Iowa bowhunt thread

Passed on 4 bucks yesterday. Nothing bigger than 110 inches. Had a 140 inch wide 8 locked down 80 yards behind me in a thick brushy draw


Sitting now down wind of a bedding area. 28 degrees
 

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Good luck!

I passed a small basket rack today in MA......not sure why, just wasn't into shooting it with the warm weather. I was fairly in far too, it would have been an all day event butchering or at least debone and get in cooler. I think of all that crap now before I drop the string.

My buddy gets a lot of deer so meat isn't a thing I need to worry about really.
 
Mark from MA said:
Good luck!

I passed a small basket rack today in MA......not sure why, just wasn't into shooting it with the warm weather. I was fairly in far too, it would have been an all day event butchering or at least debone and get in cooler. I think of all that crap now before I drop the string.

My buddy gets a lot of deer so meat isn't a thing I need to worry about really.
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You are not abiding by the Mass motto: if it's brown it's down. Repeat after me, "if it's brown it's down". 😎
 
Iowa tag soup.

No regrets. Fantastic experience. We got a bit unlucky and our area got slammed by EHD. We saw tons of deer, tons of 2 year olds. I shot a 140 class 8 point the first thursday at 36 yards. Pulled the shot too close to the shoulder, caught scapula. Even though I got a good foot penetratiin we lost blood 300 yards away. An adjoining land owner saw him limping around 5 days later. Never saw another shooter hunting. My buddy shot a 190 lb 120 inch 10 point a week later. Nice deer but not what we had hoped for,but the biggest deer he had seen in 2 weeks. I saw over 200 deer in 18 daysand over 80 bucks and probably 15 different 2 year olds. I cannot imagine what that farm would be like if EHD had not hit so hard. Seen a couple slammers on the road we rented our house on which was very near one of the Lakosky farms. I would do it in a heartbeat but now it is another 6 year tag draw.
 
arlow said:
Iowa tag soup.

No regrets. Fantastic experience. We got a bit unlucky and our area got slammed by EHD. We saw tons of deer, tons of 2 year olds. I shot a 140 class 8 point the first thursday at 36 yards. Pulled the shot too close to the shoulder, caught scapula. Even though I got a good foot penetratiin we lost blood 300 yards away. An adjoining land owner saw him limping around 5 days later. Never saw another shooter hunting. My buddy shot a 190 lb 120 inch 10 point a week later. Nice deer but not what we had hoped for,but the biggest deer he had seen in 2 weeks. I saw over 200 deer in 18 daysand over 80 bucks and probably 15 different 2 year olds. I cannot imagine what that farm would be like if EHD had not hit so hard. Seen a couple slammers on the road we rented our house on which was very near one of the Lakosky farms. I would do it in a heartbeat but now it is another 6 year tag draw.
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That's why its called hunting Rob.

Like you said....no regrets on the trip....Im sure you have a lot of good memories and saw WAY more deer than you would in a treestand back home.
 
Mark from MA said:
That's why its called hunting Rob.

Like you said....no regrets on the trip....Im sure you have a lot of good memories and saw WAY more deer than you would in a treestand back home.
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Even though I did not bring a buck home. the trip was incredible. I saw more deer in 18 days out there than I would see in 10 years in mass. I passed on bucks every single day that I would have shot here without a second thought. Almost every single time I rattled I had bucks come in. Some snuck in, some trotted in and some charged in on fire. One rattling sequence I had 4 bucks come in from 4 different directions. That just does not happen here. The day I shot the buck I did not get I got in the stand in the dark. Not 10 minutes later all hell breaks loose. Running and crashing and grunting and blowing. 4 does and 3 bucks tearing ass in a 100 yard circle around me 3 times. A little too dark to see what was what but I believe one was the buck I shot at 1/2 hour later. One was a 3 point that hung around for while investigating the scent I put out before I climbed up. The wind was blowing from me to where these deer came from. I think it made the bucks think the does were in heat when they really were not which was why the does were blowing while being chased. Cool stuff.
 
arlow said:
Even though I did not bring a buck home. the trip was incredible. I saw more deer in 18 days out there than I would see in 10 years in mass. I passed on bucks every single day that I would have shot here without a second thought. Almost every single time I rattled I had bucks come in. Some snuck in, some trotted in and some charged in on fire. One rattling sequence I had 4 bucks come in from 4 different directions. That just does not happen here. The day I shot the buck I did not get I got in the stand in the dark. Not 10 minutes later all hell breaks loose. Running and crashing and grunting and blowing. 4 does and 3 bucks tearing ass in a 100 yard circle around me 3 times. A little too dark to see what was what but I believe one was the buck I shot at 1/2 hour later. One was a 3 point that hung around for while investigating the scent I put out before I climbed up. The wind was blowing from me to where these deer came from. I think it made the bucks think the does were in heat when they really were not which was why the does were blowing while being chased. Cool stuff.
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I have a buddy that hunts the midwest.Kansas/Iowa/Mo..and says the same thing....you'll see more rutting activity and bucks than you will in 10 years hunting around here. When you technically can kill only one buck, the rutting activity is tremendous as there is huge competition for does. Fun to watch and see all that, as its very rare here, and you may see some of it, but not to the scope of that magnitude.

Seems weird to eat a tag...but realistically its easy to because your being selective and as it should be, only one tag is allowed, even though they are filthy with deer. You could kill a buck in probably first two hours if you really wanted to. But then a 180 would go take a shit under your stand right after. You know it, and I know it.
 
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