IOWA BOW BUCK - Deer Hunting - Deer Hunting

I have to say that the story behind this buck is a fairly unique one. My Dad comes out to visit me and hunt with me every year and this year was no exception. I am from PA originally and he still resides there. To make a fairly long story as short as possible, I will cut to the chase. We were lucky enough to draw Iowa tags but we thought we would try our luck in MN first. I believe it was 10/29 and I climbed into my tree stand to tag a decent buck. At about 8am I saw a nice even 10 pt appear in front of me at about 40 yards. After a few moments I was able to get the buck to walk by me at 26 yards. I went to draw back only to realize that I had bumped my arrow off the rest….completely to the ground as I turned to get into shooting position. I heard the arrow drop but mistakenly thought it was mud from the boots. In any event, I tried to ready another arrow but the wise buck walked away with a bit of an education on stupid hunters. I will say that it wasn’t all bad as my Dad was able to harvest the same buck about a half mile away on the other side of the property. I was truly glad he was able to harvest him….I was able to sleep at least. Anyway, it was on to Iowa for us where we limited to state land for our hunting grounds. My first night in the stand was promising as I saw a decent main frame 10pt (12 scoreable). I let him go as I am well aware of the potential in Iowa. Previous obligations caused me to miss a day of hunting but I was able to hunt a ridge top stand that had tons of buck sign, including two large sign post rubs on cedar trees the following Tuesday. My Dad hung a set on a fence line that would be great for the prevailing NW winds we would get the next two days. I hunted that stand and I saw a lot of action! I saw no less than 8 bucks that morning all before noon. The next day was just as great as I saw two shooters. One shooter looked to be a thick beamed bruiser with a broken tine or two. I was unable to get a great look because I had that same 12 point I saw earlier in the week right below me. He had not spooked but was certainly curious as to what the greyish green blob was in the tree above him. I didn’t want to move and therefore didn’t get an accurate assesment of the broken tine and the rest the rack on the shooter 50 ards away. Giving the stand a rest, nobody hunted it the next day. On Thursday, my Father hunted the stand and he said he saw a shooter 8pt and a 10pt with a broken tine on him. He felt he would score 150 and that he had great beams and brow tines. he felt like my description of the deer I saw matched the deer he had an encounter with. The encounter……..at just 14 yards my Dad took a shot at he big ten. Unfortunately he missed. Fortunately, the limb he hit deflected the arrow enough that the arrow never touched the buck much less hurt him. After talking it over with my Dad, we felt like we had a good idea of the bucks habits. We felt like we knew where he was bedding and we would hunt him accordingly. We were confident but not positive because both times we saw this deer he was with a doe…for all we knew that buck would be 3 hills ov er chasing a hot doe the next day. Sunday brought winds out of the SE……horrible for the set we had hung. My Dad suggested I go in with a climber and go for broke. A long morning walk found myself searching for the perfect tree that would allow me to hunt the trail that led to the cedar thicket that hopefully held the big ten. I climbed a tree about 20 yards from the trail I wanted to hunt, only 80 yards from our original set. I saw a depressingly small amount of deer activity with just 4 deer from dawn until 3:30 or so. AT 3:40 I caught some movement from the cedars. The movement was topped off with some antler. A quick look through the binoculars declared he was a shooter. I quickly ranged my shooting lane one more time(23 yards). I stood and waited on the buck. He took his natural route, all by himself on this day. A few short steps before my shooting lane the buck stopped. A quick peek at his rack told me that he was a high racked buck with great brow tines. he didn’t seem too wide though. In any event, he was a shooter I would be proud to have. As I stopped the buck, he quartered to ever so slightly. I let the arrow fly, hoping to get a lung and liver. The shot felt, sounded and looked good. As my Dad likes to say, “it sounded like a my arrow hit a watermelon”. It was only 3:42 in the afternoon as I watched the buck runat first, and then walk over the crest of the ridge top. I saw him last at about 50 yards away, he disappeared with no crash. He looked hurt but with the shot angle I waited until dark and then backed out after retrieving my arrow. The arrow was covered in blood as well. I returned to the hotel to share the story with my Dad. An inclement weather forecast led my Dad and I to go back into the woods in the dark to try to find the buck. We unfortunately did not find a whole lot of blood to speak of. We did find enough to conclude that the back was walking a trail that angled down hill but began to level out. As I sat at the last site of blood, my Dad looked for the next blood spot approximately 50 yards away from me. It was at this point I saw m Dad’s head lamp fix itself on one position down hill. He followed the path of the light about 30 yards down hill and said “Mike”. Hurredly I said “yeah”. “You better go get the cart” my Dad calls out! I sprinted through the dark of the woods to get to the big buck. As I approached him, I experienced ground growth…not shrinkage. I was looking at a great main frame 10pt with a split brow tine. His unique rack shoots right out of his head and I think this confused me. His great V-shaped rack leads you to believe he isn’t wide. His great height makes his width look small. After further inspection, we saw the buck had a nice spread that measured 19 1/2 on the inside. A broken tine didn’t hide or dampen my excitement. I was elated to find the buck, the same buck I saw earlier and the same buck my Dad shot at but missed. Finally I get to the conclusion of the whacky story. I botched my chance at 140 class 10 in MN only to have my Dad harvest him the same evening. My Dad missed his chance at this buck, only to have me harvest him two days later! Turn about is fairplay I guess! My dad measures him out at 155 with 6 0f the 8 circumfrance measurements exceeding 5 inches. His bases are about 4 5/8 I believe. I am not sure exactly what he measures. I just know he is truly a trophy, broken tine and all. It capped a great hunt and a great 12 days with my Father. We were both successful in our hunts…a bit of icing on the cake. I will try to post a pic of his buck when he gets around to emailing them to me. Sorry about the long story and I hope you enjoyed it!