It was on the first morning of my hunt in SE Iowa. When we planned our hunt, we targeted the week of November 8 for peak rut activity. That morning at 6:00, a 6 point passed on the primary trail I was watching. He freshened the scrape that was 25 yards from my tree. He then walked up the hill and out of my world. At about 6:20, two does followed the same trail. They both sniffed the scrape and the larger of the two urinated there. They walked up the hill as had the 6 point. 15 feet from the scrape they stopped to look to their left. I heard a deep, long grunt and the does took off running straight away from me over the crest of a harvested bean field that was 100 yards up hill from me. A huge bodied deer ran through the brush to where the does had stood and then chased them up and over the hill. His body was like a barrel and was twice the width of either doe! His rack was massive and went far beyond his ears and stood as high as a bushel basket. He stopped on the crest of the hill for a few seconds allowing me to get a quick look with my 10x Bausch & Lomb binocs. He was amazing. I estimated that he’d score in the 175+ range, but he was headed the wrong way.
Half an hour later, I saw movement in the bean field and saw some deer moving toward me. They were does and kept looking back as they moved my way. I heard grunting and soon they were joined by a non-typical Romeo who chased them down toward me. I tried to get a good look at him but the brush didn’t allow it. When they finally convinced him that they weren’t ready for romance, he moved to the scrape. It was then that I got a good look at him. He had a beautiful 4 point rack on one side that swept around in the classic high whitetail form with 8 inch tines and decent mass. The other side also carried 4 points, but the main beam got outside the brow tine then went nearly straight up. He worked the scrape then moved off. He’d have surpassed 100, but I don’t know how far. The day before a friend had been in the same tree and had shot a buck whose rack was mirror image of that buck. His buck had more mass and was an old monster. He may have been the father or older brother of the one I saw.
Through the next couple hours, several bucks passed through, all in the spike to 8 point range, all 1.5 years old and looking over their shoulders. A little after 9, I looked down the hill and saw a buck approaching. My standards for the hunt were pretty clear. I’ve shot several 8 and 9 point bucks, but never a 10. I wanted a 10 point or greater! I’ve also shot a ton of bucks, but none have been 90” or bigger. I wanted something in the 120 range, minimum. I saw a buck approaching from down the hill and south about 75 yards. The first thing I noticed was a ridge that ran around the inside of each main beam. The morning sun drew my attention to it immediately. Because of the brush and the awkward angle of turning to use my binoculars, I couldn’t see too well. He was an 8, and I estimated him in the 110 range. He had decent mass. He stomped around in the brush for a full 15 minutes, moving one way and another in the bushes. He worked a tree over and looked for love. He finally made his way to the scrape and gave it the full treatment. Licking, raking the branch, rubbing his eyes on it, scraping the ground with antlers and hooves, sniffing, then urinating on both back legs into the scrape. During that time I noticed two points I hadn’t previously seen. He was not 120+, but he was a 10 point and I wanted him to come down my trail. The scrape was too far for my taste (and practice), and there were just a few twigs between me and him. I wouldn’t shoot.
When he finished working the scrape, he took a couple steps toward the trail leading past my tree, but stopped to contemplate. He then walked back through the scrape and took a couple steps up the hill toward the bean field. He once again stopped, turned, and headed directly north, which angled him past my stand at 20 yards. I drew my 55+# Shakespeare Necedah (58” with Selway quiver) and held for a couples seconds as he stopped behind a tree then walked through the best opening I had before he headed out of range. The little orange puff I’d glued/tied on the nock traced a path into his right side as he was slightly quartering away. He ran 60-70 yards and stood looking around. My orange 2013 shaft with its red and yellow feathers protruded from his right side. More interesting to me was the 5 inch portion with Magnus Stinger 2 blade dripping blood on the left side. He stood there for the lifetime of a few seconds while I watched, hoping for him to drop while I had my Discoverers glued to my eyes. He didn’t drop. After a few seconds/moments/years he ran toward the bean field.
I pulled out my radio and turned it on. I had a friend in a tree 100 yards away and out of sight. His response was, “What did you shoot?” I told him it was a 10 point that might reach 110” and had good mass. Kelly told me that he had seen the buck with the arrow in it and not to trail it without him because that is part of the fun. Since it was 9:30 and prime time, I told him I’d carry my heavy stuff the ¾ mile to the truck then come back. I had the shakes so bad I couldn’t be safe sitting 23 feet up in a tree! After a 1.5 mile hike that included seeing bucks number 10, 11, and 12 for the morning, I got back to my stand. I told Kelly I was back so he met me where the buck had been standing. There was enough blood to trail easily, but not as much as I’d expected from what appeared to be a solid double lung shot. We trailed the buck from the point of the shot to the point where he stood. There was a puddle there. We followed the trail to the edge of the woods and through the weeds, but in the harvested beans there was no blood. Nothing.
I always like to extend the suspense of the trailing process by keeping my eyes to the ground and letting the trail lead me to the deer. No blood in the beans, so I lifted my head and looked ahead. Nothing. Nada. Flat field. I scanned left. Nothing. I scanned right, and there was my buck lying 50 yards away. He was facing away so I could just see the rear end and a rack holding his head off the ground! He had grown after I shot him!!! When Kelly saw him, he thought I’d been pulling his leg when I said 100, maybe 110”. I guess I just wasn’t used to the body size. I got 140 lbs. of boned meat from the processor. His inside spread is 16.75” and he is a typical 10 with 7 inch tines. I don’t yet know his score, but we rough scored him at well over 120. I fulfilled both my goals and at this point I’m shooting a perfect score with traditional archery! One shot, one buck.
Steve
Topic: ***Daily Hunt Pics 2004*** (Read 29353 times)
