November 24

Thanksgiving Reflection-Rut Recap

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from Corn Belt Outdoors!

Rut Recap

Hunt 18 November 19 Location Iowa

Temp 27F Wind NW 20mph Barometric Pressure 30.32 (Rising) Moon Waning Gibbous

I sat in a new stand for the first time this year.  This stand is on the edge of a thick, narrow, travel corridor where two brushy fence lines meet.  While I was walking to my stand, 3 antlerless deer ran out of the brush towards me.  I thought this was a little odd that these deer were running at me, but I then suspected that something might be chasing them.  As I got closer to my stand, I saw a wide, tall, white racked buck pushing some does in the picked bean field behind my stand.  I can only assume that this buck was the reason the does were running out of the thicket.  This was easily the biggest buck I had seen so far this hunting season.  I got settled into my stand, in hopes that this buck would return and pass by my stand.  As the evening progressed, I saw another solid 10 point buck approximately 500 yards away but he never made his way any closer.  There were several other antlerless deer feeding in a nearby picked cornfield.  With about 30 minutes left of legal shooting time, a doe appeared out of the thick cover and started walking on a trail to the cornfield.  The trail led her right into one of my shooting lanes for a 17 yard broadside shot.  My arrow was true and the doe only made it 10 yards before she died right on a fresh scrape.  I was able to recover the deer quickly and quietly, leaving the woods relatively undisturbed in hopes of another hunt for those 2 big bucks that I saw earlier in the evening.

Hunt 19 November 20 Location Iowa

Temp 26F Wind ENE 5mph Barometric Pressure 30.34 (Steady) Moon Waning Gibbous

After seeing those 2 big bucks the night before I was in the same stand in hopes one of them would offer me a shot.  It was a beautiful calm, cool morning and I saw deer movement right away at first light.  I was watching several deer 1/4 mile away that were coming out of the cover of an overgrown field water-way.  While I was watching those deer I heard grass rustling behind me.  As I slowly turned to see where this noise came from, a thick-racked mature buck was starring directly up at me in the stand.  He quickly took two big leaps and he was gone.  I was dejected.  My plan to hunt one of these two big bucks was over in seconds.  The encounter was exciting, but I was disappointed in the lost opportunity.  Not more than 20 minutes later, I heard a buck grunt in the thick cover to my right.  I then saw 2 does sneaking through the brush and looking back to where the sound had come from.  I then saw the wide, tall, perfect 10 point rack.  He was on the does, but stopped at the sound of my grunt call.  He surveyed the situation, but didn't come any closer and continued to pursue the does.  A very exciting encounter!  The deer movement slowed, and I got down from my stand at 11 am as I wanted to butcher my doe from the night before.  Before I left the farm, I checked a trail camera at the wood lot funnel stand. 

A busted up 10 pointer had walked right past my stand that same morning.  This looked like the 10 pointer I had passed 2 weeks earlier, now with his left side broken.  

I quickly butchered the doe and then headed back to the stand for the evening hunt.  I saw and heard a few does getting chased, but I never saw the buck through the thick cover.  With an hour left of legal shooting light remaining, I heard brush breaking and knew a deer was coming on the trail in front of my stand.  When the deer came out, I quickly noticed it was the broken 10 pointer that I had a picture of from earlier in the day at my other stand.  (My other stand is over a half-mile away from this travel corridor stand)  I came to full draw and gave a grunt with the buck stopping in a shooting lane at 25 yards.  I released the arrow, and saw my arrow miss low, just under the belly of the deer.  The buck stared at me for what seemed like an eternity, but I was able to nock another arrow in hopes of getting another shot.  The buck started to investigate a scrape on the trail (the scrape that my doe had died on from my hunt the previous night) and ended up moving into another narrow shooting lane.  I aimed higher to compensate for my prior miss and for the fact the deer had now moved slightly away to 30 yards.  I shot and saw my arrow hit the buck high and back with poor arrow penetration.  I carefully watched the buck head to thick cover and I could see the bright colored fletching of my arrow moving very slightly in the timber.  Ten minutes after the shot, I lost sight of the buck, but heard crashing sound in the thick brush.  After the poor shot placement I was glad to hear that crashing sound.  

As light was fading, I got down from my stand and walked to my truck.  I drove around the section to give the buck a little more time to expire and to make sure he did not make it out of the thick cover from where I had last seen him.  I approached the timber from where I heard the crashing sound from the opposite direction slowly, scanning the area with my binoculars.  When I was about 50 yards from the woods, a buck jumped up and ran back into the brushy fence line.  I did not see a broken rack or an arrow sticking out of the deer so I assumed that it was a different buck, possibly the buck that had been chasing the does in that same area early in the hunt.  I carefully checked the area for my buck as I knew there would be little blood with the high hit.  As darkness set in, there were no signs of the deer and my headlamp was losing power.  I was just about to head back to my truck when I looked down and found a half-dollar size spot of blood.  With such little sign and no light I made the decision to head home and come back in the morning in hopes to recover the deer.

I returned in the morning to search with the help of my dad and good family friend.  We found the blood from the night before and then a few more spots.  The direction of the newly found blood quickly made me realize that the buck I jumped the night before was the buck that I had shot.  I was losing hope that we would recover the deer.  We found more blood, and then a significant amount of blood shortly after the buck re-entered the brush.  Hope was beginning to return until it left again when we completely lost the blood trail.  As we were looking for blood on the path that the deer was on, my friend found my buck in a thick sumac thicket!  I had my Iowa buck!  This was not one of the two big bucks that were roaming the farm but this deer is special to me because my dad and friend were along to help with the recovery.  It is also special because I was able to harvest it on my grandmother's farm just outside of the small Iowa town where both my grandma and grandpa grew up.  A great ending to my Iowa archery season.-KK