davidblum
Member
It's been a tough year for me here in Iowa and I was very pleased to take this buck over the Thanksgiving weekend. My mature buck sightings from the stand were down this year compared to years past and I was excited for my tag to find this deer.
I had been hunting a different area for most of the Iowa archery season with limited success. I was able to pass on a few 125" deer but they weren't what I was hoping to see from my stand. Most of November had passed and I knew I would be heading back home for a long holiday weekend. I was able to gain access to some awesome property for the weekend and I had a feeling that it would be this weekend or tag soup for me this year. I had the opportunity to hunt this property for a few other weekends in past years and knew how great it was.
-Friday afternoon was my first night in the stand on the new property and was very eventful. By 4 pm the funnel I was sitting in was full of deer and at least 3 130+" bucks chasing does all over. Unfortunately, most of the chasing was happening on the sides of the ridges about 80-100 yards away from me. A very exciting and promising night in the treestand!
-Saturday morning was again exciting, seeing 9 total bucks coming back from feeding that night. Six of the bucks were 1.5 year olds and another 2 were good looking 2.5 year old 125" bucks that I passed on within 20 yards. The last buck was a 140" nine point that I was going to take a shot at. As he was coming in I raised my bow to draw and he caught my movement and knew that something wasn't right. He sulked back the direction he came. All the other deer filtered up to the sides of the ridges where the action had been the night before.
-Saturday afternoon I moved my climber to the ridge where the action was the night before. About 3 pm I had a 1.5 y/o buck pass within 10 yards, perfectly. By 3:45 the 1.5 y/o had worked his way past me about 150 yards and I turned behind me to check how far he had made it and I saw a nice looking, mature buck making his way towards me. Within 10 minutes he had covered the distance and made his way to 20 yards behind me and closing. He followed the trail I had set-up on and was now 5 yards under my tree. I was drawn back and he made a few last steps away from some cover and I let the arrow fly. The arrow found its mark and the buck took off up the ridge towards a bedding area. After about an hour I climbed down to check the arrow and had good blood shortly after the shot.
The bloodtrail went much farther than I thought it would according to the sign I was able to find. All and all, the buck covered about 400-500 yards and one barbed wire fence after the shot. Upon retrieval, the shot was slightly lower than I thought with the severe shot angle and I only took out one lung. After a long drag and quite a few high fives with my Dad who came to help me track, my Iowa archery buck tag was filled!
I am very excited to have the opportunity to take this deer and I should have more pics on the way. This cell phone pic is all I have available right now. I think he should score in the 130's somewhere with a 19.5" inside spready. He was one of the biggest bodied deer I have shot.
I had been hunting a different area for most of the Iowa archery season with limited success. I was able to pass on a few 125" deer but they weren't what I was hoping to see from my stand. Most of November had passed and I knew I would be heading back home for a long holiday weekend. I was able to gain access to some awesome property for the weekend and I had a feeling that it would be this weekend or tag soup for me this year. I had the opportunity to hunt this property for a few other weekends in past years and knew how great it was.
-Friday afternoon was my first night in the stand on the new property and was very eventful. By 4 pm the funnel I was sitting in was full of deer and at least 3 130+" bucks chasing does all over. Unfortunately, most of the chasing was happening on the sides of the ridges about 80-100 yards away from me. A very exciting and promising night in the treestand!
-Saturday morning was again exciting, seeing 9 total bucks coming back from feeding that night. Six of the bucks were 1.5 year olds and another 2 were good looking 2.5 year old 125" bucks that I passed on within 20 yards. The last buck was a 140" nine point that I was going to take a shot at. As he was coming in I raised my bow to draw and he caught my movement and knew that something wasn't right. He sulked back the direction he came. All the other deer filtered up to the sides of the ridges where the action had been the night before.
-Saturday afternoon I moved my climber to the ridge where the action was the night before. About 3 pm I had a 1.5 y/o buck pass within 10 yards, perfectly. By 3:45 the 1.5 y/o had worked his way past me about 150 yards and I turned behind me to check how far he had made it and I saw a nice looking, mature buck making his way towards me. Within 10 minutes he had covered the distance and made his way to 20 yards behind me and closing. He followed the trail I had set-up on and was now 5 yards under my tree. I was drawn back and he made a few last steps away from some cover and I let the arrow fly. The arrow found its mark and the buck took off up the ridge towards a bedding area. After about an hour I climbed down to check the arrow and had good blood shortly after the shot.
The bloodtrail went much farther than I thought it would according to the sign I was able to find. All and all, the buck covered about 400-500 yards and one barbed wire fence after the shot. Upon retrieval, the shot was slightly lower than I thought with the severe shot angle and I only took out one lung. After a long drag and quite a few high fives with my Dad who came to help me track, my Iowa archery buck tag was filled!
I am very excited to have the opportunity to take this deer and I should have more pics on the way. This cell phone pic is all I have available right now. I think he should score in the 130's somewhere with a 19.5" inside spready. He was one of the biggest bodied deer I have shot.
