My son was fortunate enough to hunt with Fletch again this year and have another GREAT hunt. Saturday night I sat with my son and we saw about 70 deer with over 20 of them bucks. It was incredible, there were deer all around the blind we were sitting in that Dave built on a wagon. We had some deer just a few feet away, not knowing that we were right on top of them. Justin was looking for a mature buck and passed 4 young bucks that were in the 130's and 2 young bucks that were low 140's the first night. A couple of big bucks showed up but stayed out of range the entire time. At Dark Dave drove in to get us because we were still covered up with no signs of them planning on leaving the field. The next day Justin and Dave drove out to the field and made a decision to hook up to the wagon and move it into a position about 100 yards away from the previous spot where they thought they could get a shot opportunity at one of the bigger bucks. Sunday night I went to a farm another buddy owns and Justin went back to the wagon with Dave. It was pretty warm so I wasn't sure what to expect. I texted Dave to see how they were doing and they were seeing some bucks and does but nothing big early. My son texted me and I was expecting to see a text about what they were seeing but it said I shot. I started texting how was the shot, how far, good hit and was just trying to figure out what was going on. Dave thought Justin hit him a little back and was thinking about waiting until morning. We met at a friends shop and discussed the shot. The buck was quartering too about 80 yards when Justin shot. The buck jumped the fence and walked slowly, stopping periodically. His tail was really twitching and Dave knew he was hurting. Right before Dave saw him for the last time his rack was swaying from side to side. Because of that we decided to go in look for blood and go to where Dave saw him last. If we saw he was alive or if we jumped him we were just going to back out. We found blood right away and started tracking. Dave was off to our left so he wouldn't walk over any blood, shinning his flashlight where he thought he saw him last. It looked like he was focusing on a particular spot and I thought I saw a deer but didn't see the tell tale sign of a white belly. As we got closer we could see the buck better. He died just as he was in the picture I took. His legs were tucked underneath him and the only thing we did different for the picture from how we found him was have Justin lift his head. It was awesome Justin had shot his best buck ever and we got to recover it together with some GREAT guys! Justin hit him in the lung and it exited the liver, he went about 100 yards. I can not thank Dave enough. This was truly a very special trip, one I will never forget. I appreciate it more than you know.
Congrats! It's fun hunting Iowa knowing at anytime a buck of a lifetime could step out. Fletch really knows his land and deer hunting. That buck is a stud! Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
As I said just awesome brother! Justin way to go and hunting with Dave is an incredible blessing and he is top notch man from everything I've always heard and seen! Kudos to all 3 of ya!
Wow! Congratulations to him! Any estimate on measurements yet? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Congrats to Justin for taking a great, mature buck. He was cool and calm and strictly business until after the shot. I have taken guys that nearly gave me a heart attack when it came to crunch time, but Justin acted like a veteran. His gun handling and safety skills were textbook also. I'm sure I can thank Tom for that. I have been around plenty of adults that could learn from Justin in that department. It was a goal of mine to put Justin on a dream buck since I first met him at the Iowa Deer Classic and found out that he was doing chores to earn enough money for an Iowa trophy buck tag. The timing was perfect for him because I had just reached the stage of my hunting life that I knew it was time to focus on doing something for someone besides myself. His first trip was successful, but with a little bit of ground shrinkage, we knew another chance was in order. He certainly made good on that offer! I'm pretty sure that I was just as excited and happy as Justin was to know that I had helped a young man achieve a pretty lofty goal in the whitetail world. Blessings to the Lester family, and to the BH.com family.
