2017 deer season contest stories-post them here!

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Jackson Marsh
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Re: 2017 deer season contest stories-post them here!

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Tue Feb 20, 2018 4:13 am

Iowa Eight


I knew my 2017 bow season was going to be fun, after a long 4 year wait I drew an Iowa tag! :dance:

Over the past few off-seasons my brother, JAB, and myself scouted numerous properties to add to the previous properties we had hunted/scouted in previous years. We had a good game plan and planned to bounce around from property to property and report back to each other on deer sign and movement.

Originally I was going to hunt the first two weeks in November, but after Dewey informed me that he saw very little pressure in October last year, and seeing a cold front coming in, I decided to hunt Iowa early.

My first hunt was on the afternoon of 10/23/2017, I chose a crow’s foot where I had bumped a big buck out of last winter/early spring. I had found multiple big scrapes below the bed while scouting in the spring, the hope was a buck would drop down from his bed and check them. I bumped three does going in and also found a belly high rub on the walk in.


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At first the wind was perfect, but during the last hour or so of the hunt when the wind speed increased it began to swirl. Not surprisingly no deer from the stand were seen.
The next morning a North/Northwest wind (20-40 mph) was predicted and I had the perfect spot for it. It was a slight saddle with a ravine funnel. This spring 200 yards to East of the saddle I found a good buck bedding area with adjacent scrapes and rubs. I was setup and ready to hunt about 20 minutes prior to first light. With the damp ground and high winds I needed to be on high alert. At 7:30 a nice ten pointer came through right in front of my stand. After he crossed my tree he smelled my track. I drew on him but decided to pass. He was headed right to the buck bedding area. It’s kind of fun when the deer do exactly what you expected them to do. :D


That afternoon I headed to another property that I really liked the looks of. It sets up well for the predominate fall wind. I ended up seeing a spike buck, three does, and an unknown deer.

View from stand

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The morning of 10/25/2017 I decided to hunt the same property on a different ridge. This particular ridge I found a lot of good buck sign, and little to no hunter sign. The property is loaded with deer and on the walk in I saw multiple eyes shining back at me from my headlamp.

My original tree I climbed appeared to be rotten on the inside so I switched to a telephone pole sized tree a few yards away. Dawn broke on a clear, damp morning with light wind. At 7:30 I did a few light grunts, immediately a spike buck came out of the adjacent thick ridge top cover and headed down the hill towards me.

While I was keeping an eye on him, I heard rubbing and sticks breaking to my southwest in the thick cover. Once the spike buck got down the hill and behind be I was able to turn around and face the unknown deer making a ruckus in the cover.

From behind me I heard a “thump, thump, thump.” I peaked over my shoulder and saw the spike buck had cut my track and was stomping. I knew what was coming next and was prepared. The spike buck blew and I immediately snort-wheezed at him. He tore back up the hill and when he was halfway up stopped and blew again. I immediately snort-wheezed again. That scared the heck out of him and he ran off.

A minute later a good buck appeared out of the thick cover and slowly worked his way down to me. When I first saw him he was 40 yards away, he was calm and looking for the buck that snort-wheezed. As he made his way to my left (I was facing straight ahead) I had to very carefully turn (remember I’m in a bean pole tree). I decided if he gave me a shot I would kill him.

With no big trees between him and me it was going to be tricky to get drawn on him. The buck eased down the hill and looked to his right. I drew. He took another couple of steps into my lane, I stopped him and watched as my lumenock hit right where I was aiming. With my arrow sticking out I watched as the buck ran down the hill. He died in sight, on a logging road, after running 50 or 60 yards. Buck down!! :dance:




Buck dead on logging road

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I sat down and couldn’t believe my Iowa season was done on the third day.

Front view

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Side view

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Since my brother and JAB are never around when I kill a buck, I decided to bone the meat out and pack him out using a pack frame.
My muzzy broadhead shattered his off shoulder and the arrow broke while he was running.

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Buck's view just before getting whacked.

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All dressed out and ready for transportation.

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Watching my back on the pack out! :lol: :lol:

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Iowa is a fun place to hunt; I’m looking forward to it again in four years. If you are an average hack like me and have reasonable expectations a P&Y caliber deer is possible. If you are an experienced big buck hill killer you should do very well on public land.


I’ve bow hunted Iowa three times for a total of 15 days and killed three decent bucks.


2009

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2013

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2017

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There’s a reason Iowa is called the “Land of Milk and Honey” :lol: :lol:




Wisconsin


Lucky Eight

I had a lucky hunt the morning of 11/16/2017, saw 6 deer, 5 of them bucks and slipped an arrow into one of them from the ground.

I waited until light to walk into my stand. I knew about where I wanted to be and was going to let sign and terrain dictate my final tree. When I entered into a transition area of timber and flooded marsh grass I heard multiple deer bust out about 100 yards away. One of the deer blew, which really irritated me, I know they didn’t smell me and would have been surprised if they could see me in the tall grass. :doh:

I assumed it was a group of does and decided to head to where they were bedded, thinking that a buck would come by to check the beds later in the morning. I quietly crept 60 yards and heard grunting. Looking to the North I saw a decent rack floating over the marsh grass 50 or 60 yards away.


When I spotted the buck he was about 30 yards past the pool of water.

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I quickly crouched down, dumped my stand and sticks, fumbled to get my bow sling off and quickly knocked an arrow. While I was fumbling around I could hear the chasing and grunting looping around to the East and getting closer. I peaked above the grass and saw a doe standing in an opening at less than 20 yards away. A couple of seconds later a buck appeared. I drew my bow while crouched, stood up and watched my lumenock bury right behind the bucks shoulder.


Buck and doe were standing right in front of this tree when I shot.

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I watched the two deer run off and quickly lost sight of them, but did see the doe in a tree line 70 yards away. 5 or 10 minutes after the shot I hear crashing in the grass and gurgling/coughing (it sounded like a person coughing with severe chest congestion). This flopping around in the grass went on for a few minutes and then silence.


The buck was quartering to when I shot and the gurgling sound told me I at least got one lung and probably liver/guts as well. I was thinking he bedded down and didn’t want to bump him to check my arrow. An hour after the shot the doe came back through a little farther out and had no buck on her tail. While I was waiting 4 other bucks came within 10 to 20 yards, all of them spikes. After 2 hours I decided to sneak up to where the buck was when I shot and check for blood.

No blood, hair or arrow was found at the hit site. Marsh grass is notorious for swallowing up arrows and not spitting them back out, regardless of lighted nocks (especially on a ground shot). I snuck down the trail, with bow ready, and found lung blood 20 or 30 yards away. The trail forked and I knew the doe took the right fork, the crashing and gurgling sounded like it was on the left fork, so that is where I went with very little blood found.

After a short distance I spotted a deer’s hide and found my buck about 60 yards from the hit site. Buck down! :dance:

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The arrow entered the buck behind the front shoulder and exited the rear guts just in front of the opposite ham.
This was poor shot selection, my mind was in overdrive with adrenaline pumping through my veins as I was hurriedly trying to dump my stand and nock an arrow. If I had been in a stand I think I would have kept my cool a little better (I usually do). I was very thankful for a short tracking job; long tracking jobs in the marsh are an absolute nightmare. I got lucky.


Dewey offered his dragging services, which I was not about to turn down :dance: . We had the buck out of the marsh in 2 hours, with plenty of breaks to talk about bucks we’ve killed and areas we’ve hunted :lol:

I look forward to helping Dewey drag out a late season slob when the marsh is frozen solid :lol:


HELENVILLEHUNTER
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Location: SE Wisconsin
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Re: 2017 deer season contest stories-post them here!

Unread postby HELENVILLEHUNTER » Wed Feb 21, 2018 12:52 am

The 2017 Deer Season approached with more excitement and anticipation than I can remember in 30 years. This year, my oldest son
turned 10 and would be able to take a weapon with him in the field. He has been by my side for the last 4 years doing foodplots,
treestands and hinge cuttings. His excitement was contagious, for my father and brother as welll and the start of a new experience
we will all never forget.

He saved up Christmas and birthday money to buy a crossbow. He bought stands and acquired all the gear needed to start the season off.
We went to our hunting land as much as possible in the spring looking for shed antlers, preparing stands and working on the land. He put
a lot of time in shooting his gun and crossbow.

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I decided to make this his hunt. He called the shots. If he asked for advice I would give my opinion but it was his decision to make as
to where we would be sitting. I would watch the weather and we would discuss stand options on a daily basis. Some of our hunts
would be in Jefferson County Wisconsin and on the weekends we would travel to Crawford County. A nice steady northwest wind is
ideal for both places we hunt and after checking the weather it looked like Tuesday, September 26th was the day. I informed my wife
I would be taking him out of school mid morning and driving to Crawford. She looked at me like I was crazy, I have seen that look
many times.

We got to the the land about 330 and started our climb up the steep ridge. We were in a double ladder stand overlooking a pond by
415 and it just felt like one of those nights. About 515 a doe and yearling buck walked out of the woods but stayed out in the fields
most of the night. The young buck turned out to be an 8 point and I wasn't sure if my boy would want to shoot him or not. After
handing him the binoculars he handed them back and was shaking uncontrollably. I was certain then if given the opportunity he would
shoot this deer. A little before 7 the buck slowly started making his way toward the pond. We lost track of him for a couple minutes
and then he popped out of no where and was at 15 yards. With the deer angling to us, we had to sit there for what seemed like
eternity, but such an awesome experience for the both of us. That treestand was shaking like you wouldn't believe and it was not just
from the 10 year old boy. We watched and listened to this buck drink from the pond. He finally stepped forward and turned slightly.
Before I could even say the word the bolt was off and the buck mule kicked and was running up the hill. He stopped about 40 yards
from the shot and dropped in sight. I can not describe the excitement and satisfaction we shared in those next few moments.

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We walked over to the buck took some pictures and got him back to the cabin. My son helped field dress the buck and then made a
bunch of phone calls and texts to family and friends. It was a day neither of us will ever forget. It was one of those moments that I
hope all of you reading this get to experience some day.

On November 8th it was finally my turn. A strong northwest wind was forecasted and I knew this was my chance. We had been back
to the farm several times since my son killed his deer but the wind and thermals had not allowed me to hunt the far northwest corner
of our property. We were getting pictures of the "big ten" but it was just a hard spot to hunt. He was a very killable deer, on his feet
and getting pictures of him in the daylight and sometimes the middle of the day.

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I had discussed the hunt a bunch with my brother
and father and finally decided to be dropped off at the stand by my brother on the 4 wheeler. Trail camera pictures had told us he
wasn't afraid of the 4 wheeler and I wasn't sure where he would be chasing does early that morning. I didn't want him to cut my track
coming back to his bed so I thought being dropped off was my best option. I had never been dropped off at a stand before so I was a
little apprehensive to do this.

I got to the stand about 5 and waited for what seemed like eternity for it to get light. I had seen only 1 doe all morning until I caught
movement out of the corner of my eye at 8:20. There he was coming along the same trail we had drove the 4 wheeler in on. He
dropped into the woods and was heading right to bed like a teenager that was out to late partying. I didn't even try to stop him and
shot when he was at 20 yards and broadside. The buck ran to the next hillside and turned to look back, I could see blood running out
the opposite side but knew the shot was back a touch. I snuck out of there about an hour later and talked things over with my dad
and brother. We waited until 1 and started looking. He did go about 400 yards but the blood took us right to him, my biggest buck to
date. 165" and 200 pounds field dressed.

This first picture is him jumping in front of the trail camera after the shot.

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The next hunt was opening day of the Wisconsin deer season. Saturday morning found us tucked into a stand between bedding and the
fields. About 7 we seen a small buck out in the field about 300 yards. Suddenly a deer stepped out of the CRP grass and stood next
to the small buck totally dwafing the youngster. We knew instantly it was a dandy and the little buck started heading our way. About
100 yards out the little buck stepped into the CRP grass and vanished. The big buck followed his younger buddy along the edge of the
tall grass and I told my son not to let him get to the spot where the smaller buck stepped in. As soon as the big buck got to that spot I
grunted and he stopped. The .243 roared, the buck jumped and kicked and disappeared into the grass. My son said he saw him go
down but I thought we just lost track of him. After following blood for a while my son decided to go look in the spot he thought the
buck went down and sure enough, there he laid. A buck we had lots of pictures of, a 135" 10 point for his first gun deer.

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A couple more uneventful hunts mixed in between the gun and bow season and we were finished for the year. Easily the most exciting
hunting season ever for me. I am very grateful for the success we had this season and have repeatedly explained to my son that this
isn't how most deer seasons work. He does understand but we will see how he reacts during a season when nothing goes our way. I
have had plenty of those over the years. A lot of credit goes out to Dan and all the die hard "beasts" on this site. I appreciate the time
you all spend explaining things to help everyone enjoy their hunting seasons.


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