Ok here goes. I don't have a Harvest Report yet, but I have a monster buck sighting! Here is my story...
I went to the stand at 2pm this afternoon and settled in for the rest of the afternoon. I few lost fawn bleats to no avail so I waited things out. I saw no deer at all until 5:45 and holy cow!
I had 4 fawns walk in, 1 button buck and the others does. They walked right to the stand. I finally located the does they were with and she waas sly. She walked in and then before she got into range, she walked into the brush and stayed there, just 15 yards directly in front of me. With arrow nocked, release on the string and standing, I kept a keen eye on the doe, but paid attention to the four fawns under my stand. One movement an they would be gone! Suddenly there were 3 more fawns walking in from behind, and they too joined the others, where else, but right under my stand. A smaller doe suddenly appeared, but stayed behind my stand. The bigger doe stayed right in the brush. We aren't done yet! 2 more does showed up from the direction the other 3 fawns had. No doe in sight from them though. Now I have 9 fawns, directly under me, 1 decent sized doe behind me, and 1 big doe in the brush directly in front of me. Then it happens!
A snort from what sounded like a baby elephant nearly cause me to test my safety harness. The loudest snort I have heard in my life! It came from behind me. I slowly looked to my left and could see it out of the corner of my eye! He was huge! The snorting continued as well as a few grunts. This scared off the smaller does and 5 of the fawns, but the first four fawns and the big doe stayed out. Knowing that we cannot shoot bucks suddenly appeared in my mind. Dang the luck!
I kept a close eye on the doe, waiting for her to acknowledge the buck and present a shot for me. The buck continued grunting and snorting, slowly walking towards the doe, periodically stopping to stomp his hoof in the ground. Amazingly the does started stomping her hoof too! Then the buck reared up on its hind legs, and stomped both hooves in the ground, agressively. The three doe fawns took off in a hurry, startling the doe, in which she took off back towards where they came from, closely followed by the huge buck. The odd thing about this is the button buck stayed right under me for a few seconds and then suddenly darted off in that drection.
I counted 14 points on this buck, and may have missed a couple of smaller, countable points. I would venture to guess that this buck would measure in the 160's to 170's for B&C. Tomorrow I will have my video camera, as well as a digital camera that takes movies! This was truly phenominal and what a thing to witness so early in the season. I would venture to say that rut is in its early stages right now in this area.
Once my knees stopped knocking and I could catch my breath, I climbed down as it was getting dark. I met with our local DNR officer and expained to him what I had just witnessed. He too has saw this same buck, exactly as I had described him. ENORMOUS!
That is my hunting story for tonight. I hope to have both tags filled tomorrow. Our local DNR officer advised me that e was going to look into those of us that are already certified to hunt at Keomah, we may have the chance, after we fill our first two doe tags, we may be offered the chance to get more tags. More on this to come.
Joe
![157RAtinybuck-thumb[1].gif](http://www.iowawhitetail.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/157RAtinybuck-thumb[1].gif)