Benton County?

[Woods Walker]

My daughter goes to ISU in Ames, and when we visit her I prefer to take Rt. 30. This takes me through some of the most BEAUTIFUL deer country just east of Tama, in Benton County. It's a series of hills and ravines, interspersed with timber/brush/praire/pasrure, and crop land. I was just wondering if any of you hunt it, and if it's as good as it looks. I have no wish to hunt there (I have my own spots closer to home), but was just admiring it.

You also have some GIGANTIC deer in Iowa too, and this is coming from an Illinois hunter!!!! [:)]

[Powell1120]

I have never hunted Benton County myself but I agree, anytime I happen to be out that way I can't help but think it looks like big buck country. As far as the Gigantic deer you speak of, are talking about the body mass or did you get a glimpse of one our finest?

[Woods Walker]

As far as the Gigantic deer you speak of, are talking about the body mass or did you get a glimpse of one our finest?

YES! [:D]

I've seen bucks along I-35 between Des Moines and Ames that gave me heart palpitations FROM 400 YARDS AWAY, and a doe and her yearling crossing Rt. 30 near Tama that one could have mistaken for a cow moose and calf.......

My daughter did a communications internship with the Iowa Farm Bureau this summer (of who's she still working part time for), and hopefully that'll translate into a job, where she can meet farmers and find her old man a place to hunt! [;)]

(Like our Illinois deer aren't big enough!)

[Powell1120]

I am not positive, but I think I seen somewhere that JPH hunts some ground along the I-35 corridoor, might be south of Des Moines though. One of the farms that I hunt you can actually see from Hwy 30, out on the west egde of town and borders some land that ISU owns.

The size of there deer up here in the midwest amaze me. The first deer that I ever laid eyes on was a buck down in South Carolina. At the time I thought he was a big animal, now after being lucky enough to harvest does that range from 150-200lbs every year, and probably half again as big as that SC buck, I can not help but chuckle a little at how amazed I was by him. My father in law used to go visit family down in Arkansas and hunt in their gun season and he always joked that it was the best warm up session he could ask for. He'd say after shooting at does that weighed 90lbs wet, there was no way he could miss the girls up here and he usually didn't.

I don't care where you're from, the opportunity to hunt another state always seems fun, at least to me. Even as good as things can be around here I think it would be great to hunt other states, particularly Illinois through Ohio and Kentucky. There seems to always be good deer comming from that section of the country. If your daughter could land you a place out here, hopefully it wouldn't be too much farther north than that cause it can get pretty thin unless you go east.

[Woods Walker]

You know, when I see and shoot the kind of deer we have in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, etc., I always get a kick out of our southern deer hunting breatheren who drag their deer from the woods ungutted.

If they hunted up here they'd get out of that habit REAL quick!!!!