bowman13
New Member
As I type this I’m really struggling to find the right words to put the meaning of this hunt into perspective. First off, the property I was on is one that we’ve been lucky enough to have absolute permission for several years. Its where I shot one of my first deer and my first one on film. We’ve spent countless hours out there working on habitat enhancements over the years (which I would say have work!) turning this property into what it has become today. It has become a very special place that I’m really bummed I don’t get to hunt more often. This buck is one that upon further review we actually have a lot of history with. 3 years ago on November 4th I arrowed this buck high getting one lung. We tracked him across the section and eventually lost blood after about a mile of tracking. We gridded every inch of that property with a fine tooth comb for the next week and came up empty. This was the first half way decent buck I had an opportunity to shoot and I was absolutely devastated. I wanted to hang up the bow for the rest of the season. With the nature of one lung hits we were unsure if he had died, so come shed season we were on a mission. When we never found him or heard of anyone else finding him we had some hope. However, 2013 came and went without any sign of this buck so we presumed he had indeed died and we just couldn’t find him. Then last year we were able to get a couple trail cam pictures of a buck that was freaky similar to this buck. We eventually concluded that it was indeed that same deer and we dubbed him as Ghost. An encounter with him last November chasing does proved that this deer was who we thought he was. This fall has been crazy since I started at Iowa State, but when you’re a forestry major you have a little time to hunt… 
We’ve all been there…when the weather is about as good as it gets and you have the wind you have been waiting a week for, your priorities kind of shift. As long as you have good buddies to take your clicker and answer your clicker questions your technically still present right? I hadn’t been able to hunt this property in a long time so I figured I would give it a shot on the morning of Friday the 30th. Sitting in that solid steel ladder stand with the diamond patterned seat was so uncomfortable but it sure brought back some memories! Once it got light enough to see I did a pretty aggressive rattling sequence and it wasn’t 5 minutes later I see this guy pop out of some CRP across the field. He cut straight south following the edge of the CRP and the cut corn. I threw a grunt or two at him and that was it. He hit the wood edge, turned strait west and came grunting and thrashing my way. When he got to 40 yards he stopped and would make a scrape every 5 yards all the way to me. With this stand only being 15ft in the air and in a patch of silver maples I knew at some point I was going to get picked off. So when he walked by a tree at 18 yards I drew and sure enough 2 steps later we made eye contact. Knowing I had milliseconds, I took a 15 yard quartering-to shot and he ran less than 40 yards and tipped over. One of the coolest mornings I’ve had in a tree stand and my first gross booner to boot! Looks like the weather is suppose to get warm again next week, but good luck to everyone who will be getting out. Anything can happen this time of year!
We’ve all been there…when the weather is about as good as it gets and you have the wind you have been waiting a week for, your priorities kind of shift. As long as you have good buddies to take your clicker and answer your clicker questions your technically still present right? I hadn’t been able to hunt this property in a long time so I figured I would give it a shot on the morning of Friday the 30th. Sitting in that solid steel ladder stand with the diamond patterned seat was so uncomfortable but it sure brought back some memories! Once it got light enough to see I did a pretty aggressive rattling sequence and it wasn’t 5 minutes later I see this guy pop out of some CRP across the field. He cut straight south following the edge of the CRP and the cut corn. I threw a grunt or two at him and that was it. He hit the wood edge, turned strait west and came grunting and thrashing my way. When he got to 40 yards he stopped and would make a scrape every 5 yards all the way to me. With this stand only being 15ft in the air and in a patch of silver maples I knew at some point I was going to get picked off. So when he walked by a tree at 18 yards I drew and sure enough 2 steps later we made eye contact. Knowing I had milliseconds, I took a 15 yard quartering-to shot and he ran less than 40 yards and tipped over. One of the coolest mornings I’ve had in a tree stand and my first gross booner to boot! Looks like the weather is suppose to get warm again next week, but good luck to everyone who will be getting out. Anything can happen this time of year!
Last edited:
