The last 3 days of the Iowa bow season - Deer Hunting - Deer Hunting

Heres whats going on where I hunt. Mike, Tom Gurskys friend is down here for his second trip and is leaving Sunday morning sometime. Hes been hunting as much as he can putting up with the cold temps, sitting for short times in hopes of having a huge 16 pointer with double drop tines get within shooting range.

I called Mike the other night just after daylight hours closed and he said he seen the huge buck and was right behind it and had a serious case of huge buck fever that only the biggest bucks can produce, infact he had to calm down to breath evenly again lol!. I knew he had seen a really big one. Dustin, George and Bruce had seen this buck during daylight hours when they were all standing talking by the side of their road that goes to their properties. I pulled up and George said Dan I just seen the biggest buck I’ve ever seen and he also said,,, and I’ve shot alot of deer and I also know he has. This buck walked down the hillside through Bruces timber and they didn’t see it coming to within 50 yrds of them reaching the top of the road. He stood there with his head high looking around and then seen the guys and then easily and calmly walked back up through the timber, he didn’t run. George said he walked with the attitude that he was the big buck in the timber and he knew it. Dustin said he thought he would go 220″ and Dustin hunts alot with both bow and blackpowder so we knew he was huge. Dustin has been after this buck every since he seen it but to no avail.

So back to the story of what happened when Mike seen it. Mike got permission from a couple owners to walk their acreages and when he seen the buck he was down wind from him and there was fresh snow from the night before on the ground to help muffle any footsteps. I asked how close did you get to him. He said I got within 60 yrds of him and I asked what happened. He said he didn’t want to spook him by trying to get any closer so he said he stood their and watched him for 20 minutes.

This buck had his back to Mike for the whole time and was eating browse from small bushes and never once checked his back trail. I asked mike what happened when you left, did he see or hear you and Mike said with the fresh snowfall he just backed out completely walking the 100 yrds backwards going the direction he came in to make sure he didn’t spook the buck and could stop walking if the buck checked behind him. I said how come you didn’t try to get any closer to get a shot with his bow if he couldn’t hear you. Mike said he was just scouting and didn’t bring his bow, I thought to myself are you kidding but maybe it was for the better.

He said never once did the buck check his backside for any danger and thats when I thought this buck hasn’t been pressured at all. Mike did say that he was in a real dense brushy spot and maybe from past experience the buck knew he was relatively safe so maybe it was a good idea that Mike made the right decision and not walk any closer.

Mike said he wouldn’t go the 220″ Dustin thought he might but he would go in the lower 200″ and his drop tines weren’t the 8″ Dustin thought they might go and that they were around 6″ but any buck like this one is a nice buck.

Theres 3 days left of both bow and blackpowder season so Im going both saturday and Sunday late afternoon to hunt a couple well worn trails and a neighboring property to try to get a shot at him. Theres a couple other bucks close by that go around the 140″ to 160″ mark, the 160″ is an eight pointer that we seen earlier this season with a really nice spread around 26″ or so. Mikes got such a serious case of Iowa buck fever that when its cold he’s out driving around looking for a place to buy so he can come hunt, Hes even thought about moving down here lol, and were all encourageing him to move here. Theres only one cure for Iowa big buck fever and thats to put in enough time and to get just lucky enough to shoot one. Anyway I’ll put up what happens after the season closes.