‘24 Iowa Whitetail

[Pucky Freak]

I spent about 3 hours walking around yesterday walking in some public ground nearby. I’ve tried to make it a point over the last week and a half to visit public hunting spots within an hour drive. I wish I could share some pictures that do it justice, but there’s some really neat places here in NE Iowa that weren’t wiped flat by the glaciers.

After the hiking, I went to a local farm and planned to sit along a fields edge. I got there a little late, and by the time I got to where I wanted to sit there was already a doe 8n the field. I decided to make a sneak, and had a pretty good path since it was in a bit of a valley and the NW wind was in my favor. I walked south and west to stay hidden, and then progressed up to the edge of the timber. I bear crawled to within 60 yards but couldn’t go any farther without it spotting me.

I laid there watching her, and she stopped feeding and walked further towards me and lower into the valley. I started crawling again and got to 40 yards and was waiting for her to turn broadside. She looked up straight at me, and realized something wasn’t right. She took about 4 jogging steps up the hill away from me, and stopped broadside. It was a perfect shot so I took it.

Lots of smoke, and I was pretty sure I hit her but I’m never confident with this gun. I decided to reload, and when I did I saw my rear sight was flipped partway down. I wasn’t sure if it was like that when I shot, or if I did it when I stood up. Dang it. I went to the hill where she was and started looking for blood.

I looked and looked but couldn’t find any. I started walking towards where she likely entered the woods, and found a drop of blood. Once in the woods, there was another drop where she jumped over a log. Ten more yards, and she came into view piled up on the trail. I was super happy to find her. Only problem was she was a he, and had already dropped his antlers.

Congrats! Yearling buck, maybe?

 

[Gravelyctry]

Thinking it’s a 2 year old - the bases were about 1 3/4” diameter. Also, my son shot a button buck this afternoon, and the one I got yesterday was significantly bigger.

Congrats on your doe, and good luck filling your buck tag!

 

[Gravelyctry]

Following up on this - I skinned out my deer today and something was noticeably wrong. The deer was emaciated, no fat at all, spine protruding, and pelvic bones sticking out. Called DNR, and they want to get it tested so I saved the head and neck. They advised not to eat and to discard of the carcass.

Here’s a picture of the neck with its head and my hand for comparison. I feel bad for this guy, he looks like he was starving and probably why he was out in the field early feeding.

 

[Gellar]

Following up on this - I skinned out my deer today and something was noticeably wrong. The deer was emaciated, no fat at all, spine protruding, and pelvic bones sticking out. Called DNR, and they want to get it tested so I saved the head and neck. They advised not to eat and to discard of the carcass.

Here’s a picture of the neck with its head and my hand for comparison. I feel bad for this guy, he looks like he was starving and probably why he was out in the field early feeding.

Something ain’t right if it’s that thin. I’ve skinned 3 CWD positive deer on our place and all three of them looked normal. For work I’ve walked up to a few deer that look like a zombie and shot them at point blank range that you’d almost gaurantee have something but come back undetected. Good luck, please let us know how it turns out.

 

[BenP]

Reminds me of a doe I killed that survived blue tongue, she was a little worse as you could tell she was sick on the hoof at a good distance. My biologist said she might could have still made it but chances were slim once it got colder and she wouldn't have fat reserves.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Hiked about 8 miles yesterday looking to cut a mature buck track in 3-day-old 1/2” deep snow. No dice. Trying the same again today.

 

[Gellar]

Hiked about 8 miles yesterday looking to cut a mature buck track in 3-day-old 1/2” deep snow. No dice. Trying the same again today.

How’s the deer numbers down that way? On the different Facebook groups they seem like the numbers are down a lot almost everywhere.

 

[buckbull]

Are you guys in Iowa going to get any snow from the storm coming thru? Looks like most went south, but radar looks like you guys may be hit later today. I'm in the 10-15 inch range. It better get going if we are going to reach that, got about an inch overnight.

 

[Gellar]

Are you guys in Iowa going to get any snow from the storm coming thru? Looks like most went south, but radar looks like you guys may be hit later today. I'm in the 10-15 inch range. It better get going if we are going to reach that, got about an inch overnight.

The highest chance for snow we have in the next 2 weeks is only a 12% chance on January 10th.

 

[Gellar]

I left the house on foot for the standing corn about 1/3 mile southeast at the same time my wife was leaving with the kids to go see grandpa and grandmas new Utv. I’m not even half way there and she texts me that there’s a nice buck that just crossed the road in front of her. As I read the text I look to my left and see a shed 50 yards away. I’ll grab it on my way out and get a better look at it.

 

[Gellar]

I picked the shed up on the way out. 6 on the side because of a split brow tine.

 

[Nick87]

I picked the shed up on the way out. 6 on the side because of a split brow tine.
View attachment 355630

Something tells me there's gonna be a lot of bucks with antlerless tags on them, over the next couple weeks.

 

[Gellar]

Something tells me there's gonna be a lot of bucks with antlerless tags on them, over the next couple weeks.

The online deer harvest registry says there’s been 34 shed antler bucks taken in the county so far. The county to the south has 54. 918 shed antler bucks harvested state wide harvested already.

Iowa DNR Harvest Report | Go Outdoors Iowa

gooutdoorsiowa.com

 

[Nick87]

The online deer harvest registry says there’s been 34 shed antler bucks taken in the county so far. The county to the south has 54. 918 shed antler bucks harvested state wide harvested already.

Iowa DNR Harvest Report | Go Outdoors Iowa

gooutdoorsiowa.com

That seems like a lot.

 

[Gellar]

That seems like a lot.

I’ve never paid attention to it before, but yes it seems like a lot. It looks like the deer harvest is down over 20,000 from 2 years ago.

 

[Pucky Freak]

How’s the deer numbers down that way? On the different Facebook groups they seem like the numbers are down a lot almost everywhere.

Same or down a little.

 

[Pucky Freak]

This was the biggest print I found in 2 days. He was feeding on green-up Wednesday from the warm spell we had. Once the snow and cold front rolled in, he changed his habits, but not sure where he was hitting the field corn.

Sunday afternoon I found a heavy food funnel leading to an isolated cornfield. At sunset a doe and a small buck came through.

Cool find. Would have loved to catch it when it was full of honey!

 

[Pahoundsman]

View attachment 355690
This was the biggest print I found in 2 days. He was feeding on green-up Wednesday from the warm spell we had. Once the snow and cold front rolled in, he changed his habits, but not sure where he was hitting the field corn.

Sunday afternoon I found a heavy food funnel leading to an isolated cornfield. At sunset a doe and a small buck came through.

Cool find. Would have loved to catch it when it was full of honey!
View attachment 355691

I’ve never seen one on the outside like that. Definitely would have been the mother load if you had found it earlier.