Great Expectations

This past week I headed to Southern Iowa with my dad in search of what every white tail hunter dreams of; a Pope & Young Southern Iowa Whitetail buck.

We set out from the Des Moines area just after lunch last Monday, November 4th, and by 4:00PM we were at our spot watching does feeding in a picked corn field. I was able to spot & stalk a doe down to what I thought was 40 yards....it ended up being 50 and I shot just under her.

Tuesday called for rain starting mid-morning so we were disappointed at the lack of movement right up until the rains started at around 10AM. It rained hard the rest of the day so we decided to drive around and do some glassing to see what was moving...there just was not much happening.

Wednesday morning came and as we arrived at our spot we could here the sound of deer on the move. While we were disappointed to have bumped so many deer, we were hopeful that this movement would continue on to shooting light.

As we settled in for the days hunt and the skies just started to lighten up, I noticed out of the corner of my eye movement along the edge of the field. Maybe 15 yards to my West a large bodied buck had gone right to the Tink's 69 Estrus I had hung out, my heart started to race. But it wasn't until he stepped out from my lure to put his nose on the ground to follow the trail I had laid in the field in front of me that I was able to see just what type of buck I was looking at. It was by far the biggest deer I had ever seen in the woods. I estimated in at 180", while another hunter who had seen it put it in the 170's. Either way, he was walking right in front of me just as legal shooting light was approaching. But while it was legal shooting light, it was still too dark for me to pick him out in my sight and had to watch with a heavy heart as went back into the woods. Another 140" deer came out from the same spot but didn't provide a shot. And that would be the last deer we would see all morning.

We decided to sit in a different spot that night and I'm so glad we did. We had deer moving within 5 yards of us (if you have never hunted on the ground (with the wind in your advantage of course, I HIGHLY recommend it!) as we were buried in some cedar trees in a fence line. I was watching two does coming m any way when I caught out of the corner of my eye a decent sized 8 pointer that had been staring at me from less than 10 yards away trying to figure out what I was. He took 3-4 steps closer to me and I couldn't believe I was this close to a mature deer on the ground. He looked the other way so I quickly pulled back my bow and went to pull up he saw me (he would have needed to be blind not to) and bounded off. That would be the last deer I would see on our trip.

HOWEVER, while this was happening, my 67 year old dad was in the middle of harvesting his first deer with a bow from 10 yards away on the ground and couldn't have been more excited. Certainly a trophy for him.
All in all it was a great trip even though I didn't harvest that 200" deer we all dream about this time of year, I was able to spend some extra time with my dad, see a lot of deer, and be there as my dad harvested his first archery buck.

I will posting on a regular basis again (with pictures) starting this week. Thanks for tuning in. I have 2-3 more days I can spend in the woods this week and the temperatures are going to be dropping big time! Until then, just get out there!