‘23 Iowa whitetail

I had to work yesterday and as I’m about to get home my wife FaceTimes me with a screaming 4 year old. The kids were playing on the top bunk and he got hit by the ceiling fan. Big cut, probably needs a couple stitches but he’s freaking out. I get home and it’s stopped bleeding and he’s calmed down. I tell him about when I’ve gotten stitches and even super glued a few cuts but he’s not having it. By the time we get calmed down again it’s too late to hunt.
 
The 4 year old comes into our bedroom around 3:30 this morning and takes up 2/3 of my side of the king bed which my wife already takes up 2/3 of. So I’m left with 1/3 of 1/3 of a king size bed. I can’t fall back asleep. so I was thinking about where I would be if I was a buck, that's been pressured and hunted for 2 months and decided I'd be in a swamp where no one can get to without crossing a deep creek and if they try I could escape before they saw me. So, I got there this morning with a plan to do a loop about 3 miles. I hunted through some bottom land swampy willows stuff and didn't see much sign so I started to climb the hill towards a bench I thought they might be laying on. I started following a trail deer had been on and I came around the uphill side of a big rock and saw a deer butt about 80 yards in front of me. I put the binoculars on it and saw there was two more and they were all bucks. I had made my mind up sometime in the night as I was studying the topo map that if I had a chance I was going to shoot a deer, no matter the size today. Well of course now I'm second guessing myself but I could tell 2 of them were at least as wide as their ears. I come up on them freehand but I can't hold study so I tell myself I need to move ahead 5 yards to a tree I can use as a rest. So I creep forward not taking my eyes off of them and they turned quartering away but didn't bolt. I put my crosshairs on the buck furthest to the left and also the furthest downhill. I shoot and the woods erupts with deer everywhere. As the smoke clears I saw the buck that was in the middle bounding away, the upper buck was actually going up hill and back towards me and I thought I had seen the buck I shot at roll head over heels downhill. There was a commotion like a deer falling downhill but I couldn't see anything. I thought there would be a dead deer at the bottom of the hill. I reloaded and the upper buck is just staring at me about 40 yards away not knowing what had happened. There is a doe at the bottom of the hill that I hadn't seen until then. I sidehilled up to where I thought the bucks were at and could see where the deer slid downhill so I glass down the hill hoping to see a dead buck, but I cannot. I look all around for blood but I couldn't find any so I followed the skid downhill and see where two deer had gone down the hill. At the bottom one of them turned down an old road and one went across the swamp. So I followed the tracks on the road, not finding blood after a couple hundred yards I went back to where I shot and decided the deer were further up hill than I had when I looked. So I mentally marked the tree I thought they were at and went to it. I could see 3 sets of tracks leaving and one was the slide marks I had seen before. I followed all the sets of tracks for a distance until I couldn't find them anymore or I was satisfied there wasn't any blood. My rest felt good, my shot felt good. The only thing I can think was he was quartering away enough that he was able to turn and I shot in front of him. I straight line distanced him from where he was when I shot to where I shot and OnX said 67.5 yards.
 
Crossing the creek
1703792949036.jpeg
The swamp
1703792983014.jpeg
The hill with the buck that ran at me.
1703793176204.jpeg
The slide marks from what I thought was going to be a dead deer.
1703793227615.jpeg

As you can see we got a perfect skiff of snow and if there had been any blood at all I would have seen it. My guess is that since he was quartering away he turned and I shot right in front of him.
 
Gellar said:
The 4 year old comes into our bedroom around 3:30 this morning and takes up 2/3 of my side of the king bed which my wife already takes up 2/3 of. So I’m left with 1/3 of 1/3 of a king size bed. I can’t fall back asleep. so I was thinking about where I would be if I was a buck, that's been pressured and hunted for 2 months and decided I'd be in a swamp where no one can get to without crossing a deep creek and if they try I could escape before they saw me. So, I got there this morning with a plan to do a loop about 3 miles. I hunted through some bottom land swampy willows stuff and didn't see much sign so I started to climb the hill towards a bench I thought they might be laying on. I started following a trail deer had been on and I came around the uphill side of a big rock and saw a deer butt about 80 yards in front of me. I put the binoculars on it and saw there was two more and they were all bucks. I had made my mind up sometime in the night as I was studying the topo map that if I had a chance I was going to shoot a deer, no matter the size today. Well of course now I'm second guessing myself but I could tell 2 of them were at least as wide as their ears. I come up on them freehand but I can't hold study so I tell myself I need to move ahead 5 yards to a tree I can use as a rest. So I creep forward not taking my eyes off of them and they turned quartering away but didn't bolt. I put my crosshairs on the buck furthest to the left and also the furthest downhill. I shoot and the woods erupts with deer everywhere. As the smoke clears I saw the buck that was in the middle bounding away, the upper buck was actually going up hill and back towards me and I thought I had seen the buck I shot at roll head over heels downhill. There was a commotion like a deer falling downhill but I couldn't see anything. I thought there would be a dead deer at the bottom of the hill. I reloaded and the upper buck is just staring at me about 40 yards away not knowing what had happened. There is a doe at the bottom of the hill that I hadn't seen until then. I sidehilled up to where I thought the bucks were at and could see where the deer slid downhill so I glass down the hill hoping to see a dead buck, but I cannot. I look all around for blood but I couldn't find any so I followed the skid downhill and see where two deer had gone down the hill. At the bottom one of them turned down an old road and one went across the swamp. So I followed the tracks on the road, not finding blood after a couple hundred yards I went back to where I shot and decided the deer were further up hill than I had when I looked. So I mentally marked the tree I thought they were at and went to it. I could see 3 sets of tracks leaving and one was the slide marks I had seen before. I followed all the sets of tracks for a distance until I couldn't find them anymore or I was satisfied there wasn't any blood. My rest felt good, my shot felt good. The only thing I can think was he was quartering away enough that he was able to turn and I shot in front of him. I straight line distanced him from where he was when I shot to where I shot and OnX said 67.5 yards.
Click to expand...
That's a bummer. No hair? Muzzleloaders usually cut a fair bit of hair on impact.
 
Jealous you got a skiff of snow to hunt in. All rain here. There's nothing better than hunting in the snow. My brother and I are going to go do a couple small drives tomorrow to try and fill a doe tag or two.
 
Last edited:
Nick87 said:
Jealous you got a skiff of snow to hunt in. Ll rain here. There's nothing better than hunting in the snow. My brother and I are going to go do a couple small drives tomorrow to try and fill a doe tag or two.
Click to expand...
I came home and put all my clothes in the dryer and ate some left over prime rib. I’m going back out now. I had to dig the snow camo out!
 
The last time I sat in this area was during the early muzzleloader season, circa October of 2015, before they made it so you couldn’t hunt the early season and regular gun season in Iowa. I was at the bottom of the hill facing where I am at now with my back on the fence that marks no hunting. That solid white line is a hiking trail and as you can see it’s a busy trail. That area is off limits to hunt. A buck came from about where I’m sitting now and I shot it. The deer ran into the closed area and when I stood up to look there were 2 hikers coming down the trail. Before I could say anything I saw the deer on the trail.


Today
1703797850648.jpeg
The last time I sat here.
1703797921888.jpeg
 
In case you are wondering…in Iowa you can legally take a direct path, unarmed, onto property you do not have permission to be on to retrieve downed game. I called the park ranger to tell him I was going to retrieve the deer and the hikers had already called it in. He came and verified my story
 
Gellar said:
I didn’t do a good job of photographing the deer this year. We processed 9 deer today. 5 does and these 4 bucks.

View attachment 305047
Click to expand...
The deer on the left came back positive for CWD. All of the deer that could be tested were tested. The biologist comes right to our hanging shed and takes the samples. I think we had around 20 tested this year. This is the 2nd deer in 2 years to come back positive but they are the first two since CWD was detected less a mile away in 2013.
 
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