My First Year Hunting Whitetail Deer

November 22, 2006

This is a collection of my hunting adventures in year 2006.

I grew up in S.E. Iowa gun hunting for small game, turkey, varmints and deer. I also had an old Ben Pearson fiberglass recurve which I made my own wood arrows from dowels I bought at the local lumber yard. Anyway with a borrowed copy of the Archer’s Digest from the Public Library in my hometown, I fell in love with bowhunting from a very early age, but didn’t have anyone in my area to show me how to bowhunt, much less there were no archery shops around. So I was relegated to hunting small game and birds with my primitive bow and arrow set up. Well lets fast forward to 20 years and I am now a father of 4, working a full-time job as an electrician, and I hadn’t picked up a bow until last year when my sons and I got into bowfishing. We have bowfished almost every day.

I also had received my Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators license about two years ago and have been using air rifles to take out varmints throughout my 5 county area. When the City of Ottumwa decided to adopt a deer management program for hunting within the city limits, I decided to get into bowhunting whitetail deer… this collection of articles is a documentation of my first year as a whitetail deer bowhunter.

I hope you take an interest and maybe learn a few things, that I can pass on.

As a special note:

I have to dedicate this year’s hunt to the following people:

My Wife and Children (for putting up with this new addition to our lifestyle)

Dan and Guy Fitzgerald ( for all the educational input through their videos)

Ted Nugent ( fellow blood brother and fellow guitarist)

Primos Team (Educational DVD)

Team Realtree (Educational DVD)

Easton Hunting TV

American Archer TV

Now I am not a city slicker turned hunter, actually I am an Iowa farmboy who moved to the city and regretted it. So I moved to a small town that has those modern conviences, but gets me into the woods within 10 minutes on several public and private hunting areas. So I can hunt every evening after work and sometimes before work if I want too.

To all you new bowhunters or those considering bowhunting. I believe it’s the purest form of the lifestyle.

Equipment List:

Bear Buckmaster 4000

Tru-Glo 5 Pin Sight (10-20-30-40-50)

Whisker Biscuit Rest

Satellite Bronze Series Arrows

Cobra Release

Muzzy 100 4Blade

Team Fitzgerald Deer Dander

Hunter Specialties Scent Elimination

Big Game Treestands GroundMax Escape DX Blind

Gorilla Wolverine Treestand

Primos Can Calls (all three)

M.A.D. Growler

M.A.D. Snort Wheeze

Hunter Specialties Grunt Call

Primos Hands Free Mini Doe/Buck Grunt/bleat call

Real Tree Hardwoods Camo Suit

September 18th, 2006

I started hunting whitetail deer with a bow for the first time, on 9-16-2006, I had been doing my homework for over a year, picking the bow I wanted, practicing shooting by bowfishing and 3D well since my city has a bowhunting season that starts two weeks before the regular season, I thought I would give it a try.

I hunted Saturday by myself, both in the morning and the afternoon. I was using a Decoy, but had a lot of problems with the Dominant Doe in the herd getting really pissed off at the decoy, she snorted and stomped, by the way I was hunting right behind Target, in a small field. Well finally Sunday morning I got into the stand about 4am, it was raining hard... I set up my BGTS Ground Max Escape DX Blind on the edge of a recently mowed field behind our local target store. This field I had been scouting for over 3 months, and I knew that if I set-up at the far north edge of the field I could get a doe to come in.

Well I got impatient, I had saw about 10 deer in the field south west of me about 500 yards, so I decided to get out and drive around to that side and try a stalk as it was about 5:40 and legal shooting time. (patience not one of my better skills) well I stalked this doe within 50 yards, but felt uncomfortable trying to make such a shot, so I got back in the truck drove around the store, and low and behold a 100 yards from my blind and there are 4 does, I thought "man I am busted" then I decided well I will just walk across the field like nothing is happening, so I did and went into the woods, the deer saw me, but I moved quickly, across the field.

I was soaking wet and couldn't see out of my glasses, well once I got them dry, I look out the screens and I have two does not even 5 yards from my blind, but I couldn't get it together, the first doe moved out to about 20 yards, and I shot her, she humped up and headed to the woods, the 2nd deer came by wheezing, I shot at her but a complete miss! I knew I had the first deer, I text messaged my friends to tell them I needed some help tracking, well after about 4 hours of searching we found a lot of blood but no deer. It made me sick to my stomach to think I had lost my first deer, we found the arrow soaked in blood, but just couldn't find the deer.

Well after all that looking I went home to take a nap, my boss who is an avid and successful bowhunter, called me and said he wanted to try hunting from this ground blind with me. So I met him at our shop at 4:30pm and we went to one of our customers properties, a large field in the middle of a modern sub-division, its really funny, because I was setting up the blind and got it set up pretty quick within 10 minutes and we got into it, then here they came 10 deer right past the stand, I was so shook up I couldn’t put on my release, or find it rather, So I told Mike to take a shot and he nailed the big doe in the lead. I finally got my stuff together, but the deer were gone.

We waited a few minutes and blood trailed mike's deer and found her not even 50 yards from where he shot her. We got back in the blind and waited mike was sure the deer would come back, While we were waiting Mike was telling me some of the horror stories of hitting a deer in the spine, and how noisy it is and how much trouble it is. I was worried no deer were going to come, but mike was right.

An hour later another large red dominant doe came by alone, I drew back with my Bear Buckmaster 4000 and took aim, then noticed the light on my Tru-Glo site was not on, I couldn't see my pins. So I took aim and the deer dropped instantly, I had "spined" her, I was so shook up, mike had to get me out of the blind, and I took aim to finish her off, but at 3 feet she moved really quick and I caught the shoulder, So I re-positioned myself and put her down.

Now the funny thing is we decided to use my truck to get the deer out of the field, so we walked out to the road got in my truck and when we were coming back (not even 3 minutes had passed) there were 6 more deer in that field!!! I know that I need to hunt that area hard .. I believe now I am totally hooked on deer hunting. I just finished off a couple of inside tenderloins tonight.

All in all I had a successful hunt. I can't wait to hunt the next blind.

September 24th, 2006

I went hunting this morning, (deer population management area) I was going to set-up my ground blind and hunt a 15 acre spot that's right in the middle of town, but I got out of bed late, (I usually try to have the blind setup and in the woods by 4:30am when I hunt mornings) when I got to my first stand site the deer were already there, so instead of giving up, I decide to put on a stalk, I got within 30 yards and Let an arrow loose (of course this is more like urban warfare) right from the corner of the house, the thing is stalking in suburban areas, requires becoming invisible in plain sight, I got the shot off, and my arrow hit with a solid whack, the pair of deer took off, but I saw my arrow pass through, that's what's so great about Muzzy 4 blade broadheads and the Lumenok, you can really see where your arrow goes.

Well since I had a bloody arrow and a fairly good blood trail, I decided to go to another sight and see if I could stalk another deer, which was right around the block on the same property. There were two deer in the driveway of the abandoned house on the property, but across the street every house had two or more deer eating their hedges. Well I just drove by the intended location, parked my truck out of sight and started working my way back towards the deer, the deer saw me, but by using a tree and brush to break up my outline, they meandered their away up the drive and out of sight, well I put it into 2nd gear and got to the back of the property, and looked down the hill to see the two deer at the bottom of the hill about 45 yards away, the deer walked from behind a tree and I let an arrow fly, I MISSED, well the deer moved about 5 yards away so I quickly re-nocked and aimed for the shoulder,

The arrow hit the deer, but didn’t' pass through the deer took off running and its running companion went into the woods, since they ran off the property, I decided to go back and blood trail the first deer, but when I got there, two more deer were again in the same spot. I tried to put a sneak on this deer, which was very aggressive, I shot my last arrow , I don't know what my problem was, maybe the angle, or maybe I miss judged the distance which was about 30 yards, but I shot under the deer this time.

Well I decided to pick up my dropped arrow and then to seriously blood trail the first deer, which I had a great blood trail and found the deer not even 20 yards from where I shot her, I nice young doe for the freezer. Well I drug her out and decided to go back to the other spot. I knocked on the door of the next door neighbor to let them know. The lady at the door was very nice and said no problem and to help myself to hunting their property as well (all for being so nice, even though under Iowa Law I didn't have to ask permission, its the right thing to do), First thing I did is locate the arrow I missed with, it was in the ditch below where I shot, and then I looked for blood on the ground, and I found it, after blood trailing for about 15 minutes and finding my other arrow, I found the deer, she had circled back from where I shot her. It was now 8:00am and I had two deer in the bag, I was pretty happy to say the least, and I am very happy with my equipment.

October 13th, 2006

Well yesterday my daughter Jaclynn and I came into the stand behind the mall that we had put pictures on here earlier, we set up on the north end of the field. At about a 1/2 hour before sunset, two does came out of the timber and started working their way towards, us. Because we were hunting out of a BGTS Ground Max Escape DX Ground blind, we had setup what I call my "marking stick" because I don't have a great range finder it won't range through the screens so we put buck lure on a stick that we tie a yellow string to, which is left over bowfishing line... it not only is an attractant, but it also is a range marker at 20 yards,

anyway these does start towards us. But moving slowly so I let out a couple of fawn bleats on my Primos mini Bleat/Grunt call. The does kind of ignored it at first, so I let out a louder bleat... then I switched to a couple of grunts, and here they came, when the first doe got within my 20 yard range, I let my Muzzy Tipped Satellite Bronze series arrow fly out of my Bear Buckmaster 4000 bow. I aimed for the spot right by the shoulder and bam the doe went down!!! I hit her through the shoulder with a pass through. Cutting the spine, she was laying there and moving some, but she appeared to be down for good, and the other doe had run off about 60 yards but she came back,

Here I am with my 10 year old daughter and the other Doe is checking out the doe that's down, the wind was blowing out of the south west, so we were good, the doe came in what I thought was 35 yards to the south east of us, but I was wrong the arrow goes over her back!

She took off running for the timber, but for some reason she turns around, and comes back!!! I attribute this to our blind location and because the Bear Buckmaster 4000 is a super quiet bow. She actually comes back in circling the other doe and comes within 18 yards of the blind!!!

This time I took a deep breath judged the distance right and let the arrow fly its way home... whap!!! You can hear the air go out of her, I follow with my eyes as she runs across the field towards the timber, and she bounds into the woods looks like she took a big jump and turns, I don't know for sure, but take a mental picture of where she went in.

I then have to take my attention back to the first doe, who is laying there breathing still but not moving, but I decided to wait at least another 45 minutes before we get out of the blind to blood trail the second doe.

Then we get out of the blind, and we dispatch the first doe with second arrow not because she wouldn't die but she was breathing shallow still and I wanted to relieve any suffering. (Upon field dressing my first shot actually went through both the shoulder bone and cut the spine and was lodged in the other shoulder.

By that time it is after dark, so I tell my daughter lets go find the arrow I missed with, and we find it. And then we go to where the other arrow is that passed through, plenty of blood on the arrow. A good solid hit.

So I mark it with tissue paper and start looking for a blood trail. And the battery on my rechargeable flashlight goes DEAD!!! I forgot to charge it from the night before helping my buddy find his deer. So since we are right behind TARGET I tell my daughter, "lets go buy a another flashlight and we will take a break have a soda and something to eat and we will go find this other deer"

We do that, and come back to the field about an hour later, we find blood which was sparse for about 40 yards to the timber. I find blood all the way there, but decide to back out, because I had lost a deer there before.

We go and pack up the blind and all of our stuff which takes about another 1/2 hour. So now we have a solid 2 + hours since I shot the second doe...

We go back to the place at the edge of the timber, and we start looking for blood, I am very disappointed because not much blood, for about another 20 yards, then there it is... good pile of red, I keep looking the doe cut through a pair of twin willow trees.

I keep looking for blood. I had originally backed out because I thought I heard movement, I was worried we would push the doe. I am glad because that first pile of blood seemed to dry up, I followed it speck by drop, until I found more blood a lot of it. So I start scanning the brush and there she lays about another 10 yards in front of me. I call to my daughter who was behind me "carrying my bow" because she wants to make sure its okay.

We walk up and there she is dead, I got a perfect double lung shot right through the upper side of the lungs. All in all she must of went about 70 yards from where I shot her, but If I hadn't of even come to the timber to find blood she might of only went about 40 yards, oh well. I am glad I did back out.

Please excuse the poor black and white picture. It was dark and vehicle lights don't make for good photo opportunity. Plus I need how to learn to use this digital camera a little better.

So far my first year of bowhunting has produced 5 confirmed kills (to-date) on whitetail does in our population management zone. I am really happy to have such a successful first year.

October 24th, 2006

Well this afternoon October 24th, 2006 I went out hunting in a small 1 acre field that this surrounded literally by yards and houses and a small 100ft wide strip of timber.

I had just gotten off work, and I changed my clothes at my job. I keep all of my clothes in a Rubbermaid style tote, along with a Vanilla Scented air freshener.

Well I arrived at the site about 4:15pm and I had to hurry up and set-up my BGTS GroundMax Escape Deluxe Blind. Well I did some doe bleats, and nothing came out, the wind was coming out of the southeast and I was faced that direction.

Well I didn't open up all the windows on the blind on the North west side for fear of scent.

A little bit about my set-up...

I always use a Vanilla Scented Air Freshener inside my blinds. Its one of the cone shaped ones (old fashioned) and it works great at filling the entire blind with the smell of vanilla. Because I am hunting in a field and I don't have a very expensive range finder, I carry three old aluminum arrows with me. I put scent wicks on them and used a dominant buck scent on them.

Then I placed each one of them around the blind. 20 yard each from the blind with about 30 yards between each arrow. Its great way to have a quick reference and when placed right on the deer trails the does seem to be more at ease with buck scent. I don't know why. I use a Primos grunt and bleat call. well I decided to open my window to the northeast, and wow there was a big doe right there, I mean she was really big, but in my haste, I had not cleared my shooting lanes in that direction.

I really hated to have to let that doe graze and go past behind me at 15 yards, but there was no shot with the thorn bush right in my way. Well I look to the south east and there is this doe in the edge of the field about 75 yards away. I wait for her to move towards me, and I here a loud snort.

Up on the hill in the timber three mature does smelled something that pissed them off, they went running through the timber. The second doe however stayed in the field. I wonder if they were snorting at her.

Well she starts towards me and just like I planned she went around the little clump of trees and straight towards my Southwest arrow, she walked past it by 5 yards or so but then she got a whiff of it and turned back.

She then quartered away from me. I aimed right behind the ribcage because she was more pointing away from me. I let my cobra release and my Bear Buckmaster 4000 sent the Muzzy 100 Grain tipped Satellite Bronze arrow right where I aimed and it passed through.

The deer went about 10 yards behind a brush pile and I saw her just lay down. (later I discovered that that was a prime deer bedding area) well I decided to wait it out for 45 minutes (actually hoping for another deer to come in LOL) Well about 10 minutes later I see some movement in the brush and there's my deer she was still alive!!! She went about 10 feet and went down again. I waited another 30 minutes and went to find my arrow.

There was the Lumenok, glowing just fine. It was covered in blood. I went to where I saw the doe go down, and there she was. She never went more than 15 yards from where she was shot. Well on a positive note as I am bringing the deer out of the field a 1/2 dozen "walkers" were there. All people who live in the neighborhood, and they all told me how they appreciate what I am doing. They all have Hostas and cannot even get them to grow because the deer eat them down to nothing. They told me to keep up the good work and they even gave me some pointers of where to hunt.

They also said there is a Large buck in their neighborhood 14 points!!! So looks like I might have a place to hunt bucks.

All in all this was another fun suburban deer hunt.

November 8th, 2006

On November 8th, my bowhunting continues, this time I decided to try out for the first time my modified gorilla wolverine treestand, now I primarily hunt from a ground blind, but everyone told me how much better it was to hunt from a treestand, well I had bought this treestand (a climber) had it since the start of the season (September 16th) but it was so noisy, I didn’t use it. Well yesterday my son and I bought some zip ties and ¾” pipe insulation and we covered every exposed piece of metal that touched each other on that treestand.

And I also tied in 4 places some “tie off” lines out of 3/8” rope so that I could I can tie off the two sections of the treestand so they wouldn’t make that “clanging” sound that it seemed to make. Well after that I decided to go out this afternoon and try it out on a 60 acre stretch of timber that is right inside the city limits of my hometown. I got into the woods exactly at 3:00pm it took me until 3:30pm to get my self up the tree; I used an ameristep saw to cut the branches. I got the treestand up about 12 feet off the ground until I got to the fork in the tree.

The funny thing is that when I went to pull up m y pack and my Bear Buckmaster 4000 bow, it came loose from my string! I was so worried now, like “I have to climb back down $#&(*&$# but lucky me I had just put a few large hooks in my pocket off one my old fish stringers before I left.. And I was able to catch my bow and bring it up. No more fancy Knots for this guy. It was on a good trail that leads from the bottom swamp and up and down into a pond area. Well I was in the stand about an hour, and I started some estrus bleats on my Primos hands free call. And then I did the growl with my M.A.D. growler. I decided while I was in the treestand to tape together my Snort/Wheeze to my Growler. Well I started rattling and bleating. Occasionally growling, I waited what seemed like an eternity (really about 20 minutes) and then I catch two does coming into the call. It was nice being able to SEE THEM, well I don’t think I was up high enough because I was kind of down hill, but they came in, and although a bit spooky, I thought I would get a good chance, then two more come through right behind them, and then two more, and then three more, now having 18 eyes there within 13 yards of my blind was very nerve racking!

Well the first two had gotten past me and luckily because they went down in to the ditch they didn’t wind me. But the others were staring hard, I knew it was now or never, since I needed to kill one more doe to get my population management buck tag! Well I see a small one isn’t really paying attention to me. I figure I better take my opportunity, so I get into position, of course one of the does spots me! But the young one did exactly what I thought she would do she quartered away but didn’t bolt, I put my Tru-glo 20 yard pin right on her spot behind the rib cage and let my Muzzy 100Gr tipped Satellite Bronze arrow with Lumenok fly and it hit home! Not a pass through, but I could see the arrow exited right behind the front shoulder on the opposite side.

She actually ran 30 yards and then rolled down the hill almost falling into the pond! All the other does bolted, but I still waited an hour in the stand, it was starting to get dark fast by this time, but the first two does came back, I tried to get a shot off, but put down because light conditions were not good enough for me to make the shot comfortably. Well as I am trying to climb down now (about 2 hours after I shot the doe), massive 14 pointer comes strolling through like nothing is wrong, sniffing for those mature does I am sure. Of course he spooked, but he didn’t run tail up rather just kind of turned around and walked the opposite way, I have seen this deer three times in the last week. So now that my in-town buck tag is valid, I will have to shift gears to try and put an arrow in him. All in all my first season of bowhunting deer has been very successful, I have harvested a total of 7 deer, and (6 from the ground, one from a stand).

The one thing she did do is run on the back side of the pond levee which is almost a straight drop into a 150 yard or downhill to the swamp. Of course that’s where I found her, which required me carrying her back up a very steep hill about 250 yards! I am so glad I chose to shoot the small one! Well with my validation doe killed, I get my tag tomorrow and I will try and hunt that area on Friday (give it a day to cool down in there) and see if I can rattle a buck into range I will probably use my decoy as well.

November 18th, 2006

I have been hunting an 85 acre tract of land that borders the edge of town. Part of it is within the city limits and part of it is not. Well this morning I am hunting in my BGT Ground Max Deluxe Ground Blind.

and of course as usual I forgot to reset my alarm, so I didn't get into my stand until 6:30, I started a small series of rattling with my Hunter Specialties Rattlin' Bag, and around 7:30 a small 8 point comes right in. Now if it weren’t for the fact that his brow tines were 1" long and his g3 were about 3/4" long, I might of taken him, but I let him go.

About an hour later the 8 pointer comes back!!! I was really thinking about taking him, but I let him pass by my blind again, I had at least a dozen opportunities at 8 yards or less to kill him.

About a 1/2 hour later, I see something black coming towards my Riverbottom Buck which I had put about 20 yards in front of my blind. Thinking it might be the big buck I had been seeing I get ready, but its not a deer but a big black dog, followed by another one slightly smaller and then one about the size of a postage stamp.

They go straight for my decoy, so I whistle and they take off in a panic. These are the same dogs that were chasing deer about two weeks ago. I don't know if they are somebody's pets or they are strays, but they took off not knowing where that whistle came from.

About a 1/2 hour goes by and I hear barking way off in the distance, one loud deep set of barks, a slightly higher pitched bark, and then a little bark, yep those stupid dogs must of found something. Sounds like they might be at least 1000 yards or so off but I can't see so I wouldn't know.

I get ready, and start can call again. A small doe comes in from the east, right in front of my blind, she's nervous, but ignoring the blind, she looks at the decoy, I think the dogs must have busted up a bunch of deer bedding on the other side of the ridge (about 1/4 mile away) because she wasn't running just walking cautiously. When she passes in front of my decoy, I draw my Bear Buckmaster 4000 Bow and put the 20 yard pin of my Tru-Glo sight right on her shoulder, I let the Muzzy 4blade 100Grain Tipped Satellite Bronze arrow with Lumenok, I hear that distinctive "thud" and I see the Lumenok about 10 yards on the other side of where the doe was standing.

She runs about 15 yards and I hear a loud CRASH, yep she's down.

Instead of going to find the doe, I am sure she went down... I decide to wait and see and take advantage of this situation, since the dogs had already probably scared any good bucks away, I figure I will try to take a couple of does.

And I am right another doe comes in does the same thing, I let another arrow fly and "thud" I know I had a pass through, and I watch the doe run off about 30 yards and the tail goes down, and of course she ran right into the swamp.

Well I decide to stay in the blind and wait about another 1/2 hour and another doe comes in but this one is running hard, no shot. Then a spike buck comes through, I let him pass. He was broke on one side, and a fork on the other.

Well its about 12:00pm now, so I try rattling for the next hour, nothing, I decided to go and retrieve my deer, I found the first doe right where I thought, and the second doe was also right where I thought she would be face down in the swamp.

Well I got out my deer drag and hauled the second deer out of the swamp and up onto the logging road. Then I went back down and got the other doe and dragged her up to the logging road.

Then I walked up the hill to the manager's office of the trailer park and he loaned me his John Deere Gator and I went down and picked up both the does.

November 22, 2006