beaulesye10
Senior Member
"The trip of a life time"!
That's what last week was called from multiple people who knew my father and I were leaving for Iowa. My mom called me multiple times to tell me how excited my dad was we were finally going, and what all I thought he might need to make the trip better. My uncles and mother told me numerous times, "The Trip of a Lifetime" as the weeks became days till our trip. Those words seem overused, and even belittled by the amount we seem to hear them these days, yet that's what it turned out to be. It may not have been in the sense I was expecting, but a trip of a life time none the less.
Four years my father and I have planned to go on this trip, purchasing preference points and saving money. A lot has happened in that time frame, I've moved away, an hour or so for a new Job, leaving my first best friend in my home town with mom. He has went through changes as well beyond me leaving, his youngest child my sister leaving for college giving mother and him the "empty nest" at home. My middle sister has began planing her wedding this spring, yes our once tight knit family was spreading out and starting a new branch of the family tree.
We found out in June we had been selected for the Iowa hunt. I immediately started searching the public land looking for something I liked and seemed familiar to previous great areas I've hunted in Ga. After a month I had it narrowed down to two dozen areas on two different pieces of public ground. One looked a lot better than the other and with a large creek to access it quietly it was the first place I wanted to go. I spent most of August, September, and October watching any up to date show on Iowa and what the deer were doing, I was using google earth, topo, and my Apex maps I had made to check and recheck place we could hunt. As November 1st rolled around and we were ready to start the 16 hour drive, I felt ready.
We left early November 3rd and began our drive to our intended stopping point for the evening just north of St. Louis, MO. We never turned the radio on the entire drive up, we laughed, joked, and hoped of things to come.
We arrived in our little Ia town Friday at 11am checked into our room, changed and headed for the land. We checked my first location a nice ridge with a steep side and two cedar thickets separated by a small draw. I eased on down the draw and found a nice open ridge with more rubs than I could count, a fence crossing, and four other ridges coming together. I decided to hunt there the first morning and drop dad off on the other side of the hill on a similar draw.
Day one I dropped dad off after our half mile walk in through the creek. I then walked another .25 of mile up the large hill and half way down the other side to my intended tree. I hung my sticks and stand in silence as first light was just starting to crack, so I could see my hand in front of my face. I reached to grab my rope to pull my bow up and I hear leaves crunching coming towards me. I watch as a dark figure walks to the base of my tree. A doe, she looks around and then continues into the cedars to bed to my NW. I quickly pull up my bow, and begin to saw a small limb on the second trunk of the double tree I was in when I hear a grunt and leaves crunching. A sense of fear and excitement went over me. I couldn't believe here comes a buck and it could be a shooter and end my trip 10 minutes into day one. I knock an arrows as a small basket 8pt walks right under me.
I let him pass and finish setting up. At 715am just as light was good enough to see an explosion of leaves crunching comes from the cedar thicket across from me as a hot doe comes out with the largest buck I've ever seen in person grunting behind her. He has a smaller 8 that looked to be a basket rack, behind him and a small 3 point. The larger buck never came closer than 60 yards, but he ruined me for this trip. I didn't realize it at the time, but something inside of me said that deer or nothing and I never even had the thought cross my mind consciously. The "basket 8" that was with him ended up responding to a few grunts and bleats and walked to 8 yards. He wasn't that small.
I ended up seeing 13 deer the first morning mostly small bucks, but the largest still stayed in my mind.
When I met back with dad at noon he had seen one small 7 point, and nothing else. We scouted other areas that evening but decided to come back to the same spot the following morning.
Dad sat on the creek morning two and I went back to the same tree. I had a slow start to my morning not seeing much. Then I look down and there is a 10 point walking right under me. He ended up coming to about 8 steps broadside. I estimated him at 3 years old he was well over 15 inches inside spread and had g2 that were 8-10 inches I thought. I picked the bow up, but never grabbed the string and watched him walk away. I was sitting there the next hour watching a few does and wondering if I should have shot him when I caught movement coming down the ridge to my south. I had a doe running right to me. Now I have had this happen before while hunting like a whisper in my ear that something good is about to happen, I stood with my bow, because I just new the monster buck from the day before was behind her, I can't explain it, but everything in me said he was coming. I looked and looked and couldn't see him coming and she, now standing 4 steps from the base of my tree, was looking at her back trail. That's when I saw him on the opposite ridge 50 yards away on another doe. He followed the other doe up the ridge until his nose hit her butt, and through the binos I could see him freeze and snatch his head to the doe under my tree. Almost as you would if your wife caught you looking at another woman at the beach. He turned and ran down the hill toward the doe under my tree. Heart racing, I watched this moose coming at me, thinking its going to happen, its going to happen, then like big deer do he stops, facing the doe, 61 yards away. They stare at each other for 5 minutes then he grunts twice. She turns and runs right to him and they walk up the opposite ridge out of my life. I don't like to speculate on the size of this deer because I don't want to sound like I'm over exaggerating, but understand I've held and seen a few 160 class deer and he made them look small, very small.
When I made my way back to dad later that afternoon I told him I didn't think I was going to hunt another spot after what I had seen. He tells me he has only seen 2 small bucks and a doe.
Now my dad didn't know this and didn't until after the trip, but I had two goals on this trip, 1) be safe 2) get him a deer.
As we walked back to the truck I told him I had an idea. I had been sitting in a double tree and if he wanted we could carry his Millennium stand with us in the next day and sit in the same tree together. He agreed and we had a plan set.
Day three found us walking up the hill, me stopping ever 100 yards or so, so dad could catch his breathe and then moving forward. When we got to the tree I hung the sticks and his stand. I pulled by lone wolf up and hung it off the side of the tree, I knew he would have the better view but I could stand see fine. He then climbed up and we settled in. Now we saw one shooter that morning that I had an 18 yard shot at and passed. He was a clean 8 with 10 inched g2 and and 5 or 6 inch brow tines. I let him pass and never thought twice about it. We sat until 12 when we were asked by another guy that was there hunting another pieced of public land if we could come help him look for nice deer he had shot. When we climbed down we had seen 18 different deer.
We were unable to find the deer of other fellow and by the time we called it off it was almost dark.
Day 4 was very slow we saw one deer the 130 class ten I had let walk. Dad tried a shot at 37 yards and shot just under him.
Day 5 was the nicest day we would have low of 41 with a high of 51 so we deiced to pack a lunch and spend all day in the same tree together. From daybreak until 12pm we saw 21 deer. We saw nothing from noon till 230pm at 230 we saw two small bucks and then at 345 a four point chased a doe directly to the base of our tree and then over the next ridge. I did a calling sequence at 415 and at 420 dad whispered "BIG BUCK" I saw as the deer ran up the opposing ridge. I gave a few estrous bleats and then a bucking breeding grunt. The buck stopped, turned, and ran directly to us. As the deer was walking up towards us I looked and asked "you sure you want to shoot that deer"? Dad didn't answer as the buck stopped 5 yards from us and snort wheezed, dad drew. The buck caught him drawing and bounded to 15 yards and stopped broadside. Dad let the arrow go. He smacked him perfect. We watched him run 157.2 yards according to the gps and pile up. We smiled and prayed and enjoyed the moment. Now dad has never been one to hunt a mile in so the worry monster jumped on his shoulder of how we were going to get the deer out and I calmed him best I could that we would cape and back pack him out. He wanted to get down and I was almost begging him to stay so maybe I would get an opportunity since we had seen so many deer and the hot doe had ran right under us. After a little arguing, a son does as his father says and we climbed down. My boots hit the ground and Dad says "OH NO" I turn as one of the nicest 8 points I have ever seen is standing 30 yards away with his buddy a smaller 8 standing 20 yards away walking right to us.
Now I will say we had slept very little and I lost my cool a little bit more than I meant to, with him as the deer ran off. His lack of trusting that I could do what I said I could caused the moment of recovering his buck to be a little tainted. WE managed to get past it and worked together taking pictures and cleaning his buck.
As we cleaned his buck I realized how large these deer truly were. I also realized that the 110 inch 10 point I thought he had shot turned out to be a 130 inch 10 point. This brought me back to the ten I had let walk, which was much larger than this deer and the fact of how grave a mistake I had made, without evening realizing it.
We hunted the next two days with a new wind and saw very little. Dad had planter fictitious and his foot was causing him discomfort and he was unable to walk much, but he still wanted to come sit the tree with me. So I was not able to do much of the movement I would have liked, but in the end I was more than excited for the time we spent together in the tree. I left Iowa without ever loosening an arrow, but the memories with dad are some of my more favorite that I have accumulated in my last 30 years on this Earth. He felt bad we were only bringing one set of horns home, but I'd do it all again knowing how it ended, A true TRIP OF A LIFETIME!..... or at least until 2019 when we have enough points to go again.
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I've backpacked quite a few deer over the last few years but this was by far the toughest I've had. Never been more excited to see the truck.
That's what last week was called from multiple people who knew my father and I were leaving for Iowa. My mom called me multiple times to tell me how excited my dad was we were finally going, and what all I thought he might need to make the trip better. My uncles and mother told me numerous times, "The Trip of a Lifetime" as the weeks became days till our trip. Those words seem overused, and even belittled by the amount we seem to hear them these days, yet that's what it turned out to be. It may not have been in the sense I was expecting, but a trip of a life time none the less.
Four years my father and I have planned to go on this trip, purchasing preference points and saving money. A lot has happened in that time frame, I've moved away, an hour or so for a new Job, leaving my first best friend in my home town with mom. He has went through changes as well beyond me leaving, his youngest child my sister leaving for college giving mother and him the "empty nest" at home. My middle sister has began planing her wedding this spring, yes our once tight knit family was spreading out and starting a new branch of the family tree.
We found out in June we had been selected for the Iowa hunt. I immediately started searching the public land looking for something I liked and seemed familiar to previous great areas I've hunted in Ga. After a month I had it narrowed down to two dozen areas on two different pieces of public ground. One looked a lot better than the other and with a large creek to access it quietly it was the first place I wanted to go. I spent most of August, September, and October watching any up to date show on Iowa and what the deer were doing, I was using google earth, topo, and my Apex maps I had made to check and recheck place we could hunt. As November 1st rolled around and we were ready to start the 16 hour drive, I felt ready.
We left early November 3rd and began our drive to our intended stopping point for the evening just north of St. Louis, MO. We never turned the radio on the entire drive up, we laughed, joked, and hoped of things to come.
We arrived in our little Ia town Friday at 11am checked into our room, changed and headed for the land. We checked my first location a nice ridge with a steep side and two cedar thickets separated by a small draw. I eased on down the draw and found a nice open ridge with more rubs than I could count, a fence crossing, and four other ridges coming together. I decided to hunt there the first morning and drop dad off on the other side of the hill on a similar draw.
Day one I dropped dad off after our half mile walk in through the creek. I then walked another .25 of mile up the large hill and half way down the other side to my intended tree. I hung my sticks and stand in silence as first light was just starting to crack, so I could see my hand in front of my face. I reached to grab my rope to pull my bow up and I hear leaves crunching coming towards me. I watch as a dark figure walks to the base of my tree. A doe, she looks around and then continues into the cedars to bed to my NW. I quickly pull up my bow, and begin to saw a small limb on the second trunk of the double tree I was in when I hear a grunt and leaves crunching. A sense of fear and excitement went over me. I couldn't believe here comes a buck and it could be a shooter and end my trip 10 minutes into day one. I knock an arrows as a small basket 8pt walks right under me.
I let him pass and finish setting up. At 715am just as light was good enough to see an explosion of leaves crunching comes from the cedar thicket across from me as a hot doe comes out with the largest buck I've ever seen in person grunting behind her. He has a smaller 8 that looked to be a basket rack, behind him and a small 3 point. The larger buck never came closer than 60 yards, but he ruined me for this trip. I didn't realize it at the time, but something inside of me said that deer or nothing and I never even had the thought cross my mind consciously. The "basket 8" that was with him ended up responding to a few grunts and bleats and walked to 8 yards. He wasn't that small.
I ended up seeing 13 deer the first morning mostly small bucks, but the largest still stayed in my mind.
When I met back with dad at noon he had seen one small 7 point, and nothing else. We scouted other areas that evening but decided to come back to the same spot the following morning.
Dad sat on the creek morning two and I went back to the same tree. I had a slow start to my morning not seeing much. Then I look down and there is a 10 point walking right under me. He ended up coming to about 8 steps broadside. I estimated him at 3 years old he was well over 15 inches inside spread and had g2 that were 8-10 inches I thought. I picked the bow up, but never grabbed the string and watched him walk away. I was sitting there the next hour watching a few does and wondering if I should have shot him when I caught movement coming down the ridge to my south. I had a doe running right to me. Now I have had this happen before while hunting like a whisper in my ear that something good is about to happen, I stood with my bow, because I just new the monster buck from the day before was behind her, I can't explain it, but everything in me said he was coming. I looked and looked and couldn't see him coming and she, now standing 4 steps from the base of my tree, was looking at her back trail. That's when I saw him on the opposite ridge 50 yards away on another doe. He followed the other doe up the ridge until his nose hit her butt, and through the binos I could see him freeze and snatch his head to the doe under my tree. Almost as you would if your wife caught you looking at another woman at the beach. He turned and ran down the hill toward the doe under my tree. Heart racing, I watched this moose coming at me, thinking its going to happen, its going to happen, then like big deer do he stops, facing the doe, 61 yards away. They stare at each other for 5 minutes then he grunts twice. She turns and runs right to him and they walk up the opposite ridge out of my life. I don't like to speculate on the size of this deer because I don't want to sound like I'm over exaggerating, but understand I've held and seen a few 160 class deer and he made them look small, very small.
When I made my way back to dad later that afternoon I told him I didn't think I was going to hunt another spot after what I had seen. He tells me he has only seen 2 small bucks and a doe.
Now my dad didn't know this and didn't until after the trip, but I had two goals on this trip, 1) be safe 2) get him a deer.
As we walked back to the truck I told him I had an idea. I had been sitting in a double tree and if he wanted we could carry his Millennium stand with us in the next day and sit in the same tree together. He agreed and we had a plan set.
Day three found us walking up the hill, me stopping ever 100 yards or so, so dad could catch his breathe and then moving forward. When we got to the tree I hung the sticks and his stand. I pulled by lone wolf up and hung it off the side of the tree, I knew he would have the better view but I could stand see fine. He then climbed up and we settled in. Now we saw one shooter that morning that I had an 18 yard shot at and passed. He was a clean 8 with 10 inched g2 and and 5 or 6 inch brow tines. I let him pass and never thought twice about it. We sat until 12 when we were asked by another guy that was there hunting another pieced of public land if we could come help him look for nice deer he had shot. When we climbed down we had seen 18 different deer.
We were unable to find the deer of other fellow and by the time we called it off it was almost dark.
Day 4 was very slow we saw one deer the 130 class ten I had let walk. Dad tried a shot at 37 yards and shot just under him.
Day 5 was the nicest day we would have low of 41 with a high of 51 so we deiced to pack a lunch and spend all day in the same tree together. From daybreak until 12pm we saw 21 deer. We saw nothing from noon till 230pm at 230 we saw two small bucks and then at 345 a four point chased a doe directly to the base of our tree and then over the next ridge. I did a calling sequence at 415 and at 420 dad whispered "BIG BUCK" I saw as the deer ran up the opposing ridge. I gave a few estrous bleats and then a bucking breeding grunt. The buck stopped, turned, and ran directly to us. As the deer was walking up towards us I looked and asked "you sure you want to shoot that deer"? Dad didn't answer as the buck stopped 5 yards from us and snort wheezed, dad drew. The buck caught him drawing and bounded to 15 yards and stopped broadside. Dad let the arrow go. He smacked him perfect. We watched him run 157.2 yards according to the gps and pile up. We smiled and prayed and enjoyed the moment. Now dad has never been one to hunt a mile in so the worry monster jumped on his shoulder of how we were going to get the deer out and I calmed him best I could that we would cape and back pack him out. He wanted to get down and I was almost begging him to stay so maybe I would get an opportunity since we had seen so many deer and the hot doe had ran right under us. After a little arguing, a son does as his father says and we climbed down. My boots hit the ground and Dad says "OH NO" I turn as one of the nicest 8 points I have ever seen is standing 30 yards away with his buddy a smaller 8 standing 20 yards away walking right to us.
Now I will say we had slept very little and I lost my cool a little bit more than I meant to, with him as the deer ran off. His lack of trusting that I could do what I said I could caused the moment of recovering his buck to be a little tainted. WE managed to get past it and worked together taking pictures and cleaning his buck.
As we cleaned his buck I realized how large these deer truly were. I also realized that the 110 inch 10 point I thought he had shot turned out to be a 130 inch 10 point. This brought me back to the ten I had let walk, which was much larger than this deer and the fact of how grave a mistake I had made, without evening realizing it.
We hunted the next two days with a new wind and saw very little. Dad had planter fictitious and his foot was causing him discomfort and he was unable to walk much, but he still wanted to come sit the tree with me. So I was not able to do much of the movement I would have liked, but in the end I was more than excited for the time we spent together in the tree. I left Iowa without ever loosening an arrow, but the memories with dad are some of my more favorite that I have accumulated in my last 30 years on this Earth. He felt bad we were only bringing one set of horns home, but I'd do it all again knowing how it ended, A true TRIP OF A LIFETIME!..... or at least until 2019 when we have enough points to go again.
[URL=http://s1120.photobucket.com/user/Beauleyse10/media/Iowa%202016/IMG_0305_zpskhsnx9xj.jpg.html]
http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l484/Beauleyse10/Iowa%202016/IMG_0361_zpsoqvlegh6.jpg[/IMG]
I've backpacked quite a few deer over the last few years but this was by far the toughest I've had. Never been more excited to see the truck.
