Pro Staff member Dan Gorman and I run cameras all year long, seeing numerous quality Whitetails through out the antler growing season, waiting in anticipation on being able to connect with one of them mature Iowa bucks come early November.Dan and had decided to ease off on our prime hunting spots in the early season hoping that would keep the pressure down, and give us a better opportunity in harvesting one. Due to work schedule we had chosen to take our vacation earlier than our traditional time of the 2nd week in November.
We hunted pretty much all day that entire week, only getting down to grab a quick bite to eat or change locations. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating in our favor with day time highs in the 70’s a couple of them days. We did have some encounters with a few of the bucks we had been watching through the year, but never did experience the kind of rutting action we had been hoping for. We weren’t sure if the weather was to blame or the fact we still had standing corn on the farm.
Our Vacation/Hunting time ended on the 8th of November, and with what we had been seeing that week our high hopes of connecting on one of our hit list bucks was slowly diminishing!On November 13th my luck was about to change. Dan was back to work so I was flying solo. My uncle had joined me in the field for a morning hunt, we sat on different parts of the property to hopefully better our chances. Our morning was uneventful, not seeing a single deer move that morning. As we met up and we were walking back to the truck I was doing a little scouting trying to find a spot to take my climber stand for that afternoon.
We had walked past this paticular spot all week, it had shown good sign with several good scrapes and trails intersecting each other heading for the corn. As we walked past my Uncle had made the comment that it looked like a really good spot, so I thought why not, I’ve tried everything else this week with no luck.That afternoon I arrived back to the farm early, knowing it would take me a bit to find a good tree and get setup. Once I got a spot picked out and got settled in, I had that feeling that this was it, this is the spot, this is where it was gonna happen tonight. It was on a corner of about 30 acres of timber overlooking the standing corn and a new tree planting.
I had a few little bucks early on come cruising through, scent checking the active scrapes that were out in front of me at about 20yds next to the corn. I was watching a flock of turkeys make their way out of the tree planting into the corn for their evening meal.
I thought to myself, golden rule, 45 Mims after the turkeys the deer should be on their feet, and it wasn’t far off. The turkeys made their way back to the timber and about 45 min later I had heard some crashing on top of the ridge behind me. I stood up to make sure I was ready if they decided to venture my way, and sure enough I had just gotten stood up and got my bow off the hanger and they were on their way down the hill.First was the Doe and behind her was what I could tell from the distance a nice shooter Buck. As they ran down the hill directly to my left side they headed down into the bottom and I thought, well there goes my chance! I was wrong! The doe had come to the edge of the timber and turned hard right skirting the edge of the timber, and was heading my direction. As she passed trough my shooting lane at 25yds, he was only about 40yds behind her. As he got to the shooting lane on a good trot I stopped him with a perfect broadside shot at 27yds.
As I pulled the trigger on my release I watched the lighted know pass through him and I knew I made a good shot. He turned and ran back to the base of the hill about 50yds away from point of impact. As I finally watched him fall, after what seemed like an eternity, the rush of joy and thankfulness came over me! And that is truly what it is all about!! I am truly blessed to be able to do what I love and share the experience with family and friends!
