17December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
The deer are getting smarter. They aren’t falling for our bag of tricks anymore. They are starting to take different escape routes and if they would have ran North yesterday, they are running South today.
There wasn’t much shooting today. We saw lots of deer, but anything shootable was making sure we didn’t get a shot. I, again, had a decent buck close to me. This one cruised by at about 30 yards at the tale end of a drive through the ‘Ranch Timber’. I, again, passed.
Dana had his own ‘passed’ story for the day. He jumped the big boy, a massive 12 pointer while doing a drive with me through the ‘South Timber’. It stopped about 30 yards from him and all he could see was it’s butt and it’s horns. Dana decided that an animal that huge deserved a sure shot. He decided to only shoot if it showed him its side. It never did and he never shot. He watched the buck of a lifetime trot off. It was definitely the responsible thing to do. I’m not sure I would have had the fortitude to do it. If I had my own tag, I’d have probably pulled the trigger. Of course, if I had wounded that deer and not recovered it, I’d have had a hard time walking back out into the field with my gun.
I had another good day hunting with Dana, Mike, and Chris. I spent part of the day riding around with Mike in his huge 1 ton pickup and learned a lot more about how the farming business works in Iowa. I’ve always had a lot of respect for farmers. After spending the last several days with some, I have even more respect. These guys work hard, play hard, and generally just enjoy life. They spend the lion’s share of their time in the great outdoors. They know where the deer are going to be and where they are going to run because they see them every single day of their lives. Pretty cool.
Hunting Iowa is so much different from any other hunting I’ve ever done. You can literally see for miles and miles. Chris and I were standing up on the ‘West Flat’ and he pointed out 4 different towns in the distance. One was about 30 miles away. The deer run for miles, too. I don’t know how many times I watched deer jump and then run completely through one section and into the next. A section is a mile long. These deer love to run.
In Missouri, a group of hunters can spend weeks hunting the same 500 acres. In Iowa, we can hunt 500 acres in less than an hour. The locals can tell you where you’ll jump the deer and where they’ll run to. The trick is getting there ahead of them and ambushing them for a shot. It is a lot of fun!
Today, we didn’t kill anything. We didn’t wound anything either – which is good! We saw a whopping 53 deer today on a total of 9 drives. Ten of those deer were bucks. Three were big boys or ‘Wall Hangars’ as the locals call them. When a local says a deer is a ‘Wall Hanger’ you’d better believe it’s a big buck. One of the locals described a ‘Wall Hanger’ as a buck that when you lay him in the back of your pickup, you can see his tines sticking up out of the pickup bed.
The total for the 4 days so far is 168 deer and 49 bucks. Maybe tomorrow is the day for someone to take a ‘Wall Hanger’.
14December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
The day started for Dana, Mike, Chris and I at a crisp 13 degrees Fahrenheit with 20+ MPH winds. For anyone that doesn’t know, this translates into “COLD”. We headed over to the South field and set up for a drive. Chris and I both took up spots on the terraces to the North of the wooded ditch and Dana and Mike headed around to the Northeast to begin the drive.
At around 7:30 an Iowa whitetail buck busted out of the ditch and headed towards the west. It was on a dead run, of course. All the Iowa deer I’ve seen so far have been on a dead run. I shot at it three times as in ran across the bottom about 100 yards below me. It never even staggered and I was dumbfounded by my seemingly sorry shooting. It got to the West fence and instead of jumping it turned to the North and started right towards me. A few seconds later it was barreling by me at about 30 yards. I let go another round and saw the hole punch into it’s side. It still didn’t miss a step and continued running like nothing was amiss.
I watched in wonder as it galloped across a field. Then it start to stagger. Shortly thereafter it sat down and never got back up. There was no blood trail to speak of and it had ran at least 300 yards since my last shot. I was flabbergasted to see that I had hit it three times and two of the shots were great kill shots. In fact, one shot had smashed directly through it’s front shoulder.
It wasn’t the monster Iowa buck of my dreams (hopefully I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep now) but it was a beautiful animal. It turned out to be a mature 7 point with a mismatched, albeit tall, rack. I was thrilled. I’d taken a mature Iowa buck! What more could I ask for?
I’ve seen at least a dozen larger bucks so far during my Iowa hunt. I’ve had decent shot opportunities at bigger bucks and passed them. Why? What inspired me to shoot this particular buck? Why am I satisfied with it?
I wish I had some kind of wise answer. But, I don’t. I’m a guest. A guest of Dana, a guest of Mike and Chris, and a guest of the state of Iowa. Dana invited me along to share the experience of an Iowa hunt. I wouldn’t have complained about a giant Iowa trophy, but I didn’t necessarily deserve one. I didn’t pay for a trophy hunt. Heck, I’m not even paying for room and board. Dana’s parents accepted me into their home as a guest. Remarkable, huh?
I hunt primarily for the experience and the meat. A big trophy is a bonus. I didn’t get ‘a bonus’ on this hunt. However, I had a great experience and I’m taking back tons of meat. This deer is huge. It fills up the back of my pickup. I’m guessing it at way over 200 lbs! A great experience and lots of meat translates into a successful hunt!
I’ve talked about seeing all these monster Iowa bucks. But, I don’t want to mislead anyone. There are indeed monster bucks here in Iowa. Just because they are here, though, doesn’t mean they are easy. They are not easy. The only way you are going to get one of these monster bucks is either through lots of hard work and perseverance or a whole lot of luck. There are lots of locals who hunt hard for years before taking a monster buck and some who never have.
Trying to take one of these monsters, though, is lots of fun. There hasn’t been any sitting in treestands or blinds and waiting. Hunting in Iowa is all action. You can see for miles. The deer can see you for miles. So instead of waiting for a deer to stumble by, you go find the deer. Then you herd them towards your hunting buddies and wait expectantly for the boom of a slug gun. Its lots of exercise, lots of work, and a ton of fun!
I shot the first buck I saw today. After the one I shot, I saw fourteen more. That is a whopping fifteen bucks in one day. Several were big shooters with tall and wide racks.
Here are a few of the highlights of the day:
Dana walked up a giant buck and took a couple shots towards it as it busted its way through the brush and headed towards Chris, who couldn’t get his gun situated in time to take a shot while the buck stood looking at him from about 30 feet. By the time Chris got his gun situated and started shooting, that buck was headed for the next county. Chris missed an opportunity at a buck of a lifetime. He was sick. I’m confident, though, that he will have plenty more opportunities. He hunts hard and has fun while he hunts. Definitely, my kind of hunting partner.
During another drive, I found myself sitting in my camouflage folding chair beside a deep brushy ditch and creek on the edge of a corn field. Mike and Dana were doing the drive and Chris and I were blocking. Two beautiful bucks ran across the field right towards me. I thought they might actually run over me. They passed within a few feet of me and never saw me. One was an eight point and the other a six. It was cool and I watched them run by.
Later, during yet another drive, a coyote busted out of the brush less than 50 yards from me and headed across the corn field and into the terraces. Just moments later a small doe followed and headed up toward the terraces where Chris was posted. We still have doe tags, but I decided not to shoot her. I thought a big buck might be following her and didn’t want to spook him before Chris could get a shot. Nothing else materialized and we moved on to the next drive.
At the ranch timber where Dana got his buck, Chris and I decided to do the drive while Mike and Dana blocked. Dana sat in the same spot he was in when he got his buck yesterday. Chris and I walked a nice 8 point right to him. It walked within 8 feet and never saw him. Dana watched as it made its way into the next section. The doe that was with him split off and headed south before she got to Dana. It was probably a good decision on her part, as Dana wouldn’t have let her walk.
All told we did 10 different drives during the day. I’m tired. We’ve probably done close to 30 drives in 3 days. We have not yet done a drive when we didn’t see deer. Today we saw 42 deer of which 15 were bucks. The total for 3 days is 115 deer and 39 bucks. Awesome.
You’ll notice that Dana does not appear in the pictures with OUR deer today. I didn’t invite him to appear in the picture. Afterall, someone has to work the camera!
By the way, for anyone wondering, in Iowa you can party hunt, filling your hunting partners tags. This is why there is a decision to be made when you see a buck – even though you may have already filled your own tag. Iowa hunters have a party mentality as I’ve been joking about for the past couple days. They will gladly fill your tag for you and then let you take pictures of them with your deer.
13December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
Dana - 2, Me - 0
I’ll start by saying that I’ve never seen deer run like Iowa deer. If you jump one, he or she will likely run for at least a mile, sometimes further. I still haven’t gotten to take a shot at one that wasn’t on a full out dead run. Maybe tomorrow?
Day 2 was cold. It was about 25 degrees when we first stepped outside and it never got much warmer than 27 degrees. It was 22 degrees at the end of the day. Mix in some 20-30 mph wind and a little freezing rain and snow and it gets even worse. I can tell you from experience that it is a bad idea to walk hard, work up a sweat, and then take a post as a blocker in 30 mph wind in below freezing weather. You get cold! I normally don’t get too shook up when I see deer. Yet, I did lots of shaking today. It was because I was freezing!
I had hoped to recount the day on a deer by deer basis. But, it isn’t possible. I lost track of the deer count early on. Fortunately, Dana has a better memory then I do. He counted it up and apparently we saw 45 different deer today (ten bucks). I thought it sounded a little low, but Dana explained that we saw more deer than this, but some of them were the same deer that we spotted multiple times.
The morning began with an early breakfast at a local café. Dana’s cousin Mike and his son Chris met us for breakfast. Mike owns about 6,000 acres. Dana had already told me stories about how hard Mike works farming all his land and then taking the profits and buying yet more land. To be honest, I was a little leery of spending the day with somebody that owned a large section of the county. My fear was unfounded. Mike and Chris were both extremely laid back and easy going. They were really fun to hunt with. They also made me feel extremely welcome. I quickly realized that Mike and Chris were my kind of people.
We started the day with a drive in a wood lot across from Dana’s parents house. I was a blocker and so I was posted about 250 yards above the South edge of the woods on the back side of a terrace. Chris was posted out at some
Cottonwood trees at the West edge of the woodlot. As Dana and Mike came in from the East and walked the North and South edge of the woodlot I anxiously watched for a big buck to split out of the woods and make his way towards me. It never happened.
However, I did see a big boy ghosting his way through the woods about 100 yards in front of Dana. He was working right towards Chris and I waited to hear the roar from Chris’s slug gun. I heard the roar.
Chris had shot a decent 8 point. I had seen him, too, just moments after I saw the monster. Apparently the monster buck had made it past Chris and headed north. The 8 point wasn’t so lucky. The 8 point ran off to the west field and got into the terraces. I stayed up high while the other guys tracked him and watched to see if he broke out of the terraces. I spotted him several hundred yards away making his way to the South. He ran until I couldn’t see him any longer. The guys trailed his heavy blood trail for close to 1.5 miles before losing the trail. We never found that deer.
It was the second deer of the trip that was not recovered. I wrote yesterday about wounding and not recovering a doe. As Phil pointed out, I probably shouldn’t have taken that shot. I won’t say this about Chris. I saw his deer after it was shot (about a mile later) and it looked like it was hit good. How it could leave a solid blood trail for over 1.5 miles and then dissapear is beyond me.
Next, we did a drive in the same area where we saw the four bucks the day before. I was given a cushy blocker spot and told to be on my toes. From my vantage point the horizon was less than 70 yards away so if deer broke into it I wouldn’t have much time to react before they jumped the fence to my right and disappeared.
Exactly as predicted, 2 does and 2 small bucks came flying into view. When I say flying, I mean flying. These deer were jumping 10 feet high with each bound and covering about 15 to 20 feet. I had about a 4 second window of opportunity and I missed. The other guys didn’t give me too hard a time about it – which I was thankful for. Failing to recover a deer followed by a clean miss doesn’t do much for my psyche.
Dana’s dad then drove his pickup out into the field where we were standing and talking about my miss. He said that 8 does had came out behind us and crossed the road heading into his East fields. Dana and Mike sent Chris and I to a couple spots to block and they went to try to drive them to us.
About 5 minutes after I got situated, I heard Chris start shooting. The does had run right down on him. He shot one and instead of dying it ran about 1/3 mile to the neighbor’s section. As we got to the fence we watched the doe try to jump a fence and head into yet another field. She couldn’t do it. She was about 200 yards away and so we decided to go around and tell the neighbor (who was one of Mike’s friends) that we needed to pick up a deer on his land.
As we finally got over there we saw her laying in some corn. We were sure she was really close to dead. She was, but she wasn’t close enough. She ran about a quarter mile towards the neighbors house and, amazingly, jumped in their lagoon. She wallowed out in to the middle of the lagoon and died. I was sure glad that it wasn’t my deer!
We then headed east towards Mike’s property that is referred to as “the ranch”. We did another drive. This time Dana and I were the blockers. Chris and Mike walked a nice deer right to Dana. He shot it and I watched as (no surprise) it ran off towards the next county. We trailed that deer for well over a mile to no avail. We did see 11 does, but no buck.
After about an hour and half of tracking the buck, we saw him running back towards us from the west. He was with several other deer and staggering badly. He ran back down into the woodlot from which Dana had originally shot him. Another drive was called for in the same exact spot. This time Dana got his buck. We recovered that buck less than 100 yards from where Dana originally shot him. He had been hit hard. The funny thing is that he ran over 3.5 miles in the meantime!
We saw several more deer during the rest of the day. Dana shot (and recovered) a doe which was incredibly hard to kill. These deer just won’t die. When Mike and Dana finally recovered her she was in the middle of a creek. Mike waded out to get her. It was the second time for him to get wet today. I felt bad for him since it was only about 20 degrees with 30 mph winds! Not good conditions to be wet in.
Iowa hunters are tough!At the conclusion of the day, Dana said “well we finally got some deer”. I replied “You got some deer (congrats), but I didn’t get anything”. He then told me that he hunts for the group and any individual is successful if the group is. It sounded good.
WE got a nice buck and
WE got a big doe. However, I don’t remember Dana asking to take my picture sitting beside
OUR buck. He did have me take some pictures of him with our
OUR buck, though. Hmm. Guess I haven’t yet figured out all the intricacies of
this group hunting thing.
Anyway, it was a great day. I saw lots of deer and spent time with some fun people that obviously share my love of the outdoors and passion for hunting. Maybe tomorrow is my day?
Dana and his buck:
12December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
The weather man wasn’t too far off. We awoke to hard freezing rain, a good coating of ice on the ground, trees, and vegetation, and heavy winds out of the south east. It was about 25 degrees farenheit and felt like zero. What a fine day for deer hunting.
We drove out to the spot where we’d spotted the 8 pt the previous night. After a long, wet walk we topped out over the last terrace to glass the area below. Nothing! No deer. So off we went, back to the truck to drive to another area. As we drove by one of the old home places, I saw five big deer bust out of a little brush and head up one of the terraced fields.
Out of nowhere a massive buck busted up out of the field directly in front of us. He was HUGE with at least a 24” wide rack. It was barely 7:30 in the morning. Dana told me he knew where that buck was going and that he’d cut him off and push him back to me. He pointed to a lone tree on a fence line about 1/3 of a mile away. “Go stand by that tree and get ready” he told me. “Yeah, right” I was thinking. Like that deer is going to run by that tree when I’d already watched him run a good ½ mile in the opposite direction!
About 30 seconds after I arrived at the tree (which turned out to be several small trees instead of one big one) two does jumped the fence not 70 yards from me. As I watched, a nice 8 point stepped out behind them. He offered me a beautiful broadside shot at 70 yards. He was a beautiful deer with tall brow tines and a nice tall rack (although different from the 8 pt the previous night). I decided to let him walk.
When Dana arrived he asked me why I hadn’t shot. After explaining that I couldn’t bring myself to shoot the 8 pt (even though he was probably bigger than any deer I’ve ever taken) when I’d already seen 2 bucks bigger, he said “if not the buck, why didn’t you shoot the does?” Funny, it never even crossed my mind! I was focused on the buck and waiting for his big brother to follow him across the fence. Dana told me that he had watched my big wide buck split off from the 8 point. Both took 2 does and went in different directions. He kindly reminded me that we were on a meat hunting trip - not a trophy hunt.I was happy. I’d already seen some nice bucks. Yes, it was cold and I was wet, but hey, I’d seen bucks. Life is good!
We decided to walk a draw on yet another part of the farm. On our way there we saw 5 more does. We followed them down a fence row for a ways and then turned back towards our brushy draw. About ½ way through the draw we jumped 2 does. They ran across a field and into some more brush.Dana and I split up and began slowly working our way up opposite sides of the brushy draw the does went to. It didn’t take long before I saw Dana waving to get my attention. He held his hands up to his head in the classic “buck” sign. I crawled my way to him. I was shocked to see two nice bucks bedded on top of one of the terraces, not quite 200 yards from us. He whispered that the one on the right was a shooter.
He was right. It was a beautiful deer. A big 8 point with long brow tines and decent mass. As I was trying to decide whether to attempt a shot at it, another buck walked up the terrace. He was smaller than the big guy that I was watching and he seemed to have a purpose. Shortly thereafter, the 8 point stood up and all 3 bucks were standing on the terrace about 200 yards away. Dana and I watched them for several minutes. Two of them started fighting or at least banging their racks together which was really awesome.
Then, yet another buck raised up his head. This one was a monster! He had been laying next to the others and his body was on the other side of the terrace. Even at 200 yards his rack looked massive. It had huge mass and I counted 6 points on just one side. He was the buck I wanted. We estimated him to weigh at least 300 pounds! Dana loaned me his shotgun (which had a scope) and I began preparing to take a 200 yard shot.
I never got the opportunity. The first 3 bucks came down off the terrace and walked across the field and into the draw we had been walking down. They slowly began working their way towards us. I waited, with the gun ready, for the 12 point to follow. When he finally did, I pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I had failed to take the gun off of safety. My window of opportunity had passed.
We started crawling towards where he had crossed and we could still see him on the edge of the brush. That’s when the smallest buck, a pretty 6 point, started walking right towards us. He walked by us at 10 yards and gave us a good look. We knew he would scent us but hoped that he would keep going on past us.
Our luck didn’t hold out. When he finally caught our scent, he ran right back towards the other deer, alarmed them and off they all went out the end of the draw. I saw them again at about 200 yards standing on a terrace close to a fence. Dana and I discussed it and decided to wait and see if they’d come back into the draw. They didn’t. We decided to walk up over the hillside in the direction they’d come from. Dana said he knew where they’d be. By this time, I realized, not to doubt him. So off we went.
Sure enough, there were deer right where Dana had said they would be. It wasn’t our bucks, but two smaller bucks and a doe. I took 2 shots with Dana’s gun which I was still carrying. I missed both shots. I just wasn’t having much success with the scope since it was iced over and I couldn’t see through it very well. Regardless, I missed. So Dana traded me back guns and I shot the doe with my gun. It was about 140 yards and I was shooting my Remington 870 with open sights.
We both new I’d hit it as we saw hair blow out its opposite side. There was a nice blood trail leading down hill. We followed it for at least 500 yards down into a brushy creek bottom. The blood trail eventually just stopped. We looked for that deer for about 3 hours to no avail. We never found any more sign of it and we walked the entire bottom looking for it, for blood, or for tracks going out into the field. Nothing!
We did jump yet another nice buck, though. It was an 8 point and he jumped up at about 40 yards. We both let him go. Afterall, there are some massive deer around and I’ve already wounded and not recovered a doe! We saw 21 deer before lunch, nine of which were bucks and several of those were shooters! I love Iowa.
We didn’t make it back out until about 3pm. A heavy fog had rolled in and it was still raining and cold. We headed back to the dry basin we’d started the morning at. We jumped 3 nice bucks in a 25’ x 50’ corner of brush and trees. They headed out across the fields and we soon lost them in the terraces and fog.We decided to head back to the area where we’d seen the four bucks this morning. On the way, we saw yet another buck. He was standing on a terrace about 200 yards away just looking at us. His antlers were inside his ears so we let him go on his way.
After a long hike to the brushy draw, Dana and I both set up. I layed down in a small ditch looking out over the corn fields and terraces and Dana crawled into some brush about 100 yards from me. Dana saw a doe several hundred yards away, but nothing he could shoot at. I didn’t see anything. It was the opposite of hunting back home. At home we set up sometimes on field edges at evening, but always waiting for the deer to come out of the woods into the field to feed. Here we were watching the fields for the deer to come out of the field and into the woods. Strange.
As we were walking out, a beautiful big shooter buck jumped up from the base of one of the terraces and bounded over it with a doe in toe. They were only about 75 yards out, but it was after legal shooting hours.
Summary of day 1:
We saw 28 deer
Including 14 bucks, of which at least 10 were 8 point or bigger
I shot and never recovered one doe – which makes me sick
I learned that these Iowa deer will run for miles!!!
Picture 1: Some Bucks on a Terrace
Postscript:
After dinner we went to Dana’s cousin’s house. Mike was my kind of guy. Dana and I spent the remainder of the season hunting alongside Mike and his son Chris. I thought I’d include a couple pictures of Mike’s deer from previous years!
11December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
As many of you already know, I spent last week in Iowa hunting giant whitetail deer. Dana, a friend of mine, invited me to his family farm for a mixed bag hunt that included deer, pheasant, quail, and rabbit. I spent an entire week in Iowa and had a great time. Over the next several days I’m planning on posting a day by day recap of the hunt.
Day 1 - Arriving in Iowa - One Day Before Season Open
We arrived at Dana’s parents farm at around 4:00 pm. After stopping to visit with Dana’s second cousin and his best friend from childhood we decided to drive around a couple of the field edges and see if any deer were lurking about.
It took us about 5 minutes to stumble onto a massive buck. I don’t know how many points (I’d guess at least 10) but his butt looked 18 inches wide and his rack was about 12 inches wider than that! He was huge. Now, if only we can find him tomorrow.
We departed that field and headed towards another end of the property. We drove out to what looked like a dry basin between several terraced fields. Sure enough, a really nice 8 point buck was standing there. He had a shiny rack that was at least 12 – 14” tall. He wasn’t nearly as wide as the first buck we saw though.
Following a fine dinner in town we went back to Dana’s parent’s house and prepared for the next morning. The weather report didn’t look too favorable. Freezing rain, accumulation of a 1/2 “ or more of ice, and 30-35 mph winds!
8December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
I did finally take a nice whitetail buck while in Texas. It was my second whitetail buck of 2007. November 24, 2007. A good day to take a buck!
The buck I ended up getting was a great 8 pointer and would have most people back home in Missouri where I hunt pretty darn excited. Unbelievably, it was the smallest 8 point I saw while in Texas!
I shot it during a pretty heavy rain. I aimed low and behind the front leg and had a perfect quartering away angle at about 30 yards. I wasn’t about to take the chance of hitting it’s leg bone or shoulder. It looked like a solid heart hit. The arrow did not pass through and as the deer walked off the arrow was hanging out of his side. Because of my prior experience with these crazy Texas whitetail I put another arrow through it. This one was a pass through and took out a lung.
The deer ran off like he didn’t have a whole lot of cares in the world. I waited 30 minutes and went out to find him. Unfortunately, the heavy rain had washed away any blood. I started thinking I might be in for another long day trying to find this buck. After about 30 minutes of looking in the general direction he ran, I actually jumped him up. He took off at a good clip down a slight draw. I waited a little while and headed after him. Again, I couldn’t find blood because of the rain.
I tried to follow the path of least resistance as I had no idea where the buck went. After several hundred yards I came to a small rock bluff. It had several steep trails running down it but I couldn’t see a wonded deer trying one so I started skirting the edge of the bluff. I found my deer piled up about 100 yards along the upper edge of the rock drop off. He appeared dead.
As I approached him and started to bend over him, he raised up and tried to gore me with his antlers. Fortunately for me, he was really weak and I was able to grab his horns and wrestle him back down and quickly dispatch him. He was the toughest deer I’ve ever killed. My arrow was still sticking out of him. It had went through his heart and lodged into his opposite leg. My other arrow had taken out a lung.
This deer had only one lung and no heart. However, he managed to run almost 500 yards. I’m probably fortunate to have found him under the circumstances. There was no blood due to the rain and he want a long, long way. When it was all said and done I had a beautiful Texas whitetail buck that I’ll always remember.
It’s funny, when we planned our Texas trip, I hadn’t even guessed that taking a nice buck would be part of the deal!
5December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Noteworthy Pictures.
Here are some pics I took from my friend Thad’s yard:
4December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Hunting Stories.
Some stories are probably better off left untold. Some stories are so far fetched that only eye witnesses will ever believe them. This is one of those stories - and I swear it’s true.
I spent last week in central
Texas visiting some good friends – Thad and Michelle. My family, my friend Jeff and his wife, and my friend Zach and his wife and kids (including infant) all piled in to a big bus of a van and made the road trip from Missouri to Texas. The day before we left, Jeff called and told me to pack my bow. “Thad just bought a new Mathews Drenalin and he set up a target in his back yard. We’ll do some shooting and he might even try to set up a hunt for us”, Jeff told me. So, my bow was loaded into the van along with 10 people and enough luggage to service 15 or 20 more people.
Thad is a General Contractor and his wife is a Real Estate agent. They live an hour or so out of Austin in an incredible rural subdivision. Incredible because in addition to houses in the $1 to $3 million dollar range and immaculately landscaped lawns there are deer running everywhere. The first morning there I went for a jog and saw maybe 150 whitetails and several axis deer. Yes, I said ‘axis’ deer - running wild, not inside a pen. The axis deer looked like polka dotted Elk and they were tromping through the yards of these million plus dollar homes - everywhere.
At breakfast that morning a beautiful 8 point whitetail came into Thad’s manicured back yard along with a couple dozen does and smaller bucks. Boy, was I excited! I was in deer heaven.
Thad had arranged for us to take a guided fishing trip for big striper bass later in the week. Unfortunately, the weather had turned bad and it was cold and rainy. None of us dumb Missourians had thought to bring cold weather rain gear. We decided to hit the Cabellas in Austin for the appropriate attire.
Did I mention this was on Black Friday. Every hunter, fisherman, and wannabee outdoorsman just happened to show up at Cabellas at the same time we did! Anyway, as we walked through the front door and past the service counter, my buddy Thad said “Darrell, you can buy your fishing license there and grab a deer tag if you want”. Talk about music to my ears!
Well, $372 later ($65 fishing tag and $307 general hunting tag, plus archery stamp) I was all set for some whitetail hunting.
When we returned to Thad’s house we decided to play some poker. As we were sitting at the table a magnificent 10 point buck walked by the kitchen window. I didn’t know he was a 10 point because I was purposely not concentrating on his rack. Unfortunately, I never got a picture of him, but I can assure you that he makes these bucks in the pictures below look like his little nephews.
This is where the story goes down hill and becomes quite unbelievable really fast. Needless to say, I shot that beautiful buck with my bow - which is set at 70lbs. I was using Montec G4 fixed broadheads which are the best broadheads I’ve ever shot. My arrow took him right directly in the shoulder. I thought it was a perfect hit. We found out later that it wasn’t.
That buck high tailed it out of there. After giving it 30 minutes we went out to trail it. There was no blood. Not one single speck. The arrow had passed through and had blood on it. I mistakenly thought my shot was good and that the lack of blood was just a fluke. An hour or so later, we jumped him up again, about 1.5 miles from where I initially shot him. He had blood on his back leg, opposite the side I shot at and he was limping lightly. We gave him another 30 minutes and started after him again. Still not a drop of blood that we could follow!
We basically spent the entire day looking for this buck. We saw him several times and each time he’d run away like nothing had ever happened to him. I was terrified that I had fatally wounded that beautiful creature and he’d lay down and die somewhere I couldn’t find him. I shot at him two more times. I couldn’t get a standing still shot. Both times he was running. Both times I hit him. Yes, I hit him with my bow while he was running at a good clip. I have witnesses!
Both of these arrows deflected off him. They would hit and then deflect off in some crazy direction. I know arrows aren’t supposed to bounce off deer, and not one person I’ve told this to that wasn’t there believes me. But, I’m serious! These arrows just glanced off the deer like no big deal.
We saw that deer the next day and the day after chasing does like nothing was wrong. We knew for sure it was him because of the dried blood on his back leg! The next evening I shot a nice 8 point. Again, I thought the shot was perfect. It wasn’t. It was a little high and a little far forward. It hit him square in the shoulder and bounced off.
The second picture below is that deer. I marked on the picture where I hit him. I know it is tough to believe. But, my arrow, again, glanced off him. He was completely OK. I took this picture of him 2 days later!
As you can imagine, I endured some serious ridicule for a few days! My friends couldn’t pass up the opportunity to point and laugh. Once they realized the deer were OK and anything but fatally wounded, they wouldn’t let up. They kept asking me when they could read about it on the ole blog. “What kind of spin you going to put on this?” they asked in a not so good natured way! Thad, bless his heart, finally gave me my out. He said “I guess you can just write that these Texas deer wear Kevlar” which sounded about right to me.
Fortunately, Texas wasn’t all misses. More coming soon.
1December2007
Posted by Darrell under: Planning a Trip.
I’m off to Iowa. Actually, by the time you read this - I’ll be in Iowa, happily hunting for giant whitetail deer. My friend Dana invited me to accompany him to his family farm for this season’s whitetail deer hunt. The ‘farm’ is apparently over 7,000 acres of Iowa rolling hills, all planted in corn; except the treed wind rows and small draws between the fields. According to the information I’ve been given, those small wooded areas are plumb full of giant whitetails.
In an effort to further excite me about this hunt, Dana told me about the giant bucks that come off the property each year. He makes almost casual references to the 160+ class deer that are taken EVERY year and even mentioned in passing the 180 class buck his cousin took last year. Did I mention it had a 12″ drop tine? That is my dream buck. A drop tine. I’ll be ecstatic if I’m lucky enought to see a big bruiser buck with a drop tine, let alone get a shot opportunity.
In Iowa deer hunting requires a shotgun and slugs. Rifles are not allowed. Fortunately, I’ve hunted for years with a Remington 870 Express Deer gun. It has a smooth bore and rifle sites and I shoot the cheap Remington 2 3/4″ slugger slugs that can be purchased at Walmart for around $3 a box. I bought 75 rounds in preparation for this trip. The guys at the sporting goods counter in Walmart looked at me like I was crazy (especially since firearms season is over here in Missouri). “I’m heading to Iowa” I stated in my matter of fact way. “Ohhh” the Walmart guys said in return, like it made some kind of sense. Man, people are weird! But, I’m digressing.
So, back to the subject at hand. Big Iowa whitetail bucks. Two hundred plus pound does. All corn fed sweet meat. Throw in some quail, pheasant, and rabbit hunting, a nighttime coon hunt (the real deal where you set the hounds loose) and a possible coyote hunt and you have the ultimate mixed bag hunting trip!
I hope to return with some great stories and pictures and maybe a deer or two. Wish me luck!
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