This is a long story so stay with me here. This is my first time posting and starting a new thread so hopefully I do it right...
I took the week of November 8-12 off to hunt what is typically the peak of the rut where I come from around the Iowa Falls area. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all were plain bad days for a bow hunter wanting to see heavy rut action, which was due to the 70 degree weather and high winds. I was seeing decent movement at dawn and dusk, with hardly any during the daytime. Also, it seemed that the only deer moving were the does and 2 1/2 year old and younger bucks (which I passed a number of them). I was so frustrated and down on my luck that I decided not to hunt Wednesday evening. Instead, I decided to help my uncle on the farm. After we were done, I decided to swing by our place to see if there was any action. I saw a good 2 1/2 year old buck chasing a doe near my stand along with some other does in another field. The weather was due to turn much colder Thursday morning. That night I told my family that I was going to shoot a big deer the next day.
I got out to the stand plenty early and it just felt like one of those mornings that turn out to be magical. It was about 20 minutes into shooting light and I had 5 does and button bucks near me. After milling around for awhile, they worked their way towards this thick ravine that they love to bed in during the day (which is about 40 yards away from me). A few minutes after they disappeared, they suddenly sprinted out of the ravine like they were shot out of a canon. I thought that a big buck or a person had to be coming as nervous as these deer were. A yearling that I didn't know stayed around caught me looking with my binoculars for this buck. She gets nervous and starts stomping towards the ravine again. Then, I caught a glimpse of him moving and after looking at him with my binoculars I decided to shoot if given a chance. That dang yearling just about ruined the hunt because he tried to find what was making her so nervous. He looked right at me in the stand, but couldn't make me out, so he kept coming down the ridge. He went behind a tree in front of me and I pulled back. But he got through the lane faster than anticipated and caught me at 3/4 draw. He still couldn't get a good look at me, so he continued further towards my shooting lane. He stops broadside just as I planned the stand for and looks right at me. I let the arrow fly and he ran 60 yards to the bottom of the ravine and heard him crash. I shot this big 8 in the same shooting lane as my 15 pointer I shot 2 years ago and he died within 10 yards of where the 15 pointer died as well.
The buck ended up green scoring 151 3/8 in., which I was very pleased with for an 8 pointer. Sorry for the poor quality photos. My uncle is technologically challenged and I didn't realize how poor the pictures were until I got home.
EDIT: I can't figure out how to attach pictures. Any help is appreciated.
I took the week of November 8-12 off to hunt what is typically the peak of the rut where I come from around the Iowa Falls area. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday all were plain bad days for a bow hunter wanting to see heavy rut action, which was due to the 70 degree weather and high winds. I was seeing decent movement at dawn and dusk, with hardly any during the daytime. Also, it seemed that the only deer moving were the does and 2 1/2 year old and younger bucks (which I passed a number of them). I was so frustrated and down on my luck that I decided not to hunt Wednesday evening. Instead, I decided to help my uncle on the farm. After we were done, I decided to swing by our place to see if there was any action. I saw a good 2 1/2 year old buck chasing a doe near my stand along with some other does in another field. The weather was due to turn much colder Thursday morning. That night I told my family that I was going to shoot a big deer the next day.
I got out to the stand plenty early and it just felt like one of those mornings that turn out to be magical. It was about 20 minutes into shooting light and I had 5 does and button bucks near me. After milling around for awhile, they worked their way towards this thick ravine that they love to bed in during the day (which is about 40 yards away from me). A few minutes after they disappeared, they suddenly sprinted out of the ravine like they were shot out of a canon. I thought that a big buck or a person had to be coming as nervous as these deer were. A yearling that I didn't know stayed around caught me looking with my binoculars for this buck. She gets nervous and starts stomping towards the ravine again. Then, I caught a glimpse of him moving and after looking at him with my binoculars I decided to shoot if given a chance. That dang yearling just about ruined the hunt because he tried to find what was making her so nervous. He looked right at me in the stand, but couldn't make me out, so he kept coming down the ridge. He went behind a tree in front of me and I pulled back. But he got through the lane faster than anticipated and caught me at 3/4 draw. He still couldn't get a good look at me, so he continued further towards my shooting lane. He stops broadside just as I planned the stand for and looks right at me. I let the arrow fly and he ran 60 yards to the bottom of the ravine and heard him crash. I shot this big 8 in the same shooting lane as my 15 pointer I shot 2 years ago and he died within 10 yards of where the 15 pointer died as well.
The buck ended up green scoring 151 3/8 in., which I was very pleased with for an 8 pointer. Sorry for the poor quality photos. My uncle is technologically challenged and I didn't realize how poor the pictures were until I got home.
EDIT: I can't figure out how to attach pictures. Any help is appreciated.
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