In Iowa, resident landowners are allowed one any sex tag for any season they wish. This landowner tag has no bearing on the two any sex tags that any resident can purchase. So a resident landowner can take 3 antlered deer per year (potentially more if you participate in some of the urban hunts).
Since purchasing our farm in 1991, I have used my landowner tag (LOT) for shotgun season or one of the muzzle loader seasons. The last couple of years I have opted for the early muzzle loader season as our farm tends to be a ?bachelor pad? for bachelor groups of bucks during the summer. I get to watch them all during velvet. Shortly after shedding velvet, the rut starts and these bucks take off for the nearby river bottom looking for does. I haven?t been happy with the quality of bucks I have been seeing during the early muzzle loader season, so I started to think about getting an archery LOT. I figured that during the rut, I might get some ?new? bucks from neighboring farms cruising through our property.
On Monday, November 3rd, I filled my state wide any sex archery tag from the "Bean Pole stand" which is unfortunately not on property I own. Next Monday I'm scheduled to go back to work, so I had a slight sense of urgency to hunt hard and fill my landowner any sex archery tag this week.
On Wednesday, November 5th, I planned to hunt a very small triangular thicket on my farm. It can't be more than a third of an acre of brush, with CRP on one side, combined soybean field on another side and standing corn on the other. I have hunted it two times this year, the first time noticing a few scrapes. I had the Lone Wolf stand on my back, bow in hand, headed across the pasture to get to this spot when I second guessed my plan.
Less than a hundred yards into the hike to the thicket, I started reconsidering my strategy. The neighbors to the south had started combining a corn field and it was entirely possible that any deer that they spooked out of the corn field might find their way across the road onto my property. I didn't think any deer that they displaced would wind up on the back side of my corn field (which is where the thicket I was headed for is), so I turned around and went back to my car. I threw all my gear into the trunk and headed for the creek bottom.
The creek bottom has a couple of things going for it. First, there is a fork where two streams join on our property. This time of year, with the rut approaching (or is it on?), creek lines are classic buck travel corridors. So I planned on finding a tree close to the Y in the two streams, figuring that the corn harvesting activity across the road couldn't hurt.
As I walked along the creek, I noticed a heavy deer trail that crossed it. Perfect!! Find a tree overlooking this trail and I should be set. I found a honey locust tree that fit the bill. Amazingly it was a fairly good sized tree, unlike the bean poles I usually select. It was so big I was worried at first that the Lone Wolf step strap would not fit around it, but I was pleasantly surprised when it did. So I continued to strap four steps up the locust and set the Alpha stand. I'm guessing I was set up by 3:30 pm.
As usual, I was set up probably too close to the trail. I have a tendency to do this, but in this instance, as in many, there weren't that many options. As mentioned previously, I selected this tree because it was near a Y in the streams and there was a trail crossing it. Why is there a trail crossing here? Well, I need to fill in a few more parameters. There are riparian buffer strips on each side of the stream. It is supposed to be switch grass but it also has some Reed Canary grass creeping in (along with many other non-desirable species). So the locust tree I selected was right on the stream, then there is a grass buffer strip out to a corn field. Our soybean fields had been harvested two weeks ago and to get to one field, the neighbor we hire to custom farm our ground had driven along the edge of the corn field. Between the combine and wagons going in and out, they had flattened quite a trail along the corn.
There is another component to this scenario. We had a pond installed a couple hundred yards north of this east/west stream. Behind the dam, there is a waterway that runs down to the creek. Deer frequently use this grassy waterway as a travel corridor. Wednesday, both sides of this waterway were still standing corn. I was hoping that this waterway, along with the Y in the streams, would be another piece to the funnel puzzle.
So now I have the stage set, I'm sitting down in the stand and at 4 pm I notice a small six point buck coming along the south fork stream bed, just as planned, smug as a bug in a rug am I. As he heads down into the stream bed to cross onto my side, he tosses his head up and looks directly at me! I'm stunned, as there is a strong south wind and there is no way he could have scented me. He stops in the stream, turns west off the trail, then blazes a new trail up out of the creek bottom and nervously heads back west up the other part of the Y creek bottom.
Now I'm starting to second gu, er, I am rethinking sitting down and decide that maybe I should be standing up to possibly break up my outline or at least allow me faster drawing on what ever shots might present themselves. So I stand up and face south figuring that all the deer are going to come down the same path the little buck did, either from rut movement or harvesting activity.
Did I mention that it was windy? The standing corn was rustling rather loudly so it took me awhile to realize that I heard something behind me. I slowly pivot my head to look and see the ?two headed monster?: a buck tending a doe ten yards north of my tree. I really can't see his rack, as it is filled with Reed Canary grass. It appears he had been raking the ground with his rack, but I did not witness that. What I did witness was him, rack full of grass, covering a doe. I draw as I slowly turn to the north. The doe catches my movement and runs out from underneath the buck. She only runs a couple of yards forward and stops. The buck is puzzled and starts looking around. He walks towards the base of the tree I'm in and stops ten feet from the base, head on to my tree. I'm at full draw, looking down on the buck, figuring that if I let down, the doe is going to blow him out of there. I'm not liking the straight down shot, but......
Ok, I'm shooting somewhere around 70 pounds, I ought to be able to reach vitals on a straight down shot. Heck, I've successfully done this shot before. I decide to aim a little to the side of the spine between the shoulders and hit the release. At the shot, the buck seems oddly composed. He starts walk/trotting north away from me, back towards the path the farm equipment had made. I guessestimate that there is 20 inches of arrow sticking up out of his back. I shoot 29 inch arrows with Wasp Jakhammer heads that must be two inches. I'm thinking that such a straight down shot isn't going to leave a very good blood trail since there is no exit wound. The deer has to fill up its lung cavity before anything spill out for a blood trail. By that time they are dead somewhere.
So I see this buck moving away and my first thought is I HAVE to get another arrow into this deer. I grab the next arrow out of the quiver attached to the bow and as I nock it, I remember that it is the arrow that I used to harvest my buck on Monday. I had taken the head apart and cleaned it, but didn't do a great inspection nor did I resharpen/replace any blades. I was aware of all this, but time was of the essence and I couldn't grab another arrow. The buck was moving away and I had to get THIS arrow in him. He hit the farm equipment path and headed west. I figured the distance at thirty yards, put the appropriate pin on him and hit the release. I watched the arrow hit with a thud and the buck shifted into HIGH gear! The second shot appeared to hit the shoulder blade as it had poor penetration. As he was sprinting away with an arrow sticking straight up from his back and one flopping out of his side, all I could think was "pin cushion". I watched him run down the ag equip trail until the path took him out of view. I check the cell phone for time; 5 pm.
The doe had bedded down after her initial freak out and now stood up ten yards from me. I had an antlerless tag in my pocket and thought of shooting her, but I thought it would only further complicate a bad situation. I let her walk.
My read on the situation is that when the doe freaked out and ran out from under the buck, he assumed that there was another buck coming in to challenge him. Thus, he came closer to the brush line to "control a flank" from attack. When I hit him with the first arrow, I'm guessing he was stunned by the "phantom" rival that snuck in on him. When the second arrow hit, he figured he was whooped and motored the heck out of there!
So now I'm standing in the tree stand, evaluating what just happened. Should I strike up the trail or do I let him go? I decide to get down and head up to the house. I'm somewhat aware that the weather is supposed to change. I call Matt, a friend, for a weather update, which isn't good. Rain is coming, which would wipe out any blood trail. With standing corn fields, lack of a blood trail would lead to a futile search. Muddy says he can come in an hour or two, hang tight. So I grab a book I've been reading and proceed to finish it, all the time second guessing : How much penetration did my first straight down shot get? Was it 9 inches? 10? 12? How much penetration straight down is needed? Did my second shot do anything? At least it will provide a blood trail for the first shot if the first shot was fatal....
Matt and a mutual friend Justin showed up around 8:30 pm. Some of you might know that I'm red/green colorblind and this was a very sporadic trail that I would not have been able to follow. Matt and Justin got us headed in the right direction until the trail split into three. Matt took the right hand path, Justin the left and I took the middle path. I didn?t go 30 yards and stumbled onto the buck dead in a waterway. He hadn?t made it 150 yards from where I shot him. He was extremely stiff and was most likely dead within a minute or two after I shot him.
While skinning the deer, I noticed that the second arrow had missed the shoulder blade. It had broken a rib and entered his left lung. Cleaning up that arrow (it had a hole in one of its vanes so I knew which arrow it was) I saw that one of the blades had been broken off when by the rib.
Since purchasing our farm in 1991, I have used my landowner tag (LOT) for shotgun season or one of the muzzle loader seasons. The last couple of years I have opted for the early muzzle loader season as our farm tends to be a ?bachelor pad? for bachelor groups of bucks during the summer. I get to watch them all during velvet. Shortly after shedding velvet, the rut starts and these bucks take off for the nearby river bottom looking for does. I haven?t been happy with the quality of bucks I have been seeing during the early muzzle loader season, so I started to think about getting an archery LOT. I figured that during the rut, I might get some ?new? bucks from neighboring farms cruising through our property.
On Monday, November 3rd, I filled my state wide any sex archery tag from the "Bean Pole stand" which is unfortunately not on property I own. Next Monday I'm scheduled to go back to work, so I had a slight sense of urgency to hunt hard and fill my landowner any sex archery tag this week.
On Wednesday, November 5th, I planned to hunt a very small triangular thicket on my farm. It can't be more than a third of an acre of brush, with CRP on one side, combined soybean field on another side and standing corn on the other. I have hunted it two times this year, the first time noticing a few scrapes. I had the Lone Wolf stand on my back, bow in hand, headed across the pasture to get to this spot when I second guessed my plan.
Less than a hundred yards into the hike to the thicket, I started reconsidering my strategy. The neighbors to the south had started combining a corn field and it was entirely possible that any deer that they spooked out of the corn field might find their way across the road onto my property. I didn't think any deer that they displaced would wind up on the back side of my corn field (which is where the thicket I was headed for is), so I turned around and went back to my car. I threw all my gear into the trunk and headed for the creek bottom.
The creek bottom has a couple of things going for it. First, there is a fork where two streams join on our property. This time of year, with the rut approaching (or is it on?), creek lines are classic buck travel corridors. So I planned on finding a tree close to the Y in the two streams, figuring that the corn harvesting activity across the road couldn't hurt.
As I walked along the creek, I noticed a heavy deer trail that crossed it. Perfect!! Find a tree overlooking this trail and I should be set. I found a honey locust tree that fit the bill. Amazingly it was a fairly good sized tree, unlike the bean poles I usually select. It was so big I was worried at first that the Lone Wolf step strap would not fit around it, but I was pleasantly surprised when it did. So I continued to strap four steps up the locust and set the Alpha stand. I'm guessing I was set up by 3:30 pm.
As usual, I was set up probably too close to the trail. I have a tendency to do this, but in this instance, as in many, there weren't that many options. As mentioned previously, I selected this tree because it was near a Y in the streams and there was a trail crossing it. Why is there a trail crossing here? Well, I need to fill in a few more parameters. There are riparian buffer strips on each side of the stream. It is supposed to be switch grass but it also has some Reed Canary grass creeping in (along with many other non-desirable species). So the locust tree I selected was right on the stream, then there is a grass buffer strip out to a corn field. Our soybean fields had been harvested two weeks ago and to get to one field, the neighbor we hire to custom farm our ground had driven along the edge of the corn field. Between the combine and wagons going in and out, they had flattened quite a trail along the corn.
There is another component to this scenario. We had a pond installed a couple hundred yards north of this east/west stream. Behind the dam, there is a waterway that runs down to the creek. Deer frequently use this grassy waterway as a travel corridor. Wednesday, both sides of this waterway were still standing corn. I was hoping that this waterway, along with the Y in the streams, would be another piece to the funnel puzzle.
So now I have the stage set, I'm sitting down in the stand and at 4 pm I notice a small six point buck coming along the south fork stream bed, just as planned, smug as a bug in a rug am I. As he heads down into the stream bed to cross onto my side, he tosses his head up and looks directly at me! I'm stunned, as there is a strong south wind and there is no way he could have scented me. He stops in the stream, turns west off the trail, then blazes a new trail up out of the creek bottom and nervously heads back west up the other part of the Y creek bottom.
Now I'm starting to second gu, er, I am rethinking sitting down and decide that maybe I should be standing up to possibly break up my outline or at least allow me faster drawing on what ever shots might present themselves. So I stand up and face south figuring that all the deer are going to come down the same path the little buck did, either from rut movement or harvesting activity.
Did I mention that it was windy? The standing corn was rustling rather loudly so it took me awhile to realize that I heard something behind me. I slowly pivot my head to look and see the ?two headed monster?: a buck tending a doe ten yards north of my tree. I really can't see his rack, as it is filled with Reed Canary grass. It appears he had been raking the ground with his rack, but I did not witness that. What I did witness was him, rack full of grass, covering a doe. I draw as I slowly turn to the north. The doe catches my movement and runs out from underneath the buck. She only runs a couple of yards forward and stops. The buck is puzzled and starts looking around. He walks towards the base of the tree I'm in and stops ten feet from the base, head on to my tree. I'm at full draw, looking down on the buck, figuring that if I let down, the doe is going to blow him out of there. I'm not liking the straight down shot, but......
Ok, I'm shooting somewhere around 70 pounds, I ought to be able to reach vitals on a straight down shot. Heck, I've successfully done this shot before. I decide to aim a little to the side of the spine between the shoulders and hit the release. At the shot, the buck seems oddly composed. He starts walk/trotting north away from me, back towards the path the farm equipment had made. I guessestimate that there is 20 inches of arrow sticking up out of his back. I shoot 29 inch arrows with Wasp Jakhammer heads that must be two inches. I'm thinking that such a straight down shot isn't going to leave a very good blood trail since there is no exit wound. The deer has to fill up its lung cavity before anything spill out for a blood trail. By that time they are dead somewhere.
So I see this buck moving away and my first thought is I HAVE to get another arrow into this deer. I grab the next arrow out of the quiver attached to the bow and as I nock it, I remember that it is the arrow that I used to harvest my buck on Monday. I had taken the head apart and cleaned it, but didn't do a great inspection nor did I resharpen/replace any blades. I was aware of all this, but time was of the essence and I couldn't grab another arrow. The buck was moving away and I had to get THIS arrow in him. He hit the farm equipment path and headed west. I figured the distance at thirty yards, put the appropriate pin on him and hit the release. I watched the arrow hit with a thud and the buck shifted into HIGH gear! The second shot appeared to hit the shoulder blade as it had poor penetration. As he was sprinting away with an arrow sticking straight up from his back and one flopping out of his side, all I could think was "pin cushion". I watched him run down the ag equip trail until the path took him out of view. I check the cell phone for time; 5 pm.
The doe had bedded down after her initial freak out and now stood up ten yards from me. I had an antlerless tag in my pocket and thought of shooting her, but I thought it would only further complicate a bad situation. I let her walk.
My read on the situation is that when the doe freaked out and ran out from under the buck, he assumed that there was another buck coming in to challenge him. Thus, he came closer to the brush line to "control a flank" from attack. When I hit him with the first arrow, I'm guessing he was stunned by the "phantom" rival that snuck in on him. When the second arrow hit, he figured he was whooped and motored the heck out of there!
So now I'm standing in the tree stand, evaluating what just happened. Should I strike up the trail or do I let him go? I decide to get down and head up to the house. I'm somewhat aware that the weather is supposed to change. I call Matt, a friend, for a weather update, which isn't good. Rain is coming, which would wipe out any blood trail. With standing corn fields, lack of a blood trail would lead to a futile search. Muddy says he can come in an hour or two, hang tight. So I grab a book I've been reading and proceed to finish it, all the time second guessing : How much penetration did my first straight down shot get? Was it 9 inches? 10? 12? How much penetration straight down is needed? Did my second shot do anything? At least it will provide a blood trail for the first shot if the first shot was fatal....
Matt and a mutual friend Justin showed up around 8:30 pm. Some of you might know that I'm red/green colorblind and this was a very sporadic trail that I would not have been able to follow. Matt and Justin got us headed in the right direction until the trail split into three. Matt took the right hand path, Justin the left and I took the middle path. I didn?t go 30 yards and stumbled onto the buck dead in a waterway. He hadn?t made it 150 yards from where I shot him. He was extremely stiff and was most likely dead within a minute or two after I shot him.
While skinning the deer, I noticed that the second arrow had missed the shoulder blade. It had broken a rib and entered his left lung. Cleaning up that arrow (it had a hole in one of its vanes so I knew which arrow it was) I saw that one of the blades had been broken off when by the rib.
