|
|
|
Site Updated: 09/03/2010
| August 29, 2010 Glassed in the evening. Saw a few bucks but no shooters. I may have to go on foot. I know they are close but evidently not where I can see them. Time to get serious. One month and we will be hard at it. I found a little goof on my trusty Cabela's hunting calendar with moon phases and best hunting times. I am sure it shows the November full moon on November 5th but I had a friend question me on that so I did some checking. He is correct. According to the Farmer's Almanac website, the full moon is November 21 and the new moon is November 5th. The November full moon is called the Full Beaver Moon. OK. Something about trapping. Enough said about that. I am going to stick to the Hunter's Moon. I like that name a lot better. August 29, 2010 Velvet shedding is up on us. Trail camera pictures tell the story with the early shedders already bare bone while some have just begun. Yet others aren't quite ready. I've been spending a lot of time moving cameras. This year just hasn't produced the bucks for us as in past years. One camera has consistently produced bucks this year but the locations from the past are almost void of any bucks. Spent a little bit of time glassing last night but no luck. August 25, 2010 Glassed last Saturday, Sunday and last night, Tuesday. Total dud every night. It is definitely velvet shedding time. But that also means the rubs will start showing up soon. Have dedicated myself to doing some final bow tuning. Had a string Shox fail on my Hoyt Katera. I had to break out my Bowmaster bow press and put a couple of new ones in. Adjusted the rest ever so slightly the last two nights for center shot and knock point. I paper tuned a little bit tonight. Four arrows gave me a bullet hole in the paper every time. I still can't hold my sight pin on a small target on my Glendel Full Rut but when I take my little piece of duct tape off the 3D I can find the heart area most of the time. I'm going to call it good and begin to settle in for final preparations and hope I can get a shooter within 20 yards. August 20, 2010 Glassed this evening. Total dud. The bucks are getting closer to shedding their velvet. When this happens they are very difficult for me to find. August 15, 2010 Pulled my remaining SD cards. The Bushnell that had some date problems last week was dead. After reviewing the photos it looked like it went dead on Saturday. The date was all 'whacked' out again but not until Saturday so I got a full week of good pictures. Put some fresh NiMH AA batteries in this cam. Hopefully that's the issue. Low voltage can do some funky stuff. Glassed on Sunday night. It was pretty much a dud. That is surprising especially since the weather changed for the better. It was 68° at quitting time. August 14, 2010 Pulled SD cards and two cameras today. The cameras were not producing any 'bone' so pulled them, cleaned them up, refueled them with new batteries and got them ready for a new deployment. August 13, 2010 Glassed a triple beam buck tonight! Yes! The extra beams/points on his left side were long too. The "extra beams" didn't have any tines but they paralleled his left beam. 2010 is definitely going to be the year of the nontypical and abnormal points in Iowa. We all know that Iowa is king when it comes to huge whitetails but this year is going to be something special. Never in over 30 years have I seen so many big bucks with abnormal points. Why? Who knows? I have my own theories but let's all look forward to the opportunities that await. I predict that some of the largest nontypical whitetails ever will be shot this year in Iowa. God I love Iowa! August 7, 2010 Spent Friday night and Saturday night glassing. Found a new shooter Friday night. Did not get a real good look. The bachelor group of three saw me first and took off over the hill. But the big buck was tall and heavy. No doubt a shooter. Saturday night was a complete bust. Pulled my SD cards on Saturday and set a new camera up. One of the Bushnell Trophy Cams decided to change the year and time for some reason on August 6. The date was correct but the year jumped ahead and the time was off by 4 or 5 hours. My NiMH batteries still read 3 bars (i.e. full charge). However I am questioning this a little as I know this camera has taken 10,000, 8 mp pictures or more on this set of batteries. Don't know why I didn't change the batteries when I was there. Typical knuckle head move for me. When I turned the camera to Off and then to Setup, the date and time changed to factory defaults for some reason. I reset the cam's date and time, put it back in its security box and went on my way. Gremlins! July 31, 2010 Wow! Over 10,000 pictures on 4 cameras in one week! The new Reconyx claimed 5,100 of those photos. But it still hasn't captured a mature whitetail yet. Scar never posed this week for the BTC but Hollywood showed up for some B & W pictures though none of them are very good. July 24, 2010 Pulled cards today. Still only getting one cam with any buck pictures. Talk about frustrating. I continue to move cams on the farm not getting any buck pix. I'm confident they will show up especially since the corn is beginning to mature. That usually changes their habits. We have named the buck on the front page Scar. Many of the infrared photos make it appear that he has scars all over his body. They very well could be as he looks to be an old monarch. July 17, 2010 New record today, 3,600 photos in one week on a Bushnell Trophy Cam! Woohoo! A lot of the movement for the really big bucks was at night this week. Heat will do that I suppose. July 15, 2010 Check out the Trailcampro 2nd Annual Trail Cam Photo Contest. Help a brother out and vote for Picture No. 84. There are some very good photos in this year's contest. Top prize is a Reconyx Hyperfire HC600 Ultimate Package. Trailcampro needs to be commended for putting together such an awesome prize package. July 12, 2010 Dusted off the Hoyt tonight. Arrows flew quite well. That's always the major emphasis for me when an extended period exists between practice. one very minor adjustment in the windage of my Black Gold sight and things were good again. July 11, 2010 Glassed last night with two very good friends. Sometimes it isn't the bucks you see it is the camaraderie of the pursuit. We did see a few nice ones though. The most interesting buck was a old, sag belly buck that had some major goofy stuff going on with one side of his rack. None of us wanted to lay claim to the old monarch but he will be a shooter to 90% of the hunters I know. He is big! July 10, 2010 Pulled cards again today. I still only have one camera producing any 'bone'. I'm moving cameras like crazy looking for a sweet spot on another farm but so far no go. the big bucks are really growing fast. This is just fascinating to me to watch a few big bucks grow up. I've always wondered what part of the growing cycle seems to have the greatest growth. I've learned a lot this year. Went to a friend's farm and hung a camera tonight. The spot is generally low in deer population but the bucks can be big! He'll check the camera from here on out. July 7, 2010 Talked with a good friend in ACE today. I was buying some lag bolts and padlocks. He taught me something I did not know. ACE has a service that allows a person to buy multiple padlocks and set them up to use the same key. For example: Let's say you have 5 trail cameras and 5 tree stands. You can buy 10 padlocks and then ask them to set them up to use the same key. I wish I would have known that 20 padlocks ago. If you are like me, your key chain is out of control and I always carry two sets of keys with me. Thanks Steve for this great advice. I watched a show tonight on The Sportsman Channel, Heartland Bowhunter. This show catches the true essence of bowhunting for me. The videography and video production are excellent. At times some of the video set to music is a little long but the mood it creates truly puts me in the deer woods. Their shows can be found on demand on their website. July 3, 2010 Hot today! I've got one camera producing but a couple of others that haven't captured a horn yet. I usually give the cameras a couple of weeks. If they don't find any horns I move them. Such was the case today. My new toy from Trailcampro arrived this week. It's on cat-cam duty right now. Some of the bucks are looking really healthy right now. Got pictures of two very nice bucks I hadn't seen before. June 27, 2010 Pulled cards today and glassed in the evening. All the deer were out tonight. Bucks everywhere. It really seems that the buck to doe ratio in Iowa is good. Bucks are growing fast. The mature bucks are really nice with plenty of growing to go. It was a slow ride home after dark watching for deer on the road. Set another record today with 1061 photos on the BTC. That's one week of photo capture. One of the cameras I setup last week had 860 some pictures and not one single buck. Figure that out. Soybeans are the key. Deer were just packed in the soybeans tonight. June 19, 2010 Pulled my SD card tonight. I got some nice pictures of a buck that seems to pose well for the camera. This is the third time in a row. I am going to call him Hollywood. He seems to be very photogenic. He also looks like he is going to be a very nice buck when he finishes growing with a sticker on his G2 and I like forked G2s. I finished the night glassing. I found two new bucks right at dark. They are going to be absolute monsters. Right now they are main frame 4x4s. They will be at least 20 inches wide inside. The one had great mass already. I will be extremely surprised if they aren't well past gross Boone in August. The biggest one should already score in the 140s. He has great brow tines and G2s that will be out of this world. Both bucks are mature. My Nikon spotter worked great with the huge objective lens. It really sucked the light out of the dark sky and gave me a good look after I crawled over my truck console and mounted the spotter on the passenger window. When a buck looks big by July 4th he is well worth putting at the top of my Hit List. I thought for sure with the winter we had antler growth would be down. I think Mother Nature has something else in mind for 2010. I wonder if the extreme winter stress didn't trigger some sort of Canadian gene? If true, Iowa whitetails could be something very special this year. June 19, 2010 It is somewhat quiet right now. Some people have their cameras in the field while others haven't even wiped the dust off yet. Whichever camp you you subscribe to, just make sure you give your cams a good once-over. Just a reminder that Trailcampro has a nice checklist for you. I know of a few people that are beginning to shoot their bows again. That anticipation just seems to gather momentum and slinging arrows at a 3D target fuels the desire. June 12, 2010 Trekked back to pull a picture card. 939 photos! 1 week! That is a record for me. Those Tenergy batteries have been getting a workout and they just keep on keepin' on! One buck looks to have very good potential. I also got quite a few pictures of some "deer smack down". I got to glass for about 10 minutes after getting back to the truck. Saw a bachelor group of six bucks and one is going to be an absolute monster with one very close behind! We've got over two months of growing time yet and these two bucks were big already. Good grief, so much for the toughest winter in decades! These bucks came through quite well. I'm not sure but the big buck looked like he might be limping. June 5, 2010 Checked my one camera in the field. It's an '09 Trophy Cam. Holy cow, 681 pictures! Most all of them had some sort of critter in them and most of them were whitetails. There were three bucks that had outstanding growth already. May 30, 2010 Camera one deployed. Went on a little trek today and set the first Bushnell Trophy Cam in the field. It is loaded with eight fully charged Tenergy NiMH AA batteries. As soon as I got to my destination it started to rain. Just my luck. It was a quick rain but the lightning didn't help my confidence any. Drove by a couple of remote locations on my way home. The squall must have rousted the deer up, I saw my first velvet of the year. One buck had some very nice growth already. I need to keep an eye on him this summer. I've sent two of my Moultrie cameras to Alabama last week for repair. One I40 had a LCD screen that was loosing pixels intermittently. I'm pretty sure it is due to moisture. The other is a Cabela's I50. It has a problem with the lens filter. It was intermittent in the past but now seems to have problems all the time. I have always been very happy with Moultrie and their Customer Service once they receive my cameras. Their turn-around time has always been good. May 17, 2010 The days seem to be picking up steam as we get closer to October. I can't wait. Five months isn't very long to get those bow-pulling muscles in shape. For those camera addicts out there, make sure you test your cameras before deploying them to the woods. If you purchase a new camera, give yourself plenty of time to run it through some tests in your house or in your back yard. It's frustrating to deploy it to the woods and then come back a week later and find out you forgot to turn it on, put an SD card in it or didn't set it up the way you wanted it. I wish they made a perfect backpack to carry all my stuff. I hate rummaging around in the bottom of my camera pack trying to find the right tool, strap, security cable or padlock. For those of you that don't feel you need security for your camera, you better think twice, even if the camera is on your own property. I've read and heard too many stories about stolen cameras. Trailcampro has plenty of security options for you. I should qualify my last entry and say that I have many liberal-voting acquaintances that hunt whitetails too. I think you know I wasn't picking on you. It's always funny to me how elitists think they know all about us poor folk from the Midwest. The people in the Midwest are the smartest people in my opinion. Smart is all about common sense. My spouse doesn't like it when I remind her that elitists sit on the toilet just like everybody else....unless they use a bidet. Of course the redneck in me uses 'redneck speak' when I deliver the 'sitting on the toilet' message. You ever seen a bidet? They scare me! As Crocodile Dundee said "It's for washing your backside". When it comes to left or right or the middle all I care is that people exercise their right to vote and base that vote on their personal values and not on some slick ad developed by some left coast elite. Don't forget, the Iowa primary is coming up shortly. You have absolutely no right to complain if you don't vote. May 13, 2010 I watched a couple of TV shows this week that depicted people who hunt in general and bowhunt in particular as sadistic, crazy, human killing psychopaths. The left coasters just don't get it. We don't give a rats tail what they think. If they feel we are fly over country, awesome, they can just head back to their bankrupt, liberal leaning, Prius infested states. I'm sick and tired of the elitist attitudes from people that have absolutely no business telling me or implying to me how to live my life. Leave me alone. November 2010 is only 5-1/2 months away. Your time as king of the mountain is almost over. By the way, the networks that broadcast these shows were NBC and CBS. Make sure you all exercise your right to vote and thank goodness for Fox News! May 3, 2010 I shot a few arrows with my Hoyt tonight. The arrow still hit the target. My plan this summer is to work with my bow arm. I had a archery shop rep tell me my draw length might be too long. He may be right but my Hoyt's current draw length feels perfect. I've shot arrows out of a bow that is 1" shorter in draw length and the bow felt horrible to me. I could use the need for a shorter draw length as an excuse to buy a new Maxxis though. April 30, 2010 The DNR posted their proposed rule changes for 2010. The DNR List of Iowa Trophy Deer was updated in April. Have you ever wondered what the reward was for turning in poachers?
I received my 'Bible' last week (Cabela's Archery Catalog). Things I'm looking for this year include a single pin sight and possibly a new thumb release. I've got a Scheels gift card burning a whole in my pocket. I will probably look there for a new sight. It's only 5 months until the hunt begins (October 1). I've always marked May 1 on my calendar as the point for a new beginning. It's time to start shooting, dusting of the trail cameras and getting the spotting scope ready. April 23, 2010 Well, I received some new Tenergy AA rechargeable NiMH batteries from Trailcampro. I was pumped to put them to work so I put them in the charger. They were deployed on April 21 in a Bushnell Trophy Cam. I plan to put them through their paces and see how long they last. After charging, I did a quick battery test. All batteries tested at 1.4+ volts. Nick at Trailcampro told me "That was good. They will last me a long time". Thanks Nick, I have a very good feeling they are going to be a great economical alternative to alkaline batteries for this trail camera addict. I have had nothing but great feedback from the guys at Trailcampro, they are very helpful. April 16, 2010 It's been quiet for this Iowa fat boy for a couple of weeks. Still working hard at my real job. I've had some good friends send some nice turkey success photos. Any free time I get, it seems that I spend it reviewing trail camera info on Trailcampro.com. I do hope that our readers like the new format of the site. I for one needed a change. I'm still working on other concepts to make it even better. March 27, 2010 Pulled the last of my stands today. It was perfect weather. The timbers are fairly dry now. It made for easy walking. Found one small shed. The 'timber rats' had not chewed on it yet and it had been on the timber floor for quite a while ago. Trailcampro has a new trail cam features table for 2010 trail cameras. This is a very nice tool to compare cameras. March 21, 2009 It was definitely a nice day to be out in the woods. I was able to haul 3 stands back to the truck but my feet took a beating. Still no sheds. I'm pretty sure the deer did not spend much time on the property in January and February. The snow was just too deep. They were staying as close to feed as possible. There wasn't any feed close to this property accessible through the deep snow. I did find a dead little buck but I left him to the will of Mother Nature. March 17, 2010 Welcome to Trailcampro.com, our new partner in the trail camera addiction. The trail camera information on this site is excellent! What I really like is the detailed camera comparisons they do, the detailed camera reviews they provide and the wide variety of choices available to the consumer. You absolutely have to check out their 2009 trail camera shootout. If all this information doesn't help you make a camera purchase decision then you're reading but not comprehending.
March 12, 2010 I've been a hermit for a month. Went out for a walk in the woods tonight. Still not the best for walking but accessible. The cedar trees are hammered at deer height. Deer trails are black from deer poop. Fresh winter tree branches lay on the forest floor. I did not find a single shed in 2-1/2 hours of looking. What a turd hunt. Get it...deer poop on the trail...turd hunt. Any way bad joke but true. The site is hopefully going to look a little different in the future as we will begin to accept sponsorships. We want the sponsorships to be compatible with the theme of the content. That theme is Iowa whitetails and the pursuit of a buck of a lifetime. For years we have purposely limited sponsorships to focus on the content. However, we feel it is time to look at that opportunity to develop more information that will benefit our whitetail hunting colleagues.
February 6, 2010 Well, it's been a while. Ran across a bit of info yesterday that you all should take note of. I won't offer up where I got it but will share the general background. For us Iowegians, it is campaign time for our next governor. On the Democratic side that means the incumbent, on the Republican side that means four competitors until the primary. Where do I lean, well let's just say liberalism isn't my cup of tea. Ahh hell, I'm a card carrying Republican. STOP the damn spending!! Now that that's off my chest, let's talk about what my expectation would be out of my next governor as it relates to nonresident deer hunting. First of all let's be clear, I am OK with NR deer hunting just not an unlimited number. That would totally suck. I do not want the current number increased and I sure as heck do not like the Governor's tags. For us locals we all know we live in the best deer hunting state in the union and probably the world. When I hear about a candidate for governor saying that there needs to be a balance between economic development and the number of nonresident tags, my comment is, there hell there does! I am a resident and you need to think of my needs first! No more NR tags. As soon as I heard about this whole 'balance' thing I was pissed. No balance! The balance should swing heavily to me, an Iowa resident. All of you Iowegians need to be listening and asking the question: "As a candidate for Governor, where do you stand with regards to nonresident deer tags?" I want to hear from every single candidate as to where they stand, so do your part when a candidate is in your part of Iowa. Let us know what you hear and we will share the info through this forum. January 18, 2010 The fog has made it impossible to glass. I did manage to wonder back and pick up my cameras. The Moultrie I40 just continues to take photos even with the miserable weather. My Bushnell Trophy Cam did not perform as well. For some reason I have a corrupt SD card. I specifically remember formatting the card with the BTC before I left it in December. I can't retrieve or even format the card. I assume there are lots of photos on the 2 gb card but they are lost to the digital grave yard. I've tried numerous tools to recover the photos but no luck. That puts an end to the game camera picture season. It was a disappointing end. I did manage to find a shed on my trip to the deer woods. That got me all excited to find some more but after an hour of fighting deep snow and no more sheds, I headed for home. For you die hard shed hunters out there I tried a new shed mounting kit by Mountain Mike's Reproductions. It cost about $40 for the kit. I used it to mount a matched set I found a few years ago. It seemed to work quite well. The web site has some nice "How-To" videos that makes the work even easier. January 10, 2010 Well, it's over for Iowa deer hunters hoping to harvest a buck of a lifetime. For those of us in western Iowa the late season has been nothing but challenging. Many, including this deer hunter, did not take on Mother Nature's challenge and erred on the side of safety. Shed hunting will be the next stage to closeout the 2009/2010 season. The snow depths in western Iowa will probably result in some winter kill. I've never seen it like this. It's even a challenge to glass the country roads and not run into a section of road where the navigability is questioned. It was disappointing for many as we ended up with a billfold full of unused tags. I won't be surprised if the deer harvest is significantly down. If you believe Al Gore and his global warming scenario, then in my opinion you need to spend a day outside in this deep freeze. I for one have always banked on some good bowhunting late season, but from here forward I think I will invest my time in one or two out-of-sate tags like Illinois or Kansas and hunt earlier. Too much of my free time is invested in the pursuit of the buck of a lifetime and not to have ample opportunity late season makes the end to this season all the more painful. C'mon Spring! January 3, 2010 Attended a family Christmas function out of town this weekend. It was delayed due to the blizzard a week ago. Got out Sunday night to do some glassing. Looks like a lot of people have been hunting near the road. Saw a few blood trails crossing the road both from wounded deer and hunters dragging the dead deer across the road. Still seeing a few nice bucks in hard to reach places. It's amazing to me see deer in rural cemeteries and front yards feeding. This is quite frankly the first time I have seen this in all my years of hunting and glassing. Saw a herd heading for a primary highway at 4:30 tonight. The herd included one mature buck that had already shed his antlers and another 140-inch buck. Saw a bunch of deer calling a standing cornfield home for the winter. December 27, 2009 Well, the late season hunt in Iowa this year is only for those with a lot of will to succeed. The deep timber or deep property runs are only for those of you with snowmobiles to gain access or those of you that own cross country skis. Most of the hunting I see or observe is close to the road and only on those roads that aren't drifted close. The 2010 year will be a banner year because a lot of big bucks survive due to limited late season pressure unless they succumb to the winter. That access was dealt a nasty blow this weekend with freezing rain on top of the first blizzard and then another foot of snow to top off the freezing rain. Good grief! A pair of snow shoes is looking mighty tempting right now. One of my TV heros used to be (emphasis on 'used to be') Jeremiah Johnson. One time in my life I thought it would be cool to be a mountain man. Today, I'm glad I didn't loose my electricity over the weekend and that some genius invented the 4-wheel drive truck. How in the heck did our forefathers last a winter like this 200 years ago? December 20, 2009 Glassed in the morning and evening. Saw plenty of bucks but no whoppers. Probably the most worrisome event was looking at a very nice half-rack buck harvested by a young shotgun hunter. It appeared the deer had already shed one side!!! The buck was very nice, 150 class with a broken drop tine. December 19, 2009 Fought the snow again this morning to get the SD Cards out of my cameras. Very disappointing. Very few pictures. Saw plenty of tracks and sidewalk like trails but not near my cameras. Pulled one camera that was extremely deep and moved another. That's work in this snow. Glassed a while tonight. Saw quite a few bucks but none I would classify as a shooter. The cupboard looks full for next season however I hope to find a couple of shooters before January 10. So how do we plan to drag a deer out in this snow covered terrain. Well, the only solution I can think of is lots of bodies and a sled of some sort. This is a time that a person definitely wants to take a deer worth dragging. It's going to be an effort. December 12, 2009 Holy cow! This snow is going to make it almost impossible to hunt far from the road. Pulled some SD cards today. Got some pictures of new bucks I hadn't seen before. I was definitely pooped by the the time I shuffled my way back to the truck. Glassed some tonight but the wind kept the deer from coming out early. Saw some bucks but too far for even a spotting scope to do much good. December 6, 2009 It always amazes me just how resilient the whitetail is. I glassed tonight and saw some familiar deer tonight. One is a fawn that has a broken rear leg. The leg is literally bent at a 90 degree angle forward. I have seen this fawn a few times this fall and, except for the leg, looks in good health. Not sure he/she could make it through a hard winter though. Also saw a 135 inch 4x4 that I had seen numerous times this fall. He had broken his front leg right above his hoof. I noticed tonight that his limp is significantly less and he even 'walked off' a couple of other bucks to show his dominance. Still plenty of shooting today and tonight from the Orange Army. I would admit that the amount of shooting I heard the last two days must be a record. Either there are a lot of dead deer or some shotguns that need sighted in a little better. I did check a camera today. The number of photos were much less than desirable though I did have a little excitement when tending to the camera. A group of deer came running by including one nice deer in the 140s. I just need him to play hide and seek for another couple of weeks. December 5, 2009 Well, I made my annual trek around the deer woods today to see what the Pumpkin Parade harvests or sends galloping across the Iowa prairie. There were lots of people out today. Nice weather I guess. For a bowbender only, some of my most humorous memories occur during this time. Today was no different. I was glassing a whopper of a 4x4 at quitting time tonight. Definitely 150+. At the same time I watched a big pickup creep up the hill further northwest of me about a half mile away. I watched a big guy in blaze orange jump out of the passenger side, finish walking to the top of the hill and then raise his shotgun to shoot (I was watching this through my spotting scope). The first shot must have been nothing but a 'click' because I saw him pump his gun to load a round into the chamber. Then the smoke came out of the gun. He must have shot 5 or 6 times. As he is shooting, a young girl jumps from the drivers side and runs up the hill, I assume to see what the shooting is. Then a short time later a young boy pops out of the truck to see what is going on. Anyway I go back to watching this 12 inch G2 buck in hopes of getting some video as all the shooting is pushing the buck and dozen does my way. I see the orange pumpkin up on top of the hill and it looks to me that he messing with something like a deer. I can only see the top half of his body as he is slightly over the hill. Then I see him lift this girl up in the air. After watching for about 30 seconds it appears to me she is hurt. My guess is she tore up a knee or ankle. What a cluster! Yes that was funny but I hope nobody got seriously hurt. That's the last thing anybody wants. My guess is she will be visiting some emergency room tonight. November 29, 2009 Got out and did some glassing in the morning and evening. The morning was slow. The evening was a little more eventful. I did manage to find a couple of nice bucks in the mid 140 class. One buck was definitely tending a doe while the other was with a group of does but did not appear to be tending any particular doe. The big bucks are most likely regaining their strength if they aren't with does. That means a lot of down time licking their wounds and chewing their cud. A couple of lessons learned this year: It appears to me the best time to hunt the big sign post rubs is the last week in October and the first week in November. After that, there is almost no activity at the rubs. Plan for 2010 accordingly. If the Hunter's Moon was November 2nd this year, the best day to be in the deer woods according to my cameras was November 3rd. The big bucks were on their feet everywhere. I had outstanding hunts on the 5th and 6th so that leads me to believe that the week immediately before and the week immediately after are peak buck movement times. The biggest bucks however always seem to lag the Hunter's Moon by about two weeks. Not sure this is anything most hunters don't already know but it is the first year I have tried to observe in detail deer activity at sign post rubs. I had my cameras setup early waiting for the events to occur. November 28, 2009 Glassed in the morning. Saw quite a few bucks including one definite shooter in my book. Might gross about 160. He had a triple left brow tine and the other one was forked. He was milling with some does deep in the middle of a switch grass field. Went doe hunting tonight. Does were on the other side of the field. Two bucks were with them. It was a beautiful night. Had a slug of turkeys flying to roost right in front of me and had two fly about 20 feet over my head from the opposite direction. November 23, 2009 Believe it or not! I was commuting to work this morning. At about 6:45 I see eyes on the road in front of me. It's a buck and a doe. The doe is on a bridge and the buck is standing in the middle of the highway on the north side of the bridge. I slowed to almost a stop as I was coming from the south and the doe was basically sandwiched between my Silverado and the buck on the north. So what does the doe do? Well I couldn't believe it but she jumps over the bridge rail. I didn't stop to see what happened to the doe but did check on the way home. She was nowhere to be found but the fall was enough that she most likely broke some bones or at the least came away with some bruises. Can you say "Suicide by Buck"? Couldn't believe what I saw but I assume she thought it was no different than jumping over a fence. Wow! I heard a report today of a posse of big bucks chasing a single doe. For those of you still carrying a deer tag, that is one of the benefits of this time of year. You could see multiple big bucks after a single doe. I've experienced this a couple of times in late November and the encounters were awesome! If they are close enough to shoot the dilemma is which one DO I shoot? Hang in there. My experience has also been that the big bucks are more responsive to a grunt call in late November. I have grunted many a nice buck my way later in the month. My guess is they are mentally wore down but Mother Nature tells them they are the top stag in the woods so they have to respond. November 22, 2009 p.m. Checked, reset and moved cameras all afternoon. Not a darn shooter buck on any of the cameras. I did get a dog picture. Damn dog scattered the deer to the wind I bet. Things are really slowing down. It amazes me just how fast the rut decelerates. I know the big bucks are still tending does but the chasing and roaming is zero. You have to hunt by the preferred food source right now it seems to have any chance of seeing a big one. It's great for doe hunting too. November 21, 2009 p.m. My daughter felt the weather was warm enough for her to go hunting. We chose a farm that had shown some big buck activity recently. Saw quite a few does and fawns but way off in the distance with binos. Did see a definite shooter, he looked to be a 5x4, 140 for sure but most likely in the 150 -160 range. I had my video camera all ready to go in hopes of getting her shot on film but the grunting, wheezing and rattling would not draw him across the field. November 21, 2009 a.m. Does and fawns have my number. Had some in sight again but need to be closer than 70 yards. Saw quite a few does and fawns coming back into the timber and 4 small bucks. Slung an arrow at a 'yote and found two sheds. What was crazy about the two sheds was that they were laying one on top of the other and they were from different bucks. The sheds were from last year. November 20, 2009 p.m. Went on another doe mission tonight. They went by at 60 yards. It was so quiet and my stand squeaked so much I'm not sure I would have got a shot off anyway. It was a beautiful night in the Iowa deer woods. The corn is finally getting harvested. That is going to make a huge difference on the preferred food source. Be ready to move if you still have unfilled tags. November 19, 2009 Today must have been a fantastic day to be in the Iowa deer woods. I had a couple of of buddies still on the prowl for wall hangers. They would text me with play-by-play action. I am mentally wore out! Big bucks are still tending. November 18, 2009 Went on a doe mission. In the morning the does saw me going for my bow in my tree stand. Strike one. In the afternoon I went to the edge of the timber and sat on the ground. I had a doe, with a fawn in tow, come out early. Passed behind a tree at 12 yards, I drew and the nag saw me! Strike two. They left and about 15 minutes before quitting time the flood gates opened and five does and fawns followed the same path BUT they had a 125 inch 4x4 right behind them. The does fed past me in the field but the darn buck was right behind me at eight yards. There was nothing I could do except try and keep the blood circulating in my right leg kneeled on the ground. Strike three. I'll give it a try again soon but in my opinion the smartest deer in the whitetail world is the mature doe. You rarely get any second chances. The only reason mature bucks are hard to kill is because there are so few of them. You absolutely have to be at the right place at the right time. And when you do get your shot on that buck of a lifetime you have to execute! The best hunter I know sent me an email. He said and I quote
I offer this not as an explanation of my harvest but as a reminder to all to have fun and understand that for most of us a big part of the fun is sharing the experience. That is what Prairie Images is all about. It is about sharing the experience. November 17, 2009 a.m. Wow! Went glassing. Bucks tending does every where I drove. The biggest buck was a 165 class 4x4 that had to be 22 inches inside and sported some awesome looking dark chocolate horns. What a specimen. November 13, 2009 a.m. Closed the deal today, on a nice one, but not a whopper. I had a 4x4 that I wanted a shot at if he offered. He was one of a posse of bucks chasing a doe all over the timber this morning. The movement was decent early. Saw another bigger buck while tracking my deer (which is often the case). My guess is the big bucks are beginning to break and this should be a good week with multiple bucks chasing a single, estrous doe. November 11, 2009 p.m. Deer were moving awfully slow tonight. There was little bit of roaming but more importantly I am starting to see mature does by themselves or with their fawns. I am also still get deer downwind of me and they don't snort or bolt. They smell me but go on their way. I'm not sure why but it has to be the new process I am following with my clothes...or...I am out there so much the deer have no fear. After 32 years I didn't think I would ever see the day when I would get by with deer downwind. My preferred food source is not so preferred any more evidently. The deer sightings are starting to dwindle a little. Pulled another SD and pictures confirm the big buck is busted up. I think he is missing three tines. I am curious what has busted him up. Work tomorrow back at it Friday. November 11, 2009 a.m. Not many deer deep in the woods this morning but I was again at full draw on the nice 5x5 with a busted G4 on the right side. I have had three different chances in three different stands at this buck. I have a hunting buddy that thinks I should be shooting. After today, I will be. Can't explain why I didn't pull the trigger this morning. The pin was right behind his shoulder and he was 12 yards. My mind just wouldn't let me pull the trigger and he is nice! All-in-all saw more bucks cruising between last night and this morning. They may be starting to break a little but the true giants are still locked down. November 10, 2009 Started off the morning by playing chicken with a big buck on my walk to the stand. He even snort wheezed at 60 yards. The Katera was loaded. All we needed was some daylight and 30 less yards. No go. Had a good morning from stand but no P & Y bucks. Everything was moving slowly. Does moved through early. The evening movement was later than the night before. Had a nice 135-140 class 5x5 travelling west to east and then 10 minutes later had my boy coming. However I didn't figure it out until too late and he was just too far at 40 yards. He was the Rub Buck. He was on a mission, by himself, and no Buck Growl or snort wheeze was going to change his direction. Darn it! 40 yards! I've learned the last 5 years or so that big bucks like to follow big bucks during the rut. I've had it happen a lot. I need to be better prepared next time. November 9, 2009 This morning was a good hunt. Saw 4 bucks with 3 of them in the 130s. Two bucks offered shots and responded to grunt calls. The first one came in the timber feeling extra aggressive. I'm sure he heard me walking down the hill because I spooked something by my tree in the dark. He didn't know what I was and came back flexing his muscles a little while later. Movements stopped early. Tonight was a great hunt! The deer came through in a wave tonight. Couldn't believe it after the last few HOT days. Saw one nice one, 140s, tending a doe else there were a lot of young bucks harassing the fawns. My guess is those people hunting on field edges tonight by a preferred food source had a good night. The important thing right now is to find the PREFERRED food source. I'm pretty sure, on the way in, I saw the buck I passed up two weeks ago (BIG mistake!). Now he's busted all to crap! My goals just changed and got reduced. November 8, 2009 p.m. This weather is ridiculous but a text message from a hunting buddy made it all worth while. I was laughing so hard I nearly tested my Hunter Safety System. It had something to do with camo shorts, a jockstrap and a T-shirt. It was HOT! However, I did see four bucks chasing a doe about 4:15. The big buck was nice, definitely in the 140s. However, the doe took the clan the other way in the woods. I did see quite a few does and fawns feeding in a field when I got to my truck. Hopefully the cooler weather the next few days should pick things up a little. November 8, 2009 a.m. Great morning though the deer were moving fairly slowly. I had an estrous doe, being tended by a huge bodied 135-140 inch buck, bed below my tree. This is no kidding. The old monarch had a droopy left ear and a right eye that was half shut, both I assume from fighting. Can a deer break their ear? The doe bedded four different times within 5 yards of my tree and in locations that took her 360 degrees around my tree. She never winded me once. I think the buck did but he absolutely would not leave. The doe initially brought 5 followers to my location including one nice 5x5 in the 140s and another long tined 5x5 that appeared young and with a busted G4. He was 12 yards right in my shooting lane and should have scored over 145 if he wasn't busted up. The tending buck and doe were literally within 10 yards of my tree for an hour-and-a-half. I heard numerous other bucks grunting behind me but was in no position to turn and look let alone check my vibrating cell phone. The pair eventually wondered off about 150 yards and bedded down again in this hot weather. This is literally the definition of 'lockdown' in my book. The big bucks just are not moving anywhere at all without their does. You have to be where the does are feeding or bedding or darn close to these locations. November 7, 2009 p.m. Man what a slow night. It was so quiet I think you could hear a deer fart at a 100 yards. Went to a timber, hung a stand and had decent sightings but all near quitting time. I rattled and grunted plenty in the still of the evening. It alarmed the deer more than anything. November 7, 2009 a.m. A rush of activity the first hour and then nothing. Saw three nice bucks with does and then it went quiet. Pulled another SD card. It was clear to me that November 3 was the peak of buck movement. For those of you out on that day, you should have seen all of the big bucks because they were all out and on their feet. November 6, 2009 Another great day the first couple of hours then silence. The evening hunt was very slow. I've never seen so much chasing as I did this morning. Wow! The hot weather is going to be tough the next couple of days. Pulled 3 camera cards, the cameras indicate that the buck movement has been good. Busted tines are the name of the game from here forward it looks like. Got a picture of the buck I was so indecisive on and let pass two weeks ago. BAD decision! And I think the other one would have scored more. Guess what buck I will be looking for? November 5, 2009 First day of my vacation and my best day ever! I literally saw bucks from sunrise to sunset. This is a first for this fat Iowa boy, I have never sat the same stand from sunrise to sunset. I think the wind moved the deer into deep cover at my location. Temperature was about right for me too. I had a shooter at 15 yards at 11:15. I was just setting my fat butt down when a doe came running under the stand from behind and scared the crap out of me. Right with her was a piece of crap, 10 inch half a buck. I was on alert looking to see if Mr. Big was in hot pursuit after this kamikaze buck and doe. I watched with bow in hand for 3, 4 or 5 minutes. Nothing. I sat down again and was getting ready to eat my peanut butter sandwich when I heard GRRRR! There he was right behind me at 15 yards. It happened too fast and no shot! He had tines everywhere. He moved on and that was my encounter with a shooter for the day. Roaming, roaming, roaming. The bucks were roaming all day long except 1-3 p.m. at my location. In my opinion, if ya got 'em, hunt 'em. Don't save your good stuff any more. I love it when things are quiet and one of those one year olds goes by because their hearts are bigger than their brains and you never know what they may get into over the hill. They like to roust things up. There is no better place to be than in the Iowa deer woods in November. Holy cow was it rockin' today! November 1, 2009 p.m. Had a fairly good night but the real deer movement was right at dark with the hot weather. Had another border line shooter, 145 class 5x5, go right through my shooting lane following the doe he was tending. It was early too. He was hot and panting. The doe looked calm, cool and definitely knew she was the boss. Took a good look at him. He was a main frame 5x5, a little light in the mass and short brow tines but definitely a 4 year old deer or more. This should be an excellent week of hunting if the weather stays cool. November 1, 2009 a.m. Super dud! I didn't see any deer in the timber I was hunting. Moved some cameras and began the process of putting up another stand. Have been getting pictures of nice bucks on this property but it seems they are always at night and well after shooting hours. October 31, 2009 p.m. It is on! The roaming has started and I think you can plan on the big bucks being with does already. Had a beer summit type meeting with three bucks 7 yards from my tree tonight. There was plenty of snort wheezing, ears laid back and scraping. For the most part they just acknowledged each other and went on their way. The first action started at 3:30 already with beautiful two year old 5x4 that chased 5 does and fawns right to the base of my tree. Also had a very nice upper 120's 4x4 with a bad left front leg. It appears he injured his leg right above his hoof. Had a doe get something in her nose when she was about 8 yards from my tree. I bet she sneezed nearly 80 times. Have you ever seen a doe try and pick her nose with her hoof? It wasn't pretty and very annoying after the tenth sneeze. October 31, 2009 a.m. Wow! What a start to Halloween day. Saw good movement and plenty of bucks roaming and checking does. Passed on one heck of a 4x4 at 18 yards. He was the one that posed for a lot of pictures this summer and has a sticker by the base of his G2. Also saw Curly on the hoof for the first time. Last picture I got of him was early September when he was shedding velvet. He was roaming around 10 in the morning. October 30, 2009 p.m. WINDY but a great night for bowhunters. Lots of bucks on the prowl. Possibly even a nice 140 class 4x4 tending a doe. I watched him 'walk-off' a couple of other bucks including a bigger racked deer but probably younger. I am absolutely sick of the rain! All my hunting gear is wet. Hunted deep in the woods a long ways from the feed. Many deer were still deep in the woods at quitting time. Deer fed for over two hours on acorns. If you aren't seeing deer on the crop fields it's most likely because they are on acorns. Saw the same thing this morning (i.e. deer feeding on acorns). October 30, 2009 a.m. WINDY! That is the story of this day. There was a lot of deer movement around 8 at my chosen location. Saw the nice 4x4 I got all the pictures of this summer. He is definitely tall but looks to be a 3 year old, maybe 4 at the oldest. Wind was swirling again. Finished getting another stand setup. October 29, 2009 p.m. Thank goodness for Cabela's Dry Plus and Gore Tex. It rained pretty hard the last 2 1/2 hours tonight but the deer were moving. No shooters showed up but plenty of does and fawns. I am trying to figure out why the first doe/fawn couple always seem to walk straight to my tree and then stand directly downwind. Don't they know their supposed to walk on the upwind side of the tree? Saw 4 bucks total tonight with the biggest being a 125-inch 4x4 on the way in. Everything I have is wet. Hope it dries out for the morning hunt. October 28, 2009 p.m. Planned to take Thursday off but based on the weather forecast, decided to hunt Wednesday afternoon. Wind was perfect for the stand I wanted to go to. Had one report on the way out that deer were rolling this morning. My experience tonight: Does and fawns only with one little buck at quitting time. He had his tongue hanging out and grunted three times looking for does. He evidently had been running. Makes sense why all the does came running by me 30 minutes before quitting time. Picked up an SD card on the way out. Looks like I have a display going out on one of my I40s. I've heard that has been a problem. Got a lot of pictures but no bucks hitting the target rub. Had a doe and fawn straight down wind and practically right below the tree tonight. They had to be smelling my Gorilla sticks and still didn't spook until it was time for me to get down. I've been slowly fixing up one of my tree stands a piece or two at a time. Next trip I need to carry a stand in. It is the same tree I killed my nontypical out of last year. Saw a BIG buck cross the road in front of my truck on the way home. He was moving very slow. Looked like he was going to feed. I shot a new Hoyt Maxxis 31 last night. Holy cow is that bow sweet! I think I need to own one of those. Absolutely no vibration in my hand. I also picked up a new Teflon cable slide. The draw of my Katera feels much smoother now. October 25, 2009 p.m. 27 times! That's how many times the doe snorted at me tonight. Yes, as this morning, I counted. The wind wasn't even blowing at the old nag. There were two fawns feeling their oats running around about 150 yards away. I leaned around the tree from my ground 'perch' and the the old nag saw me when one of the fawns went to get a drink of milk. They were the only deer I saw. I found a well used scrape this morning and setup to see what was using the scrape. I've been getting a lot of different buck pictures on this property. A big zero on the buck front. October 25, 2009 a.m. What a colossal dud! I saw two young does and one of the does snorted at me 22 times. Picked up some camera cards. Had quite a few buck pictures. Had a new buck with a pretty decent profile but not sure about his spread. The buck activity is definitely picking up. October 24, 200 p.m. What a hunt! I had more deer pass through my shooting lane without detection than ever before. You got to love those cedar trees. I had a very nice gnarly, mature buck pass south of me about 60 yards at 4:30. I guessed him in the 150 to 160 range but was not sure. He had double G4 on the left with each tine about 6-inches long, great mass but relatively short tine length. I think he had very short brows or they were broken. He was definitely a 4 or 5 year old buck. After the 'gauntlet' came through my shooting lane a dandy of a 5x5 showed up and headed for my shooting lane. Right behind him was the earlier buck. Both bucks had to be a minimum of 148 and I'm pretty sure were much bigger. Quite frankly I just wasn't confident in my field judging. I let the first buck go through my lane at roughly 18 yards and zeroed in on the second buck. He took a wider swing out to 25 yards. I stopped him with a soft grunt, put two pins right behind his shoulder, settled in, put my finger on the trigger....and let him pass. I have no idea why I did. I just couldn't get myself to pull the trigger. I don't know if it was the rain, lack of brows, time of year or what but I think I need my head examined. Both bucks were NICE! October 24, 2009 a.m. Mother Nature turned the switch on! Saw my first mature buck this morning. What a stout 4x4. He had to be close to 300 lbs, the 2s and 3s were all over 10-inches, the beams appeared to be an easy 24-inches. He had to be a 150 class 4x4. He was headed my way but my fumbling around with the video camera to capture the little buck that first caught my attention left me in an awkward position. He saw me at 60 yards but never got in my scent stream. He trotted back in the direction he came from. The trail cameras showed that the buck movement is definitely picking up. I was at full draw on a 'yote after I called him in but he needed to come one more yard for a shot. It never happened. October 18, 2009 p.m. Went to a property to check a couple of cameras. Pulled the cards. Each camera had a nice buck. The one appeared to be very nice but the Sniper Pro over exposed the photo (i.e. whiteout at dusk). I could adjust it enough with my picture editor to tell he is a thoroughbred. The Bushnell Trophy Cam camera had a different nice buck but I only got have of his rack. The other half was out of frame. Oh yea! Also got two hunters. It appeared they were a father and son, with shotguns, no orange so I am assuming they were turkey hunting. If not they were illegal! They can youth deer hunt if they didn't fill their tag during the regular youth season but they need to be wearing orange. Sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn't it? The father also appeared to be carrying a bow. So, knowing all of this leads me to believe something was illegal with all the weapons, no orange, and on a piece of land I'm not sure they should be on. Anyway, only saw a doe and a fawn and a small buck. After retrieving all the SD cards this weekend it appears to me that October 11 was a big day for buck movement. Since then it has been minimal according to the cameras. October 18, 2009 a.m. Actually got out of bed at a decent time and made it to my stand before sunrise. Had a good hunt seeing many does and fawns including right under my tree but only one young buck. Moved the stand. The stand is like a big wart on the side of the tree. had a 'yote coming for the stand but the wind gave me away. Pulled a camera card pointing at a big rub the last week. Not one horn. Natta! That totally sucked. October 17, 2009 p.m. Wind was swirling at my stand. I think it changed from NW to SW during the hunt. Only saw bald deer tonight. Pulled two camera cards. Not hardly any horns. My choice of stand locations has been pretty dismal. October 16, 2009 p.m. Headed out with an enthusiastic daughter tonight. She was the one checking the wind this morning when I got a text at 7:30 at work. The text said "N/NW wind tonight can we go to our spot". I responded you betcha! Man was she fidgety tonight and it was way too quiet for that. Her Bass Pro 'Bone Dry' fleece bibs and top echoed through our little valley. About 20 minutes before quitting time a 130 plus, busted tined 4x4 appeared in the switchgrass but he was headed for the other of our two ground blind spots. A little rattling and a snort wheeze or two sent the buck heading for the hills. Oh well! I needed to try something to get my daughter a shot. Most of the evening was quite slow. Deer are still in a feeding pattern. If you have some sort of 'green' feed you should be doing well. The brown foods (corn, soybeans and sorghum) just can't hold a candle to the alfalfas this time of year. October 11, 2009 p.m. Hung a stand for an east wind. Hunted it. Evidently the deer didn't know that because a herd of does and fawns headed for food west of me. They were straight down wind but they didn't get bothered. My clothes have been in an enclosure all year with Hunter Specialties scent wafers. That seems to let me off the hook for the most part. The deer seem to smell something but ignore it after a little bit and then go on their original course for food. Saw one buck for about 3 seconds. He appeared to be mature. It was a good night again but the buck movement seems very limited near my choice of stand locations. October 11, 2009 a.m. Great deer movement by the treestand this morning but they were all bald. When the weather forecast says light and variable wind, they weren't kidding. Talk about variable. Had a few deer right under the stand. Scent control kind of works but when a mature doe comes around, the gig is up. No foolin' their nose. October 10, 2009 p.m. It was a good night. Saw about about 8 does and fawns and 3 young bucks. yes there was some chasing. Way too quiet in the woods. I couldn't make any moves without deer going on alert. Just too darn quiet. It was one of those beautiful nights to be in the deer woods in Iowa. October 9, 2009 p.m. It was a good night but I didn't wear enough clothes. Saw three bucks that included a one year old, a three year old and a four or five year old. The three year old had one beam broke off already. When I saw him I asked myself what the buck looks like to break his beam. A half hour later the buck emerged out of the switch grass. The old boy was a big bodied, huge headed and massy old fellow. His rack wasn't a Booner but he was impressive. He was a wide 4x4 with great mass at the bases, maybe 140+. I think I saw this buck last year. Any way it was a good night but as always. I picked one of two spots and they went the other. October 4, 2009 p.m. Set up another camera on an 8-inch tree that has just been whittled! Hope to see the buck making the rub. Spent the remainder of the evening on the ground. Sightings were limited but the weather was gorgeous. I wish I could bottle the last half hour of daylight on nights like this and sell it. Saw a few does and fawns and one small buck. Is it just the woods I hunt in or are there a bazillion of those little sticker weeds (I call them stick tights) growing this year. I noticed in many of my summertime trail camera pictures that the fawns were covered in the darn weeds. Now I know why, the weeds are everywhere. My backpack and clothes are covered with the darn things. It will take all season to get them cleaned off. October 4, 2009 a.m. No hunting. Hung a stand and set a camera. Found some big rubs. Pointed the camera at the rubs. Will see what we get. October 3, 2009 p.m. Hung a stand and hunted it. Awesome hunt! Only one little buck but had does and fawns around me all night. Had a doe and fawn do a 360 around my stand but never got alarmed by my scent. Heard either two bucks sparring or buck making a rub. Went on for 15 minutes. October 2, 2009 p.m. First night out. It rained the whole darn time but saw a lot of deer movement. No horns. My Bass Pro XPS top seemed to hold the water out pretty well. I screwed around with my bow before going out. I noticed that my knock point was needing some maintenance so I took the knock point off and tied a new string loop. Not very wise only a couple of hours before heading to the woods for the first time but it needed to be done. I paper tuned for an hour. Most all of my shots were bullet holes. Also pulled two SD cards. No decent bucks. My Sniper Pro is not doing well at all with batteries. May need to return it or get a 12 volt rechargeable. My Bushnell Trophy cam seems to be doing quite well (knock on wood). September 29, 2009 Case closed! It appears that a father and son had been given permission by the land tenant to hunt the location of the headless deer. The land owner was not aware of this. The deer was shot one night and recovered the following day. By the time of the recovery the deer was getting 'ripe'. However, the law is clear, that if you recover the deer then you need to take the carcass as well as the rack. You can dispose of it later if the locker doesn't want it for HUSH. It was the deer in the picture below. The DNR acted very swiftly when information from multiple sources started to come together and make a lot of sense. Hats off to the Game Wardens for their excellent work! September 27, 2009 October 1st is almost here. You've prepared all summer. There are two steps left to harvesting your deer for 2009. You need to get the deer close enough for a shot and you need to execute. These steps are by far the hardest. Whether you are hunting from a tree or from the ground you need to be flexible. Go where the deer are 'today', if you are out of position by 50 yards then move your darn treestand or fold up your Double Bull and move. Once you have zeroed in on the shot location then prepare yourself mentally for executing the shot in the vitals. Practice the execution over and over in your mind. We all have invested too much time not to hit our mark. Good luck! September 26, 2009 POACHED! Here's the story. Planned my trip to pick up SD cards. As I walked to my camera located three quarters of a mile back in a field with no vehicle access, I noted turkey vultures all over the place. I figured something was dead. As I arrived at my camera, I found grass tucked into my security box in front of the lens and sensor. This was put there by a human. Now I'm really pissed. I pulled my camera and packed it into my backpack. Just as I turned to leave, I saw a turkey vulture fly from the ground in a location that could only mean something dead. I navigated the terrain and 7' tall grass. Just as I was ready to give up the search, 4 or 5 turkey vultures flew from the ground beside me at less than 5 yards. There I found a bloated, stinkin', huge bodied deer with his head cut off. You've all heard me say it before, I began the dry heevin' trot trying to get away from the damn stink. I damn near puked! Some of you know where I spend my time in the woods so it's time to find the cheaters. This deer was shot during youth season so even if it were shot during season the person was trespassing and committed wanton waste by leaving the deer. If it was a poacher, all sorts of regulations were violated, either way, regulations were broken. Based on the body size, I believe it was the deer in the photo below. If you know any taxidermists in my area of the world, I would suggest you check with them. If it was a youngster, they got very bad advice from their adult. I am sure the youngster has been bragging about the big deer he or she killed. Based on the black photos I got on my camera, they were on this property around 6 p.m. on September 23.
September 20, 2009 Second day of youth season. Hunters zero, deer 2. We got skunked. September 19, 2009 First night of youth season, 11 deer, 2 little bucks and 2 coyotes. We also got our picture taken by a trail camera. We heard two different sets of shots, which I assume were at deer. All-in-all a good night but no shooters. My daughter is trigger happy. She was thinking about shooting her Hoyt at a toothpick buck if he came close. I sure the heck didn't want to drag that thing over half a mile. We can do better than that. The big buck from the summer we were looking for never showed. September 17, 2009 I put my G5 Montec Pre-season 100 grain broadheads on my practice arrows tonight for a few shots. I hit what I was aiming at. I called it good and went back to my field points. The Montecs caught some air on the calm evening and whistled a little bit. Also been adjusting the angle of my trigger on my thumb release a little bit looking for that sweat spot. I hope you heard of the fantastic job our DNR did to arrest some poachers in Greene County. Youth season starts this weekend. Take a child deer hunting. September 10, 2009 Well, after 6 long months the DNR has returned the 'bale-buck' to the farmer. I'm sure it was a difficult decision but in our opinion the right decision. Our hats are off to the DNR for making the farmer's family very happy. Enough said on that volatile topic. Now, let's all do our part and follow the procedures if we find a dead buck in the field and especially if it the result of a well placed Easton arrow. Time to move on for us, the DNR and all those involved behind the scenes. There are a few new deer hunting regulations this season. Please be advised. changed to exclude claiming residency only for the special or temporary purpose including, but not limited to, engaging in hunting, fishing or trapping. See p. 8-9 for additional changes. November antlerless-only deer licenses are valid on private property only. See p. 23.January antlerless licenses go on sale December 15 in those counties where licenses are still available.September 8, 2009 The deer blog has been pretty weak for a while. My bad. Been under the downspout at work. Well I finally decided on a fletching for my new Easton FMJ 400s. After shooting all summer, I am going with three 4-inch Duravanes with full right-wing helical twist. My fletching jig of choice was a Bitzenberger. The vanes are more flexible, much more so than the Bohning, but they seem to be much more consistent. I fletched up a set of 8 this weekend but re-fletched 4 of them and plan to do the other 4. My ability to get a thin layer of glue on the bottom of the vane is well below average. What a mess! I had glue all over the green and white wraps. The second set turned out much better thanks to many Q-Tips. One of my Hoyt/Fuse string silencers failed. Went to the dealer to get a couple of replacements. Guess what? They say I can only get them through Hoyt. That sucks! I'm using a Super String Leech for now. One of the issues I ran into was peep roll when I took out the balance of the failed little rubber silencer. I had put something back in or rotate the string. My Bowmaster Bow Press isn't very friendly with my split limb Katera, and I even have the split-limb brackets. Looks impossible to me to remove the string and rotate it a half turn with this bow press. Saw a good buck fight Sunday night between three bucks. It was way more than sparring but less than a fight to be the father of a fawn. Now I know why they bust up their racks so early in a year. That fight would definitely break off some tines. Put out a couple of more cameras this weekend. They aren't doing me any good sitting in the man cave. Have one more to set out. I have a special place for it but it will be a little trip to get there both in the car and in the field. August 30, 2009 Got my first decent picture of a hard horned buck. I saw some rubs including a woody stalked thistle that some buck felt looked like a tree. It actually did look like a tree, the darn thing was 7 foot tall. I hate thistles. Moved a camera and set a new one. Got my first buck pictures with the Bushnell Trophy Cam. I think I am going to like this camera as long as it keeps working.
August 18, 2009 Following are 3-years of pictures from the same buck. The brow tines and the notch in the deer's right ear are leading us to our assumption. This deer is at least 5-1/2 and possibly 6-1/2.
August 14, 2009 Glassed a little tonight. Wow! Did I see a pig! It's funny where you find the big bucks this time of year. He looked to be a main frame 5x4 with G2 forks, other stickers, mass and spread. He was just a gnarly thing. My guess is that he would gross score somewhere between 165 and 180. It was hard to tell. He was a half-mile away, the sun had set and my Nikon ProStaff spotter just wouldn't pull in enough light and I have the 82 mm objective lens. August 4, 2009 Sunday night turned out to be a wonderful night to glass. It must have been the rising moon. Bachelor groups were out early. It appears that 2009 could be a banner year for shooter bucks. Of course, it doesn't really matter if you see them at a half mile with a spotting scope, 20 yards is more the recipe for the Iowa bowbenders. Then you have to execute. Some people may wonder why I post so many pictures of nice bucks. The answer is simple, I think everybody that pursues the Iowa whitetail should have the opportunity to see what's out there. To harvest one with a bow however, you have to get 'em close and then close the deal. That is the challenge. Where you see them today doesn't mean they won't be a mile or two away come October or November. July 30, 2009 Antlers are getting big! Saw a big 'buck nasty' tonight. Looked to be a 5x5 with a deep G2 fork and some other stuff. Also caught a 150+ 4x4 in video range. See the photos page for the video. July 5, 2009 Am working on a different anchor point with my Katera XL. Ended up raising my G5 peep sight about an inch. That was a struggle to get the peep rotation just right. By lowering my anchor point I should accomplish a few things, a more direct draw with my drawing arm, my sight is now centered in the bracket and my release should be a little more natural. It feels pretty good based on the little bit of shooting I accomplished this weekend. Have also been trying some Easton Tracer lighted nocks. I don't really like the magnet on the riser but they work every time and are easy to turn off. Have been struggling to get my trail cameras in the 'sweet spot'. The darn brome grass is so tall I get a lot of false triggers. Will continue to adjust (and cut the darn grass) until I find the right location. June 24, 2009 An interesting new DNR policy. We say great job to the Iowa DNR, state legislators and the Governor! The Iowa DNR policy reads as follows:
June 13 ,2009 Attacked by a hen turkey! Yes, it's true...kind of. I spent about 2-1/2 hours in the woods today. All the rain has really allowed the under-story to grow. I was walking along in some tall weeds when this hen turkey literally exploded at my feet. It scared the crap out of me. The hen then proceeded to run in a circle around me at about 10 feet, yes it was 10 feet, for three to four minutes. I assumed I was by her nest but couldn't see any eggs. She finally 'yelped away' into the timber and I continued on my way. That was a new one on me. Attack of the killer turkey :-) June 7, 2009 Cleaned out my backpack after hunting and shed hunting seasons. Have you ever wondered how all those tree remnants end up at the bottom of your backpack? Got my trail camera supply bag ready to go. Still shooting tight groups but may have to go to one arrow at a time. June 4, 2009 Checked all of my measurements on my Hoyt Katera last week. My knock point was high for some reason, readjusted the nock point from flat to 1/16" high. Checked in paper. Got my bullet holes. Went back to 20 yards and watched arrow flight. Excellent! Moral of the story: check your bow on a regular basis. Fletched some arrows with 4" Quickspin ST's and slight right offset. They fly like bullets. Had to readjust my sight pins up since nock point was lowered. Groups have tightened up again. Great! However, am beginning to tear up some fletching again due to the tight groups and I am only shooting two arrows at a time. Refletched my two Duravane FMJ's with right helical again. Wow, do they rotate! Back to working on shooting form. May 23, 2009 Been around but focusing on my paying job. The Hoyt Katera XL has been cranked down a round of pounds. Need to build up the fall hunting muscles again. The Full Metal Jackets have been fletched and refletched trying to find the right helical and vane combination. Went back to shooting at 5 yards focusing on the release and not the target. Archery Talk has an excellent thread on target panic. Have been using it as a reference to improve my release. Plan to purchase another trail camera or two. Want a good incandescent flash for sure but waiting for Chasingame to test drive a few. Most being tested are of the infrared nature. We have four infrared models now and desire a white flash cam for special locations. Was leaning the home brew route but am thinking consumer model now due to the cost. Has everybody noticed that the wildlife baby season is in full swing? May 9, 2009 We just got done watching two new videos by Drury Outdoors, Whitetail Madness 12 and Dream Season 12. There is no doubt they are the best outdoor video producers in the market today. Lots of big bucks as always. We always appreciate the family and humble presentation the videos exhibit. Dream Season 12 had an interview of Ross Harrison, Iowa DNR. He did a good job but missed the boat on a couple of statements in our opinion. He specifically said that if we let the politicians and other economic stakeholders take over the Iowa deer herd management we will be left with an undesirable herd in the future. We totally disagree with that statement because the politicians are the only ones that listen to us when we say the number of non resident licenses is enough. For the last 6, 8 or 10 years we have constantly been assaulted by requests for an increase in non resident deer license numbers. As we progress towards a target population of 180,000 deer statewide (down from 400,000), the number of harvest opportunities will go down but 'hopefully' the quality will stay high. Long story short we need more opportunity for the majority of resident Iowans that do not own or lease a property for hunting. That is the majority of Iowa deer license holders. Lack of success by many is the reason many leave the deer hunting fraternity. Success breeds success. The best way to breed the success is to create good viable opportunity for those that rely on public land for recreational opportunity. Since 'Green' is the name of the game now-a-days, doesn't it seem logical to make sure every single county in Iowa has public land available for deer hunting? It would shorten up travel trips (i.e. less gas) for many as long as the properties held some whitetails. It seems too logical to us so it will probably never happen. May 3, 2009 Been shooting the Katera XL on a regular basis. Only 5 months until October 1. Re-fletched a couple of Easton Full Metal Jackets last night. Really put some some helical twist in those vanes. It's a good feeling to see the arrows rotate on their way to the target. Been doing a lot of reading on 2009 Trail Cameras. Looking for a white-flash camera. Can't decide between a home brew or to try another consumer camera. The consumer incandescent flash cameras have all failed on us to date. They last for a little while then crash. April 25, 2009 The DNR has announced their first environmental report card. Here is the link to the deer part of the report card. What I see in the report card is a population goal of 180,000 by 2011. That is less than half of the peak shown in 2006 when the population was estimated to be 400,000. OUCH! Public land hunting will totally suck at that population level. Good luck finding a horn. The only decent spots in the state will be land owned by people for deer hunting (i.e. recreational ground). Talk about the potential for fence huggers. Buyer beware to the rec ground owners. You haven't seen anything yet. At that level a deer hunter better be darn selective if you hope to have a chance at a big one down the road 4 years. If you average 180,000 deer over 99 counties you end up with approximately 1,800 deer per county, 1,800 divided by 16 townships per county results in 112 deer per county township. In reality, one section will hold that number on a 'no hunting' property. We all know this 'average logic' isn't true but it puts in perspective what a deer population of 180,000 will look like. For those people from the the flatlands of north central Iowa. Good luck! Plan on traveling to southeast Iowa, you can expect the bulk of the 180,000 deer population to be where all the Outdoor Channel celebrities reside. State park refuges will probably receive more pressure from poachers. In addition to car-deer safety, I wouldn't be surprised if this was by design. More people will become nervous about having a place to hunt and feel the need to buy recreational ground. This will make the Real Estate lobbyists happy. All I can say is "buyer beware" in this economy. Hope you can afford to pay cash and hold the ground for 20 or 30 years if you plan to make a profit. April 17, 2009 Let's do a little field judging review today. There are so many hunters today managing their property that many just have a knack for field judging the score of a buck's rack. However, it is obvious to us that many just don't get it or embellish for some story-telling glory. The measurements:
Let's assume a 5x5 of average dimensions in Iowa: Spread = 16" (roughly ear tip to ear tip) Beams - 2 @ 22" = 44" (side view to the eyes) Circumferences = 30" (light on mass) Tines - [3+9+7+5] x 2 = 48" Total = 138"
Moral of the story a 150-inch buck is big. A 170-inch buck is huge. Anything larger is almost too big to judge accurately. Our rule of thumb is to subtract 15 to 20 inches from what the story tellers of the world offer us. April 15, 2009 Heading west on I-80 this morning about 7:15 and saw a couple of dogs (a mid-sized mutt and a 6-inch ankle clamp) running like the wind across an open field. They were after a couple of fawns that were way out ahead of the deer-harassing tandem. Have to give credit to the dogs as they were committed and it looked like they were going to chase these two fawns across the county if they needed to. My guess is they better beware come October, as I know some people won't be too kind to the pair if they chase a wall-hanger away from an Iowa deer hunter. Do you ever wonder if some people ever paid attention in math class? Some people embellish stories so much there is no way in heck you can believe a word they say even though they fully believe every thing they tell you. It takes one heck of a lot of deer to make a herd of 100. I would never believe a story many times that number around our area of the world. Hogwash! Another rule of thumb: If somebody says they've seen a 200-inch deer, my guess is it is more like 150. I only know of a few people that get the whole field judging thing plus it takes one heck of a lot of deer to gross 200. April 8, 2009 Holy buckets! Time for cooler heads to prevail. There is a misconception that we are promoting cheating the system. Quite the opposite. For those of you that feel we are promoting poaching please see the TIP phone number on your right. GEESH! Your argument is a poor one. Our trusted friends know different. After this issue, our 'trusted friends' list may shrink. What we are promoting is consistency in the application of policies and statutes AND the application of common sense! Quite frankly the consistency part has been applied as a function of antler score in our opinion. The higher the score of the antlers the more you can count on confiscation of the antlers or the attempt to confiscate even if it was hit by a car and salvage tag issued as a result of the car-deer crash. This we know for a fact! See Chapter 80 of the Iowa Administrative Code below for the 'Salvage of Game' rules. The value of the Iowa whitetail has without a doubt more dollar and intangible value than any study could hope to identify. We've said it before and we'll say it again. Many people have moved to this state because of the chance to pursue the huge farm-fed bucks on an annual basis. Many resident landowners are hoping for the nonresident quota to be increased so the land value of their 'deer farms' appreciate. In our opinion, the deer population will explode and the ability to manage the deer populations on private property will challenge the wills of state regulatory authorities and private land owners, especially when regulatory authorities inform 'deer farm' owners they have too many deer. Non 'deer farm' owners will be left to hunt what they can lease or left to pursue whitetails on highly competitive public ground. How does this relate to our confiscation issue? The bucks continue to grow older and bigger due to Iowa deer hunters letting the little bucks grow up. World class whitetails are expected from Iowa every year now. Unfortunately, some world class whitetails are wounded, get away and die or are attempted to be poached and run off and die. When these dead trophy bucks are stumbled across in the field by shed hunters, mushroom hunters or farmers moving big round bales the immediate reaction is: "Look what I found". Let's use some common sense as well as consistency in the application of the 'Salvage of Game' statute. The deer are owned by the state of Iowa but guess who owns the state of Iowa? Last time we checked, we all do. Another issue: Can anybody tell us if the Wildlife Refuge sign is restricted for use by the State of Iowa? We know of a posted sign that begs the question: "How did it get there?" It is posted on private property which has always been private property. We've seen many a hunter on this ground. We are pretty sure we know how it got there or have a very good guess. It would piss most of our readers off if our assumption is true. April 7, 2009 Saw another violation the following Iowa Code section the other night on the Outdoor Channel. The Primos boys were hunting on a property in SE Iowa as they typically do. Had their big Primos sticker on their orange vest. The thing that aggravates me so much about this whole issue is that I sat and listened to a hunter education instructor 'preach' to my daughter's class a year ago about nothing on a vest, no patches, nothing (which I thought was absurd) and there was a darn Game Warden present in the room at the time of the statement! I guess if you're a famous Outdoor Channel star then it doesn't matter. You get special treatment including Special Issue Governor Tags. OH, by the way, some of the the governor tags slated for 2008 use were sold for the following amounts:
Half of these funds for 2008 licenses went to DNR. My point in all of this: It appears to me the value of a non-resident, any-sex deer license is great enough to double the current price of $323 to assist with revenues. 481A.122 HUNTERS' ORANGE APPAREL. April 5, 2009 "George- you can say what you want about whether the DNR should return an illegally shot deer to the finder, but you should consider the consequences. If you think we have a poaching problem now, let the DNR start returning illegally shot deer and the problem will get much worse. You don't even have to think like a poacher to figure out just how easy it would be for someone to "find" a dead buck, then legally get a salvage tag so they can keep it! We have enough problems with poaching, why in the world would we want to give them another avenue to steal our resource. And by the way- they're just horns, there's no hunt, no stories, no memories- just horns." Jon Judson April 2, 2009 Been away a little while. Wisconsin, Kansas, etc. Man I wish these damn winter storms would finally subside. You would think that traveling south to Kansas in the spring would prevent you from running into a blizzard or almost running into a blizzard. C'mon summer! The latest on the 200-inch buck: Not much to say except lots of rumors, phone calls and e-mail chatter. We did receive a 2007 trail cam photo of what 'might' be the deer. We do have permission to show these pictures. It sure has a lot of resemblance. It is most likely him or a close relative. We do have pictures of the dead buck but do not have permission to show them, quite frankly we haven't even asked. Many of you have already seen them. The dead buck has two extra long tines that come off the inside of the beams around the G3s. It does appears that a bullet was found. Our opinion? So what? All the evidence has been collected, deliver the deer back to the farmer. For those of you non-Iowegians, rifles are illegal in Iowa for deer hunting...thank God for that rule.
Where do we go from here? Simple answer: if you find a dead buck and want the chance to keep it, you better darn well contact the Game Warden. See the 'Presumptive Evidence' section from the Iowa Code below. My guess is there are probably 1000's of dead 'pick-ups' in houses and garages across the state without salvage tags. I was in a small Iowa town last week with literally a dozen racks over the door of a taxidermy shop. I'll bet those racks don't have salvage tags. We all know that giant bucks draw more attention as this one did. From a law enforcement perspective, it probably shouldn't. No where in the Code sections below does it differentiate between possession of a doe or big ass Iowa buck. So when we find that dead 3x3 laying dead out in the field what we do? I don't know. You know I don't want that foul smelling thing in my house. The wisest thing is probably not to shoot at the 'Dinks' in the first place. If I stumble across a big-boy though then I will follow the procedures of contacting the Game Warden and put a salvage tag on the darn thing (if they even respond to me after this), dry heaves and all. In reviewing the DNR's information filled website the other night in Wisconsin, we ran across this report of Iowa's Deer Management Program. It's 53 pages long but mandatory reading for all of you that visit this site. Report in later :). Here is an excerpt from the report:
We agree with the following statement for now...Other committee members feared that quotas might be increased to increase funding for the DNR which could reduce the availability for resident hunters to have access to hunt deer. They would prefer to see elected representatives continue to set the quota. March 26, 2009 I was told I was a pussy tonight because the March 25 entry was weak. Well here it goes, need my reputation back. It's LONGGGG! Game Warden told farmer last night "no deer, we're keeping it". DNR has not issued a report or given the farmer an evidence receipt. Game Warden and Supervisor can't agree to disagree on the whole reason for keeping the darn thing. Game Warden tells farmer one thing, Supervisor tells farmer something else. Here is what we think: Give the deer back, you know where it is, if the farmer sells it (which I think is illegal) give him a ticket. However, the farmer has no intention of selling the darn thing. It's finders, keepers. For example: if the wheels get stolen from my truck and are found later by law enforcement, do ya think I can get the damn things back to put on my truck or are they going to be stored into evidence for 12 months? Have ya ever wondered where all the confiscated deer are stored? Me too. Wish I knew. I sure the heck hope it is someplace other than the garage or basement of the confiscating officer especially if the value of this thing is what the DNR officer indicated to farmer. I think he was talking more of the damages value (i.e. fine). If I ever heard that officers or commission employees were allowed to keep a confiscated deer rack I would be chapped as hell. Does anybody know what "disposed of according to Department rules means"? You can't believe the stories surrounding this whole 200-inch deer confiscation issue that have surfaced. I assume some of them are true. I just shake my head wondering what is going on. Let not any of us forget who is the boss, it is all of us that vote for our legislator to develop the laws that are in the best interest of you and me. If we don't like a law or interpretations of a law we work with our legislators to change it. Oh yea, and check out this Notice of Intended Action. Did anybody hear about the asinine vote in the House a few evenings ago? A bill was introduced to give all nonresident, deer hunting landowners a permanent nonresident any sex deer license. Are you friggin' kidding me? That's just wrong. I can't seem to find the vote or action on the state's web site. If anybody can find it please e-mail me the link. The person I talked to said it failed. I sure the heck hope so! Maybe this whole confiscated 200-inch buck was all a diversion? For those of you that have wondered what the salvage regulations say. This all we can find: IAC 7/2/08 Natural Resource Commission[571] Ch 80, p.1 CHAPTER 80 SALVAGE OF FISH AND GAME 571—80.1(481A) Salvage. Salvage is authorizing the possession of accidentally killed game for the purpose of human consumption or the feeding of domestic animals. Any benefits derived from the possession of legally salvaged game (such as sale of hides, plumage, or antlers) is a secondary benefit only. 80.1(1) Peace officers are not to salvage game solely for the purpose of financial gain or commercial taxidermy. 80.1(2) The following game when accidentally killed by a motor vehicle shall not be considered salvageable: spotted fawn deer and hen pheasants. 80.1(3) All salvage tags referred to in this chapter are not transferable. 571—80.2(481A) Game killed by motor vehicle. The following conditions shall apply to a person being allowed to take possession of a game animal that has been accidentally killed by a motor vehicle. 80.2(1) Any person wanting to possess game accidentally killed by a motor vehicle shall immediately notify the nearest conservation officer, Iowa state trooper, or sheriff’s department and request a salvage tag prior to taking possession of said game. 80.2(2) When a request is made for game accidentally killed by a motor vehicle, the game shall, when salvageable, be disposed of in accordance with the following priorities: a. Individuals involved in the accident; b. Public institutions; c. Nonprofit organizations; d. Others. 80.2(3) All game accidentally killed by a motor vehicle shall be tagged with forms provided by the department of natural resources. 80.2(4) All game accidentally killed by a motor vehicle shall be subject to the following possession regulations: a. A salvage tag is not valid unless signed by the holder and a designee of the director of the department of natural resources. b. A salvage tag shall not be valid for more than 90 days. c. A salvage tag shall remain with the game until consumed. d. It is unlawful to sell or trade any part of the carcass except as provided by law. e. It is unlawful to process or cut up for preservation any game prior to obtaining a salvage tag or verbal authorization from a conservation officer with the department of natural resources. 80.2(5) The conservation officer is the issuing authority for the salvage tags and is responsible for the county program records. 571—80.3(481A) Confiscated fish or game. The following conditions shall apply to a person being allowed to take possession of fish or game confiscated by the department of natural resources or a court. 80.3(1) Confiscated fish or game, when salvageable, shall be disposed of in accordance with the following priorities: a. Public institutions; b. Nonprofit organizations; c. Others. 80.3(2) Confiscated fish or game shall be tagged with forms provided by the department of natural resources. 80.3(3) All confiscated fish or game shall be subject to the following possession regulations: a. A salvage tag is not valid unless signed by the holder and a designee of the director of the department of natural resources. b. A salvage tag shall not be valid for more than 90 days. c. A salvage tag shall remain with the fish or game until consumed. Ch 80, p.2 Natural Resource Commission[571] IAC 7/2/08 d. It is unlawful to sell or trade any part of the carcass except as provided by law. These rules are intended to implement Iowa Code section 481A.11. [Filed 3/17/89, Notice 11/30/88—published 4/5/89, effective 5/10/89] [Filed 8/1/91, Notice 6/26/91—published 8/21/91, effective 9/25/91] In doing my state statute research I ran across some other things that just aggravate the hell out of me: 481A.12 SEIZURE OF WILDLIFE TAKEN OR HANDLED ILLEGALLY. 481A.37 PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE. 481A.122 HUNTERS' ORANGE APPAREL. As shown above in 481A.122 and as taught by my daughter's hunter education instructor, you are not to have any patches or anything on your blaze orange vest while deer hunting. Well, then let's enforce the damn thing. I'm tired of this stupid 'party-hunting-esque' type rule. I don't know how many times I've watched Lee or Tiffany on TV while hunting in Iowa with a TC logo on their orange vest. Enforce the damn law or get rid of it. GEESH! The rule is just stupid! March 25, 2009 Seems like this whole issue has stirred the pot a little bit. We've had comments on both sides of the issue. Did I get a little out of hand? Maybe. If I am proven wrong I will say so. But to this point in time, nobody has provided any evidence contrary to Let's be clear on what we all want. We want the friggin' poaching to come to an end. DNR doesn't have the resources to deal with all of it and they need our help. We know that. But when it comes to finding a trophy of a lifetime dead in the deer woods we need to do what is right and notify the local Game Warden. They are our friends. I'd hate to guess how many of us spend late winter and early spring looking for sheds and stumble across dead bucks. We all want to keep them. My bride talked to one of our friends the other day and his son had found a dead buck in a field this year. His young son was proud of his find. He was shocked to know there is a possibility the deer rack could be confiscated. This guy is a straight-arrow. A couple of weeks ago I found a little basket rack dead in a grassy draw. I left the skanky thing. Should I have notified the Game Warden? Maybe, but it was a half-mile from any road and in my mind didn't warrant bothering the DNR. For all of the bucks found dead, are checked and salvage tagged, how do we know they weren't poached and the bullet passed through the animal. The answer is we don't. But we should be able to gather all the evidence we need and return the animal to the finder. Let's all be consistent and help a brother (i.e. DNR) out. They have a tough job and need to be thanked whenever you get a chance. P.S. As far as I know there still is no change in the issue below but somebody has offered up information that the deer was X-rayed at a vet clinic and a .243 bullet was found. That still doesn't change my opinion that the farmer should own the rack. March 21, 2009 Pulled the last of my cameras last night. Will wait until August to try and capture new horn pictures. What a great year! While trekking in to pull the cameras met two young, energetic hunters. Sounds like they've already had some great success in their hunting career. Continued good luck to them. On another note I am friggin' pissed and need the help of everybody. A story, which you all will probably hear about eventually, is unfolding and it involves a world class whitetail found dead by a farmer while working on his property. It's very close to home so I am somewhat in the loop. I will be general in form and provide more details later as the truth unfolds but right now the DNR is on the top of my list for un-trustworthy agencies. The story goes like this: Farmer finds huge buck dead on a farm while working (farmer not a hunter as I understand it). He notifies a couple of people to see the deer. Both are friends of mine. They recommend to farmer to call DNR and get a salvage tag. This is where the story stinks like dog shit on your shoe. Farmer sets up appointment with Game Warden. Game Warden breaks appointment and comes early and takes rack without permission from the finding farmer. Does not take carcass (why the hell not?). Story still getting stinkier. Game Warden takes deer somewhere to have deer scored. (What the hell for?) Next day Game Warden comes back to get carcass. Game Warden takes it to a place with an X-ray machine other than a vet. Who other than a doctor or vet would have a piece of damn X-ray equipment? What the hell is going on here? He meets with farmer later and magically finds a bullet. Well guess what? There may be another story floating around out there about the demise of this deer. Bottom line, this deer belongs to the finding farmer and he damn well better get it back! How the hell can the boys on Midwest Whitetail find four dead bucks the last two months and get to keep them all? In that case the entire investigation took place at the point of the find. It was captured on video, whereas the stinking ass carcass for this buck was moved and everything else. I was told a salvage tag has some language on it "..not for antlers.." if that is true how did the Midwest Whitetail bunch get to keep their four bucks? I've got Drury and Kisky DVD's that show DNR giving out salvage tags but don't see any magnetic wand waving. There's a double standard here. Let's make sure we are consistent DNR. Sounds anything but consistent to me. If this is the way DNR wants to handle this, then we all have a couple of options in my mind:
So how big is this thing? I'm not really sure but it has 3 sticker points and is said to score 218. The sticker points add up to around 18 inches I'm told. It's not a new world record but is definitely world class. The rest of the frame is typical. Pretty big isn't it? No wonder the deer has found a new home with the DNR. Give it back DNR! Give it back! Give it back! The farmer found it fair and square. He owns it. I've probably shit in my Cheerios by cussing and discussing the DNR but you know what, I will always do what I think is right because when we die all we have is our reputation. What is happening to this farmer is wrong and I have this little tool called Prairie Images to "help a brother out". March 15, 2009 Another weekend looking for sheds. Zero. Pulled SD cards and 2 cameras. Time to bring the year to a close and get ready for new horn growth come July. Shot the Katera Saturday and Sunday. Weather was perfect. Talked to an old high school classmate back from his new home in Wisconsin. Bought his first piece of paradise recently. Time to start thinking about 2009 and say goodbye to 2008. I think I am going with 4-inch vanes this year to steer my G5 fixed blades. I just haven't decided which ones. I really like the Easton Diamond Vanes so far with a right-wing helical twist. March 7, 2009 Shed hunted this morning with the deer assassins again. We found one darn little shed. It was rainy and darn muddy. Not sure where all the horns are at. Must be in the feed fields. Found some big rubs. What is it about big rubs. They can really trip a guy's trigger. March 6, 2009 Pulled SD cards today, assuming the weekend was going to be a washout. Found one little dinky shed from a spike horn. Needed a magnifying glass to see it. Still getting quite a few pictures on all cameras except for one. Moved it. Not the best location but a spot I had looked at for a couple of years. Tom turkey heads are getting their sharp red, white and blue heads. Do ya suppose that had something to do with our red, white and blue flag? Maybe you all already know that? March 1, 2009 Spent three hours looking for sheds today with two whitetail assassins. Didn't find a horn and we walked some pretty primo ground. I know one thing, I am definitely pooped. Need the snow gone, like that's rocket science. There is just enough snow to make seeing sheds almost impossible. Des Moines Register Opinion Page showed their support for nonresidents today. They referred to it as a no-brainer. My bet is the person writing the opinion has never been beyond Jordan Creek Mall or Altoona. I would guess they don't have a clue about the Iowa hunting heritage. The bottom line, and we all know it, if you double the opportunity to draw the most coveted of whitetail tags, you increase the number of nonresidents willing to take a risk on an Iowa land purchase. Land values appreciate (along with taxes for all of us). Less land for residents to hunt because nonresidents buy the primo stuff. Well here's the no-brainer, the more opportunities you create for nonresidents, the less opportunity for residents. GEEESH! Will the non-hunting elite just stop trying to take my hunting experience away. Last thing: If more land continues to be purchased for recreational purposes, the deer population will explode on the managed properties. Let's be clear here. Increase my license fees. I am OK with that. The governor recently said NO to license fee increases for residents. So, to get additional revenue, the most likely tool is to double NR deer licenses. Well, I say double the price of those tags instead and leave the number at 6000, that will equate to the revenues being requested in theory. Guess what, we will then be required to pay an equal fee, most likely, in other states we hunt in. I am OK with that. In the interest of full disclosure however, it has been a while since I hunted out of state. The allure of hunting whitetails in other states just does not trip my trigger like hunting for monster whitetails in Iowa. Iowa is King! February 28, 2009 Shed hunted a new timber this morning with a very good hunting buddy. Found 2 that would be from 130 class bucks. One was chewed up quite a bit. The snow made it tough. Will plan to go back a few times once the snow is gone. The one shed had 2 stickers protruding from the G2. The other was a 5 point that will look nice in August. The timber is quite rough and makes it tough on a fat guy with a bum foot. Pulled SD cards in the afternoon. Still quite a few pictures but only one year old bucks. Think I got a picture of a badger. This would be my first one. Yippee! On my drive out there was a huge herd of deer in my way. The whole field moved when they took off. Still a couple of 2-year old bucks carrying horns. February 22, 2009 Pulled SD cards on Saturday. Had quite a few pictures. Only a few of the pictures had pictures of shed bucks. Looked for sheds. Found a little one is all. Sunday glassed in the afternoon only. Saw a lot of shed bucks but a few small ones still carrying horns. Trying to diagnose a noise in my QAD fall-away rest. I know where it is in the rest but not sure if there is a fix. As long as it keeps working I will shoot-away. Is it just me or are we all sick and tired of proposed deer hunting laws that make no sense or take the rights of residents? For example: Late season muzzleloader party hunting. Are you kidding me? Who is the nimrod that proposed that? Another one: One free, landowner, any sex deer hunting license for each 60 acres of a farm unit owned by multiple people. Good grief, like those people are going to hunt only on their 60 acres. Give me a break. I am really sick and tired of this. The deer population is going down and the only places it is staying even is on those big managed properties. Am I the only one that gets this. Please tell me I'm not. Just STOP! As of today I am off my 'politically correct wagon'. We will call 'em as we see 'em. February 15, 2009 Shed hunted Saturday and Sunday. A big fat zero. Had to fend off a pack of 3 dogs on Saturday. May have to start packin'. Some yahoo found my camera. Don't have a clue who he is. Still bucks carrying horns. Glassed on Sunday evening. Saw four nice bucks. Two will be better than 160 this fall. February 8, 2009 Pulled SD cards on Saturday and spent a couple of hours shed hunting. Zero sheds. Cameras caught a few bucks still carrying horns last week. Glassed Saturday evening. Saw a few bucks still carrying horns. Spent about 3 hours Sunday shed hunting. Found one shed off a 115 class. Very muddy and tough walking both Saturday and Sunday. Spent a lot of time walking in a grid pattern in cornfields on two different farms. I need X-ray vision to see a horn in corn stalks. But I assume that's where most of them are at. Needed to remove some heavy-duty mud at the car wash both Saturday and Sunday. Bought a couple of different walking staffs last week at Cabela's. I was hoping they would ease some pressure on my one bad ankle and foot. Excellent buy! They really help, especially on the snow packed deer trails and other areas where a person's footing is iffy. Put a new nock point and D-loop on my Katera XL Saturday night. Bought some different brands of 4-inch vanes last week (Easton Diamond and Duravanes). Fletched some arrows with right-wing helical to see if I like that fletch. They flew just fine shooting Saturday and Sunday on my 400 Full Metal Jackets. Trying to come up with a little more vane to steer the G5 Montecs. This will give me 12-inches of vane per arrow as opposed to 6-inches. Tried my new Tru-Fire Bulldog release. It works just like the old one. Now I have a backup. February 1, 2009 Spent over 3 hours looking for the antler mate to my Saturday find. No luck. Nothing. Headed for the taxidermist in the afternoon to pick up my fixed Christmas Day buck rack. Looks great! It had a long tine busted off the right G3. Our guess was it was a 4 to 6-inch tine at least. Glassed at quitting time. Saw quite a few deer still carrying antlers. Even with the warm weather they were out feeding before sunset. They must be hungry. Man I love my Yaktrax. Today was very treacherous in the woods and especially crossing creeks but they performed great! January 31, 2009 Pulled SD cards and my last stands today. Deployed a new Moultrie I40 mainly to see how it performs. I was loaded on my walk out: a Gorilla Silverback stand, 3 Gorilla sticks, a backpack, my trail camera tool bag, a damn heavy Big Game stand and a 76-inch shed. Note to self "Never buy a Big Game stand", they are just too damn heavy and harder than hell to hang. I love my Gorilla Silverback. It is light and has a big platform. I'm going back on Sunday to try and find the right side of my big shed. This is my biggest shed to date. I've never had much luck shed hunting but I don't spend near as many hours as many people do. Tonight I saw bachelor group of 8 bucks, all one year olds except a 130ish busted up buck and a mature, roman-nosed buck. It was funny to watch the middle-aged buck show the more mature shed buck who was boss with the big horns now. Got my picture in Tru-Fire's 2009 catalog. I sure like those releases. January 24, 2009 I have grip! Tried my new Yaktrax today. They are awesome! Well worth the $30 or so spent. Pulled SD cards and two stands. Pulling the stands and climbing sticks and getting them back to the truck was work for a fat Iowa boy. Had a lot of pictures but not many mature bucks. Had pictures of a lot of does and many small bucks. The I40 and I50 performed very well even though the ambient air temperatures got well below -20 degrees F a couple of days. I did have a set of three pictures that looked to have trouble writing to the SD card. But the camera came out of it and performed well for another week after that. Spent some time looking for sheds but no luck. January 16, 2008 Well, time to take inventory. With cold weather it is a little easier than during the summer to take notes for the 2009 fall season. The deer are hungry and quite often make an appearance before daylight ends. The next 4-6 weeks may also present opportunities to capture a picture of the shooters still standing. Moultrie replaced my 'locked up' I40. Received it on January 14. Customer Service was outstanding. UPS delivered my old cam to Alabaster, Alabama on January 5th. The 'Big Brown Truck' delivered me a new one on January 14. That's about a 2 week turn-around. That is excellent service in my opinion. The new I40 is downstairs on cat-cam duty for a while before deployment. Found an Energizer charger and some 'D" size rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride batteries at Wal-Mart tonight. I plan to get them charged up and see if I can save some money on alkaline batteries the next few months. The nice thing about the charger is I can charge AAA, AA, C, D or 9-volts all in the same charger. I think our house is going 'Green'. January 4, 2009 Pulled a camera and a stand. Fell on my XXL behind, actually my knee, OUCH!! Be careful. The melted snow and ice is treacherous. Take a buddy with you if at all possible for safety purposes. While out, had a couple of small bucks come from the neighbors. Wow! Sounded like a heard of wildebeest coming through the crunchy snow woods. My I40 had a lot of pictures, not many of deer, my setup was poor (set too low) but what I am finding is the sensitivity on this 2007 I40 is awesome! I got birds, a squirrel and a mouse believe it or not posing on a fallen tree branch. This I40 is truly an impressive camera. I just hope that it lasts. Some may think they have empty photos, but if you look hard enough you can almost always find some little critter that triggered the camera to take a picture. Saw quite a few deer at mid-day feeding already on the way home. My guess is there will be some nice muzzleloader kills tonight Somewhere in Iowa. Holy Cow were the deer out feeding tonight. Glassed some new places. Saw deer and bunches of deer I know hunters are not looking at right now. My guess is the herds are looking for seclusion and found it. Saw some hunters posted where most of us would hang out but the herds I saw were no where near the hunters. January 3, 2009 The does have my number. Hit a doe (hunting on the ground), gave her a while to walk off and settle then swung around a half-mile to intercept her in the direction she was traveling. I knew the shot was back and wanted to give her plenty of time. I booted her out of her bed 2 hours after the shot and lost the blood trail. Spent plenty of time trying to figure out the direction of her travel with the other herd of deer she was with but the blood just quit. No recovery. It didn't help that I had some other people on the property yelling at their dog. It definitely caused the deer to go in directions I didn't count on. Pulled a stand and SD cards also. Got a couple of pictures with nice bucks. My problem I am finding out with the does is their body size. I usually practice on a Glendel Full Rut. In past years I have always aimed for the heart area but due to low misses I began to aim more at the center of mass a few inches behind the shoulder on the bucks. The last couple of kills have worked out just fine but there is much less room for error with the does. I believe a person needs to aim almost right at the shoulder to catch the vitals. Just a little bit back and you have a long recovery. January 2, 2009 Warning! Make sure you check before you shoot that your antlerless deer is not NOT a buck. I've been doe hunting the last few days. I definitely saw a shed buck tonight. He must be run down. He was pretty sucked up in the stomach and the first one to feed tonight. He had a dark red/brown cap. I would guess he was a 2 year old or 3 year old. The does never offered me a shot. My good friend and taxidermist Mike called and said the Christmas day buck was 6-1/2 years old based on tooth wear and had part of a tine stuck in his head. Cool! The right antler that was still attached after the fall was definitely close to shedding. For you muzzleloaders out there be careful if you shoot a buck that the antlers don't get yanked off when you pose for those hero photos. Saw a couple of bucks still with horns. Isn't it funny that now that I have only an antlerless license left that the bucks offer the shots. Mother Nature is cruel! Will be hard at this weekend trying to close the deal on a mature doe. December 30, 2008 Well, one of my Moultrie I40s bought the farm I think. It got sent back to Moultrie today. The darn thing is locked in Setup mode. I tell you what, the e-mail has been fast and furious the last few days with big bucks, little bucks, the ones that got away, etc. Man have there been some whoppers shot this year. A friend called today and said he was just leaving the hospital, his hunting buddy stepped in a hole and broke his ankle muzzleloader hunting. Be careful everybody, please! There is only a short time left, I imagine those feeling the pressure coming down to the wire might stretch some rules a little. Be vigilant, if somebody is cheating, they need to be caught. A couple of years ago I was sitting in a field glassing late season and I watched a white Dodge pickup stop on the road a half mile from me and poach a deer out the window of their pickup. I don't understand the lack of self discipline of poachers or disrespect for hunters that do it right. There is no glory in that kill. It always amazes me how small of world we have and how when you least expect it you visit with somebody and a common theme emerges. For deer hunting fanatics, it always pays to share information with people you trust. Today was just such a day for me. I had the opportunity to share information and glean some potential improvements in my whitetail chasing future. For me a great part of the deer hunting experience is the sharing of information and success. And remember, it isn't the information you learn that kills a big buck, it is being in the tree or at the location a big buck passes and then executing the shot. December 25, 2008 Well what a Christmas day! I had opportunity to slip out Christmas afternoon since some of our family Christmas time would take place Friday and Saturday out of the state. With the strong SE wind, I found a 6' diameter maple tree to hide my XXL body. I had plenty of does and a big framed 4x4 west of me heading for the corn. I needed a shooter buck east of me to offer me a shot. Shortly before 5 p.m. I watched as one doe perked her ears up and looked behind me. I peeked around my big old maple tree and there came the 5x4 I was looking for at about 30 yards. Well, now my maneuver, I needed to grab my bow, turn 180 degrees and wait for the deer to continue north for a 30 yard quartering away shot and to clear my huge maple tree. You need to understand that this tree is so big I am totally hidden from the deer east of me. It is like peeking around the corner of a house. After spinning 180 degrees, I looked from behind my tree and could see his head 20 yards straight east of me. Three peeks later and he is still standing there. On my fourth peek he is gone. I turn another 180 degrees assuming he's headed back south. I don't see him. Holy crap! There's his eyeball 1 yard from me coming around the tree. Yes, 1 yard and remember I'm on the ground! He had followed my tracks over to my huge old maple tree. As I begin my draw at 1 yard. He explodes onto the frozen creek and bounds straight south of me. I give him a MAAA! MAAA! MAAA!. He stops at 20 yards, I settle in and send the Easton 400 FMJ through both lungs. He runs up the hill, stops, falls over, and then tumbles back down. I get over to the buck, turn him over as he is laying on his antlers in a twisted heap from his 15 foot vertical fall and crap, he busted an antler. I walked up the hill and found the antler stuck to a cedar stump. Just my luck. To top it off, he has a belly scar from my 'whiff' in early November. I can't make this up. It truly happened. December 24, 2008 Got out for an afternoon hunt. Good grief! Somebody please turn up the heat. I had so many clothes on I wasn't sure if I could draw my Hoyt Katera XL. In reality with my boot blankets, multi-layerd underwear, windproof over garments and Mega Handwarmers I stayed quite warm for 2-1/2 hours. Saw quite a few deer including one buck I would have tried a shot at. He had a big frame as a 4x4 with an extra point originating from the base of the left G2. When leaning against a tree in winter it is hard not to be seen at 25 yards. Well after a dozen deer or so made it by, I had to move because of a cramp. yep I was had. Deer trotted over the hill, stopped and continued to feed. No big deal. I left early to get home for Christmas Eve. Glassed a hill when I left, saw one buck I hope offers a shot later this week. All-in-all again no whoppers. My buddy thinks I hunt too much, personally I really don't care. It's not about hunting too much it's about entering and leaving. If you own or lease a piece of property and don't hunt it very much I equate it to sleeping in your car when you own a house. Merry Christmas everyone! December 21, 2008 Looks like the Cabela's Outfitter 5.0 is OK after getting warmed up. I was a little nervous but understood it has been brutally cold for a week. I sure the heck hope DNR doesn't view this cold weather like it did last year and extend the season again to bring up shotgun kill quotas. My guess is there would be a revolt this year. Quite frankly deer population stinks in all but the highly managed areas. For those of you that own those areas. No wonder you have fence huggers. I have mixed emotions on this issue. For one thing everybody should be able to deal with their own property as they see fit. On the other, buyer beware, once you create something like this it is only natural you will get people taking advantage of the "trickle over the fence" theory. I know some of you try and cause headaches for the fence hugger, but guess what, according to DNR regulations you are breaking their rules. In my opinion the best way to balance all of this is for DNR to purchase and own good hunting ground in EVERY county. I am pretty much sick of the buying land in select areas and counties. Every county deserves this. December 20, 2008 Holy crap! Was it cold today or what? Pulled SD cards. One camera was iced up. Had to use my chemical hand warmers to de-ice the padlock and the lens covers. That took a while. Note to self: Rip the bag on a Mega Warmer next time. My Moultrie D50 revolted on the cold. I even tried to put a new tank of gas in it in the field (i.e. 6 new Coppertops) but still said no go. Brought it home, warmed it up, it operates fine now. My two Moultrie I40s and one Cabela's I50 just keep chugging along. Had a lot of pictures with a minus temperature number. BRRRR! This is the only camera (I50 is Cabela's 5 mp version of the I40) that seems dependable in cold weather. I wouldn't trust any other. My favorite camera right now is the I50. I highly recommend this camera if $229 is in your budget range, this is the camera for you. I have been messing with my Stealth I590 in the basement all week during the evenings to see if it needs to be returned under warranty. It seems to work perfectly now. I must have scared it when I threatened to drop-kick it back to Texas. Incandescent flash cameras just do not perform well in the cold. Need to go IR. Not many hunters out today. Too cold I'm guessing. The wind chill would definitely freeze the snot dripping from your nose before it hit the ground. December 13, 2008 Holy cow the Pumpkin Parade was out in force today! Lots of shooting. I guess 50 degree weather will do that. Pulled my SD cards. The Stealth I590 does NOT like the temperature below 20 degrees. I am giving it a vacation for the rest of the year. I may even decide to return it. I gave it a new tank of gas with 8 energizer C cells. Will test it at home for a few days to see if it comes out of its funk. I ordered some D size battery adapters that accept AA size NiMh rechargeable cells. The adapters are relatively inexpensive. I am going to see if I can save some money on batteries. I just discovered this opportunity on-line the other day. It looks very interesting. It seems we go through a lot of AA batteries in our house, let alone D size alkaline batteries for my trail cameras, so it could be a win-win for everybody. December 5, 2008 Tomorrow begins the Iowa shotgun season. We would be interested in hearing some observations from those partaking in the 5 day event. In particular, are observations regarding the deer population. The reduced Iowa deer population is good for the safety of Iowa motorists and good for those row crop farmers exhibiting deer crop damage. However, it is horrible for those recreation land owners that paid over $2500 per acre for a deer hunting farm. Believe me I know what it sounds like to hit a deer with your car. I've hit 3 of the darn things. They make a loud bang! Just like hitting a 150 pound rock. But, if we want recreational property values to remain stable or appreciate then the deer population is too low, in my opinion, to help sustain that property value. Full disclosure: I am not a deer farm owner. Another opinion: Party hunting is very unethical in the eyes of most but legal during Iowa's gun seasons. Look in the mirror and make the decision not to harvest a deer and put somebody else's tag on it this year. Only you can make that decision. Last note: If you see trespassing or poaching then turn the bastards in! Clean up the sport for the good of us all. Picture taking tips: Fight the urge to take pickup, shed or garage pictures. Quite frankly they suck. Zoom in for those close ups in a more natural setting. Use the red-eye removal tool on your editing software to get rid of the blood in your pictures. December 2, 2008 I have developed some opinions after my 2008 bow season. One opinion, as stated below, is that we have obviously overkilled on the whitetails. This form of recreation for us Iowegians is going to be a little slim for a couple of years if the antlerless licenses aren't trimmed back. Second opinion is more of an observation and that is I have never seen so many lop-sided, goofed up racks in one season. Every other buck is lop-sided. Could it be from a high buck:doe ratio and all sorts of fighting from the year before resulting in busted antlers and following year deformities? Maybe, but many of the lop-sided bucks are one year olds. So then does that mean they were wounded as a fawn which caused them to grow goofy or are our genetics screwed up? Whatever, I am not sure I like what I see. I like the occasional nontypical like the one I harvested this year but there is another one around the property, a little bit bigger but busted up more. I am confused! Give me a big mainframe typical, please! November 30, 2008, a.m. Snowing in the morning. Decided to still hunt in the snow for a couple of hours. Saw plenty of deer. My closest encounter with a doe was a good one. As I glided through the snow covered timber, I saw some movement up the hill. I found a place to pause. Two fawns came down the hill and posed at 15 yards. They looked right at me but brushed me off as OK in my Realtree AP camo. Soon the doe came down the hill with another fawn. She was the one I wanted. She stopped at 20 yards. Now I needed to wait for the eyeballs to be in the right position and for the doe to look away. After 7 or 8 minutes the time finally came but during the draw of my Hoyt Katera XL, the fawns caught me moving and the gig was up. No shot but a great encounter. Videotaped a nice buck on the way out but no whopper. November 29, 2008, p.m. Again made an attempt to fill the antlerless tag. A doe and buck passed by my prior evening's hunt. Go figure. Had a bunch of baldies and rag horn bucks show up near quitting time. No shot. Too far out. This doe hunting stuff is difficult but fun. Hope to get video of a whopper also but no luck so far. November 28, 2008, p.m. Went on a doe hunt. The only deer that graced my shooting lane was a fawn and I believe a button buck. He got a pass. Left early to glass on the way out. Deer were just over the hill from my position. Story of my life. November 27, 2008, a.m. Spent the morning glassing prior to our turkey feast. It was an excellent morning for glassing. Saw numerous bucks including a couple of 4-year olds and many bucks never seen before. Many of the deer were out in the open a long ways from cover populated by bowbenders. I would venture a guess that those people in the woods on this morning had a decent hunt. November 23, 2008 Pulled another SD card and spent the morning glassing. Deer movement has really gone to zero. Time to switch the focus to doe feed. Will still see bucks checking does but the all day buck movement is a no go in my opinion. November 22, 2008 Went doe hunting in the morning and afternoon. Morning was a bust. After trekking to get my SD cards discovered that deer were bedded. It appeared that they were bedded before sunup and didn't find the need to move waiting for the little winter blast to roll through. My Stealth cam had dead batteries so I moved the cam and sat in a stand near the cam in the evening. Saw three bucks and two fawns on the p.m. sit. One buck was a shooter (if I had a license left). He was roaming on his own. Tried to get video but he never posed in a decent spot. Grunted, snort-wheezed, canned (if that is a word) but he would never get close enough for video. November 15, 2008 For those of you in the field yet pursuing the buck of a lifetime, the good news is you still have time, the bad news is you are running out of time. I spent a lot of time glassing yesterday in between pulling my picture cards. Extremely disappointing. In my opinion we have definitely over killed. The numbers of deer I see whether it is morning or evening is very low. I even spent some decent time in a state park the last few days and the deer sightings in there are way below my expectations. If you don't hunt highly controlled ground my guess is it is going to a tough season. If we have another big year of antlerless shotgun kills this December next year will be even worse for low population. I would suggest that you contact your local Representative and State Senator to let them know you aren't too thrilled with the low deer numbers. This is all my opinion, but for those areas other than highly managed hunting land, the deer population is way below expectations in my mind. My guess is public hunting land is really dismal. November 9, 2008, a.m. Holy cow what a morning. After a week of windy weather, the calmer Iowa deer woods exploded this morning with chasin', ruttin', feedin' everywhere. At 11:15 this morning my Iowa season ended with a well placed arrow through both lungs. I almost climbed out of my perch about 10 a.m. due to the excruciating cold. It was brutal but I wiggled my toes and wishing the whole time I had remembered to bring my boot blankets. The deer activity never seemed to let up from daylight until I closed the deal. Remember this day as I am sure there will be many an Iowa buck killed on this day in 2008. November 8, 2008, p.m. Went back to the stand I missed my buck out of. Only saw 3 small bucks and some bald deer. Did my draw and mental kill shot again on a few of them. Trimmed some shooting lanes in the dark. Too many branches to deflect an arrow. After looking where I shot at my buck earlier this week, I saw some twigs that needed to go. They are gone now. Managed the weather a little bit better for 3 hours tonight. I bought a new suit of Cabela's Dimension Fleece with Windshear this year. It is darn heavy clothing but it does an excellent job of keeping me warm and the wind at bay. The only thing I don't like about it is the dam burrs. fleece is like a magnet. I constantly sit in the stand and pick burrs off of my pants. November 8, 2008, a.m. Tried to cross up the deer a little and went to typical night stand in the morning. Saw 6 bucks and about as many bald deer. One buck was definitely a shooter. He walked off a couple of the smaller bucks at first shooting light. Couldn't see any doe he was tending. He was wide, had excellent mass and dark horned. I love those dark horned bucks. To try and improve my shot execution which I have struggled with the last 15 years, I have been doing a lot of drawing and mentally shooting bald deer and small bucks. I hope my darn release doesn't go off. OH yea, also been doing the MAAAA! I usually never do that. It does work. Funny to watch the deer stop while I settle my pins on their vitals. Windy and darn cold. I didn't last very long this morning in the stand. November 7, 2008, p.m. It's snowing and awfully darn windy. Guess that's why they are putting up all the wind parks in Iowa. Good grief, it's been windy for a week. Saw 10 bucks and 7 or 8 does in 2-1/2 hours. No shooters but one big, old 3x3 that might go Pope. Took a good look at him tonight. I got the impression he was an old deer. He may be on the backside of his prime. Saw a bunch of little bucks chasing does and fawns. I must be in a wasteland for all the little bucks that have been kicked to the curb. November 7, 2008, a.m. Windy and light rain. Had a couple of twin fawns stroll by. Did a practice draw. Killed them both...in my mind. Saw another fawn and small buck. they skirted the shooting lane. Checked on some rubs from last year. they were hit again. They are absolutely huge. I wimped out this morning. Not enough sleep last night. What a grind but it is awesome to be in the Iowa deer woods in November! November 6, 2008, p.m. Holy cow! It was darn cold in the wind. I made bad decision on location. However, I did see a very impressive 140ish 4x4, tall but thin, tending a doe. I saw another doe with a fawn and a single fawn. Pulled a card from one my I40s on the way to my stand. It is set in front of some huge rubs but no takers on pictures yet. A small buck, some fawns, squirrels and a coon. Man, I have got a lot of coon pictures this year. Finally, tomorrow we get a west wind. November 6, 2008, a.m. It was a Gore-Tex day! Planned to sit all day but the rain kicked my but. Got wet in my new Dimension Fleece. The cold kicked my but but not until after I saw 9 bucks and about as many does and fawns. Due to the rain I decided to sit on my Double Bull stool next to a wind fall. Had a couple of mature does at 10 yards, a fawn at 4 yards and believe or not a 138ish 4x4 chasing a doe go by at literally two yards and didn't have a clue I was there. The doe lead the way. It was a great morning but I need some waterproof stuff. Don't own any. Pulled my card from my my replacement Stealth I590. Thanks to my spouse for returning my defective one to Cabela's last weekend. the photos turned out all right but I am slightly concerned about a 'blackout' I got on this new one. Evidently the flash didn't go off on the 4th of a 5 series shoot. Went back to the truck, turned the heater on high and burned some fuel to try and dry all my clothes out. Shoot have went home. November 5, 2008, p.m. This was a good night. Picked a stand that was out of the south wind near feed and water. Saw 5 bucks, no shooters and 3 does and fawns. Well over half of the deer stopped and took a drink in the creek. Three of the bucks posed beautifully in the shooting lane. Saw a 138ish 4x4 behind me. Needs one more year and should be impressive. I think my buck sightings have exceeded my doe sightings. Not sure what this means. A theory might be that the antlerless only seasons have taken their toll on the does. November 5, 2008, a.m. Had one 2-year old buck walk under tree. Got some decent video. Moved a camera. After checking the pictures at home I probably should have left it in place. OH, well, I can always move it back. Got video of a buck mounting and attempting to breed a doe with my Moultrie I-40. The light was low so it went to infrared mode. Video length was only 5-seconds. I'm always a day late it seems. On the way home I cut cross-country. Saw a 135ish buck tending a doe in an open CRP field. The doe ran when she saw me stop and the buck kept her pointed to the road. As soon as she stopped he laid down, almost collapsed. She ran again and he ran again. Again he almost collapsed to the ground when she stopped. He was definitely pooped. Guess that is where all the bucks are at...Lock Down! November 4, 2008 The whole day was a dud so it is lumped into one. Morning saw a doe and two fawns. Hung another stand and moved a camera to a scrape and rub. Evening saw a 115 inch buck, doe and two fawns. November 3, 2008, p.m. After hanging my replacement I590, I headed for a stand I had not hunted yet. About 4:15 I had a small buck with a doe head north 50 yards east of me. About sunset I saw the nontypical headed north by himself. The right side is glob of antler. the left side is smaller 4 point side but the 2's and 3's have forks. Not sure really how big he is have never got a good look. About 10 minutes later saw two bald deer with a whopper. One fawn passed south of me about 30 yards. Guess what here comes the big boy. Looks to be easy 150+ in the fading light. At a short 30 yards my arrow passed right below him. Crap! I missed! He wasn't very spooked and walked northwest. What I learned: I should have drawn my bow much earlier. Drew when he came into my shooting lane but the lane was narrow. I shot without settling-in in the fading light. If I had to do over, I would not have shot. The whole situation just wasn't good. Bad decision. The Lumenok sure is bright though. November 3, 2008, a.m. It was decent morning but most of the movement was early. Had a buck with a doe about 50 yards north of me. Only got a quick glimpse, 135 to 140ish. Had another nice buck, a 5x4 come from the south by himself. did not respond to the Buck Growl. He was on a mission. Nice 5x4 maybe 145+. Last two house were quiet, windy and hot. November 2, 2008, p.m. Hang it and hunt it! I did. Dud for most of the night until last light. Saw a real nice 4x4 bird-dogging like no tomorrow. I rattled and grunted but he wouldn't close the 100 yard distance. I would shoot this guy. Slick and clean and a big frame. There is something about a big 4x4 that trips my trigger. Saw another busted up something or other with him. The 4x4 paid him no attention. Evidently he was the one that busted him up. Going to be hot the next few days but ya gotta hunt. The more ya go the more ya learn. November 2, 2008, a.m. I hate the time change. I never seem to get to bed any earlier than I normally do but I have to get up an hour earlier. Deer hunters never get a chance to get any extra sleep. That's a rip-off. Saw a small buck harassing a doe with twins. That was about it. Left to pull my SD cards. Booted a nice buck from near my camera. A later check did not show him on the camera. Darn-it! neither camera boasted of anything too great but both had more bucks that I had never seen before. There was nice rub on a cedar that wasn't there last week. Need to not give up on that spot. November 1, 2008, p.m. Hung a couple of stands, pulled my buddy out after he got high-centered (I think he had a brain fart) and hunted for a couple of hours. Not very productive at all. Saw a small buck and a doe with a fawn. November 1, 2008, a.m. Saw 4 small bucks and 6 does and fawns. Beautiful morning. Rattled a little and and the little bucks came from everywhere it seemed. Was in an area I could glass quite a bit. Didn't see any shooters but quite a few does coming from feed to bed. Pulled my SD cards. My Stealth is going back to Cabela's. It is only a month old and taking 'green' tinted photos 75% of the time. October 31, 2008 Went to my little oasis in the middle of the section. Booted one of the shooters on the way in. He was bedded under a mulberry tree, on a fence line between corn and a pasture I was walking in the pasture. No deer on stand (my stool). Left a little early to glass on the way out. Saw a small buck chasing a doe literally in the middle of a corn field. Corn was short. October 26, 2008, p.m. Moved a camera and then tried to find a place out of the wind. Wore my new Cabela's Dimension Fleece with Windshear. Awesome! Never had to worry about the wind. Saw a whopper of a buck and a Pope & Young 3x3 in an 'out of the wind' spot. The big buck might have been B & C if his 4's were longer. Excellent spread, 19-20", gnarly with some stickers. White-racked. Have never seen this big-boy before. He is definitely on my 'hit list'. Deer movement was fair but it was clearly evident the deer wore doing their best to find a place out of the wind. October 26, 2008, a.m. Got in the stand very early this morning. Maybe too early. With the gale out of the northwest, my body did not take a liking to the wind chill. Saw 11 does and fawns and one very small buck. Pulled my SD cards. Very few pictures. All my cameras had limited pictures this week, I assume due to all the rain. This was my first 'stand' on this property. It doesn't hold any resident shooters but has plenty of does (i.e. bait). Hopefully sweet November will be a different story. As I was walking, one of those 50 mph gusts came rolling in from the northwest. It sounded ominous. I assume this is what a tornado sounds like. Not to my liking. October 25, 2008, p.m. Went back to my little oasis in the middle of the section. Saw a doe with twins at dark and 2 year old buck that really appeared to me to be tending a doe. Seems early for that but he was doing that motionless standing and doe watching stuff. The doe bolted and he took off grunting like a horny teenager. It should be 'on' in a week. October 25, 2008, a.m. What a great morning! 6 bucks and 6 doe/fawns. One buck was a 3 year old 4x4 about 138". Another buck was a nontypical about 145ish. The nontypical passed right through my shooting lane. First time in this stand for me this season. The first stand set is always an event. I either forget something or struggle to stay organized. I will definitely be back to this stand with a southwest wind. Next week should be a week of great buck movement. October 19, 2008, p.m. Moved my I40 to the big rubs. After setting the camera, put up a treestand at a nearby location. Had young buck stroll by while in the stand. I love this spot. Good visibility yet with security for a SW wind. Stopped by a friend's house to see his 145+ 5x5 he had killed that morning. The deer has a huge body. Very impressive! October 19, 2008. a.m. Back to same spot looking for the big boys but again changed my route and sat on my stool on the edge of a different part of the cornfield. The wind was strong out of the south. Glad I brought my Cabela's Windshear Dimension AP vest. Only one small buck showed himself for the morning. What a big dud. Will give the place a rest for the week. Pulled my SD cards at another location after the hunt. Got a couple of decent pictures but nothing eye-popping. Checked on some big rubs from last year, they had been hit hard. Made plans to move a camera that afternoon. Also set my new Stealth I590 Camera. I am not very impressed with the controls on this cam as they are cheap. However, the picture quality is way above average. Not sure if I have it in the right location but we will see. October 18, 2008, p.m. Had a meeting in the morning so hunting waited until Saturday night. Went buck to same spot as the prior night. However, came in from opposite direction. Sat on the ground by a little cedar tree. It was a difficult 3/4 mile walk along a standing cornfield. Right away I head a doe and fawn appear in front of me at 40 yards. They lingered for the remainder of the evening around my pond position. After sunset had two smaller bucks show up (one at a time) but no mature bucks. The Realtree AP performed well as on more than one occasion the deer stared right through me but not become alarmed. Left the deer undisturbed as I began my dreaded walk back out. October 17, 2008, p.m. Spent another night in the middle of a section. Few trees but plenty of corn and CRP. Saw 4 bucks and 4 bald deer. Deer movement was early with the east wind. Saw a definite shooter. Three of the bucks got up off a terrace behind me. Bucks were moving just a little bit more than the the last couple of weeks. The shooter was a 5x4 with excellent beam length. Tine length was very good but can deceive a person if they don't notice how much they curve in. this buck appears to be a 4 year old or more. Body looks like a thoroughbred. Was able to capture some video footage but it wasn't that impressive. However the leaves on the my tree provided for some nice framing.
October 12, 2008 Windy night! Saw a one year old and two year old off in the distance. they fed on the edge of the cornfield until quitting time. I am getting very antsy to rock-n-roll. It's time to hunt! October 10, 2008 Went to another oasis surrounded by corn. Saw a three bald deer right behind. Was sitting on the ground due to the wind, southeast. No bucks showed during the hunt. As I became sky-lined the cornfield south of me erupted. There was enough light to see 2 big bodied bucks heading for the terraces they must have just left. Oh well? October 9, 2008 Was able to achieve a short hunt after work. Hunting CRP surrounded by corn. My blind is a Double Bull stool on the edge of the corn. Saw 3 bucks. One a possible shooter, big frame. Saw another lop-sided buck. Three year old deer. Watched him get up and lay down in his bed. No shot opportunity. October 5, 2008 Went to a lonely spot in the middle of a section. Not much there except corn, CRP and a few fence line trees. Saw a basket rack, 115 class and 125 class buck right at quitting time. Good hunt. October 4, 2008 Went back to the October 1st hunt location because of the east wind. Saw a spike buck on the way in. As I was getting settled, I had a doe and two fawns sneak up behind me. They saw me. About 10 minutes after sunset I eyeballed two shooters feeding their way towards me. One was a very mature and wide 4x4 and a definite shooter. The other appeared to be a big wide 5x4. Both were in the 150 class. The big 4x4 may have been much bigger but they were feeding in some tall weeds and all I could see was their necks and their racks. Well guess what, the wind decided to swirl and it sold me out. The old timer 4x4 immediately headed over the hill with the other one in tow. What a great hunt! October 3, 2008 Decided to go on a doe only hunt unless we saw a booner with the entire family. About primetime my wife eyeballed a doe and fawn heading our way. After about 10 minutes I saw them through the branches. I turned the video camera on. The doe was leading her fawn for a perfect shot opportunity with Morgan. As the doe kept coming all I could thinks was Morgan was going to get her first shot at an Iowa whitetail. She sent the muzzy tipped Beman perfectly through the lungs at 15 yards. A 100 yard recovery and 13-year old Morgan had her first successful harvest. Her Mom and Dad were much more excited than she appeared to be. What a great evening. October 1, 2008 Left work a little early and rushed to a little honey hole in the middle of a section. Forgot my darn release so I used my bare fingers to take a couple of practice shots on my way to my hunt location. Peep sight didn't work worth a crap but I figured I could shoot if I needed to. Sat on a fence row. Saw a buck running in some CRP towards me. After 20 minutes, he still had not shown in the combined soybean field I was observing. I left early enough to peak over the hill. He saw me standing in front of God and the world in the combined soybean field. So I said screw it, got my video camera out and captured some awesome video. He was a big bodied 4x4 might score in the 130s. Great way to start the year.
September 27, 2008 Headed out for a youth hunt. Right out of the truck we found Morgan's hat light she lost last week. I stepped on it, turned it on and I saw the light. Saved $13, great! About prime time a basket rack 4x4 headed around the CRP covered hill right for us. Morgan was in shoot mode. When we sat down, we ended up right by an early season scrape. Guess where the buck was headed. Long story short, I told her she could not shoot as we were on stools, the deer was at 12 o'clock and I was at 2 o'clock. Too risky for my health. The deer finally saw us at 15 yards and ran off. What a great hunt! Great video! September 21, 2008 Took Morgan on her first official youth hunt with Hoyt in tow. Watched a nice upper 130's go to bed Sunday morning. Setup for the deer's trek to the alfalfa but he was a no-show. It was a slow night. I was all setup to video the perfect double-lung shot. Will have to wait until next time. September 20, 2008 Got back from a week of elk rut watchin' in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). I never get enough of that. My spouse took advantage of the elk bull insanity and got some outstanding photos with her Canon 70-200m 'big' lens. We will share photos intermittently the next few weeks. I took the time to get to know my old Canon GL1 camcorder a little bit better. All-in-all it was a great 5 days especially if you like to watch 300 class bulls at very close range...like 20 to 30 feet close. Awesome! God I love that place even if I can't pull the trigger on my release, it is a mental orgasm for a few days just imagining my arrow passing through the vitals. Pulled the cards on my trail cameras today. Got some pictures of definite shooters but way to blurry to share. September 15 was a huge day for deer movement. Lots of nice pictures and in totally different areas. While in RMNP, we read somewhere that the elk rut reached a fevered pitch on September 15 also. Wow! That should tell you something about Mother Nature and the weather. Not sure what it is but who cares? Bryce is the first one to top the Success Board again. Way to go Bryce! I could probably keep up if my fat gut wasn't in the way. Congrat's! September 7, 2008 Purchased a couple of new cameras. One was a Cabela's Outfitter 5.0 flash camera. Had it deployed for a week. Pictures are awful grainy but I think I got it figured out as to how to get decent pictures. Will take a fairly particular setup. For $100 I need to try and make it work unless it goes bad. Also purchased a Cabela's I50. Just deployed it tonight. Will check SD card soon to see what I am getting for pictures. Deployed one my I40s on a new farm. Killer spot at the intersection of some nasty looking trails. Definitely big buck country. Will know soon if I am in the right spot. Purchased two new security boxes from Custom Enterprises for $40 a piece. They definitely have excellent fit-n-finish. I re-fletched my practice arrows (400 Easton FMJs) with 4-inch NAP Quick Spin STs to see how they fly. Had one arrow consistently fly poorly. Thought it was the vanes. Re-fletched again with 4-inch Bohning Killer vanes. Two arrows flew well as before but one arrow flew poorly. Assume it was the arrow, put it in the 'bone pile'. Re-fletched 3 of my new 400 FMJ APs with Quick Spin STs. Now my flight appears to be consistent. It must have been that one arrow. It didn't appear bent but there was obviously something not right. Now I know. Walked a new piece of property yesterday. I was very pleased with the early season scrapes that I saw. At least I know some horns are in the area. I did see a decent buck a week ago in the same general vicinity. Long distance with my Nikon spotting scope but did not get a good look. It is an out-of-the-way spot so it should be quiet for a few weeks yet. Hope to give my 12 year old a youth season hunt with an opportunity at a shooter in this location. August 27, 2008 Made the leap. Bought a QAD LD Ultra Rest. It's a fall away. So far so good but I do have problems with one of the adjustment screws. The horizontal adjustment screw lies behind the 'handle' on the Katera TEC Riser. Only a small amount of room to skooch an allen wrench by. Maybe should have got a Ripcord. I took the football clamp off to serve the rest cable in the 'down' buss cable. Looks like the clamp or myself damaged the cable. Ordered a new set of Fuse cables and a string today from Scheels. Also had to put another string leech in my Katera string last night. This thing is brutal on silencers. Back to cat whiskers for me the next time this one fails. Picked up a Cabelas Outfitter 5.0 trail camera (incandescent flash) on sale last Saturday. $150 regular on sale for $100. It's the same as the D40 by Moultrie but only 5 megapixel. Been using as cat, dog and family cam all week in the house and yard to test drive it. Working very well. I really don't like the on-line forums I am reading that the D40 is useless below 32°, we will see and this cam is supposedly the same as the D40. The picture quality isn't near as good as the I40 but it is also $100 cheaper and seems to sense and work quite well. I can turn the flash off and go into security mode but that means only day pictures for this cam then. Noticed in my Nikon 550 rangefinder last night there appears to be a light fog in the bottom of the lens. I think this one is going back to Cabela's. August 16, 2008 I'm sorry to say that I am addicted to hunting DVD's and the Outdoor Channel. Whitetail Freaks is my favorite. Those guys 'get-it' but I think I could kill a big one every year if I had a refuge-like deer farm. They cause me to dream way to much however. I wish somebody would produce a program for those of us that don't have the money to buy our own 'deer farm'. I recently purchased a DVD called The Grind. These guys are more like you and I. They do a lot of runnin' and gunnin' and don't have these big wonderful deer farms like Ron Skoronski on Primetime XII. The Primetime Team must have shot 6 or 8 huge bucks on this farm last year. It's like hunting on a refuge. It doesn't impress me too much. Huge bucks though. Can somebody tell me how many of these people seem to have dual residency in two states yet seem to call Iowa home during October, November and December? Something seems awfully suspicious to me. One guy even said on one of the DVD's that 'they drove to Iowa tonight' and that was right after he killed his first of three big Iowa whitetails in 2007. Sounded like he was 'cheating'. No way for me to prove it though. Keep yours eyes and ears open. Took my cat whiskers off last week and am trying a String Leech to see if it has more durability than my String Shox did on my Hoyt. After a couple days of shooting, it looks like I will end up back at my cat whiskers. Brutal. Wish I could depend on the manufacturer to give me a dependable product though I will never give up my Hoyt Katera XL. I have finally decided on a fletching for my new AP HD Full Metal Jackets. I went with the new 2" Twister vanes with a slight right offset. They really spin on the way to the target. They appear to be durable enough for the whisker biscuit. August 3, 2008 Is August the beginning of the deer preparation season? It sure feels like it. However, as much as I have been shooting, I think it is a 365 day event. I am somewhat disappointed in my summer glassing trips this year. General deer sightings appear to be way down. My guess is the liberal license quotas and tough winter had a lot to do with it. Haven't seen any top-end animals yet though a few nice ones have offered themselves for viewing. Prepare yourself for tough hunting season unless you are one of the lucky ones with a large tract of land set up to grow the big ones. Man I like my Katera XL. One minor issue has manifested itself due to my extended practice periods I think. The bow comes with a StringShox set nicely in the string. However, due to the vibration suppressant StealthShot, my StringShox popped out. I tried some Bow Jax but they fell apart, my guess is due to absorbing of the vibration. I have installed some string silencers now (cat whiskers) to see if they stay on the bow. Not sure what to try next if these don't work. Will need to take it back to Scheels and have new StringShox installed. These are times I wish I had a good bow press. It is a speedy little devil. I have been messing around with different grips and even bought some G5 Montec practice heads. They tore the crap out of my new Glendel Full Rut insert when I pulled them out. Need a different plan. Not too impressed with the arrow flight of the Montec yet. However, I'm not ready to go to expandables yet. Call me old-fashioned. I really like the idea of re-sharpening the Montecs. July 26, 2008 Well, we now have Hoyt equipment for all the Prairie Images Team. I am shooting a new Hoyt Katera XL, my spouse is shooting a new Hoyt Kobalt and my daughter is shooting a Hoyt Trykon Jr. This will be an exciting year. Hopefully we can end up with three P & Y whitetails for the trophy room. July 13, 2008 Justin Boland of Buck on a Truck has asked to be mentioned in our blog. For those of you that might be interested in a custom and personalized deer decal, this might be the place for you. He has offered a 10% "prairie" discount if you mention you saw information on this site.
July 10, 2008 Deployed a camera over the weekend. First trail pictures filled with moving grass pictures. Need to bring a trimmer next time. No horns in the first group of pictures. My bride purchased a new Hoyt Kobalt from Scheels the end of June. What a neat little bow. Just got some new Easton Nano 500s for her to shoot. This bow will shoot like a rocket when all set up. June 8, 2008 Purchased some new DVDs last week. It is interesting to note that a couple of the hunt teams seem to kill a lot of bucks all on the same farm. My guess is that us regular guys could do that also. One team seems to have a main line to governor tag access. You and I seem to be relegated to limited public land unless you want to drive a lot of miles with $4 gas. $4 gas will have a major impact on all of this fall. That is discouraging. May 15, 2008 I love my new Hoyt Katera XL. I am definitely a Team Hoyt guy now. I just added a 6-arrow Fuse Posi-Lite quiver and 6 Easton Full Metal Jackets. Re-fletched them with some white and fluorescent yellow 2" Bohning blazers so I could see them. Arrows are flying super out to my 22 yard maximum driveway distance. Excellent speed and penetration. Appear to be a good purchase decision. These new FMJ arrows are very easy to pull out of my Glendel Full Rut 3D target. April 25, 2008 Bought a new Hoyt Katera XL from Scheels on April 19. I have shot this bow 5 of the last 6 days. This is absolutely the most forgiving bow I have shot in my 31 year archery life. I was never much of a speed bow guy but this bow delivers as advertised. It is super fast, but that is from a guy who was shooting a Protec with a wheel-and-a-half system before. So far I am extremely impressed. I actually hit where I am aiming now. Hoyt hit a homerun with this bow in my opinion. With that said, I am slightly concerned with the lower brace height as the bow string consistently makes contact with my arm guard. April 13, 2008 Seventy-five 'special' non-resident licenses were issued in 2007 by the Iowa DNR (i.e. Governor's Tags). It appears to us in reviewing the data that most licenses were issued to outdoors type TV programs. Terry Drury mentioned receiving one on his Whitetail Madness 10 DVD. The reasoning is to promote the state's natural resources through TV, the internet, magazines, etc. It also appears that some of the 'special' licenses are being issued to such groups as the Iowa Bowhunters Association for auction and fundraising. It is interesting to see the fees these licenses have received at these auctions. One price was $4,500. We are unclear as to where the funds for these licenses are going. Is it staying with the organizations or is it going back to the Iowa DNR? Our question: if the deer are owned by the state then is it OK for these organizations to sell them and keep some of the proceeds? Does it comply with state bidding regulations? We don't know that we have seen any advertisements have you? As Iowa residents we are questioning why this number suddenly jumped from 25 special licenses in 2005 to 75 in 2007. We get the impression it is a way around the non-resident deer licenses limits established by the legislature (currently set at 6,000 by Iowa Code 483A.8.3.C). Different topic: I am the proud parent of a 12-year old who successfully passed her Hunter Education course this week. It was fun to watch her shoot a 20-gauge shotgun for the first time. April 2, 2008 I bet you did not know this was in the Iowa laws, Iowa code 483A.24 (you may have to type 483A.24):
I find it interesting they are not required to meet hunter safety requirements. We have the list and there are some big names on that list. I would like a special privilege but I am not sure what I need. I already live in the best place in the country to hunt whitetail deer...Somewhere in Iowa. How about requesting a random drawing for residents every year for an additional free any-sex deer tag? The number should be equal to the number in 483A.24 and once you have been drawn, you can't receive another license of this type ever again. March 3, 2008 One of my long time hunting buddies has just published his first book. My Neck of the Woods, written by Bryce Lambley can be ordered as follows: Send $20 by mail to Hermit House Publishing, Bryce Lambley, 720 Blvd. St. Lot 31, Fremont, NE 68025. He's not set up for Pay-Pal, so it'll have to be a personal check in all likelihood. March 2, 2008 Spent a couple of hours in the mud, water and weather looking for sheds. Found zero. Got some good exercise but fell on my butt. It hurt like hell. Still somewhat treacherous in the woods. February 21, 2008 I received an e-mail with a story so funny I had to post for all to read. I do not know the author but will gladly give the credit for such a great story. Let me know if you know the author. The story is long but very funny. The e-mail read as follows: Roping a Deer ...Names have been removed to protect the stupid! Actual Letter from someone who writes, and farms. I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in
a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The
first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they
congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we
are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed
while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult
to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then
hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at
the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed
well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may
just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to
action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED.
Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have it suffer a slow death. So I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.
So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope so that they can be somewhat equal to the Prey. Author Unknown
February 15, 2008 Following is the lobbyist declarations for HF2052 and HF2068: HF 2052 - Lobbyist Declaration Scott Pope JANUARY 30, 2008: Against, IA. Sportsman Federation Brice Oakley JANUARY 24, 2008: Against, IA. Conservation Alliance Don Avenson JANUARY 24, 2008: Against, IA. Conservation Alliance Jessica Harder JANUARY 24, 2008: For, IA. League of Cities Julie Smith JANUARY 24, 2008: For, IA. League of Cities Larry Pope JANUARY 24, 2008: For, IA. League of Cities Megan Osweiler JANUARY 24, 2008: For, IA. League of Cities Tom Cope JANUARY 24, 2008: Against, IA. Conservation Alliance Bob Skow JANUARY 23, 2008: Undecided, Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa Dan Fulwider JANUARY 23, 2008 Undecided, Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa Larry Blixt JANUARY 23, 2008: Undecided, Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa Amber Markham JANUARY 22, 2008: For, IA. Farm Bureau Federation Don Brazelton JANUARY 22, 2008: Against, IA. Bowhunters Assn. Georgia Van JANUARY 22, 2008: For, IA. Farm Bureau Federation Joe Johnson JANUARY 22, 2008: For, IA. Farm Bureau Federation Laverne Schroeder JANUARY 22, 2008: Undecided, IA. Sportsman Federation Roy Overton, JANUARY 22, 2008: Against, Izaak Walton League - Iowa Division
HF 2068 - Lobbyist Declaration Jennifer Kingland FEBRUARY 12, 2008: For, IA. Assn. of Realtors Susan Cameron FEBRUARY 12, 2008: For, IA. Assn. of Realtors Diane Ford-Shivvers FEBRUARY 11, 2008: Against, IA. Dept. of Natural Resources Don Brazelton JANUARY 29, 2008: Against, IA. Bowhunters Assn. Amber Markham JANUARY 28, 2008: For, IA. Farm Bureau Federation Georgia Van JANUARY 28, 2008: For, IA. Farm Bureau Federation Joe Johnson JANUARY 28, 2008: For, IA. Farm Bureau Federation Kevin Howe JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, IA. Ducks Unlimited Laverne Schroeder JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, IA. Sportsman Federation Michael Treinen JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, IA. Ducks Unlimited Michelle Lickteig JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, IA. Ducks Unlimited Nancy Boyd JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, IA. Ducks Unlimited Roy Overton, JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, Izaak Walton League - Iowa Division Scott Pope JANUARY 28, 2008: Undecided, IA. Sportsman Federation I don't want to hear one realtor complain about property taxes. I wonder how many Farm Bureau clients deer hunt.
February 10, 2008 Time seems to move extremely slow this time of year. I did manage to get out glassin' Sunday night. Saw a lot of deer in places that they were not visible this fall. I assume there was an abundance of food at these locations. Saw some one and two year olds still carrying horns and one nice upper 130s 5x5 that looked to be in great health. Saw a two year old in a switch grass buffer strip about 150 yards off a highway. He looked to have a broken right rear leg. His health looked poor. He will be lucky to make it through the winter. Did spend some time messing with one of my Moultrie I40s today. Can't wait to get it back up and start to take pictures again. That camera seems to be the industry leader right now for dependability and bang for the buck. Sounds like it will stay the same in 2008. Checked the status of two House Files yesterday relating to deer hunting. Seems they are both still active. E-mail your legislator and let them know what your opinion is. All the information you need is listed in the right navigation bar (e.g. to contact your legislator and to see how the bill reads). |
|
Prairie Images, LLC resulted from 33 years of a passionate pursuit for the Iowa Whitetail. Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 [prairieimages.com]. All rights reserved. All photos and images are property of Prairie Images or our contributors.
|
