After 4 years my son and I drew our Iowa bow tags Zone 4. We leave Sunday morning and will be in stand that afternoon. Took 4 years to draw and to say we are excited is an understatement of course. It looks like we will hit a week of perfect cold front weather. The fanatic gear will definitely be appreciated. Hope to be able to add to this thread late next week with 2 Iowa studs sitting in front of us.
Iowa was amazing . But, not everyone gets to shoot a big buck. My son shot a very nice heavy 8 on Tuesday morning I had a couple of slow sits Sunday thru Tuesday. Saw deer each sit but no shooters were seen. Tim from New York was in camp with us and he was on a food source Sunday night and saw 72 deer, with 15 of them being bucks. Two of which were shooters, one very nice 10 and a giant 8. He was hunting for two full weeks and told us he was going to hold out for a shot on that 8. It didn't happen for him the first week. He has hunted Iowa before and shot a 202 in 2012 He would lower his standards on week two and take the first 150+ that presented and opportunity His patience paid off with a beautiful 160 5\8ths on the following tuesday On Wednesday, the deer started to chase pretty hard and the timber was the place to be. I sat on a picked corn field Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. The deer movement was awesome and I observed some fantastic scrape freshening and watched a 2.5 up and comer on a rope/licking branch 10 yards a way for at least 90 seconds pawing and rubbing his face all over the rope. I saw five great bucks on that farm, but the closest one was 100 yards away. Fun to see but frustrating as can be also. Moved down into the timber on that same farm on Thursday morning and had a true Iowa giant 70 yards away Pop can bases, carried the mass all through his rack. Maybe I big eyed him, but I think he was easily in the 170's. Truly a heart pounding experience. I saw that deer at 11:00 am and did not see another deer the rest of the day, it was an all day sit, as was Wednesday, 0630 am to 6;30 pm Friday morning found me in the area I started my hunt on Sunday. I had a great 10 come again to about 70 yards before he stopped and and started sniffing a little to much. Ozonics was running but there was just something off and he walked back over the terrace into the CRP. Wind was pretty gusty much of the week and after Tuesday much of the time a south wind. He was directly down wind. I have no doubt if the wind would have been in my favor, he would have walked right to me. He wanted to check out the timber next to the river for does.. The big deer the day before was up wind, and had no clue I was around, just chose to go the other way. Friday afternoon I moved to another farm and deer were moving right away. A wide skinny tined 8 was hot on a doe but she brought him the opposite way I needed. For the next half hour deer were on the move. I heard movement below my stand and a doe was running up the hill toward me, she busted out into the opening behind and a buck was right on her tail. I got caught up in the moment and did not look the buck over before dropping the string. I made a great shot and the buck was recovered with no issues. As you can deduce it was not a Iowa giant. My take away from Iowa, they do it right with their seasons. No gun hunt during rut. They have tremendous habitat, with the timbered draws, agriculture fields, CRP etc... We hunted 1st week of November and did not really see a lot of other hunters in the area. Son drove to a public hunting area, 1600 acres and saw just 3 trucks, two Iowa plates and a South Carolina plate. The number of deer we saw was crazy and the up and comers were everywhere, very solid 2.5's with great frame work. We went through an outfitter and believe that is the way for us. It was a 6.5 hour drive for us to get there from home in Minnesota The farms that we hunted were top notch and the the lodge was great as were the home cooked meals. I think by the time you spent a couple of trips per year scouting/shed hunting with cost of hotels and meals, gas etc... you would be very close to what it cost to hunt with an outfitter. It will be interesting to see how long takes to draw again, I am guessing that "point creep" is real and would think that it may be a 5-6 year wait. But that leaves plenty of time to save and budget for the pleasure of hunting Iowa. I am 63 right now and hope to be able to make the trip one more time with my son. It was overall an awesome experience and one that I think every serious bow hunter should consider.
