Iowa Deer Hunting Report – The last morning sit!

The author of this IA Deer Hunting Report is from one of our Gold Member Sponsors – Jason Ramthun (GMAN).

My first round in Iowa ended with the score being: deer 1 and myself coming home with a big fat zero. I did see some deer, but never did see a big buck on his feet which is very odd for the land I was hunting. With tons of corn still out in the field, I knew it was not going to be a easy year for me in Iowa. So my plan was to head home and hunt the MN gun season then head back to Iowa for a 7 day hunt with high hopes that the corn would be out and the rut would be on. As the MN gun season was coming to an end I was getting the same reports from two of my buds that live in Iowa and the word was SLOW and no corn was coming out.

It was very hard to keep the chin up after the worst MN gun season I had seen and to get a report like that from the Iowa boys. But with 7 days and a picture of a monster Iowa buck stuck in my head I was off and running.

November 16th I was on stand all day and seen about 15 deer, most of them being small bucks and does with fawns (even some nub bucks with). Very odd seeing nubbins with does this time of year. With that said the next 3 days I had the same results – does and a small bucks. Everything was great about this spot but the big boys just didn’t show up. Check out the view. Geese landing on the pond every morning, turkeys flying down strutting like crazy and little guys like this greeting me every day.

After the night sit, I stopped and talked with my good bud and farmer of the land that I was hunting to see what he was seeing and asked if he would show me how to run his combine so I could get some of his corn out for him. After a good laugh about me being a farmer, :rotlmao: he stated that he would be taking out the back field tomorrow. This really got me pumped up because I do have a stand in that area. Big thick bedding area that was full of deer sign. Yes – full of deer sign but I had only seen one doe from this stand and the trail cameras didn’t show any deer movement until well after dark and ALL heading to the corn that was 100 yards from my stand.

I decided not to sit in this spot the next morning because the farmer would be picking it and I really didn’t want to hear and see the combine for hours on end that morning, so I picked another spot and did end up seeing a 130 inch class buck that was going from corn field to corn field. So around noon I got down and headed back to the farm with high hopes that he kicked a pot full of deer out of the corn! I was very happy to hear that he had seen around 50 deer run out of the corn and into the woods. By morning he would have all the corn out so I decided I had better jump in that stand right away in the morning.

Got up at my normal time with only a 15 minute drive to my spot and when I went out to start my truck, I found out I could only see 10 yards with the heavy fog! I ran in, got all my stuff and took off in a hurry. The15 min drive turned into a 40 min drive and I was late getting on stand. However, with the fog it didn’t really matter because I couldn’t see 10 feet in front of me walking in. I settled in my stand and slowly waited for the fog to lift. Well as 7 a.m. came, I could still only see around 15 yards and nothing was moving yet. As we all know things can change quickly and happen FAST. I could hear a deer coming but I could not see it with the thick fog. At 7:10, a doe ran by me with a small buck on her tail. I thought WOW – this could this be the morning it happens (my last morning sit of the hunt).

Bang – 10 minutes later, here comes a bigger buck on the same trail. Unreal, I have only been in my stand for around 45 minutes. The fog is so thick I lose sight of him and I rely on my hearing. I try hard but I still can’t see him. Then I hear a grunt, so I grab my bow and my grunt call. I then give him a soft grunt and I could tell he was coming fast and straight from at the back of my stand. I quickly got turned around and within seconds he was on top of me! I had no time to count points but I could tell he was a tall shooter in my book especially for the last sit in Iowa! As he came by me, I pulled back my bow and let him walk into my shooting lane. I then let the Rage 2 blade rip! As he ran off, I could see I had drilled him as the blood was just pumping out of him. He only went about 40 yards and was down on the Iowa ground. I didn’t see him go down but could hear him fall and the leaves moving around then nothing. I really wanted to get down and find him but knew I had to wait an hour or so. With a doe tag in my pocket I had no problem waiting. At 9:30 I finally got down. I went to the spot and found blood, my arrow and a wide blood trail that left my buck on empty !!! At the end of the trail I found this great Iowa buck!!!

No matter what, never give up you just don’t know when it’s going to all fall in your lap!!!

Happy hunting and good luck!

Jason Ramthun