering, but I was having a hard time getting excited because not only did I miss out on the elation of a quick, clean, humane kill, but it wasn't the buck I was after. He was quite a bit smaller than expected. It appears that he was the buck that left the running track we found after all.
Because Poweshiek county had less than five P&Y bucks and no B&C bucks entered into the book (according to the QDMA map) I had decided before coming if I could harvest anything 130” or bigger my hunting trip would be considered a success and planned to shoot nothing less. Although I was really hoping for a 150”. However, while my buddy was sure my buck would score in the mid 130's, I wasn't sure it would even go 125”. Not the kind of deer I came to Iowa for. I haven't scored it myself, but my buddy rough scored it while I was gone at 125 4/8”. He said he tends to score conservatively and the score might be an inch or two higher than that. Never the less it's a nice buck and the back strap we ate the next day was pretty darn good!!! I donated the rest of the meat to a family in need (I figured I could always get more meat anyway).
I was a little surprised by the locals that seen my deer at a gas station. It drew a fair amount of attention and when I walked out of a gas station I was surprised to see a lady taking a picture to show her son who was a hunter. A couple people said it was the biggest they had ever seen in that area. While I knew there were more and bigger bucks in the area than they realized, it was still nice to hear after not meeting my goal. He is no Giant and at first I was disappointed, but after having a little time to think about it and considering everything it took to get him I decided I did OK.
About this time I took my truck into a mechanic again because of a whining noise only to find that my throw out bearing (which was supposedly replaced with the new clutch) was bad, but I was told it should get me to Kentucky and home.
I could bring up more, like missing some hunts due to being sick from sitting in the rain and numerous other details I left out, but suffice it to say that there was always something not going right every day that usually left me with out a vehicle, forking out more money, messing up my spots, etc. And it all started when I got drawn for an Iowa tag. BUT, in the end, on Saturday November 6th 2010, perseverance resulted in the harvest of the “Bad Luck Buck”. All this makes him an exceptional trophy for me. It was certainly an experience I will never forget and one I hope to never repeat!
P.S. My truck has been in the shop ELLEVEN times this fall. The bad luck continued on steadily the rest of the season. Including when I went to Kentucky, but that's another story.
P.P.S. When I get home from my KY trip I turn on the TV to relax and after three minutes it TV blows up. A couple days later the throw out bearing goes completely out rendering my truck inoperable.
I can't forget my little tracking buddy! He is actually quite good at spotting blood. He could pick up the trail when we couldn't.
My bad luck buck,
Well, this year I finally decided to pay the big dollar and go to Iowa even though I said I wouldn't pay that kind of money for a tag. The hunting alone was not enough to get me to go. It was the kind people that I came to know over the phone and in one case on this forum that put me over the edge to a point where I decided I had to go. Shortly after I drew my Iowa tag the trouble started. I was on my way home from visiting family at a campground about 30 miles to the north when I started losing power. I pulled off the high way and found that my water pump had been blowing coolant out the bottom, but because it was dark I hadn't noticed. I had four gallons of water with me so I let it cool down and added water... she was bone dry. I was almost home so I started it up and it ran good. Whew! I thought WOW am I lucky.
After that I figured since I was replacing the water pump I might as well replace the belt, hoses and put in a new radiator as well as do a tune up. It took me a few days to get the parts, but I got to putting the new parts on, I break some things and some new words are created during installation
I saved the tune up for last. As I attempt to take the last spark plug out the ceramic breaks loose from the threaded base and comes out completely in tact, leaving the threaded portion in the head. I ask around (including the internet) and virtually no one has ever heard of such a thing. All the mechanics want to take off the head to fix it (about $800). Nope, not going there, so for the next week and a half I try all kinds of creative thing's to get it out. Finally, a miracle happens and I get it out! I am so thrilled that it feels almost as good as getting my first deer! I finish the tune up and fire it up. White smoke comes out of the tail pipe. You have got to be kidding me! A blown head gasket!
Finally I'm on my way, when out in the middle of no where in Illinois, at night, I hear a loud BANG! It sounds like a 12ga went off under the truck. I start to fishtail and almost lose control trying to stop. (Which is more difficult because I'm towing a pop up camper.) I tried to get a tow truck for a couple hours, but all the tow truck companies were either out of business, wouldn't come out that far, or were closed! What kind of a tow truck company is only open 8am-6pm Mon-Fri! Finally, the police were able to find a tow company about 30 minutes away that would come out there to get me. They show up with one of those semi haulers. $250! Not much choice so off we go. The driver drops me off in front of an old tire shop in a nearby small town. I sit in my truck all night waiting for it to open. I wasn't able to sleep, but they got to me first thing when they got there. Before it was even time to open up. They located a used tire from another business and $60 later I was back on the road.
Starting to see a pattern yet!???
Even though I'm several days late, I finally get to my destination in Iowa. I meet with the land owner that was so kind as to offer his cabin to me free of charge. Now I'm finally starting to feel better. He tells me a guy who does some work for him on occasion has been staying at the cabin here and there and then shows me where it is. After the land owner leaves I check out the cabin. Before I walk in the door I notice dozens of flies on the door window. I start to get a bad feeling as I walk in. When I look inside I see that flies and black mold are every where. Mold is all over the refrigerator, toilet, shower, etc. A lot of it. It's so bad you cannot see the white surface below because of how thick and black the mold is. There is rotting, molded, shriveled up food on the counters and in the refrigerator. There is dirt everywhere and a clear thick liquid is oozing out of the cupboards. Every inch of the place is covered in filth. Literally every square inch. Obviously the guy that had been staying there does not appreciate a free place to stay. At this point I am afraid to touch anything, but it's way to windy for the pop up camper I towed along for my Kentucky hunt. Fortunately I have a new tarp in the truck that I can lay out on the living room floor to put my air mattress and cloths on. The next morning I wake up cold so I get the heat going and pick up some cleaning supplies. Day one wasted. Then two days of high (& cold) winds with rain so I don't get much done. Yes I was a wimp, but I had plenty of time yet. :ugeek: Then the rain quit and the wind became worse. At this point I was getting anxious and decided I was going to get my stands up despite what turned out to be sixty mph winds, but after clinging to a tree for a couple hours and not being able to get my stand properly positioned I gave up until the weather got better. I got that stand up a couple days later.
After this I found a six inch split in my rear drivers side tire (opposite of the tire that blew out) which had the cords sticking out of it. When I got it replaced I had them replace the left front tire also and in the process found out the wheel bearing was bad. Both wheel bearings had been replaced earlier in the year. The whole assembly was wobbling so bad it would have came off soon had we not caught it. I had them check the other side and it was bad too. They had to order parts for the second side so two more days were wasted with all this since I couldn't use my truck. Hundreds of dollars later I'm back on track again.
Now, over a week into my trip, I finally get a good wind for the first stand I set up and during the morning hunt I see something like 17 deer. Two were bucks. A four point chased a doe under me and about fifteen minutes later about a 110” 8pt came through and gave me numerous shot opportunities from 3-15 yards. That evening I hunted it again as I had good access and could enter undetected. The only deer I seen was the same four point from the morning and his twin. They came within fifteen yards at sunset and that was all for my evening hunt. Finally a good day with some beautiful weather!
After that I went to put up my new big dog stands and after some difficulties trying to get two of them to go in the same tree I found out all three had mismatched cables. Fortunately I had back ups.
While all this was happening farmers had started burning & bulldozing bedding area's where I planned to hunt. I did some hunting around there despite this because the only stands I had in good undisturbed spots needed a different wind than I was getting. I wasn't seeing deer so I was getting permission and scouting new properties in between hunts. I was setting stands based on the weather forecast, but each time I got a stand up the weather man was wrong and I didn't have a stand for that particular wind.
At this point I decided I would move back my Kentucky hunt. So I set up and hunted other spots during the next week, but it seemed every time I turned around the bad luck was back at work. I only had a few sighting's as I didn't have the right wind for any of my new spots and the bedding area's in my original spots were still being bulldozed and burned by the farmers looking to expand their fields. I had confidence in some of my new spots, but I just wasn't getting the right conditions. Then eight days after my one good hunt, the weather forecast was for stable weather with a favorable wind five out of the next six days. Wow, talk about pumped up! I planned to pull all day sits during those five days and I just knew I would get a hog! Come morning I'm in my tree ready to go and optimistic. Surprisingly I don't see a deer until almost 10am when I hear crashing to my left coming closer fast. Here comes a doe running by with her tongue hanging out and I'm thinking here we go!!! Unfortunately a couple minutes later a coyote came up the trail then angled away from me toward where she went giving me no shot. This combined with the two sets of eyes I seen (somewhat low to ground) when I pulled up to the field that morning had me unsure about the rest of the day. However, a few hours later I heard crashing in the thicket in front of me. I look over to see a doe squirt out of the brush and moving at a quick pace along the river to my right. It's obvious she is being chased and before I can react she is 15 yards to my right. I hear the buck back in the brush behind her so I look and see him come crashing through the brush. His rack gets hung up in some sapling's which throw him backwards a couple feet. He struggles to get his antlers untangled, giving me valuable time to get ready. As I reach for my bow and start to stand up the buck breaks free and shoots out of the brush toward my right where the doe had been been. As I move to get into position for the shot he suddenly and violently jumps sideways away from me as if a linebacker had hit him in the side at full speed. He paused and I thought it was over, but he started heading after that doe again. Up to this point I had been holding it together pretty well despite how fast everything was happening, but that Freaked me out. I didn't know what happened and I didn't have time to think about it. It seemed everything was going down hill fast and it started to unnerve me. I got into position, drew my bow and stopped him. One more step and there would have been no chance for a shot. There was a very small twig through part of the vitals, but I told myself to put it out of my mind because it was to small and to close to him to cause any real problem. However, as I released the arrow I still had that small twig in the back of my mind and I pulled my bow hard left. I seen my arrow fly right into the paunch. I stood there staring in disbelief that I had committed such a rookie mistake. Even though I didn't get to really enjoy the moment like I should have due to the bad hit, the Adrenalin was still flowing, my heart was pounding and there was still hope.
As I sat down I checked the time... 1:37pm. Man I love it when I see a good buck at mid day!
I wasn't happy about the hit, but at least I didn't have to sit for five full day's out of the next six. Now I just had to leave him overnight and hope the coyotes didn't find him. When I turned on my phone I noticed a message from a friend who was a county over. I decided to listen to his message before calling him back. His message said the wind had changed and he was getting out of his stand. He said he seen numerous bucks, but nothing over 150”. {Poor guy :roll: } Apparently it had been a good day for him too. I then called him back to tell him what happened. He asked me how big he was. I told him I wasn't sure because it happened so fast I only got a glimpse of the rack, but it looked like a 140”-150” 10pt, but I really didn't know because I only had time to get a glimpse of the rack. I explained what happened and he agreed we should wait until morning and that he would meet me there at day break to search for my buck. While I was sitting there waiting for everything to calm down I hung up my bow and noticed my full shadow on the forest floor right in front of where my buck had spooked. Aha! Now I know why he reacted like that. After about an hour I got down with extreme stealth and left the area the same way. I was so stealthy I think I might have been able to sneak past God himself. LOL!!! I wasn't taking any chances.
Fast forward to the next morning. My friend brings his son and the three of us start tracking. We are finding good blood. Then we loose the trail when we get into some thick stuff. We see a nice sized running track and my friend thinks it could be from my buck. I say “no, that can't be him, that's a nice track, but not the four finger track of the buck I was hunting”. Eventually we find more blood and continue on until we finally come to the river and to my disbelief (especially considering my recent luck) we find my buck! Near the end of the blood trail he had done a half circle so he could watch his back trail and bedded on the ledge above the river. When he died he must have rolled off the ledge as we could see where he rolled and slid down the hill. He was laying with his back half in the river. Awesome! The coyotes didn't find him and the river's icy water cooled him down quick so the meat would still be good! The celebration commenced with my friend hooping and hollering, but I was having a hard time getting excited because not only did I miss out on the elation of a quick, clean, humane kill, but it wasn't the buck I was after. He was quite a bit smaller than expected. It appears that he was the buck that left the running track we found after all.
Because Poweshiek county had less than five P&Y bucks and no B&C bucks entered into the book (according to the QDMA map) I had decided before coming if I could harvest anything 130” or bigger my hunting trip would be considered a success and planned to shoot nothing less. Although I was really hoping for a 150”. However, while my buddy was sure my buck would score in the mid 130's, I wasn't sure it would even go 125”. Not the kind of deer I came to Iowa for. I haven't scored it myself, but my buddy rough scored it while I was gone at 125 4/8”. He said he tends to score conservatively and the score might be an inch or two higher than that. Never the less it's a nice buck and the back strap we ate the next day was pretty darn good!!! I donated the rest of the meat to a family in need (I figured I could always get more meat anyway).
I was a little surprised by the locals that seen my deer at a gas station. It drew a fair amount of attention and when I walked out of a gas station I was surprised to see a lady taking a picture to show her son who was a hunter. A couple people said it was the biggest they had ever seen in that area. While I knew there were more and bigger bucks in the area than they realized, it was still nice to hear after not meeting my goal.
He is no Giant and at first I was disappointed, but after having a little time to think about it and considering everything it took to get him I decided I did OK. About this time I took my truck into a mechanic again because of a whining noise only to find that my throw out bearing (which was supposedly replaced with the new clutch) was bad, but I was told it should get me to Kentucky and home.
I could bring up more, like missing some hunts due to being sick from sitting in the rain and numerous other details I left out, but suffice it to say that there was always something not going right every day that usually left me with out a vehicle, forking out more money, messing up my spots, etc. And it all started when I got drawn for an Iowa tag. BUT, in the end, on Saturday November 6th 2010, perseverance resulted in the harvest of the “Bad Luck Buck”. All this makes him an exceptional trophy for me. It was certainly an experience I will never forget and one I hope to never repeat!
P.S. My truck has been in the shop ELLEVEN times this fall. The bad luck continued on steadily the rest of the season. Including when I went to Kentucky, but that's another story.
P.P.S. When I get home from my KY trip I turn on the TV to relax and after three minutes it TV blows up. A couple days later the throw out bearing goes completely out rendering my truck inoperable.
I can't forget my little tracking buddy! He is actually quite good at spotting blood. He could pick up the trail when we couldn't.
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