Dont look now but here comes hunting season

[bcd]

This was about 20 minutes south of me in 2016.

I had a 190"+ run by me two years ago, couldn't get a shot off. I had him in my scope at 100 yards when he stopped. I hesitated a split second to make sure it was a clear shot, and he took off.

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[pmkkdx]

Are you confusing IA (iowa) with ID (Idaho)? Iowa is the land of giant white tails. No gun season during the rut and plenty of corn to eat.

My buddy's son just shot a 169" during youth season. His first deer, 20 minutes into his hunting career. He's ruined for life...

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ah ha ... yeah, I was thinking Idaho, not Iowa (DOH!) yeah, monster whitetails in Iowa, I have a friend with a small farm in Iowa that I always bugging him to let me come hunt.

[bcd]

This guy showed up last year late November. He's back earlier this year.

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[mastercraftka]

Nice old stud hope he comes out in the daylight.



I sat Saturday for a bit this pig came out before I could get settled in, so I practiced with my new to me bow. Then I planted some oats and praying for rain now.

[2RLAKE]

This was about 20 minutes south of me in 2016.

I had a 190"+ run by me two years ago, couldn't get a shot off. I had him in my scope at 100 yards when he stopped. I hesitated a split second to make sure it was a clear shot, and he took off.

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OMG ... that guy is huge!

[bcd]

Saw these pictures on another hunting site...

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[bcd]

My buddy just got a big one. It's a mainframe 8 pt with split brows and a couple of kicker hook points and tons of mass. He said it measures 190". Sorry, it's not my deer, so I'm not sharing pictures. He has quite a few cameras on their 300 acres, but never had a picture of it. It's a brute.

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[mastercraftka]

ah ha ... yeah, I was thinking Idaho, not Iowa (DOH!) yeah, monster whitetails in Iowa, I have a friend with a small farm in Iowa that I always bugging him to let me come hunt.

Are you back from the hunt yet? Need an update.

[pmkkdx]

Are you back from the hunt yet? Need an update.

yep, made it back and unloaded. We had a great trip but didn't see any legal bulls. It was very tough hunting as it was so dry for so long in the area we were hunting, nothing to hold the elk there for grazing, just might catch them passing thru. There were only about 25% the number of hunt camps set up from our previous trips in the entire areas as well, so very little hunting pressure to push the resident herd(s) around. We arrived Thursday afternoon and got camp set up, then we headed to several areas my son had e-scouted for some hiking to look for any fresh signs, very little sign or tracks, talcum powder dusty, little to no water in the tanks but we found a spring that was running (no sign around it either) that we decided to hunt the first morning.

We saw a couple of cows the first morning in the area of the spring we had found, sat till about mid day, then sat on a meadow to the south (3 mile hike downhill, made the return a b!tch all uphill in the dark) that afternoon for hours but saw nothing, not even coyotes, mule deer, etc. Normally when you set that long on a previously good spot, you at least see something.

The 2nd day we went lower and hiked (2+ miles uphill, easier return to truck) up an old logging road that overlooks a couple of bowls that the elk usually like and previous hunters in our group have taken bulls. We glassed for hours and saw nothing before it started to sleet. That afternoon after hiking back to the truck, it was getting pretty late to put in another hike plus a front had pushed in along with starting to snow pretty heavy, so we cut thru the trees about 100 yards from our camp into a big meadow to find a herd of 19 cows, calves and 2 spikes bedded at the far end (about 700 yards). We settled in glassing the entire tree line in hopes of the herd bull or several to come out to gather their ladies ... no luck. They bedded, grazed, bedded, grazed for over 2.5 hours before it got to dark to see (snowing like crazy by then).

The following morning, the truck thermometer read 15° with a pretty stiff wind, we slipped back to our meadow for a couple of hours to see if they were still there, no luck, they had moved out, and we sat for a couple of hours until we finally froze out. We got in the truck (to warm up) and started just driving all the NF roads to see if we could see fresh tracks in the snow, nothing other than rabbits & squirrel. We covered miles and started noticing that some of the other camps were breaking up and pulling out, which would mean even less pressure to move the game around. That afternoon, we went back to our meadow by camp, to a different spot about 1/2 down to shorten any possible shots back to around 400 yards. We sat until dark (it was still snowing lightly but HOLY COW was it cold).

The next morning the truck thermometer showed 11° with the sky clearing but still a pretty stiff wind that cut to the bone. We sat our meadow again until mid morning, then took my son's CanAm Defender to another spot where we hiked (2.5 miles downhill) to glass for a while, then hiked back (uphill) to move to a different spot to repeat (hike down a couple of miles, glass, then hike back uphill), repeat. That took us until late afternoon, so we just went back to our meadow to glass until dark.

the next morning, it wasn't as cold, only 21°, so we kind of repeated sitting meadow till mid morning, then move to another spot to glass, another spot to glass, and back to our meadow before dark.

We had planned on hunting thru mid day on Friday, but since we were not seeing anything and had talked to a number of other hunters from around the USA that had hunted that area, some up to 30 years, but they weren't finding anything, even the people on horse or mule that could go much farther in than us, we decided that we had a good trip and to button up shop a day early.

We had a great time, ate really good (I prepped food at home before we left), got to see a lot of really pretty country, saw some elk (although nothing to shoot) and safe travel both ways ... It was a great time!!!

[mastercraftka]

Well that is why they call it hunting and not getting!

Thanks for the update! Now its whitetail time huh?

[bcd]

I was out on my public land spot all day yesterday. Checked my cameras there for the first time and had this guy on there. I passed this 9pt and a couple other ts yesterday. Had good action up until noon, then it got warm out. Highs in the upper 60s all the way through the weekend, so not looking good for hunting.

Saturday morning I had a big 8 pt corralling a doe in front of my for 4 hours. He chased off a couple of other bucks also. He never got farther than 100 yards, but never got closer than 45 yards. I had to leave him there and sneak out for trick or treating.


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[pmkkdx]

Well that is why they call it hunting and not getting!

Thanks for the update! Now its whitetail time huh?

yep, likely heading to my place SW of Ozona (300+ miles) this weekend to do game counts & fill feeders. Haven't taken a deer out there in the past 2 years with the Anthrax that hit around the area. It didn't appear that it impacted our ranch, but some larger ranches (10+k acre) to our east and southeast lost 75-90% of all their deer and exotics.

Then the following weekend to my place NE of Fairfield (180 miles) that is MLD3. 4 of the other hunters have already taken their trophy buck and most have taken several does.

[mastercraftka]

bcd that is a bruiser!!!


I hunted this past weekend saw lots of deer but nothing that gave me an itchy finger! I did sight in my gun on a couple of pigs! It is on btw!!

This is looking down one sendero there are two more had about 40 plus deer at one time.

[bcd]

Weather has been warm here, and the hunting has sucked (70 degrees). Rain and cold front today, so taking tomorrow off to hunt. Sat Saturday and Sunday morning and didn't see a deer either day.

Stopped by and saw my buddy's 190" rack. It's impressive.

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[mastercraftka]

Weather has been warm here, and the hunting has sucked (70 degrees). Rain and cold front today, so taking tomorrow off to hunt. Sat Saturday and Sunday morning and didn't see a deer either day.

Stopped by and saw my buddy's 190" rack. It's impressive.

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I would love to have 70 degrees down here, we are in the mid 80's during the day.