Coming into the 2012 Iowa season I had three deer on my mind, witch all would go over 170 to 190 typical! Planting food plots and hanging stand early in the year we were anxious to get in a stand. As most know EHD went through the deer herd in a lot of states including Iowa. We had pictures all season of the monster typical everyday until the last week in September and not a picture since. Hope EHD did not cause his death and he comes back later in the season for dad, but its not looking good.
I hunted extremely hard when the end of October came around to the middle of November. I seen some good three and four year old bucks and passed some great deer but never even seen what I was calling a shooter. The rut was non existent for us, sitting all day stands in some of our best spots, I was discouraged what I seen.
I had to head back to South Dakota to get some work done and be back for the rifleseasons. I planned to comeback for thanksgiving in hopes the mature bucks left there does and were searching for estrous. We had dinner on Thursday and then dad and I headed right back in the stands on Friday. The morning was slow with only seeing some doe’s and small bucks. We then headed to a different spot to sit in a blind to over look a food plot and get out of the wind.
After getting settled in it did not take long for the deer to start towards the food. We had a fawn come to the greens and following was a couple of two year olds. Couple more doe’s came to the field and shortly after the ancient seven year old six point came in sight. Now I had already pasted this deer in early November but I told myself if he came within 20 yards I was going to take the shot. He was chasing doe’s and little bucks all around and never came closer than 40 yards, he went into the timber and bedded looking out into the field at the doe’s. After about 20 minutes the doe’s finally went by the blind, I touched the Nikon rangefinder on a doe at 19 yards, perfect if the buck does the same thing. I looked over at the buck when he was getting out of his bed, he gave a grunt and came back in the food plot. Now I am getting excited that he is committed to the doe’s. I was looking the equipment over making sure the rage broad heads blades were good, the Elite had nothing in its way and I had the Dead On Sight on the right mark. Everything was good as the buck worked closer. He stepped in at 20 yards I drew and followed him as he made it into the opening of the blind. I stopped him and settled the pin and let it go to work, the hit was perfect! Right through the heart and he did not make it out of the field.
Of course this is not the Iowa giant I wanted but for as many hours I spent in a stand not seeing a mature buck I was glad to wrap the tag around this seven year old buck! It was a fun year in Iowa and hope to get back and film dad during the late season.