my deer season starts tomorrow

I have had to suffer through 5 different seasons here in iowa, guys telling me about all the big bucks and pics of the ones they have shot. Finally the Late Muzzleloader season where the handgun season started in iowa is down to a wake up. Winds are going to be ripping 30mph with gusts to 40 but it will be hard not to climb back into a stand and put up with it. armed with longbow and Handgun I will be back at it.

Good luck out there!

Good luck!

get `em dave...

Best of luck to you

Best of luck and be careful out there.

Good luck! Go get em.

Good luck! That is how I'm hunting this last 18 days of our Holiday season, antlerless with firearm or any deer with archery. I carry one of my home made osage self bows, wood arrows with stone points in case a deer with antlers gets close enough to my blind and my Ruger Blackhawk Hunter 44 for any other antlerless deer.
Good luck to you. Maybe you will stick one with your longbow and another will come to see what happened and you can pop it if you have tags for that.
Keep us informed and post hero pics.

Mike

Can?t wait for the pics Dave.

shot a doe with my longbow last night to fill my archery tag. brown it's down during late season to fill the freezer. these deer were really spooky and she jumped the string. she was on the way out when the arrow caught up with her. hit her quartering away gut and liver with very little blood on about 35 yards follow-up last night. decided to let her have some time to die. Took up the trail with my lovely and dedicated wife Dawn this morning after sunup. The blood trail was sparse to say the least and by the grace of God alone we would find it again 20-30 yards later. .85 miles according to my phone later still warm and untouched by coyotes I thanked God for the recovery and the freezer filler. Backstraps for supper! smoked to medium rare deer roast for Christmas Eve sandwiches.

Holding out for a nice buck till end of season with my 375 Win Contender. If not another doe will fill the tag.

Good Luck putting them on the ground Mike.

Congratulations! That's a long trail.

Congrats

yep like a 1000 yards to far for sure. I would rather see them tip over but that crappy hit made it impossible. persistence pays off. I was taught by an old mentor of mine to never give up on a track if you had a blood trail. even if they were 20 yards apart. this guy was a local deer hunting legend and was the guy everyone who hit a deer and couldn't find it would call. he found deer that others gave up on. I have seen some pretty good trackers in my travels and he was one of the best.

Buck Down!
Very happy to get a two year old 8 pointer yesterday afternoon about 5 minutes before end of shooting light. I hadn't seen a deer from my stand sites for two days after a blizzard dumped 4" of snow on us. temps ranged from 0-20 degrees but the wind between 20-40mph made it brutal. This kind of weather make hunting a lesson in survival. the few deer I did see while scouting and in my travels were feeding in picked bean fields. That was my clue to figure out where I could hunt near beans. I hunt public hunting and those of you that do the same know the frustration of public hunting and the hunting pressure that it bring into your hunt planning.
I finally figured out a place that looked like no other hunters had been there since the blizzard and about 1/2 mile in was a hayfield with ravines on both side and a privately owned bean field on the south end of it.
I picked a location in the fence line in front of some scrub brush and settled in on my three legged chair with a pair of shooting sticks.
The wind was WNW at 20 gusting to 30mph and I was facing straight north unprotected by any wind breaks. BRRR!
Of course the buck didn't come out till 5 minutes before the end of shooting light but that was enough to still see in the open setting of the hayfield edge. He was walking towards the beanfield on my tracks in the snow while i was getting ready for a shot. The classic "mat" sound stopped him facing me slight quartering. The shot broke clean and felt good but the fireball from the muzzle brake kept me from seeing the deer's reaction but I didn"t hear the meat report either.
The buck ran south to the field where he went out of sight. A short 100 yard walk found the buck laying about 10 yards into the field. Praise God! I had to walk back to the truck to get my phone that I forgot to call my son Brad to come and help.
He arrived and the fist bumps and congrats were plentiful. It's nice to have a young strong son who will still help Dad. we gutted him and with a little digging Brad found the jacket to the 200 grain fp bullet. We traced the rest of the bullet's path and could see it entered into the right ham but no exit hole out the hide.
While Quartering and boning him out so he wouldn't freeze solid over night, Brad traced down the lead core just inside the right ham under the membrane before it was going to leave the hide.
I weighed the bullet core and jacket after cleaning it up of all the goo and it shed 2 grains of weight from 200 to 198. I told Brad that it was hard to believe that it retained so much of the weight with core separation. we actually weighed it twice and then weighed a new bullet just to make sure. Yep 2 grains of bullet loss. Other than the core separation the bullet performed fantastic. held its weight and continued to penetrate deep and straight. This is the only bullet I have recovered so it is a one time evaluation of the bullet, however on the other 4 animals that I shot with it, all hogs, I have yet to recover a bullet. I guess I will have to keep killing with it to get more results.

Can someone transfer the photos to the post for Me?

Well done!

Nice Buck.

thanks James for putting the photos in the post!

Good shooting and a nice buck. Congratulations!

Excellent!
Way to be smart and willing to suffer to get that buck!

Hunting when it is cold with a hard wind is brutal. I am glad it all worked out to a successful conclusion.
We managed to recover one of my cast 310 grain 44's from a 135 yard deer my brother harvested a few years ago. Every other handgun deer we have had a pass through on.
Great write-up on your adventure, and a nice deer for the freezer.

Bob R

Your photos deserve to be seen.... You hangunned a fine buck Dave

Great shooting as always Dave.

Thank you Guys, as always the feedback from fellow handgun hunters means more than guys that don't.

Chuck I will see you in 14 days or so for some hog hunting. do you want me to bring you anything down. I am bringing my savage striker to have you install a brake on it.

Great buck!

Nice deer and congrats.

Well done!

Another handgun deer, photo posted on the bragging board, this one shot by my lovely wife Dawn. I was on a protection detail this last week and Dawn and my son Brad were still grinding out the last few opportunities to fill tags during our late season. She was able to shoot this button buck at about 15 yards with her Ruger gp-100 357mag with a Burris FF3. This is her second deer with a handgun in three years. freezer fillers are the main goal this time of year as a lot of hunting pressure on our public hunting makes deer sightings during hunting hours rare. As we are found of saying in our house "Any deer is a good deer".
Very proud of her for sticking with it with the short gun.

Congratulations to your wife are also in order. A big well done to her!

Congratulations to your wife! Nice to have some meet in the freezer.

Thanks, grilled up some backstraps tonight for supper. Once again, that is the reason that we hunt.

Congrats! I just put a tenderloin on the grill tonight, too. Had a new recipe to try.

Thank you sir for adding the photo. I appreciate it.
Hard to beat backstraps as long as they are slightly seasoned and grilled to a medium rare. Served hot or cold for leftovers it doesn't matter.