A few weeks back I was able to wrap my possibly last tag of the season on a nice Iowa Whitetail ending a great deer season. Still have a archery tag here in South Dakota but with only a week left and my brother having a muzzleloader tag I am focusing on putting a lot of effort into that. Anyway here is a quick story on my deer season going across three states. When I drew my Iowa tag back in June I set my goal to kill three bucks this season. With college and moving positions at work the past falls I had never been able to put enough time into my Deer hunting as I wanted to. I looked at the calendar and cleared 5 days for MN, 9 for SD, and 4 for Iowa.
My Minnesota season had me sitting in a ground blind opening morning on a tight funnel between two very large tracts of timber. I love this spot because as any deer hunter knows big bucks stay close to cover as well as it is such a natural travel route. First day saw a few yearling bucks and fork horns as well as a few does. Me and my brother had a close call with a mature animal while walking into a rattling setup that afternoon but were unable to seal the deal. The next day the wind was way wrong for the stand that I was hunting for any deer coming from the east. Since most deer move in the morning from the East to crop fields to the west I did not personally have a lot of confidence in the Sunday morning set up. I was on stand 20 minutes before light and could hear what I thought was one animal moving In the timber back and forth to my left. Sunup came and 30 minutes passed with no activity. I saw movement to my left and a nice mature buck came over the top of the ridge he was in the timber nose down moving side to side like a dog on the trail his path took him back into the timber where he stopped to survey the situation. I waited about 45 seconds watching him with no shot presented at this point yet. I have always been a risk taker and usually hunt on the offensive, so I decided to make a decision. Rather than let the deer decide its own path I let out a loud snort-wheeze. The buck whipped his head back jumped back onto the trail he had initially came down on and made a path directly towards me head down. By this time I had the scope on him and was waiting for my shot he was coming straight at me when he made a quarter turn to the left and presented a 45 yard quartering toward shot I took my opportunity. He didn’t move an inch and my Minnesota leg of the journey was now over. The 385 grain Winchester supreme 12 gauge slug anchored him on the spot. A mature 10 point with nice brows and a wide spread. I had not hunted Minnesota in 4 years and cannot thank my Dad enough for the time he puts in trimming shooting lanes, maintaining blinds and doing offseason scouting on this farm. Thanks again Dad the weekend was a blast.
Little Over a week later, 6 inches of snow and a roughly 40 degree swing in temperatures had me on the plains of Western South Dakota hunting with some good buddies. I had roughly 8 days to hunt and was looking forward to looking at a lot of Deer. I get out to the area I hunt roughly half dozen times a year to fish, bird hunt, predator hunt, shed hunt and just hang out. Friends and I had been pouring over trail camera picks and phone skope pictures from the previous summer waiting for the season to open up. Our usuall tactic is to cover a lot of ground look at deer from along way off and make a play when we see one we want. Temperatures were in the single digits and with blowing snow deer were not moving well in the mornings, but the rut was in full swing so deer movement was still happening. The second night of the trip I saw a good 5×5 in a corn field with does. We made a roughly 20 minutes sneak to get up to a row of rotting haybales and check out the deer. We had closed the distance to 485 yards. The good buck was running figure 8s around the does running off two smaller bucks as well as what appeared to be herding receptive does. I decided this buck was one I wanted and waited for him to present a good shot opportunity. He stood broadside long enough and I got a good solid rest and lined up for the shot. I held roughly 6 inches high and a bit back with a very strong crosswind. The shot sounded and I watched my second buck of the season fall dead in the crosshairs. My 7mm WSM bullet hit him right in front of the shoulder and he dropped right on the spot. A great 5×6 actually when we got up to him. I was excited for the tag to be punched and also let down at the same time that My sodak hunt was over so soon. The great thing about this was being able to get an a great amount of bird hunting with my Dog Cooper as well as play spotter to watch my buddies take some great whitetails in the days to follow. Sodak deer camp is always a blast with many good laughs and fun times.
December 5th had me making tracks south into Iowa for the opening of shotgun season. The farther south I went the more the snow lessened and the temperature rose. None the less I was excited to be back on stand and in the deer woods. My buddy Chris hunts this ground and he had been keeping me updated on deer movement as well as sending me pictures of bucks since August. He was fortunate to take a 160 inch 8 with the bow and had seen a number of other good bucks early in November, so hopes were high. The only thing working against us was projected 50 degree temps, full moon, and the rut being all but obsolete at this point. I sat the first two days with nothing to show. Mornings had me sitting on known travel routes hoping to find a big boy coming back to bed, while evenings I sat on the edges of crop fields. The crop fields were loaded with does up to 15 at a time both nights, no bucks though. I knew a wise old buck knew better than to show his hide this time of the year for very long during daylight. While sitting on day two I observed a nice buck early on in the morning moving back to his bedding area in the general vicinity of another stand on the property. On Monday morning I had little wind to worry about and was excited knowing a good buck was calling a nearby bowl in the terrain home. I sat for the first hour and a half watching a few does feed up and down the ridge I was keeping watch on. I had almost settled into that point in the morning when you start to lose focus and watch squirrels chase each other around more than actually look for deer. A shot from a nearby valley had me on my feet and ready for possible action. Textbook situation a mature whitetail pops over the ridge and briskly walks through the trees heading for a narrow shooting lane in front of me. On immediate survey he was not very wide but had good mass and great tine length. I knew he was a shooter as soon as I saw the tines. He was getting really close and showing no signs of stopping. A loud bleat stopped him long enough for me to squeeze off a shot with my 12 gauge and with a huge mule kick I knew the slug had found its home. The shot was taken at an estimated 12 yards!!!! I shoot a browning bps with a rifled slug barrel and a scope and at this range all I could see was brown in the scope. The deer went 30 yards and laid down. It was all over with and the emotion sort of got the best of me, I was shaking and let out a big whoop. I joked about killing three deer back in june when I drew my Iowa tag but did not think that it would all come together like this. The shot I heard was actually my buddy Albert who shot at this deer with his muzzleloader but was unable to connect, he was calling me to see what I had shot at. I told him a big 10 was laying 30 yards from the stand. I had to sit down in the stand to stop shaking and calm myself down a bit. Albert showed up and couldn’t have been happier for me taking this animal. A mature 10 point with a hooked cheater off his R G-2. He has awesome tine length and a nice dark rack. A big thank you to Albert an Chris for letting me come down to your farm in Iowa, who knew that making fishing buddies out of a few Iowegians would pay off in a place to chase Iowa Whitetails. Chris was able to harvest a great 8 point the first day off this hunt with a 21 inch spread so we had a couple great bucks to show for our efforts an a lot of laughs from Iowa deer camp.
When its all said and done I couldn’t have been happier with how my Deer season turned out and what I was so blessed to experience. I can hardly wait to look for sheds, plant food plots, and scout for the upcoming season. With any luck I hope to have the opportunity to draw all the tags I want again and am looking at adding another state or two next fall pending drawing limited issue tags. The dynamics of deer hunting and the personal work that goes into it make me always wanting more. I hope that everyone had as much fun this deer season as I did and you cannot all wait to get back out again next year. – Appreciate the process – QB
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