BrewCrew
Active Member
I was rolling into my 6 day vacation without a sighting of a deer over 140 inches. With reports of deer dropping by friends of mine in South Central Iowa, I was praying the rut would bust loose in my neck of the woods during my vacation and well, it did. The first couple days had me hunting from specific trees just avoiding the high winds. I ended up passing a nice 140s 12pt that is either a 2 or 3 yrd old and had me wondering if I had made the right move. (He looks a lot bigger in his trail cam picture but he made me really second guess his potential)
After that encounter things weren't happening normally for me as I was seeing big mature deer in the middle of fields
and I decided it was about time to use the wind, snow, and rain we had just got in my favor and make a move on some of these locked down shooters.
Swing 1. 1:00PM, November 12; The first stalk hunt was on a deer we call "BIG Sev" he is a giant 7 pointer that would easily gross in the 150s! I found him bedded in some very tall switch grass and made a 3 hr stalk on him into 30 yards and when I released the arrow it got caught up in the grass!! Strike 1.
Swing 2. 12:00PM, November 14; I was finishing up painting on my living room when 651 called and said he had a big 160s 10pt with kickers on his G2s locked down with a doe on a terrace so I hurried up and left home with wet paint on my hands but my bow in the back of my truck. Long story short - get 60 yards from the this 160s ten with kickers and the doe eventually leads him the other way. Strike 2.
Swing 3. 4:00PM, November 14; After a gruelling 3 hour stalk through melting snow and mud 651 and myself were watching deer pour into the bottoms. One particular buck catches our eyes, he is sporting a good sized frame so I beat feet down to a pond dam about a quarter mile and watch as this big chocolate racked seven is nosing some does around. He gives up on the does and starts galloping up the hill into the switchgrass where I had seen a hot doe and a 140 inch 9 pointer earlier that afternoon. It made me think a second and I realized that the hot doe had walked right by a giant solo cottonwood about 1/8 mile back to the south and if he is on her trail I might just have a crack at this guy. So I ran back to the lonely cottonwood (that is in a valley/waterway surrounded by 3 terraces that all pinch down in this area), the 140 inch 9 pointer was now on the high flat 60 yards east of the cottonwood as I could only see his rack above a terrace so I knew I was in the midst of the action, I tucked myself into the base of the tree for a few seconds and let out a snortwheeze to see what would happen. Not 20 seconds later, the big seven comes down a terrace to the east, straight down wind at 30 yards and begins to fishhook around my tree ready for a fight. He was moving so fast, I didn't have a great lane and wasn't completely ready until he was competely upwind and stopped him at 22 yards and let an arrow fly. The arrow was true and I heard the perfect "thooop" as I watched it slice through right behind the shoulder, and what I thought could have been a little high at time. He took two bounds and stopped and looked back at me for what seemed like forever but was realistically more like 5 seconds. That's when I started to get nervous thinking about the shot, until... He coughed and steam poured out both sides of his chest. YES!!! He walked over the terrace to the west and coughed a few more times and I snuck out of there and back to the road just to be safe. Boy, was I pumped. I waited a few hours and found him not 30 yards away from the shot, just over the crest of the terrace. He is the largest bodied deer I've ever been around, and to have him come into 22 yards on the ground was the most intense hunt I've ever been on. Homerun! :grin:
(Best pic that I currently have where you can see the unicorn point)
This wasn't the same 7 pt from the first ground stalk, almost 35 miles away but he was very comparable (this one is actually an 8 but I keep calling him a 7). He has 10 scorable points and also had a neat 1 4/8 unicorn point of the middle of his forehead. 651 had been watching him routinely coming out on the river bottoms since he killed Dagger, so I owe him a huge thanks for getting me out of the house chores and onto some shooter deer! Thanks buddy. To everyone else, good luck on the hunt but if the routine isn't working try something different, its been working for us! When the treestands aren't working, make a move! :drink2:
After that encounter things weren't happening normally for me as I was seeing big mature deer in the middle of fields
and I decided it was about time to use the wind, snow, and rain we had just got in my favor and make a move on some of these locked down shooters. Swing 1. 1:00PM, November 12; The first stalk hunt was on a deer we call "BIG Sev" he is a giant 7 pointer that would easily gross in the 150s! I found him bedded in some very tall switch grass and made a 3 hr stalk on him into 30 yards and when I released the arrow it got caught up in the grass!! Strike 1.
Swing 2. 12:00PM, November 14; I was finishing up painting on my living room when 651 called and said he had a big 160s 10pt with kickers on his G2s locked down with a doe on a terrace so I hurried up and left home with wet paint on my hands but my bow in the back of my truck. Long story short - get 60 yards from the this 160s ten with kickers and the doe eventually leads him the other way. Strike 2.
Swing 3. 4:00PM, November 14; After a gruelling 3 hour stalk through melting snow and mud 651 and myself were watching deer pour into the bottoms. One particular buck catches our eyes, he is sporting a good sized frame so I beat feet down to a pond dam about a quarter mile and watch as this big chocolate racked seven is nosing some does around. He gives up on the does and starts galloping up the hill into the switchgrass where I had seen a hot doe and a 140 inch 9 pointer earlier that afternoon. It made me think a second and I realized that the hot doe had walked right by a giant solo cottonwood about 1/8 mile back to the south and if he is on her trail I might just have a crack at this guy. So I ran back to the lonely cottonwood (that is in a valley/waterway surrounded by 3 terraces that all pinch down in this area), the 140 inch 9 pointer was now on the high flat 60 yards east of the cottonwood as I could only see his rack above a terrace so I knew I was in the midst of the action, I tucked myself into the base of the tree for a few seconds and let out a snortwheeze to see what would happen. Not 20 seconds later, the big seven comes down a terrace to the east, straight down wind at 30 yards and begins to fishhook around my tree ready for a fight. He was moving so fast, I didn't have a great lane and wasn't completely ready until he was competely upwind and stopped him at 22 yards and let an arrow fly. The arrow was true and I heard the perfect "thooop" as I watched it slice through right behind the shoulder, and what I thought could have been a little high at time. He took two bounds and stopped and looked back at me for what seemed like forever but was realistically more like 5 seconds. That's when I started to get nervous thinking about the shot, until... He coughed and steam poured out both sides of his chest. YES!!! He walked over the terrace to the west and coughed a few more times and I snuck out of there and back to the road just to be safe. Boy, was I pumped. I waited a few hours and found him not 30 yards away from the shot, just over the crest of the terrace. He is the largest bodied deer I've ever been around, and to have him come into 22 yards on the ground was the most intense hunt I've ever been on. Homerun! :grin:
(Best pic that I currently have where you can see the unicorn point)
This wasn't the same 7 pt from the first ground stalk, almost 35 miles away but he was very comparable (this one is actually an 8 but I keep calling him a 7). He has 10 scorable points and also had a neat 1 4/8 unicorn point of the middle of his forehead. 651 had been watching him routinely coming out on the river bottoms since he killed Dagger, so I owe him a huge thanks for getting me out of the house chores and onto some shooter deer! Thanks buddy. To everyone else, good luck on the hunt but if the routine isn't working try something different, its been working for us! When the treestands aren't working, make a move! :drink2:
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