Iowa Deer Hunt

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to get drawn for a non-resident Iowa archery buck tag. As I write this, I'm three days into my Iowa hunt and I am having a blast! I've seen lots of deer and have seen good bucks on all three days, but haven't seen one I'm ready to take just yet.

On my first evening in the stand, I had this nice 10-point feeding in the food plot with a few does about 80 yards away. I grunted at him to try to get his attention and he looked up, but went back to feeding. So I got a little more aggressive with the grunt call and he headed right for me. He walked right under my stand and provided a perfect 15-yard quartering away shot, but I talked myself out of shooting him. I think he's about a 135" deer, and I may regret this decision later, but I feel confident that I will see bigger deer on this trip. I did get several minutes of good video and a few still images of him as well.


So, what would you have done? Would you have shot him or let him pass?

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Two Bucks Down - Clayton Bowen's Archery Deer

My friend Clayton Bowen has been a busy man in the deer woods over the last couple weeks. A couple Fridays ago I got a text from him while he was hunting in Illinois that said "I think I just got my first buck with a bow!" He was still sitting in his treestand and feeling the adrenaline rush as he was waiting to go track an 8-point he had just arrowed. The Illinois buck had responded to a grunt call and came in right to the base of the tree Clayton's stand was in. Not only did he get a buck, a few minutes later a doe happened to stroll by, and Clayton made another kill shot to put even more venison in his freezer. Here is the picture of Clayton's 8-point.

Just a little over a week later, while I am sitting in my tree stand one evening, I get another text from Clayton. This time he says he has arrowed another buck, this one a 9-point, on a property he hunts here in Texas. But my friend didn't feel as confident in the shot he had made on this buck, so he decided to wait overnight to go look for the deer. The next morning I get this picture from Clayton of him with his buck which he successfully recovered.

Those are two nice deer buddy! Congratulations on a great deer season so far! I've got some work to do if I'm going to catch up with you...

"Don't Leave Yet!" - Josh Nelson's Buck

On Tuesday evening of this week, my phone alerted me to a new email in my inbox. I normally don't get many emails in the evening so I grabbed my phone to take a look at the message. It was an email from my friend Josh Nelson in Iowa. That grabbed my attention, as I knew that more than likely meant either: A)new trail camera pictures, or B)a picture of a deer he had taken with his bow.

This time it was the latter, as I opened the email to find this picture of Josh with a very nice Iowa whitetail that he had harvested earlier in the evening.

There wasn't any text or details with the picture so I couldn't wait to congratulate Josh and find out the story on how he was able to get within bow range of this buck. So I quickly shot a congratulatory email back and asked for the lowdown.

Josh was bowhunting from a treestand and had been in the stand for a couple hours on a very pleasant Northwest Iowa evening. The temperature was around 55 degrees, which is unseasonably warm for this time of year. During his sit in the stand he had tried rattling and using a grunt call, but to no avail. He hadn't seen any deer all evening (other than a doe he spooked as he was walking in to climb into his stand). So just as last light was fading, Josh packed up his backpack, took his arrow off the bow and put it back in the quiver, and was ready to climb down out of his stand.

That's when he saw this buck walking directly toward him. So he takes his backpack off, takes the arrow out of the quiver and gets it nocked, leaves his quiver on the bow (which he had never shot that way before), and he draws back on the deer. The buck had closed the distance to 25 yards and had turned broadside. Josh loosed an arrow and it found it's fatal mark.

He knew darkness was rapidly approaching and that he'd better get some assistance in tracking the deer, so Josh contacted his friend Mark Tielbur (who also happens to be a friend of mine) for some help in locating the buck. A few hours later they were back at the house with Josh's buck. Josh told me this is his biggest buck to date, as he has been able to harvest a bigger deer each year since he started hunting.

It looks like a really nice buck to me and one you should definitely be proud of Josh! Congratulations on taking him with your bow! I'm glad you didn't decide to leave your stand a few seconds earlier!