mzldr4life
Active Member
Hunted Sunday morning and saw a 3.5 yr old 8 point checking a doe, only two deer I saw that morning. Decided after the morning hunt to head over and start hanging stands/cameras at my brother in laws farm about 20 minutes away from the land I hunt. Got two stands hung and 4 cameras up and it was getting to be 3pm. Was going to head back home about an hour and a half drive but decided to go back to the land I hunt and try an evening sit at a new stand we hung this year. It is on a transition from bedding to food. With the dropping barometric pressure and rising temps, with Sunday being the warmest day of the weekend, I didn't have too high of hopes. Got into stand around 4:30 and saw a doe and her two fawns come out around 5. The mature doe was eating acorns about 30 yards directly behind me. Her fawns were running around playing. She finally moved on and went in the direction of the food plot. It started raining so I couldn't hear the leaves crunch as well anymore. I look behind me and here comes a decent 8 that we have had on camera all summer. Cool looking deer that I am looking forward to seeing in a couple years. He stops at same spot and eats acorns for probably 30 minutes and finally moves on. Here's a couple pics of the 8.
About 30 minutes before sundown, a younger doe comes out and shortly after a little spike comes up and gets all excited and starts checking her. He runs her all around my stand for probably 15 minutes and finally runs her off where I can't see them anymore. It was about 10 minutes since I had seen them and here the spike comes back down the ridge chasing after this doe. I am setting about 35 yards into the timber from where we had a shooter on camera over a scrape. The last photos we had of him were September 24th. The spike buck runs the doe out of timber right by where that scrape is and here this buck comes running in and runs this spike buck off the doe. The spike and doe come running back toward my stand. I hurry up and pick up my range finder and range the doe at 13 yards. I look up and see that the buck coming is the same buck that we had on that scrape on camera. I hurry up set my range finder down and clip onto my bow. At this point the spike buck is to my right at 15 yards, the doe behind him at 13 yards and this buck at 20 yards perfectly broadside... directly behind a huge tree branch with multiple limbs. The shooting lanes are behind him and in front of him. As I'm standing there clipped onto my bow, the buck is just calm as ever standing there, head down eating leaves. I look down to my right and notice the spike buck is now staring directly at me. I slowly move my head toward the big buck and the spike buck starts stomping his feet. He stomped his feet twice before I said it's now or never. So I wait for the spike to look down, I pull back to full draw. The spike buck catches on and he busts, runs about 10 yards and stops, which moves the doe as she busts and moves about the same distance. At this point I have my pin on the mature buck, he runs. I grunt to stop him, he stops at what I guessed to be 25 yards, I let the arrow fly and see it is a little back and a little high. My phone now died. So I wait 30 minutes, get down out of stand, walk back to the truck which is opposite direction of where the buck ran. Charge my phone quick and call my buddies. We go back and take a while to find blood. We found a decent amount of blood but nothing like I would like to see. Track about 30 yards and found my broadhead side of arrow busted in half, good blood on it. Track slowly another 40-50 yards, very little blood and find the other half of my arrow. Good blood on it as well. At that point he started bleeding a little more but nothing crazy. It was taking us about 10 minutes to go 20 yards I would say. We are contemplating backing out after 150 yards and look up and see his nose sticking up. He was dead in his first bed. I would guess he made it 200 yards. I hit the top side of the near lung and took out the backside lung completely. Did not put a tape on him but would guess him to be upper 150's to 160 range. 4.5 year old deer that we have had photos of dating back to 2015. One of my favorite hunts and a fun chapter to close on another mature Iowa whitetail.
Best of luck to everyone out there this week. Looks like a great week to be in a stand, but lets be honest, when is not a great time to be in a stand. Good luck!
About 30 minutes before sundown, a younger doe comes out and shortly after a little spike comes up and gets all excited and starts checking her. He runs her all around my stand for probably 15 minutes and finally runs her off where I can't see them anymore. It was about 10 minutes since I had seen them and here the spike comes back down the ridge chasing after this doe. I am setting about 35 yards into the timber from where we had a shooter on camera over a scrape. The last photos we had of him were September 24th. The spike buck runs the doe out of timber right by where that scrape is and here this buck comes running in and runs this spike buck off the doe. The spike and doe come running back toward my stand. I hurry up and pick up my range finder and range the doe at 13 yards. I look up and see that the buck coming is the same buck that we had on that scrape on camera. I hurry up set my range finder down and clip onto my bow. At this point the spike buck is to my right at 15 yards, the doe behind him at 13 yards and this buck at 20 yards perfectly broadside... directly behind a huge tree branch with multiple limbs. The shooting lanes are behind him and in front of him. As I'm standing there clipped onto my bow, the buck is just calm as ever standing there, head down eating leaves. I look down to my right and notice the spike buck is now staring directly at me. I slowly move my head toward the big buck and the spike buck starts stomping his feet. He stomped his feet twice before I said it's now or never. So I wait for the spike to look down, I pull back to full draw. The spike buck catches on and he busts, runs about 10 yards and stops, which moves the doe as she busts and moves about the same distance. At this point I have my pin on the mature buck, he runs. I grunt to stop him, he stops at what I guessed to be 25 yards, I let the arrow fly and see it is a little back and a little high. My phone now died. So I wait 30 minutes, get down out of stand, walk back to the truck which is opposite direction of where the buck ran. Charge my phone quick and call my buddies. We go back and take a while to find blood. We found a decent amount of blood but nothing like I would like to see. Track about 30 yards and found my broadhead side of arrow busted in half, good blood on it. Track slowly another 40-50 yards, very little blood and find the other half of my arrow. Good blood on it as well. At that point he started bleeding a little more but nothing crazy. It was taking us about 10 minutes to go 20 yards I would say. We are contemplating backing out after 150 yards and look up and see his nose sticking up. He was dead in his first bed. I would guess he made it 200 yards. I hit the top side of the near lung and took out the backside lung completely. Did not put a tape on him but would guess him to be upper 150's to 160 range. 4.5 year old deer that we have had photos of dating back to 2015. One of my favorite hunts and a fun chapter to close on another mature Iowa whitetail.
Best of luck to everyone out there this week. Looks like a great week to be in a stand, but lets be honest, when is not a great time to be in a stand. Good luck!
