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Team 6

Set up for mid day hunt next to an intermittent creek, lots of thick underbrush around so I’m hoping this is a convenient travel corridor. Wind is definitely a factor today, extremely gusty
 
Just got home from a 3 day scouting/bird hunting trip. Plan was to find two spots to archery hunt in two weeks when I go back up. I did 22 miles Thursday evening, all day Friday and Saturday morning between 4 areas. Slept in the truck with the dog each night. I didn’t find what I was looking for when it came to a good spot to go back too to archery hunt, two spots that looked just ok. By day three I was only focused on finding birds for the dog after he ran for two days while I looked for deer and we did get 8 flushes on grouse so success there. Going back to the drawing board for the rutt trip.
 
Glad to see some of you got out there this weekend. I got stuck working and then between the heat, wind, and stack of things growing at home I decided my best move was to get yard work and repair projects done so I can hit it hard the next few weeks with a happy wife and a taken care of home.
 
HuskerInIowa said:
Glad to see some of you got out there this weekend. I got stuck working and then between the heat, wind, and stack of things growing at home I decided my best move was to get yard work and repair projects done so I can hit it hard the next few weeks with a happy wife and a taken care of home.
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Happy wife = Happy Life

I harvested Brussel sprouts today. Got about 4 lbs to put in the freezer tomorrow. My wife told me today she is done canning for the year so all we need now is a few deer in the freezer and then no worries until next growing season.
 
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Me and my 10-year-old went hunting Friday evening and we got to this small white oak ridge and scared 2 does under the trees at 4 pm so we went ahead and got in our saddles. And around 545 a spotted fawn came in and we heard more deer coming expecting them to be the mother but no it was what we thought was a 6 point (reviewing the footage he was actually an 8 pointer) came out and then this 8 point I killed came out and them a doe came out after the bucks. Anyway, he feed around a few minutes until he got withing range and a clear shot path and he was at 28 yards quartering toward me. Back story is I switched from right hand to left hand bow because left eye dominant after shooting right-handed for 30 years. So, this was my first kill with my left-hand bow. I also went ranch fairy with my arrows around 560 TAW. I also bought a used video camera, and my 10-year-old was videoing for the first time. It was also my first hunt of the year in my home state of Alabama. (I hunted TN for first time a few weeks ago). So, a lot of first for this hunt. I forgot the adaptor for my camera to fit on the tree mounted camera arm, so my boy was having to freehand video and it being his first time to even touch the camera or video it wasn't pretty. LOL. He finally found the deer in the lens right before I shot but the only problem was, he was on the wrong deer. He was on the 6 point. So, no camera replay to check the shoot. My lighted nock came on at the shoot but after the shoot we couldn't see it so we assumed it was in the deer. After we got down to check we found the arrow at the shot sight covered in blood, but the nock wasn't on. Don't know what happened because it still works so not sure why it didn't stay on. Anyway, back to the shot. He was standing quartering toward me at what I thought was around 23 yards turns out he was at 28. So, I held a little high with my 20-yard pin and aimed for just above the front shoulder. And that is where I hit. We found small blood drops at the shot sight and a few drops where we saw him run so we packed up and headed out. I called a friend to bring his dog, but he just got off work so his buddy came with his dog. (Blue Dog Tracking on Facebook). Around 930 we started tracking and the dog went straight to him all downhill all the way to the raven in the bottom. He went 165 yards, but he was stiff, and the tracker looked at the shot placement and said it was perfect for my set up, but he said he has seen problems with mechanicals on this shot placement with it quartering toward the shooter. He said the deer died within minutes of the shot. So, I'm a happy camper. First buck kill with a bow. First kill shooting left hand. First hunt of season in home state. First hunt with a video. First kill with me and my son in our saddles together. First kill with RF style arrows and the shot was when I needed that style the most. First time using a tracking dog. Lots of first. So, blessed. Sorry for the long post but I'm so happy I wanted someone else to share the joy with. And I'm not good at telling storied like @Nutterbuster but I gave it a shot. One thing I forgot to mention is on his right g2 he still has a piece of velvet about 4 inches long with 2 inches attached and 2 inches loose. Can't see it in any of the pictures. I should have taken some better pictures.

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Heading west tomorrow for 5 days scouting a new public area. Picked there for ML on the 18th. Gun hunting a WMA on the 5th & 6th. Time to get serious. Had a button buck at 20 yards this morning. Got to do a little better.
 
Headed back out this weekend, might be a continue to try to fill the freezer if that’s what comes along kind of weekend, then I took off next Thursday and Friday to give myself 4 days trying to find an Iowa buck on public during the first week of November and upgrade points for the team. First year I’ve really dedicated myself to bowhunting so I’m keeping expectations reasonable; probably won’t be passing on much with antlers.
 
Tied a new area today that I have never been to before. Walked thru some really thick swampy areas to get to where I wanted to go. Found some really good bear sign before I got to my area. Once I got there I figured I would hit a grunt and rattle and post up for a bit. Originally was going to stand in a little bush but when I got in there I didn’t like the shooting lanes so I headed about 30 yards to a big oak. Hit the call and a dandy walked out about a minute later… 10 yards from that bush and 40 yards from me. Hung around for a while, made a scrape and rubbed some trees. Grunted and bleated and couldn’t get him to come over. I will be heading back there for some all day sits next week.
 
Seen a buck yesterday looked quality but didn’t come in to bow range. Different spot today I’ve been trying to figure out how to setup in this tree
The trunks are huge but it’s the tree for this spot Buckzilla showed up here last night hoping he shows up
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Been scouting a new area all day. Seen alot of buck sign. Not sure how to hunt it. I truck scouted this area back in March. I picked this area because it was thick. Got drawn for a ML hunt in Nov. for this area.
I have not seen another hunter within 1 mile of me.
Now I know why.

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GeoFish said:
Been scouting a new area all day. Seen alot of buck sign. Not sure how to hunt it. I truck scouted this area back in March. I picked this area because it was thick. Got drawn for a ML hunt in Nov. for this area.
I have not seen another hunter within 1 mile of me.
Now I know why.

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Looks like my property, a lot of undergrowth
 
6 plus hours in the saddle today. Only saw 1 doe, 37 yards so that’s outside what I’m comfortable with and I didn’t take a shot. That’s my longest sit and I didn’t leave due to comfort issues in the saddle, just time to do a few things with the kids. Hopefully I’m officially in saddle shape for the rut.
 
Did 6.4 miles scouting Friday morning and found 2 spots. One looked ok to hang and one was smoking hot with sign. Hung there Friday evening and had a young buck come by but he wasnt legal. Bucks need either 15" inside spread or 18" main beams. He was getting fairly close to the beam length. Also had a doe with 2 fawns come in. I normally have no issue whacking a doe with little ones this tie of year because the fawns are normally 1/2 - 2/3's as big as the doe but these were way smaller. Cant recall ever seeing a doe with fawns that small this late in the year so I let her walk too.

Got rained out Saturday. Yesterday I decided to make another scouting loop through some areas I havent been in for several years. Did another 6.3 miles and found a couple more spots for this coming weekend and marked several feed trees I had forgotten about. Persimmons are done, there are no nutall acorns, no pecan, no water oaks and no honey locust. The only mast is overcup acorns and they seem close to dropped out. That will put the deer pretty much strictly on browse and in several thousand acres of cutover, that makes it dang hard to pinpoint 'em.
 
Well, counting down to Thursday and my 4 solid days of being in the saddle during the fabled first week in November in Iowa.
Not looking like how I drew it up when I took these days off, I have to drop kids off at school and daycare before I go out in the mornings, temps are far above average, and 2 days look like rain.
Luckily my naivety has the best of me and I’m still excited. I’ve got three locations I’ll try, each a bit further from the city. I actually may go farther out right away so I’ll have a longer drive and get in even later, not sure if that’s smart but it’s usually not as pressured and has quite a few acorn trees. I’ve got rain gear so I’ll be out in rain if need be and I’m just not going to let less than ideal weather cancel what I planned for (except lightning, I’ve been informed I don’t have the live insurance for that).
 
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