Team #5 - Band of Hunters


buckee

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sorry gang i have been passing way to many bucks this year. but thats what its like here in iowa. you wait until the one that is right for you comes by.

i have all late season to try and put a tag on a good buck also.

but the most important thing is i interview for a job today at 10:30 am.:D it pays a lot more and i will have most weekends off. where i currently work i just did a 33 day stretch without a day off. its hurting my deer hunting and Indoor target shooting. :p:(:p

i have 6 days off next week to go home to Ohio for turkey day. going to be fun to be with family and friends for a while.

so everyone have a great Thanksgiving Holiday.:D

Shoot Strong

Tony

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Hey guys, hope all is going well for you. I haven't gotten out to hunt much...too much of my time is taken up by school, homework, and workin at home.

I went out this morning and went after a decent 4x4 buck, he was after the does and wouldn't stop, so when he finally slowed down I took a shot at him [aimed a little in front of the vital area], he reared up and took off...I guess I aimed a little too far forward, and I hit him square on the shoulder as he was walking...his shoulder was shattered and his leg all dangly...had a good blood trail going, along with bone chunks [lovely], and then it just stopped...we're hoping he went and laid down somewhere, so I'm gonna have to go back out and look for him again in a little bit when my dad finishes the things he had to do this morning. I really hope we can find him...

Good luck to everyone else, will let you know if I find him or not!!

Mandyjo62

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Gahhhh we still haven't found him. Nothing about it makes sense, either. The blood trail just completely stopped, and we don't think that he could have jumped over a fence and kept going...just ticks me off, cuz I would have shot him a second time when I found him tryin to climb uphill if my dad and his buddy hadn't driven up and scared him away :[

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Well, this past Saturday was our shotgun opener. Had a doe underneath me 20 minutes before sunrise. She came into my food plot - nice to see. Had alot of action all morning. I'm not proud of my marksmanship, but when all was said and done I filled both of my doe tags!:)

On the first doe I grazed her backstraps and she stayed in thick cover. Had to sit back down to avoid a branch and made a good follow up. Okay, one deer down (two missed) and it's only 7:30 am.

A group of does wandered off to the south. I got down dressed her out and went to hang the T-shirt I used to clean out the cavity, when I noticed another deer staring at me on the wood lot edge. Calmly, I turned around, walked back to my pile of equipment, picked up my gun, and waited. The second deer got closer, then turned broadside into the open field for an easy 20-yd shot!:D

Having filled both of my doe tags 8:30 am I decided to pay a visit to another farmer 5-minutes away. He gave me two DMAP permits! :cool: So, now I can hunt does again!

I still have to take pics of the tags, but I'll have everything posted in a day or so.

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Well, once again I come home a bit disappointed, but can not call the hunt unsuccessful. I was in the presence of some WORLD CLASS bucks. Just could not close the deal in getting them close enough.. I have been home for a few days, but in no hurry to do anything. These hunts are harder and harder as the years go by. I left footprints on tons of soil in my quest. There is always new adventure and memories.

Congratulations to you on your kills you guys. I hope I can run into something I'd want to shoot here at home.

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I went out the other night after catching my breath from the trip and once again I come across a dead deer. This is the fourth deer I found that was killed with an arrow in 3 years near or in my hunting area. Disappoints me to no end. I really want to find out who is responsible for their death. All were killed with killing shots and should have been easy to recover.:(

I took my camera a few weeks back and took some pictures of a pair of young brother bucks I have been watching for a couple years.Last year they were buttons. This year one is a spike and the other was a 3 point. I am very sorry to say that I found the 3 point dead. Someone had shot him through the lungs and failed to recover the little guy:mad:. This kind of thing really pisses me off. The deer lay within sight of my ladder stand on a very prominent run. Unreal.....You would have to be a real idiot not to find this deer.

This is the little guy I found tonightWheresWaldo3.jpgIMG%5D

I hope his brother, pictured here, doesn't run into the same MORON:mad:

Waldo2.jpg

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Thanks BuckNrut!:)

What a miserable day today. After it poured on me for two hours this morning I came home and slept til 2:30 and went back out and hunted in the fog. Saw one little lost doe. I have a feeling I kicked up some deer going in. Just before quitting time the sky opened up again . Drenching me just enough to make me miserable rain gear or no......:rolleyes:

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I'm back and trying to catch up around here. I wanted to stop by and give ya'll a shout and briefly tell you how my Iowa hunt went and what's happened since.

My third morning in Iowa I saw the biggest buck I've ever seen on the hoof. I have an official 184 2/8 gross & 175 1/8 net typical on the wall and this buck dwarfed him. Yes I did get some pictures of him but they are a bit fuzzy since the closest he ever got to me was about 75 yards. Fortunately, I did catch him on camera while he was silhouetted against the edge of the woodline with a CRP field behind him at 9:00 in the morning. A few of those were the only ones that came out worth a flip. He was a main frame 6x6 with kickers. He had sticker points facing forward off both browtines. The right G2 had a long split with a good length kicker on the left side too. G2's and 4's were both in the 10"+ range with the G3's 11+. The G5's were about 5" and 6". Great mass that unfortunately doesn't show well in the fuzzy pics. I watched him for 45 minutes on the wrong side of a river switching back and forth between my binocs and my camera pausing to try to think of something to do. He was herding a doe against the river in a narrow strip of woods along his side of the river. I couldn't think of any way to coax him or his lady friend across that 25 yard wide stretch of water. Really shook me up. I was a basket case for the rest of the day. I ended up staying an extra 5 days. I stayed in the woods every day with the exception of one afternoon when the temperature rose above 70 when I decide to get some rest for the next hard push . I'll post details with pics later about my Iowa hunt in the bowhunting room tomorrow after I get caught up more around the house.

Like Tony said in a prior post, up there you wait until the right buck comes in range and pass up bucks you'd never pass up in many other states. I had several mature bucks in range but they all had busted tines so I passed them. One in particular that I would have really had to think about if his rack was intact had his brow tine and G2 broken off the right side. Got pictures of him at 6 yards on his 2nd pass at 10:35 a.m. in the morning. Saw him the prior morning on another stand I put up a 1/2 mile away. I also passed up any buck I thought was 3 1/2 years old or less. When you've seen a mature buck up there it's easy to pass those younger bucks.

I did see one broken tine buck that I still would have shot if he had come close enough. His left G2 was broken off with about 2 1/2" left. The G2's were close to 13"+, right G3 was 12"+, with G4's in the 6"+ range. His rack was bone white except where he had cedar bark ground into the bases. This buck and the monster I described above were both in the 20" spread range.

Anyway, ate my Iowa tag after spending 12 days up there but I had a fantastic hunt. I hate to think it will probably be 3 years before I draw a tag there again.

I was home 1 day regrouping for the Mississippi woods so I bagged a doe on the 17th. :D I did remember to get picks this time so I'll get that taken care of for the 5 points for the team. Our rut at home usually peaks during the week before Christmas so I'll be spending a lot of time between now and Christmas trying to upgrade with a mature buck here at home.

I'll work in more time tomorrow to put together a post about my Iowa hunt. ;)

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Looks like we're still about 2 weeks from rutting activity picking up around here. Bucks really just started scraping a lot within the past 10 days.

It was also pretty warm for here the end of last week. Got up to 80 Sunday. Not much deer movement at all Thursday afternoon through the weekend. I did more scouting than hunting Saturday and found some very promising buck sign. I'll put a couple of trail cameras on it.

I'm heading back to camp this afternoon to hunt through the weekend. Hopefully things will start to pick up. Got a few mature bucks on my trail cameras recently. I'll check my 3 trail cameras and move them around again tomorrow.

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Don't plan on doing much hunting this weekend. Have to cram for finals.:( At least we will have light snow overnight with moderately cold temps (high of 33) tomorrow with light winds. Plan on going real early, find the food source, setup downwind, and hope for the best. It's the last weekend of regular season, then we have one weekend of ML.

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