Rough days in Iowa
Whitetail Deer
Sitting on a new set on the family farm last night, I had no more than stepped on my stand and had a giant buck coming down the creek bed. So I’m 2 minutes into my 4 hr sit and I have a 160” 10 pt 70 yards to my south. Rough night in Iowa.
This particular buck is known to my brother and he even showed me some pictures early in the year. I sure wasn’t holding out for him, but with him now in sight, I sure wasn’t gonna pass if he came by!
Something scared this deer to me, not sure if it was the neighbors or my scent swirling back his way after I had walked in and he thought he was circling me? No matter what, he stood like a statue for 15 mins look back. That was fine with me and allowed me time to actually hook up my safety harness, install my bow holder and get moderately set up.
Finally he starts moving northwest and I peak around the tree to see where I may have shooting lanes. But he doesn’t show. I look back around the tree where he was and can’t see anything either. So I start glassing the blown down trees. And then I see his body just laying there, 50 yards away. He laid down in the limbs of one of my favorite and best trees that had ever held a stand for me. Unfortunately that tree died and a big windstorm toppled in 4 years ago. That buck was laying almost where the platform of my stand had sat in that tree. I haven’t hunted this area since that tree toppled and had it not toppled I would have been able to shoot that buck out of it as soon as he crossed the creek.
I did try grunting, but the wind was enough that he couldn’t here me or flat out didn’t care. Where he was at and how my stand was positioned pretty much had me standing the entire time to try to see what he was doing. I was located in the best creek crossing of our woods so if he came my way, he’d pass in east distance.
This pic was taken minutes after I shot the buck October 8th, 5 bucks were sparring in the plot.
This pic was taken minutes after I shot the buck October 8th, 5 bucks were sparring in the plot.
This year had already proved to be a rough one. My 2nd night out for the year on October 8th I had an encounter with a great buck just a mile away, in what is my favorite stand and best producing spot ever. That buck had 5” 4s and that night I took the calmest most relaxed and ready to go shot of my life at 25 yards. I watched in horror as my shot went low ( but still appeared to be a heart shot from my angle). Quite confident I hit him in the heart my brother tracked him through the 8 ft tall switch grass. We put on a tracking clinic that night and the next morning and came up with nothing. After lots of tracking and sleep loss the only thought was the shot was lower, striking the left front leg and brisket. All the sign told us this but without ever seeing the deer again, one never knows.
That first deer is +160 if not +170. I hope you get a crack at him..
More rough times came a week after hitting and losing that first buck, as I made my way to Newfoundland for a last minute woodland caribou hunt. That’s an entire different story. Life’s rough though…. Deer hunting in Iowa and woodland caribou in Newfoundland. Yeah bit of sarcasm there. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how lucky a guy can be.
So back to Nov. 5th, 160” buck bedded behind me and I’m sitting in my favorite spot in my Grandpas woods. It’s been raining for 2 days and is calling for sunshine at 3 pm. I knew it was going to be a good day in the woods. My brother is sitting the other end of the woods, girlfriend and her boy in a blind on a food plot in between us. Someone was going to get something! I was in stand at 2, James at 2:30 and the other two made the blind by 3. I started a group text and included my dad. Best part of deer hunting is the texts we send harassing each other.
We send texts if we see something or if we need a laugh. Eventually I see some does coming from the north and across the field to the west. I hope they will attract the big boys attention but he doesn’t budge.
Eventually I look to the north and see a doe followed by a buck. He’s 200 yards off but I can tell he’s pretty good. It’s around this point I start laughing and thinking of everyone on bowsite, thinking about what a rough day this is and how I should post a semi live Iowa hunt. Since semi live hunts are normally pretty slow.
The buck behind me is holding tight and the buck to the north is slowly making his way to me. I glassed him again as he got closer and thought this buck could go 150! Holy cow how lucky can one guy be….,
As the buck to the north kept coming closer I could see he was gonna land right in my lap if something didn’t change. My minds racing, what do you do…. Wait for the bigger one and hope…. Or is it, bird in the hand…
Bird in the hand wins, he’s closing fast and is very soon at 15 yards broadside. Just to good to turn down. The shot is easy, I see the arrow hits perfectly behind the shoulder halfway up. He sprints 30 yards, stands there for 5 seconds and then with a tail twitch blasts off to the northwest.
The big boy never moved. I let everyone know I had hit a big buck ( I didn’t want to say he was dead until I found him). So now I just sat and waited for everyone to hopefully kill that night as well. No one did and by 6 the big boy moved away to the south. Since he was gone and my deer ran the opposite direction as the other hunters…. And since there was daylight yet, I choose to take up the trail.
20 minutes later and close to 200 yards of light blood trail I find my deer.
The entrance
The entrance
The shot was exactly where I knew it hit. But damn he went a long way….
That’s a good one! Congrats!!!
You can just see the scar on the top of his leg at brisket height.
You can just see the scar on the top of his leg at brisket height.
This buck was so much like the buck I had shot 24 days earlier a mile to the east. I had hit him on his left side but didn’t see a scar on his leg so felt it must be a different deer.
Once I flipped him to gut him I noticed puss coming out of his brisket and a 1 inch slice. Now I knew this WAS the buck I had hit a month ago! What are the chances! I looked harder at his leg and there was a perfectly healed scar.
I felt like crap for almost a month not knowing what happened to this buck and now I know his story. Good fortune gave me a second chance and this time I made it work.
He looks like crap in the pic as he died near the creek and I pulled him across the creek and 200 yards uphill before we ever took pics.
With any luck I can report back later on my brother hopefully shooting the other buck….
Great buck congrats and thanks for sharing Lewis
Cool story and great buck. Congrats!
Congrats on your 2nd chance and making it count this time. Nice buck!
Wow second chances. Way to go!!!
Redemption can be sweet, sometimes. Congrats on a great buck, Luke!
Other than finding him after the first hit, that is the best outcome you could have had, period. Congrats
Awesome and congrats!!!!
This thread confirms I’m not living right.
Cool story, Luke! Congratulations!
Atta buddy, Luke! congrats!!! great story!
Congrats on the deer! What heads did you shoot him with?
A couple notes after doing some skinning this morning. We live weighed him last night at 187. That’s fairly light for a deer with these antlers. After skinning him we noted he had virtually no fat. I feel he lost a lot of weight do to recovery from my first arrow. His leg was perfectly healed though. I rough scored him for fun and he was right at the 140 mark gross.
Good to put an end to that story ! Congrats !
Awesome whitetail Luke - happy for you. Congrats!
Pretty cool redemption story. A rough day indeed =)
Great story and a great buck. It’s even more entertaining reading it from my stand hoping for something special to happen.
Heck ya bud!! Congrats!!!! SO cool to finish the deal on what ya started.
Good stuff Luke! Congrats!
Great buck, way to capitalize on the second chance.
Yes! So cool you got a second chance at him!
