This year I worked hard on the land to plant food plots and enhance habitat on the farm that I hunt. I planted nearly 3 acres of food plots and ran cameras since the beginning of spring turkey season. I knew I had some nice bucks running around the farm, and I set my sights on a few different bucks. Hunting with a recurve has been challenging. I missed a nice buck a few weeks ago, and soon after the summer patterns switched to nocturnal ones. This morning I had the day off and took a friend whom hadn't hunted with me for quite some time. We set out to hunt all day and see what happens. Around first light I had a doe start blowing upwind of me. I knew she couldn't smell me, but she took off right away. A few minutes later I saw this buck working from my right to left at about 75 yards. I couldn't make out his rack with the fog but I could tell he was a mature deer. He slowly fed away from me until he hit the four wheeler trail. He turned, and walked right towards me. The trail passes the stand at 5 yards. I couldn't believe this deer was coming straight in. He paused as he neared the stand, then continued walking. I quietly grunted, he stopped, and my two blade broadhead on a bamboo arrow hit its mark. I heard the "pop" of the lungs and saw the deer take off. He ran 40 yards, stopped for a few seconds, continued on another 30 or so before falling down within view of the stand. I waited 20 minutes or so and climbed down. There was good blood and I followed it right to him. A complete pass through. I have never had this deer on trail camera nor have I seen him hunting. Apparently he checked out the property on the wrong day. Not only is this my biggest deer taken to date, but my first buck with a traditional setup. I was truly fortunate today to have this Iowa Giant walk by. For those internet "police" the tag was affixed to his back when I took the first two pictures. I rough scored him out at 175.
