THA4
A Few Steps Ahead Of You
This is not a story of a giant deer that I have known for years, with hundreds of photos, and several encounters to elaborate on. Rather this is a story of fat kid who lives to hunt and chose to endure brutal conditions in search of a trophy Late Muzzleloader Iowa whitetail. I have dropped nearly 15 lbs and have not slept better in years than I have over the last two weeks….. I’m not sure if I am complaining, bragging or complaining….. Either way, thanks to my good friend, Josh (Nacho), who sent me his snow, shoes to use for the season since there is an average of 18 inches on the ground here, with many drifts being waist deep…. I needed that help and can attribute my ability to get back into these places only to a set of snow shoes with the name Yukon Charlie tattooed on the back of them…. Not sure who that is, but I’m sure he is quite the legend from the north country
Anyhow, I was fortunate enough to shoot a nice buck with my bow that I had an exciting history with and was very satisfied! There were a couple other bucks on that property that I wanted to shoot, Clubby and Droppy……
I scouted all of 2nd season shotgun and knew these deer would most likely safe as it was at least ¾ mile from the road and up-hill… I even got a glimpse of Clubby on the last Friday of 2nd shotgun, but that was the last I have seen him this year…. Not sure what happened, he is most likely there still, but unbeknownst to me.
December 22nd was my first day to hunt with the ‘loader and I had super high hopes! The weather was treacherous and made me question my own sanity, as it was freezing rain which was supposed to turn to snow and dump 12 on top of the already 18 inches on the ground….. the deer were pounding this corn field and I watched 15 deer pass by me just as I had planned keeping my confidence high. My T/C was iced over, my stand was iced over, my shooting stick was iced over…. For the sake of not making this too long, I’ll spare you the details, but I missed Droppy at 145 yards….. that hurt…..
The deer were hitting that food source very hard until that snow fell on top of an inch of ice and it just dried up and the deer were hardly touching it….. Back to the drawing board.
After quite a few failed attempts, I recalled a piece of public land that was untouched with a good food source and showed promise. Earlier in the year I had put a camera up on it for a week and got some great results, including a deer that we affectionately named “Jerry”, including a few other good ones.
Fast forward to the morning of January 2nd. The road into the public land was not maintained and accessing the property would take a long walk… longer than any walk I had endured thus far, but knew the deer would be pouring out of the river bottom to eat!!
At noon the thermometer read -13 and was not supposed to warm up much. Fortunately the wind was minimal and I figured I could handle the cold with no wind. I wore a red union suit (sorry no pix, just an image for you to enjoy! :grin: ) two layers of polys after that and two pairs of hunting pants. On top I wore 5 warm shirts covered by a grey Carhartt hoody. This was to be my light layers as I packed in my heavy, cold weather gear, didn’t want to sweat too much and believe it or not, the hike up the hill didn’t get me too sweaty, but the 400 yards through 24 inch snow drifts is what did me in. I found a nice cedar tree, trimmed out a couple branches and had a sweet blind!
About 30 minutes after I got all set up, the parade began, deer after deer poured into the semi-harvested corn field. I don’t want to overestimate, but I lost count at 30….. Finally I saw a good buck, but I didn’t get on him in time as I had a small window of opportunity and he disappeared into the standing corn at 145 yards…. About 10 minutes later, I saw horns coming through the cedars behind me and was unable to identify him, but got the muzzleloader ready just in case.
As he materialized from the dense cedar thicket, I determined him to be a shooter, let out a loud ‘merp’ and stopped him at 110 yards. He was slightly quartering-to so I put the crosshairs in front of his shoulder and let ‘er buck!
The 240 gr Hornady punched him hard as he whirled around and stumbled back the way he came, throwing snow and blood the whole way and he disappeared below the pond damn and expired a few yards below the discharge.
I was tired and ready to be done, so I decided to take the first buck that I liked! For the first time in my life, this deer ended up being bigger than I had originally thought….. I like it when that happens! He is clean, not a busted tine on him and I imagine he will go 130 inches at best, but like I say, he represents an experience and will look great on my wall! I am very proud of him as I have never worked so hard for a deer I’m not exaggerating either…. I have honestly lost weight!!!
It was to my delight that I found 5 trail cam pix of this guy from late November. I love it when I have some sort of history with an animal! He is not a giant but a buck that made my season perfect!
Thanks to all of you who kept encouraging me to stick to it, there was a few times I considered staying home….
Thanks for celebrating with me!!! For those of you still with unfilled tags in your pocket, stick with it! It only takes a second!
Whoever “Yukon Charlie” is, I’m sure he could appreciate what it took to fight the sub-zero temps and getting back to some of these places, I dunno…. One thing I do know, for a fat Iowa deer hunter, I felt as tough as him after hauling that buck out! :grin:
Here’s “Jerry”-
Here is a pic with the snow shoes in it..... these things made this possible! Thanks Josh!!!
Anyhow, I was fortunate enough to shoot a nice buck with my bow that I had an exciting history with and was very satisfied! There were a couple other bucks on that property that I wanted to shoot, Clubby and Droppy……
I scouted all of 2nd season shotgun and knew these deer would most likely safe as it was at least ¾ mile from the road and up-hill… I even got a glimpse of Clubby on the last Friday of 2nd shotgun, but that was the last I have seen him this year…. Not sure what happened, he is most likely there still, but unbeknownst to me.
December 22nd was my first day to hunt with the ‘loader and I had super high hopes! The weather was treacherous and made me question my own sanity, as it was freezing rain which was supposed to turn to snow and dump 12 on top of the already 18 inches on the ground….. the deer were pounding this corn field and I watched 15 deer pass by me just as I had planned keeping my confidence high. My T/C was iced over, my stand was iced over, my shooting stick was iced over…. For the sake of not making this too long, I’ll spare you the details, but I missed Droppy at 145 yards….. that hurt…..
The deer were hitting that food source very hard until that snow fell on top of an inch of ice and it just dried up and the deer were hardly touching it….. Back to the drawing board.
After quite a few failed attempts, I recalled a piece of public land that was untouched with a good food source and showed promise. Earlier in the year I had put a camera up on it for a week and got some great results, including a deer that we affectionately named “Jerry”, including a few other good ones.
Fast forward to the morning of January 2nd. The road into the public land was not maintained and accessing the property would take a long walk… longer than any walk I had endured thus far, but knew the deer would be pouring out of the river bottom to eat!!
At noon the thermometer read -13 and was not supposed to warm up much. Fortunately the wind was minimal and I figured I could handle the cold with no wind. I wore a red union suit (sorry no pix, just an image for you to enjoy! :grin: ) two layers of polys after that and two pairs of hunting pants. On top I wore 5 warm shirts covered by a grey Carhartt hoody. This was to be my light layers as I packed in my heavy, cold weather gear, didn’t want to sweat too much and believe it or not, the hike up the hill didn’t get me too sweaty, but the 400 yards through 24 inch snow drifts is what did me in. I found a nice cedar tree, trimmed out a couple branches and had a sweet blind!
About 30 minutes after I got all set up, the parade began, deer after deer poured into the semi-harvested corn field. I don’t want to overestimate, but I lost count at 30….. Finally I saw a good buck, but I didn’t get on him in time as I had a small window of opportunity and he disappeared into the standing corn at 145 yards…. About 10 minutes later, I saw horns coming through the cedars behind me and was unable to identify him, but got the muzzleloader ready just in case.
As he materialized from the dense cedar thicket, I determined him to be a shooter, let out a loud ‘merp’ and stopped him at 110 yards. He was slightly quartering-to so I put the crosshairs in front of his shoulder and let ‘er buck!
The 240 gr Hornady punched him hard as he whirled around and stumbled back the way he came, throwing snow and blood the whole way and he disappeared below the pond damn and expired a few yards below the discharge.
I was tired and ready to be done, so I decided to take the first buck that I liked! For the first time in my life, this deer ended up being bigger than I had originally thought….. I like it when that happens! He is clean, not a busted tine on him and I imagine he will go 130 inches at best, but like I say, he represents an experience and will look great on my wall! I am very proud of him as I have never worked so hard for a deer I’m not exaggerating either…. I have honestly lost weight!!!
It was to my delight that I found 5 trail cam pix of this guy from late November. I love it when I have some sort of history with an animal! He is not a giant but a buck that made my season perfect!
Thanks to all of you who kept encouraging me to stick to it, there was a few times I considered staying home….
Thanks for celebrating with me!!! For those of you still with unfilled tags in your pocket, stick with it! It only takes a second!
Whoever “Yukon Charlie” is, I’m sure he could appreciate what it took to fight the sub-zero temps and getting back to some of these places, I dunno…. One thing I do know, for a fat Iowa deer hunter, I felt as tough as him after hauling that buck out! :grin:
Here’s “Jerry”-
Here is a pic with the snow shoes in it..... these things made this possible! Thanks Josh!!!
