I headed out a day early to meet up with a fellow beast member from another hunting forum who just recently made the move to Iowa. What a pleasure It was In finally meeting him. Prior to this he lived 40 minutes from me and we never had been able to meet up. Go figure. Anyhow I got down there on October 27th and grabbed a hotel room. I then called him and he says were going for a drive. Our drive around started at 5:00 PM. 2 hours before dark. It was the full moon folks. Deer here In Iowa don't follow the same rules as they do In Minnesota. We drove around for about an hour or so and I know we saw at least 400 deer no more then 3 miles out of this small little town. Easily 1/2 of these deer were bucks. I'd say we saw at least 50 P&Y bucks. Most In that 130's range. Biggest we saw was a 150's class buck. He then goes on to tell me that the drive wasn't a very good one being we should've seen bigger bucks. lol! I couldn't believe It. In 26 years of hunting I've probably saw a total of 50 to 60 P&Y bucks here In Minnesota. I saw that many In 60 minutes from the road! I brought my Camcorder along but almost forgot I had It with. I did get some footage from the drive around. The footage below blew me away. Not a huge buck by any means but the location and what's going on Is what blew me away. Off to the right of this place Is a bean field. There looked to be around 5 130ish bucks chasing a doe around. I couldn't keep my trap shut. Allot of f'n himers and holy you know what I can't believe what I'm seeing. After our drive around we had a few cocktails and I got to meet some of the locals from the area. Very nice people. My buddy has himself a nice little town here to call home. Hope It works out for ya bud. Hopefully many more meets between the 2 of us. I can now call this guy a great friend. Super nice guy!! Thanks bud for the good time Saturday evening!! Very much appreciated. The place I was going to be hunting at Is about 90 minutes west of where I stayed Saturday night. Sunday morning off I was to Iowa Veterans place who was kind enough to offer me his land to hunt. I met him for the 1st time and we did a quick walk along over his property. I was excited to say the least!! Mark (Iowa Veteran) Is one of the most giving and nicest people I've ever met. Thank you Mark. Between Marks property, his neighbors, and some state land I got 6 days of hunting In (12 sits). My 1st 2 sits yielded no deer sightings so I mixed things up and started to venture out to different property's hitting them all from time to time. My 3rd sit got my 1st sighting of a Iowa P&Y buck. Not sure on his size as It was getting dark but there was plenty of head gear up there to easily put him In the books. My standards for Iowa were nothing smaller then 150 Inches. After all, this Is Iowa. I held to them too as hard as It was a couple times. I ended up going home without an Iowa buck but It wasn't because I didn't see much. Some of these numbers I'm about to list aren't exact but there very close. In 12 hunts I saw right around 35 different P&Y bucks. I passed on 12 different P&Y bucks (these numbers are exact). All were between 8 to 12 yards. I need them close for my recurve. :D 2 of these were high 120's to 130 2.5 year olds. Super potential!!! The next 9 were low to mid 130's bucks. To the best of my knowledge most of these were 3.5's with a couple 4.5's mixed In going by body size. The next buck was a tough one for me to pass on. On Thursday Mark and I went to another guys property as he was kind enough to offer us a change of scenery. He told us where to sit. That sit I rattled In 3 different P&Y bucks. Actually I rattled In a total of 12 bucks the 6 days I was In Iowa. Anyhow of the 3 I rattled In on this hunt the last one was a 140 class buck. He was a chocolate 10 with a very massive body. Had to be all of 4.5 years old. I let him go by at 12 yards. It's the biggest buck I've ever let walk. This same hunt I also got to see what I believe was my 1st B&C buck (I might have seen one In my home state once, not sure). This land had a pretty good size food plot on It about 80 yards away from me. Out there In broad daylight stands a 170 class 10 point feeding away. I threw the book at him but couldn't get him to budge. None the less It was awesome to see. The next day Friday was my last day of hunting before I made the trip back to Minnesota. The morning hunt didn't yield nothing big enough. The Friday evening hunt I went back to a stand that I put up 2 days prior. Right before I was thinking about getting down out walks a spike. A 2 Inch spike at that! I thought, come on man, this Is Iowa!! Anyhow he kept looking to my left and then I heard and seen why. Out comes at least a mid 150's 10 point. He wasn't suppose to come from here. At most he was 14 Inches wide but his G2's and 3's were all of 11 to 12 Inches tall. His bases were huge. Easily 6 to 7 Inch measurements. It stayed massy the whole way through his rack. Easily 20 Inches of H measurements per side. He too was chocolate and I have a thing for chocolate racks. My wind was blowing In his direction but I was hoping the attention he had on the other buck would take away my stinky self. Guessed wrong. He flew out of there faster then any deer I've ever saw take off. I heard him go at least 90 yards plowing everything over In his path. He was 12 yards away when this happened. He was slightly quartering to me. No way I was taking that shot. I've always credited myself on taking high quality shots. Even though I went empty handed on my Iowa hunt I almost had my chance at what I was after In Iowa. What a great time I had. I've never had hunting nothing close to this. Besides the 2 2.5 year olds I passed on every other buck would've gotten an arrow In Minnesota. Thanks very much Mark for the great time. You my friend are a genuine person. Top notch person you are!! Also thank you Dave for letting me hunt your land that evening. Dave offered his land for me to hunt the next evening as well but I passed on It as the wind wasn't Ideal for hunting there. I'll definitely be putting In for Iowa again. My brother and dad really want to go to after hearing about my hunt. They too love their whitetail hunting. I wouldn't mind giving zone 6 a shot. The zone I was hunting In was zone 5. What I really find crazy Is I didn't see the best of Iowa bucks yet. Most were 3.5 year old bucks. Just Imagine what the 4 and 5 year olds all look like. You Iowan's are way spoiled with your buck hunting!! Below Is Dave with a gross booner he took the same evening I was hunting his land. He has 2 different property's and was hunting the other property when he took this 170 and some change buck. Congratulation's my friend!! An outstanding guy Dave Is. I would have loved to BS with Dave more If I/we had more time. Hopefully we get to meet up again down the road. Thanks again Dave. Another great friendship started here too. I'm sure you all here recognize the mug In the pictures below. :D The famous GregH pose. See what you started Greg??
Wow, sounds like a pretty incredible hunt! I hunt some pretty decent ground in IL and if I see 3-4 P&Y class deer on the hoof while hunting each year I'm doing real good. So far this year I've seen exactly 2. I'm jealous.
About time this got posted! :D Great stuff, Steve! I was wishing I woulda got on the stick when you did...woulda been there with ya... Mark is good people....
Sounds like an awesome time! I also crave to hunt Iowa. I have 3 points and not sure when or if ever I will make it there.
Man Steve...good read. That is amazing. Obviously you had a great time, even without tagging your buck. Congrats man.
Sounds like a great time Steve! Just imagine what MN could be if the gun season wasn't in the middle of the rut
Great ready for sure. Think I speak for most of us when I say I hope I get a hunt like that some time.
Nice to know there are still some good ole country boys around! Met one of my closest friends through a cousin of mine. He lives in North Carolina and said he had a buddy who wanted to hunt Ohio. When he found out Mike Beatty killed his giant on an adjoining fence row to our farm he knew where he wanted to go! I trusted my cousin about this guy and invited him up to say with my family and I. As a SWAT cop I am not the most trusting soul! Man am I glad I did though. We have now been hunting together for about 10 years and I always schedule my vacation around his visit! I always say my hillbilly brother is coming up to hunt with his favorite redneck!
Steve, sounds like a great trip. It just goes to show you don't have to bag a deer to have a successful hunt. Lots of sightings, good friends, and a great time. A lot of great memories there. Congrats to Dave on an absolutely gorgeous buck too. Man, Iowa can grow em.
