sw outdoor nut
New Member
Long post, but tells the story...
I took a farmer's son out with me that let's me hunt his ground in the morning on Sat, opening day. We were in one of the best spots I have and neither one of us seen anything. I checked all of the cameras in the area and most had movement around first and last light. I told him that it had to get better for the afternoon, but he had enough. I went to the meat locker in town and they were very slow for deer coming in. They said the temps had something to do with it, but I think it was also slow for movement because I didn't hear any shots where I was hunting. I decided that I was going to hunt on the ground, over looking a hollow with four fingers coming in. I set everything up and got settled down and the wind had changed directions from the morning, so I moved to the other side of the hollow.
I didn't see anything all day until 4:30, I noticed a big bodied deer coming through about 90 yards out. I had my muzzleloader w/scope and I felt confident I could make the shot. As I watch the deer come in, it stopped behind some trees and didn't move. So I am turning my scope up and down to get a better look and I see horns and part of his body. The deer had bedded down. While I was trying to figure out what he was I could hear a deer on the next ridge over coming down the hill, but I couldn't tell what it was, so I stayed with the bedded buck. As time elapsed, I picked up the grunt call and thought I would grunt to him to try and get him up and if that didn't work I was going to snort wheeze at him. I grunted three times and the deer from the next ridge started to come in closer. I was facing my left still on the bedded buck, sitting against a tree and I kept looking over my right shoulder to see what was coming. Needless to say, by the time I saw this deer he was 40 yards away looking in my direction. My heart about exploded out of my chest and I got tunnel vision for a split second
. I never had anything like this happen to me while deer hunting. He couldn't smell me, but he knew something wasn't right, so he started to stomp at me. I didn't move, but he eventually started to move away from me. I swung my gun around and stood up behind the tree. The buck stopped and I shot right behind his shoulder, he was only 35 yards away at this point. I sat down and gave thanks to God for an awesome experience and memorable hunt. I thought the buck was a big 8 pointer that I had several trail cam pics of. I waited 15 minutes or so and went to where I last seen the deer. When I walked up to him in the dark, I was really suprised to find out that it was the biggest buck I had on camera on this piece of property and had only got pics of him in early Nov and never again. He has got everything you could want to have in a awesome whitetail: 11 points, lots of character, and dressed out at 215 lbs.
I am truly blessed to get an opportunity to harvest an animal of this caliber. It looks like this will be my last season in Iowa and I will never forget it.
Take Care,
SW
I took a farmer's son out with me that let's me hunt his ground in the morning on Sat, opening day. We were in one of the best spots I have and neither one of us seen anything. I checked all of the cameras in the area and most had movement around first and last light. I told him that it had to get better for the afternoon, but he had enough. I went to the meat locker in town and they were very slow for deer coming in. They said the temps had something to do with it, but I think it was also slow for movement because I didn't hear any shots where I was hunting. I decided that I was going to hunt on the ground, over looking a hollow with four fingers coming in. I set everything up and got settled down and the wind had changed directions from the morning, so I moved to the other side of the hollow.
I didn't see anything all day until 4:30, I noticed a big bodied deer coming through about 90 yards out. I had my muzzleloader w/scope and I felt confident I could make the shot. As I watch the deer come in, it stopped behind some trees and didn't move. So I am turning my scope up and down to get a better look and I see horns and part of his body. The deer had bedded down. While I was trying to figure out what he was I could hear a deer on the next ridge over coming down the hill, but I couldn't tell what it was, so I stayed with the bedded buck. As time elapsed, I picked up the grunt call and thought I would grunt to him to try and get him up and if that didn't work I was going to snort wheeze at him. I grunted three times and the deer from the next ridge started to come in closer. I was facing my left still on the bedded buck, sitting against a tree and I kept looking over my right shoulder to see what was coming. Needless to say, by the time I saw this deer he was 40 yards away looking in my direction. My heart about exploded out of my chest and I got tunnel vision for a split second
I am truly blessed to get an opportunity to harvest an animal of this caliber. It looks like this will be my last season in Iowa and I will never forget it.
Take Care,
SW
