Semi-live Stalker road trip to Iowa

[Bivyhunter]

This trip actually started on November 1st, so I've got some work to do to bring you up to speed. My wife and I left our home in Northern California the day after Halloween a week before my hunt in Iowa was slated to start. We planned on spending 5 days in northern Colorado exploring the Front Range while we shopped for a new zip code for future home & business. We looked in the Durango area this past summer, but decided that geographically speaking, it was a bit isolated to get anywhere driving. After a lot of input from fellow trad hunters, we decided to look in the Fort Collins area and make a run down to Colorado Springs. After driving literally hundreds of miles in the Collins area, we took a break from the "hunting" and drove up to Estes Park to see what Rocky Mountain National Park looked like. Well my wife, being a small town girl, fell in love with Estes Park. Looks like that'll be our first choice for our new place...not too shabby a place to live in my book.
  After another 9 hours of driving (on top of the 23 to get to Collins), we were finally in Iowa. When I found out I got drawn for Iowa, I called my friend Dave Weyh who runs Platte Valley Whitetails. I'd hunted with him on several occasions and he let me freeload on one of his farms this year. His guide, Stan, showed us around after we rolled into Red Oak. It was too late to get in the stand, but getting to see several nice bucks as we drove around got me even more amped! My wife, Kyri was going to try to capture the hunt on video. This was her first time accompanying me for whitetails. Stan needed to hang a second stand for her, so the first morning (Friday) we hunted from a ground blind.
 
As the sky started to lighten, we were greeted to a beautiful "Welcome to Iowa" sunrise.

[coaster500]

[Hot Hap]

Nice start. Hap

[Bivyhunter]

Shortly after sunrise, 8 does came feeding over the skyline. I was hopeful they would come our way to bed in the creek bottom behind us. A small 8 point joined them after a bit. Finding nothing of interest, he eventually came by our blind about 60 yards out before hopping the fence and heading off to parts unknown. The does eventually crossed the same fence further up and moved out of sight. I turned around in time to see a nice big 7 point. It looked like he might come in from the adjacent property as he worked his way down towards an open gate. Unfortunately, he walked right past the open gate and disappeared back into the creek bottom.
 
 Kyri is not a morning person and it didn't take too long for all of the "excitement" to wear her out.

[Bivyhunter]

Stan sent me a text message about 11 that he'd gotten the additional stand hung. Since it was just over the hill, we decided we'd beat foot over and get a different view. The new setup was a ladder stand with a Lone Wolf set up several feet above it and 90 degrees to the right side of it. I was really excited as I know bucks will often run the creek bottoms during the mid-day as they search for does. I climbed up first, even though I would be sitting in the lower stand. I stood on a branch between the two stands to help her safely get into the upper stand. I wanted to make sure Kyri felt comfortable as this was going to be her first time in a treestand. I wish you could have been there to witness the next 5 minutes. She started up the ladder, made it about two steps up and looked around. She hesitated for a good 30 seconds and then took another step up. This time she hesitated about a minute. I couldn't figure out what was the holdup and urged her to hustle it up. Another step, another minute. I may be slow, but I was beginning to grasp that we might have a problem. I shifted tactics from impatience to encouragement. One more step, 2 more minutes. It wasn't happening. My mind started spinning, day one of a week long hunt and our best bet for shooting a buck had just gone out the window. "I'm sorry" she kept telling me, "I'm really not comfortable". What was I to tell her? I was the one that should have gotten her up a tree to test her out before we ever left. Back to the blind.
 
 Looking at the weather forecast, we knew we'd better enjoy the balmy weather as it looked like it was going to get ugly over the weekend.

[steadman]

Great start bud!!

[threeunder]

Gonna be following this one!!!

[Bivyhunter]

The balance of the afternoon passed slowly, until about 15 minutes before dark. Two does came out of the creek bottom along the fence line that we'd crossed getting to our ground blind earlier that morning. When the came to the spot we'd pushed down on the barbed wire, they stood with out-stretched necks and smelled the wire. I figured there was no way they were going to come in now. I'd figured any potential shot was going to be offered in the opposite direction, so I only had the blind doors opened enough to peek out from their direction. As luck would have it, they walked up another 20 yards and then jumped the fence. Like a bird dog, the doe got back on our tracks and came right in. Meanwhile, I was scrambling inside the blind to get turned around and prepare for a shot. There was no way we were going to be able to get it on video, so I had Kyri just stay put. By the time I got turned around, the doe was about 7-8 feet from our blind. My wife was stifling laughter as we could hear the doe sniffing loudly just on the other side of the fabric. I was waiting for a black, wet nose to poke through the hole. I made a little too much noise and she blew out, snorting the whole way. Well, that would pretty well spook everything in the neighborhood I figured. Instead, the antics attracted the attention of a small 4 point buck and he paraded back and forth in front of us. I've no plans on being picky on this hunt, but with a 3-4 year wait on the tag, I was going to hold out for something a little bigger.

Good luck South! I hope you get to put that tag on a big 'ol bruiser!

Bisch

[Bivyhunter]

Saturday morning dawned clear with mild temperatures. Kyri stayed back at the motel, while I climbed into the stand she'd balked at occupying the day before. Shortly after first light, I spied 4 does passing behind my stand, directly downwind. 2 of the does stopped and gave me the pig-eye from about 200 yards out. I turned back to face the creek bottom again, waiting for the inevitable blowing to start. Much to my surprise, another small 8 point had seen the does as well and was making his way across the creek. He was also smaller than my modest goals. I turned around and looked for the does and they were now only 30 yards out and again smelling my trail in. More snorting followed and I was again alone with my thoughts.
  About noon, Stan came and picked me up and moved me to a different stand as the weather system that had been forecasted to hit us after dark began to spit fat drops at me.
 
A nice rub within view of my stand.

[Ryan Sanpei]

No worries Kyri, treestands freak me out too!!!  My favorite treestands in Nebraska weren't the ones with the most deer, they were the ones closest to the ground.      South, looks like you got that bow built in time.  Sweet!!!

 

[mmgrode]

Keep it coming, South!  Beautiful bow by the way.

[Bivyhunter]

My afternoon stand was along a more heavily wooded creek bottom. I was a little skeptical about the possibility that a deer would choose to walk past this particular spot. There was a trail that passed about 25 yards from the stand, but it looked more like a cattle trail to me than a deer trail. Again, the action wasn't until about 30 minutes before dark. A pile of does came out in a meadow about 200 yards from me. Shortly, they were followed by a nice 10 point and another small 8. The ten attended to a couple of scrapes before making a couple of half-hearted run at the does. Eventually, they all moved off and just as I was about to lower my bow as the light faded, I caught movement. One of the does had entered the trees and was closing in fast. As I scrambled to get ready, I saw antlers...it was the small 8. He hit the trail, just as scripted and offered me an opportunity I would have taken had it of been any of the other deer but him.

[Bivyhunter]

Yeah Ryan, after I built you that bow, I couldn't help myself. That is one of the new static limbs on the Striker. Lovin' it so far!

[huntingarcher]

My vote is for Estes Park,man I love that place!
Now on with the hunt.

[Bivyhunter]

Sunday morning, I ran Kyri up to the airport in Omaha. It didn't make sense for her to stick around if she wasn't going to be joining me in the trees and she had a job interview opportunity pop up back home. We got into the car with blowing winds, rain and sleet. I wasn't too bummed that I was missing my morning hunt as the temperature had dropped along with the weather.
  The wind continued to blow, bringing the wind chill down into the high teens. I elected to sit out the weather in a different ground blind at confluence of the corner of a corn field and a creek bottom. A trail came into the corn from the creek bottom. It had all the promise of venison on the bbq.
 
View out of the two shooting windows.
 
   This time, I had a little action early. After sitting in the blind for 3 hours, I was starting to feel the effects of the sub-freezing temps. My toes were starting to get numb. I was grateful I'd decided to sit in the blind, rather than swing from a tree. The cold blasts of wind that found their way through the windows of the blind stung the little exposed skin left unprotected.
   I brought a book along to help pass the long hours between action. At one of my end-of-paragraph-checks, I looked up and a yearling doe was making its way past the blind on the other side of the fence. I was looking for a mature doe to maximize the meat haul, so I let it pass. Less than an hour later, from the opposite direction, but still on the other side of the fence, another doe came in. I readied for a shot as she scoped out the blind. When she turned her head and looked back into the creek bottom, I drew my bow. The shot, though only 20 yards, wasn't an easy one. I haven't done much shooting out of a ground blind, so already it was a bit foreign. The doe was standing on the backside of a barbed wire fence, but none of the strands covered her vitals. There were several stalks of corn flanking my shooting lane and the CRP grass grew up to the bottom of her vitals. All that together gave me plenty to think about, and I think that was exactly was I was focusing on, instead of the spot, when I cut the shot. My arrow streaked just over her back and she was gone almost as fast. Despite wearing an armguard, my string still managed to smack my sleeve, though I don't think that had anything to do with the miss.
  Back at Stan's we discussed the next morning's plans. With a west wind, Stan would be placing me in a new spot. The last client he had in it passed up shots at a 150" and another big 8 point that had a damaged antler on one side, holding out for something better. I was drooling at the news, now I just have to get to sleep!

[elkken]

[FerretWYO]

As always well told.  Looking forward to more

[Ryan Sanpei]

Best of luck tomorrow morning!!!  

[Guru]

Good stuff South!!!