First and foremost, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Santa was good to all!
Just returning and thawing out from a snowy, cold and eventful pre-Christmas trip to Iowa. After obtaining access to some ground in SW Iowa early in 2016, I put in for the late season Muzzleloader tag and was pleasantly surprised when I received notification this year that I had drawn in year 1 without any preference points. Fortunately, we handgunners can use straight-walled pistol cartridges during the gun and ML seasons, provided they are on the "list" deemed acceptable by IA DNR. It just so happened I had a "couple" of cartridges on the list, so the quest began to narrow down my selection for the hunt. My thought was to take a scoped option for longer range potential and a red dot equipped gun for low light sight acquisition.
After much mental anguish, I finally settled on 2 guns to take: my 10" barreled FA 83 in 454 Casull topped with a 2.5-8 Leupold and my 6" barreled FA M83 in 475 Linebaugh with the Trijicon RMR. Special thanks to GlennS and DarrellH for hearing out my selection process
I would be shooting the Barnes 250 gr XPB's in the Casull, and the 385 gr MIHA soft cast HP in the Linebaugh, two proven slugs. After confirming all on paper and steel from the bench and field positions in the weeks prior to the hunt, I was ready...well, except for extreme cold weather gear. You see, the other part of the planning process was watching the weather. The deer in the late season are primarily concentrated on remaining food sources, so it would be advantageous if we had weather to bed up in our timber and feed in the bean and corn stubble. And all weather intel showed a record cold front approaching just prior to our trip. But can there be too much of a good thing? Like air temps in the negatives...before wind chill. That is crazy cold for this coastal hunter!
Fly in day - -11 air temp. Ugh.
Spoiler alert - I did not lose any digits or extremities due to frostbite. and thanks to layering, UA Hunt gear and a case of handwarmers, it was not a miserable time!
Fast forward to Day 2 of the hunt - my buddy and I had seen good movement that AM from our respective stands, and had thrown a ground blind in the truck to pop-up midday on a stubble field on the southern end of the tract. We drove to that end of the property, parked atop the terraced hillside and debated its future location from our birdseye view. Looking across the road to the East, we see orange - pheasant hunters? Maybe a man drive? Gear up, clothes back on, and take a gun? Well, of course, whenever you go to the woods, carry a gun...because, you never know
So I threw the Bandito rig over the shoulder, and started the 1/2 mile trek to go set the blind. We bumped a good deer from the creek during our "stealthy" approach and deployment of the blind, a tall-racked 8 that we had seen from a distance on the first AM. He slipped down the creek while his harem busted out across the flat - good vibes about this spot.
We had just turned back up the terraced hillside to begin the LONG uphill walk when we see movement 750 yards up the hill. Deer silhouetted as they bound over the rise! Binocs up and we see a good deer trailing behind the bouncing lead doe, with more white flags flying behind. They were headed for the creek!
We scurried to the closest terrace and sought cover. I backed up against the grass covered rise, drew the Casull, turned it down to 4X and watched as they approached. I told him I hoped they would break stride prior to reaching the creek - he asked if I was ready and he would try to stop them with a noise...cocked, tracking, rested across the knees, laid back into to the terrace, ready. Yes.
Errrt! Errrtt! The lead doe slammed to a halt with the buck on her heels - how far? Looks to be over a hundred, hold a little higher, sight acquisition and squeeeeeeeeeeze.
BOOM! Thwack! The bucks wheels and sprints dead away. "You got a bullet in him, don't know where" The spirited escape starts to look a little unsteady, and then piles into the frozen dirt. BBD! Wait, did that just happen? That was fast...as we approach the buck, we are amazed at the body size of these midwestern deer. Wow, just wow.
Blessed with a beautiful Iowa 10 point! The Barnes had impacted the shoulder at a downward angle, taking out the aorta, front of the lungs, fragging the heart and breaking a rib on the opposite side. It did not exit the hide but stretched it from the fascia, and unfortunately was not recovered in the frozen gut pile when I field dressed the deer
After returning to scene of the shot, I lased the distance of the shot - 140 yards, with a 70 yard sprint to the finish...All in all a fantastic trip to SW Iowa, making new friends and memories and looking forward to my next visit to the Hawkeye state!
