Midwesterner00
FNG
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2018
- Messages
- 49
So the past 3 years I have had to learn really adapt how I hunt. Now most of this has been out of necessity as I live 2 hours from my prime hunting timber. These past seasons I have become a father to 2 young children, which has limited my ability to pick up and leave for days on end, let alone for more than a couple hours for sake of keeping my wife from going insane. That leaves me with the option of trying to bow hunt around my house, which consists of small pieces of public land that are severely over hunted or wide open crop fields and fence lines of private land that belong to my neighbors and nobody would even think to deer hunt. Now I will be the first to say that I definitely lucked out on the private land. After scouting and putting up some trail cameras, not only did I find a fair amount of deer in those little waterways and fence lines, there was also some mature deer that I would like to target.
After deciding I could give it a try in the open crop land, I set up some ground blinds and 1 tree stand in the only tree that would hold a stand. In the short times I did that, I noticed that I would see deer but they would often not come into bow range. I then made a decision to scout one evening in an area that I did not have a blind or a stand and I would just sit on a high point and glass to see where the deer were coming from and where they were headed. That night a saw the biggest buck I have seen in this area and he was headed in a direction that I felt I could easily cut him off. I snuck down in the waterway ahead of his path and quickly got a 15 yard shot at my biggest buck with a bow. That moment and that rush of sneaking into position and fooling a mature buck on his level in this open terrain was amazing.
That rush fueled a new obsession that I would take into my next deer season. This year, however I had planned my first mule deer hunt and I would be spending all of my vacation driving out to Idaho. After an amazing but unsuccessful Idaho trip, I was left to hunting the occasional weekend or week night. Even those hunts were few and far between as it was very hard to leave my pregnant wife with our young daughter for very long. Long story short I struck out during the rut. I still had a bow tag good for after gun season in Iowa, although I did not think there would be much of a chance to get that tag filled in the late season with snow covering up what little cover I had been hunting during the fall. One morning I saw a group of deer run into a small draw close to my house and I decided I would go sit near there that evening, thinking I might get lucky and shoot a doe to put my archery tag on. That evening I positioned myself in an abandoned acreage that butted up to the draw where I saw the group of deer and waited. I didn't have to wait long before that group of deer was walking up my direction. In that group of deer was a nice 10 pointer. I had to reposition slightly to get in front of them but I was luckily assisted with a couple of trucks driving by that distracted the deer enough for me to crawl into position. I later shot that buck at 30 yards and was so amazed how lucky I had got for the second year in a row. 2 nice bucks with a bow from the ground in an area that has no timber or substantial cover.
Ok this year. 2020 has been a different animal for many reasons. First of all, screw COVID and everything around this stupid virus. I was stuck going to work and coming home for most of the year and was left with little scouting or sightings of mature deer. Not even on camera. Combine that with the 2 kids at home and I was certain I would not have much time or much of a chance to get my tag punched this year. And honestly I was kind of ok with that. I mean how lucky can a guy be? Well with that being said, I did get out a couple of times in the pre rut but I was having trouble getting to where I thought the deer would be without spooking anything so I kept my distance and did not push anything. That lead to this past weekend. Halloween morning and I had a couple hours to go out before I had to start helping get the kids ready for the day. Very windy day so I was able to sneak down into the waterway where I had seen a lot of deer from the road the past couple evenings. It was a very bright full moon so before daylight I was able to see a couple of does down the waterway about 100 yards. Once they walked the other way a little, I took advantage of the wind and snuck down closer to where they went in hopes a buck may be doing the same thing. I set up in some tall grass shortly before shooting light. As it got light, I positioned myself in the direction I would guess the deer to be coming from and as I was doing that, I noticed a very nice buck doing exactly that. He was freshening up a scrape and headed right towards me. As he went in a small depression in the trail, I drew and he walked right in front of me at 20 yards. As he came right in front of me he was grunting and lip curling at what I later saw was a small buck and a doe to my right. I made a good shot and he didn't go 40 yards.
What the hell? I did it again? How is this happening? All I know is I am not going to change anything and keep riding this wave out. The rush of hunting on the ground and taking those western hunting tactics to these big Midwest whitetails has become my new favorite passion. Good luck to everyone else out there, remember to hunt where the deer are and not where you think they should be.
2018 Buck
2019 Buck
2020 Buck
After deciding I could give it a try in the open crop land, I set up some ground blinds and 1 tree stand in the only tree that would hold a stand. In the short times I did that, I noticed that I would see deer but they would often not come into bow range. I then made a decision to scout one evening in an area that I did not have a blind or a stand and I would just sit on a high point and glass to see where the deer were coming from and where they were headed. That night a saw the biggest buck I have seen in this area and he was headed in a direction that I felt I could easily cut him off. I snuck down in the waterway ahead of his path and quickly got a 15 yard shot at my biggest buck with a bow. That moment and that rush of sneaking into position and fooling a mature buck on his level in this open terrain was amazing.
That rush fueled a new obsession that I would take into my next deer season. This year, however I had planned my first mule deer hunt and I would be spending all of my vacation driving out to Idaho. After an amazing but unsuccessful Idaho trip, I was left to hunting the occasional weekend or week night. Even those hunts were few and far between as it was very hard to leave my pregnant wife with our young daughter for very long. Long story short I struck out during the rut. I still had a bow tag good for after gun season in Iowa, although I did not think there would be much of a chance to get that tag filled in the late season with snow covering up what little cover I had been hunting during the fall. One morning I saw a group of deer run into a small draw close to my house and I decided I would go sit near there that evening, thinking I might get lucky and shoot a doe to put my archery tag on. That evening I positioned myself in an abandoned acreage that butted up to the draw where I saw the group of deer and waited. I didn't have to wait long before that group of deer was walking up my direction. In that group of deer was a nice 10 pointer. I had to reposition slightly to get in front of them but I was luckily assisted with a couple of trucks driving by that distracted the deer enough for me to crawl into position. I later shot that buck at 30 yards and was so amazed how lucky I had got for the second year in a row. 2 nice bucks with a bow from the ground in an area that has no timber or substantial cover.
Ok this year. 2020 has been a different animal for many reasons. First of all, screw COVID and everything around this stupid virus. I was stuck going to work and coming home for most of the year and was left with little scouting or sightings of mature deer. Not even on camera. Combine that with the 2 kids at home and I was certain I would not have much time or much of a chance to get my tag punched this year. And honestly I was kind of ok with that. I mean how lucky can a guy be? Well with that being said, I did get out a couple of times in the pre rut but I was having trouble getting to where I thought the deer would be without spooking anything so I kept my distance and did not push anything. That lead to this past weekend. Halloween morning and I had a couple hours to go out before I had to start helping get the kids ready for the day. Very windy day so I was able to sneak down into the waterway where I had seen a lot of deer from the road the past couple evenings. It was a very bright full moon so before daylight I was able to see a couple of does down the waterway about 100 yards. Once they walked the other way a little, I took advantage of the wind and snuck down closer to where they went in hopes a buck may be doing the same thing. I set up in some tall grass shortly before shooting light. As it got light, I positioned myself in the direction I would guess the deer to be coming from and as I was doing that, I noticed a very nice buck doing exactly that. He was freshening up a scrape and headed right towards me. As he went in a small depression in the trail, I drew and he walked right in front of me at 20 yards. As he came right in front of me he was grunting and lip curling at what I later saw was a small buck and a doe to my right. I made a good shot and he didn't go 40 yards.
What the hell? I did it again? How is this happening? All I know is I am not going to change anything and keep riding this wave out. The rush of hunting on the ground and taking those western hunting tactics to these big Midwest whitetails has become my new favorite passion. Good luck to everyone else out there, remember to hunt where the deer are and not where you think they should be.
2018 Buck
2019 Buck
2020 Buck
