My 2017 Iowa Hunt
 

I just returned from a week of DIY bow hunting in south/central Iowa. I had a fantastic hunt. Every sit I saw bucks chasing doe.

On the third morning I had a mature buck come in around 7:45AM. He approached from my left and as soon as I saw him I knew I was going to try and get a shot. A medium size buck by Iowa standards, he was a giant to me. I released an arrow at 15 yards and watched him disappear into the ravine. I thought I made a good shot, but backed out to give him some time. We went back in after 2.5 hours and began the tracking. He went about 150 yards and lay at the top of a finger Ridge.

He dressed out at 185lbs. He is a 9pt with an 18”inside spread and grossed 126”. What amazed me the most was seeing bucks every day chasing doe and grunting. Even got to watch a couple of bucks fight for about 10 minutes. As a bonus, my partner also took a beautiful 11pt 129” buck on the ground by rattling him in. An exciting week for us!

My partners 11pt and pics of him fighting.

Nice deer!
Sounds like you had a good show to enjoy there. Wish I'd get to see bucks fight this year.
That pic of your shadow, with you standing up high on the tree, looks scary.

That stand was about 20’ up. Wasn’t that bad, just need to strap in and be careful.

Great hunt, nice buck

I had sent in the tooth of my buck to be aged. Received the results yesterday. He was a 5.5 year old.

Great trip Rob for both you and your hunting partner. Both beautiful bucks and you got some great pictures as usual. That is a really old buck at least from the home standards we live in. I bet there aren't all that many 5 year old bucks in the Green Mountain State. Great trip and I am happy for you. The tree stand shadow picture should be framed and go on the wall. Really cool shot.

I didn't catch this the first time through, but great buck. Congrats to to you!

Good buck. way to go.

Nice deer congrats to both you