The 20 minute public land slob....

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JoeRE
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The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:41 am

Well, this is a new one for me. My bow season in Iowa this year lasted 20 minutes, probably less actually.

Although the hunt was short, this story starts out this spring. My wife became pregnant with our second – due early November, doh! Knowing I was going to have very limited hunting time taking care of our terror of a two year old and then having a newborn to deal with, I wanted to make the most of every moment I could get out. Starting in March I went out scouting every moment I could get – once or twice a week, all spring, all summer, all fall up to now. I usually scout a bunch but I probably doubled my miles this year. All summer I hauled a 50 pound pack around on my back scouting and moving trail cams training for elk hunting, but that’s another story.

What I wanted to do was scout as much territory as possible and hang cams in as many spots as possible to zero in on just a few spots to target. I started out looking at about 10 pieces of public land…by October I had narrowed it down to less than a dozen really good looking pre-rut and rut spots on 4 pieces of public. Because I was only going to get out a handful of times I was not going to start hunting till late October – by then I hoped my wife would forget that I had left for a week in September to go elk hunting :D

That brings it to the last couple days. I was going to hunt last night, October 23rd, but ended up having to pick my son up from day care and watch him. The spot that I couldn’t stop thinking about was a beautiful subtle little pinch point coming out of a great buck bedding area deep in a big chunk of woods. Right at the bottleneck there was a perennial community scrape that was getting pounded, with the licking branch worn from years of abuse. I had the south wind I needed and yesterday was cool and we got a nice long rain during the day….what better time to hunt that spot. Unfortunately (at the time I thought that!) I couldn't.

Since I wasn’t able to go last night I decided to hunt there this morning and try and catch a big boy coming back to bed, the wind still out of the south and it was supposed to be misty/foggy all night. Worth a shot, I figured. Something told me, even though this morning was not as good of conditions as it was a little warm – hunt it!

This morning the fog was pea soup. It slowed my drive to the parking lot and slowed my mile long walk in a bit, I could hardly see 30 feet in the dark with my headlamp. I got to the tree I had picked out and set up, thankfully with the woods full of dripping mist I was pretty stealthy. It was about legal shooting light – 7:00AM by the time I pulled my bow up, but still very dim and foggy. My rangefinder would not work it was so foggy! 15 minutes later a big dark body floated out of the mist up to the scrape in front of me, on his way back into the bedding…I could not determine if it was a shooter or not, the dark rack just blended into the dark wet leaves and fog too well. He flipped his head at the licking branch and showed a spread of close to 20 inches and a bunch of mass. Shooter! I drew my bow, then had another problem…I wasn’t sure of the distance in the very dim light, but when picking the tree I had thought it was 35 yards to the scrape so I stuck my 40 yard pin on his brisket and the arrow disappeared out into the mist. I heard a thump of a hit and the buck took off on a slow bounding run in a half circle around me. It seemed to me that the hit had been way too high; I grabbed a second arrow only to drop it to the ground (nerves were starting to set in by that point!). I grabbed broadhead number three, squatted way down and leaned out as far as I could against my safety harness to get a clear shot at the buck, now about 30 yards away broadside.

It was such an awkward position I would not have attempted the shot if I had not thought I hit the buck with the first arrow. The second arrow disappeared into the mist too, another thump, the buck took about three big bounds….and tipped over! I just sat there, sort of numb by how fast it happened.
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I walked up to the buck and realized what I beast I had just shot. My smile got even bigger when I looked where I had hit him – both shots right behind the shoulder through both lungs. The higher one was the first one and actually more of a down angle so it was a great shot. He was dead on his feet at the first arrow and neither of us knew it. I should have known, he seemed in a daze when running around me like that, his life blood was draining out of him already.
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I can’t believe how lucky I got with this deer…my season lasted maybe 20 minutes from climb up to climb down. Sure I scouted my but off but having it come together on my first hunt was blind luck. Last year I put in the preparation too, hunted thirty some times, screwed up once or twice and never brought one home with the bow. Sometimes all you can do is tip your head and say thank you.
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Good luck to everybody else!!


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Dewey
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:44 am

Congrats! Awesome buck! :dance:

So are you the member everybody got the text from?

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Jackson Marsh
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:48 am

Great buck and story Joe :clap:


I bet your wife is happy :lol:

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JoeRE
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby JoeRE » Sat Oct 25, 2014 8:50 am

Dewey wrote:Congrats! Awesome buck! :dance:

So are you the member everybody got the text from?

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Ha, no, that wasn't me.
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U.P. bownut
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby U.P. bownut » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:00 am

Awesome job man! Great buck!
"Freedom Isn't Free"
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headgear
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby headgear » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:00 am

Awesome Joe congrats on a great buck! :dance:
HoosierG5
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby HoosierG5 » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:01 am

Wow. Very cool...envious!

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Stanley
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby Stanley » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:07 am

Good job Joe. Nice buck very happy for you. Great lesson here, keep putting arrows into him, till the buck is down or gone.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Terry
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby Terry » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:14 am

Congrats on a great buck! Good shooting too

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Bigdaddy-yoyo
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby Bigdaddy-yoyo » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:15 am

awesome, congrats on a great buck
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby csgrizz » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:22 am

Awesome story and buck, and I would give yourself more credit...you put yourself in the situation to "get lucky" by all the work in the off season.

congrats,

CS
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hunter_mike
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby hunter_mike » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:44 am

Congrats!!! Awesome job

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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby tmarbut » Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:45 am

Fantastic! What a great buck! Thanks for the story.

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MN Legacy
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby MN Legacy » Sat Oct 25, 2014 10:02 am

Nice Buck!!! Nothing wrong with him.
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tcop7
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Re: The 20 minute public land slob....

Unread postby tcop7 » Sat Oct 25, 2014 10:16 am

Cool story! And great buck!

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