flugge
Well-Known Member
Tiny goes down after 3 years of hunting him. Will post the story when I'm at a computer.
The story of “Tiny” dates back to November of 2015. It was the first real time we started hunting this farm heavily, and had some “good” bucks on the farm. Generally I take a full week in November off and hunt hard. As it turns out, this 10 point showed up and was coming to me on a string. I just could believe what was going on. Closed the distance to 35 yards, and I shot and hit a branch with my bow. Of course this was all on film, and I never heard the end of it. We never found his sheds, so we had assumed he was dead after seasons. We figured he was roughly 145” then.
Summer of 2016 found us putting in TONS of time on this farm as our focused had shifted. NE Iowa is a special place, and truly a land of giants if given some time. The first camera pull, boom, there was the buck I had missed the year before. It was easy to spot for me due to how his right antler is at the end of the beam. There is some specific character this buck that he has held since I knew of him. So this buck was on trail cameras all summer long, in and around the property. I had about 15-20 encounters with him with my bow, but never got to release an arrow. I don’t normally gun hunt, so after the early bow season I was done hunting him (due to work). My fiancés dad scooped up his right antler in the spring of 2017, scoring right at 71 inches.
Fall of 2017 we had no sightings of him at all until Oct 21, and then we saw him for a week straight. Every day, any stand we sat in, we saw this buck. I have a sneaky suspicion he is very old and was on the way downhill and have read when they get old, they really become wanderers again. (no idea if it’s true, but seems like it) We got word that he was killed on the neighbors piece, so I ended up shooting a different buck with my bow. 3 days later he shows back up, proud as proud could be. It was that moment I decided I had to go after him with my slug gun since I only had 5 more possible days to hunt.
Shotgun season one, the first two days were nonexistent of seeing a buck. Plenty of does, just no bucks. Monday, 70 degrees and gusty winds, I was just in a bad mood. If you want to see a pity party, I was having it that day. Just didn’t think it was right to be hunting, just wasn’t in the mind set. A quick text to the woman, she said stay positive, its half the battle. So I tried, but after I kicked a giant up on my walk in, I figured the afternoon was quickly going to be a bust. Sitting in the treestand with 40 mph gusting winds, I decided I needed to get down and go sit on the ridge out of the wind. As I was walking to the ridge, I still kept thinking about the big buck I just kicked out, and was still in pity party mode at that time. I have been telling myself for 3 years that it was this deer or nothing, and now I was in a bad mood. I got to the ridge, wind was in my face, and started to slowly walk to one of my treestands there. On my walk, I just caught a shine out of my left eye. Not knowing exactly what it was, I slowly turned my head buck kept walking a straight line. There was Tiny bedded down, with his head on the ground staring at me! I almost messed my pants! At 17 yards, he was bedded down in a thicket. Knowing if I stopped he would bolt (no shot opening yet) I had to keep walking a straight line and “ignore” him. I needed about 3 steps to get to a clearing. I feel like he must of known exactly my game plan, the moment I hit the opening and started to turn his directing he was trying to get up. It was too late. I cracked him right in the shoulder and he was down. Truthfully I was so caught up in emotions with this deer I was stunned, speechless, and sad that it was now over. I have not put a tape to him, and more than likely will not. As much as a history as I have had with him, that’s all I need to keep me happy. Thank you all for reading and letting me share!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The story of “Tiny” dates back to November of 2015. It was the first real time we started hunting this farm heavily, and had some “good” bucks on the farm. Generally I take a full week in November off and hunt hard. As it turns out, this 10 point showed up and was coming to me on a string. I just could believe what was going on. Closed the distance to 35 yards, and I shot and hit a branch with my bow. Of course this was all on film, and I never heard the end of it. We never found his sheds, so we had assumed he was dead after seasons. We figured he was roughly 145” then.
Summer of 2016 found us putting in TONS of time on this farm as our focused had shifted. NE Iowa is a special place, and truly a land of giants if given some time. The first camera pull, boom, there was the buck I had missed the year before. It was easy to spot for me due to how his right antler is at the end of the beam. There is some specific character this buck that he has held since I knew of him. So this buck was on trail cameras all summer long, in and around the property. I had about 15-20 encounters with him with my bow, but never got to release an arrow. I don’t normally gun hunt, so after the early bow season I was done hunting him (due to work). My fiancés dad scooped up his right antler in the spring of 2017, scoring right at 71 inches.
Fall of 2017 we had no sightings of him at all until Oct 21, and then we saw him for a week straight. Every day, any stand we sat in, we saw this buck. I have a sneaky suspicion he is very old and was on the way downhill and have read when they get old, they really become wanderers again. (no idea if it’s true, but seems like it) We got word that he was killed on the neighbors piece, so I ended up shooting a different buck with my bow. 3 days later he shows back up, proud as proud could be. It was that moment I decided I had to go after him with my slug gun since I only had 5 more possible days to hunt.
Shotgun season one, the first two days were nonexistent of seeing a buck. Plenty of does, just no bucks. Monday, 70 degrees and gusty winds, I was just in a bad mood. If you want to see a pity party, I was having it that day. Just didn’t think it was right to be hunting, just wasn’t in the mind set. A quick text to the woman, she said stay positive, its half the battle. So I tried, but after I kicked a giant up on my walk in, I figured the afternoon was quickly going to be a bust. Sitting in the treestand with 40 mph gusting winds, I decided I needed to get down and go sit on the ridge out of the wind. As I was walking to the ridge, I still kept thinking about the big buck I just kicked out, and was still in pity party mode at that time. I have been telling myself for 3 years that it was this deer or nothing, and now I was in a bad mood. I got to the ridge, wind was in my face, and started to slowly walk to one of my treestands there. On my walk, I just caught a shine out of my left eye. Not knowing exactly what it was, I slowly turned my head buck kept walking a straight line. There was Tiny bedded down, with his head on the ground staring at me! I almost messed my pants! At 17 yards, he was bedded down in a thicket. Knowing if I stopped he would bolt (no shot opening yet) I had to keep walking a straight line and “ignore” him. I needed about 3 steps to get to a clearing. I feel like he must of known exactly my game plan, the moment I hit the opening and started to turn his directing he was trying to get up. It was too late. I cracked him right in the shoulder and he was down. Truthfully I was so caught up in emotions with this deer I was stunned, speechless, and sad that it was now over. I have not put a tape to him, and more than likely will not. As much as a history as I have had with him, that’s all I need to keep me happy. Thank you all for reading and letting me share!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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