2013 Deer Camp: Arctic Annihilation

After a dismal 2012 campaign, our group decided to switch gears and abandon 2nd shotgun season in favor of the first season.  Our thinking was we'd get to the deer before they'd been run back and forth between the gauntlets.  Along with the season switch, we changed our luck by giving the group a name.  Solon Whitetail Assault Team (S.W.A.T.) hit the fields, forests, and fencerows of NE Johnson County and we drummed up some business!

The switch to 2nd season proved a great idea as we filled 12 of our 14 tags in two days.  The weather was bitterly cold though, with temps hovering just below and just above ZERO most of the time.  We left the hides on 4 of the deer and took them to the meat locker, but the other 8 we skinned and deboned.  On Monday morning we cut over 250 pounds of meat off those 8 deer.  It was made into loin steaks, breakfast & Italian sausage, bacon burger and other protein filled creations.

The pictures that follow show the sport, fellowship, and carnage that ensued.

Reid with a couple big does he slayed on the first drive of the day.

 

Rebecca with her big doe.

Carl & Rebecca with an old buck & big doe.

SWAT recapping a drive over a fallen buck.

Toby's buck killed out of Moosehead on Sunday.

Field dressing

A couple bucks from the Moosehead drive.  Deer were pouring out of this drive.

 

Scott made a great shot on this HUGE doe with his muzzleloader while out still hunting by himself.

Hangin' out at camp.

What does the fox say?

Playin' some cards.

No deer camp would be complete without the Bragging Board.  Here we tally booms and kills.  The exact rules behind the delineation of these marks has evolved over the years and is now written in the SWAT by-laws and articles of incorporation!



The group gathered around Iowa Eddie.

Andy & Steve with a button buck taken from one drive.

Monday morning, cutting up meat.

Stuffing the grinder with one of the new recruits.

Year 12: "The Curse" continues......

Stuck in the middle of my 12th year since I last harvested a buck with my bow, my personal curse continues.  Countless times I've dreamed of the moment I'd walk up on a pile of antlers at the end of a cherry trail.  I can sometimes feel the heaviness of this curse evaporating into thin air as I sink to my knees behind the fallen giant.  I imagine the pain and physical exertion from having to drag him out over fallen trees, through the carpet of leaves on the forest floor, and through deep ravines to my truck.  Then as I hoist him into the bed of the truck I begin burning up the phone lines to show off my trophy..........

Then the scurry of a squirrel below my stand wakes me from my reverie and sets my heart to racing as I think it could be the monster approaching.  On Sunday, November 10th that dream almost became reality.

I was invited to a 300 acre farm in southern Warren County to hunt the epitome of Whitetail Heaven.  It was a "one and done" afternoon hunt.  My friend & guide, Don, set me in a stand, 20 feet up in a Hackberry tree.  I overlooked a 20 acre food plot that already held 2 does as we walked to our stands.  I climbed high, situated all my gear and settled down for what proved to be one of the most exciting hunts I've had in 12 years.

The plot I was hunting over.

It didn't take long for the action to heat up.  A small 8 pointer crashed in behind me, hot on the trail of a doe.  Then a few more does filtered back out into the far side of the plot.  As I watched the feeding does, movement to my right in the big block of timber caught my eye.  I immediately saw a lot of antlers.  The big buck disappeared momentarily as he dipped into a dry creek bed.  He then reappeared in the tall grass between the timber and food plot.  His course of travel was leading him directly at me!  I quick turned on the video camera, pointed it in his direction and readied for what was about to transpire.

Without stopping he walked directly into the plot in front of me.  Walking broadside at 30 yards with nothing but air between us, I drew and anchored at my cheek.  I started to line up the shot and gave him a "grunt" that should have stopped him, but he had other intentions and kept walking.  Again I grunted, louder than the first and again he continued to walk.  Finally a third grunt, louder than the previous two, I should have just shouted "Hey deer, stop!"  He paused, and I touched my release.  The arrow smacked him, but instantly I knew it wasn't good.  I hit him low and back.  In the video that follows you can hear my instant reaction to the misplaced arrow.

My heart and hopes sank 20 feet to the ground.  He ran into the timber and stopped.  I quickly grunted & snort/wheezed a few times, hoping to override his instincts and bring him back.  All that did was garner a few looks and bring a different buck crashing in behind me.  I watched my buck for over a half hour.  He'd walk a few steps and stop, then walk a few steps and stop.  I knew I had to back out and come back in the morning.  I texted Don and told him what happened.  He asked what the buck looked like and after I replied he replied with "The Skanky 8".  It was a known buck, tall tines, narrow spread, and good mass.  He was the mature buck I was looking for.  Here's the video of the buck as he approaches, but I failed to get the actual shot on film.

I backed off for the night and went home.  The next day, my 7th anniversary, we went to look for the buck.  My wife, bless her beautiful heart, was excited to spend the day with me looking for him!  We drove back to the scene and started the track. There was heavy, good blood for the first 150 yards.  Then it disappeared.  We found a drop or two, by pure luck, over the distance of another 1/4 mile or so.  At that point, we turned our tracking into a broad sweeping search that hoped to simply turn up the recovery of the buck.  After most of the day, the snow started to really come down and we called off the search.

It was extremely disappointing to not find this animal.  1, because I'd rather miss than wound an animal; and 2, the buck couldn't have given me a more golden opportunity.  A big thanks to Don for sharing his land and deer with me; and an even bigger thanks to my wife for giving up almost the entire day to help me search.  Moving forward, the daydreams continue, as does the curse.......

Various hunts

I've been on a few hunts since my last post and taken a few pics each time I've been out.  I have a longer story about a big buck encounter for a separate post, but thought I'd share some of the random pics in their own post.

A couple yearlings approach.

No deer, just a cool shot straight down from my perch.

Small 6 point buck in the center of the picture.  I rattled this guy in shortly after first light.  I used my grunt/snort wheeze call to keep this guy in close range for a good 1/2 hour.  It was fun just to play around with the call and see what worked & how he reacted.

Turkey top, clover plot.  I stuck a turkey decoy out under me for fun one night.  Rattled in a spike on this hunt from the far tree line.  He cautiously checked out the decoy, made a scrape and then walked right through my shooting lane.  Only needed about 4 more years to grow though!

View downhill from another of my stands deep in the timber.  Had to "open" this shooting window up this summer as I had a harrowing miss on a real giant buck in this exact spot last year.  Still haunts me to this day.

The One Eyed Bandit

This morning I went out to the stand in which I shot the two does from last weekend. It was a cold breezy morning and come first light the deer were moving. I immediately saw a small buck and a couple does filtering out into the cut corn field. Then I saw the buck I had the stare down with dogging a doe through the neighboring property. They disappeared into a thicket and a few seconds later this big beast came sniffing down the same trail. 

I tried grunting but he had other things on his mind. He disappeared into the same thicket and shortly after the smaller buck came bolting out wanting nothing to do with the big boy. The smaller buck was respectable, probably a 130 inch deer and as he came by my stand at 10 yards broadside I had a hard time not shooting but I knew the big one was in the area so I held off.  

I watched the doe run circles in and out of the thicket with the big guy in tow. They disappeared behind me and things calmed down. About 10 minutes later I heard footsteps and saw the hot doe coming towards my stand. She crossed the fence and ran by me at 20 yards. I saw the big guy trailing her about 30 yards behind so I grabbed my bow but he saw me. He flared out away from my stand about 20 more yards and stopped at the fence.  If he crossed he would have to come 10 yards and I'd have the same 40 yard shot as I had on the two does a week ago. Time stood still.

He knew I was there but his hot doe was on my side of the fence.  His carnal needs finally overwhelmed his common sense and he crossed the fence. I was already at full draw.  I got him stopped broadside when he got in the clear. I lined up my 3rd pin for the 3rd time in the exact same spot and let er rip.  My heart sank as I heard a loud crack and watched the buck take off with my arrow sticking out of the side of his head. 

I honestly can't tell you what happened. The only thing I can think of is that in the excitement maybe my anchor points were off and it threw off my sights. I wish I knew. I really wished I would have missed. I watched him stop about 100 yards away and could see blood on the side of his face.  I left almost immediately.  

My dad and I came back this afternoon. We got permission from the neighboring land owner to pursue him. Then we went to the farm I hunt and talked to the farmer.  There is another guy and his son who hunt the same farm as me but on the other end.  They told the farmer that this morning they saw a buck running around with an eye out. I got ahold of the guy and he told me his son had seen a nice buck chasing a doe around this morning and his eye looked like it had recently been gouged out but it didn't have an arrow in it. 

Everything added up and I'm almost 100% certain it was the same deer. Thus the saga of One Eyed Bandit has begun. It's a pretty horrible feeling seeing a majestic animal like that retreating with your arrow in its head. However I take some comfort in knowing he's back out there doing his thing and God willing I can get a second cance at him. Stay safe out there and shoot straight (unlike me).

Antlerless Quota Met

On November 2nd I set out for an afternoon sit with two unfilled doe tags burning a hole in my pocket. I wanted to get them filled soon so I could have the comfort of a full freezer while I pursued filling my buck tag. I got to my stand at about 3:30 with a full 3 hours of daylight ahead of me to legally fling arrows at whitetails. Things were looking good.

As I climbed into my stand something startled me about 10 feet above my head. A large, chubby house cat blasted out of a squirrels nest and scampered up the tree trunk. As it jumped to the next branch I saw that it was actually a fox-sized fox squirrel. It was seriously the biggest damn squirrel I've ever seen.  My heart rate slowed some as I watched the teenage mutant ninja squirrel make his way away from my stand. I got settled in and took in my surroundings.

At about 4:45 I watched 3 yearlings make their way out of the neighboring property.  They jumped the fence, and walked past my stand and out to the cut corn field in front of me.  A few minutes later I saw a big ol' mama doe cautiously approach the fence.  She crossed and came towards my stand.  She turned broadside at 40 yards and headed towards the cornfield and I could tell I wasn't getting a closer shot than that. I drew back my bow and got her stopped. 

I settled my 3rd pin behind the shoulder and let 'er fly. I could easily see by my illuminated knock that the arrow had flown true and she bolted back across the fence. I saw her go down in a patch of weeds 100 yards away. Sweet! I can go get her drug back to my stand, gutted, and still have an hour and a half to keep hunting. I left everything in the stand but my knife and got on the blood trail. About 20 yards after I crossed the fence I looked up and saw this bad boy staring back at me:

This pic was from my trail cam near my stand and was taken that very day in the morning. As you can see he doesn't have the biggest rack but he was pretty puffed up.  I could literally see slobber glistening in the sun light as it dripped from his mouth.  He continued down the trail towards me, I didn't make a move.  It was pretty neat but when a buck gets to be 20 yards from you on the ground and it's the rut and you have no weapon and his neck is wider than his ears, it's a little unnerving. He finally made me out at 15 yards and bugged out.  I continued down the trail and found my doe. 

After getting her taken care of I was back in the stand by 5:15. Approximately 20 minutes later I noticed another doe taking the same path the first one did so I readied my bow. It was a carbon copy of the first encounter. She crossed the same spot in the fence and I stopped her in the exact same spot 40 yards away. I thought my arrow flew true like the first but it was a bit forward.  Luckily for me, the muzzy blew through both front shoulders and dropped her in her tracks. 

Unfortunately, it was not a fatal shot so I got down and finished the job with my final arrow. I got her gutted and drug to the first one and went to get some help.

I sold my truck a week earlier to fund the finishing of our basement so I had to go borrow the farm truck. My dad took a break from hauling in corn to help me.  We got them tagged, loaded, and hauled back to my house. After getting them washed out we hung them in the garage. Some of the best money I've ever spent was buying a 1000 lb rated chain hoist from Theissen's a few years ago.  We hung up both of the deer on the gambrel and I lifted them out of the truck with one hand thanks to the easy operation of the chain hoist. It has saved my back on more than one occasion. 

It turned out to be a great hunt and I look forward to concentrating on pursuing the elusive white tailed buck deer. Stay tuned to the blog, things are heating up in the whitetail woods!

Button Bucks

Back in the Saddle

It had been almost 2 weeks since I'd climbed into a stand with my bow in hand.  This morning I ended that streak.  I stayed up late last night watching the Cardinals pull out a World Series game 3 win, and didn't set an alarm to get up today.  Our youngest, Emmett decided he'd be my alarm and had me up at 5:15am.  I fed him and tried to get him to fall back asleep, but he wasn't having it.  I let the dog outside and noticed it was DEAD calm and a crisp 27 degrees!  The frost was building on just about everything and I knew I was going hunting.

I wasn't in the stand 5 minutes and I heard leaves crunching to my left.  One after another, a line of 5 deer moved past me and through a shooting lane at 25 yards.  The first 4 were a couple does and yearlings and the last one was either a big button buck or small spike, but it was still too dark to tell.  They wrapped around my location, seeking to enter the corn on the other side of my stand.  Of course with it being so still, one of the big does started getting a little fidgety and stomping her foot.  This in turn caused the rest of them to do it too and one even gave out a good ol' alarm snort.  I thought it was over, but they just walked around me in circles, seeking to find out what or where the threat was coming from.  Finally after about 20 minutes they slowly walked off.  But not before that big doe gave me about 15 opportunities to put her in the bed of my truck!  She must have known I didn't have any antlerless tags and was holding out for a buck.

After these deer wandered off, I looked straight down below me on the other side of my stand, and there was a FRESH scrape! 

The big scrape

I was kind of excited because I knew I had a trailcam pointed in the direction of this scrape and was hopeful I had captured the buck that created it.  After my hunt I swapped out SD cards in the camera and here's what I found when I got home.

This big boy showed up a little over 24 hours prior to my hunt.  He's got plenty of meat on him, but probably won't make this fall's hit list.  I do like the forked G2 on his opposite side though.

Makin' the scrape.  Although I have my doubts this is the same buck as above because the time is almost 1/2 hour difference and I doubt that first buck hung out in the area that long.  Plus, I have a couple pics of this buck approaching the scrape and his rack doesn't look as big as the one above.

  It was just a beautiful morning to be in a treestand and I'm glad Emmett woke me up early to go!  Here's some more pictures of the fall scenery from this morning's hunt.  I'll be back out this afternoon for a hunt deep in the timber in one of my "buck" stands.  I hope the action's as good tonight as it was this morning.  Stay tuned......

No Turning Back

 

 

My wife Trisha took her rookie deer hunting campaign to Iowa's early muzzleloader season this year.  With two little ones at home, we had to pick our times to hunt carefully and line up some help to watch the boys as I went along to help introduce her to the sport.  Trish's parents came over for the last weekend of the season to take care of their favorite grandsons!  A big THANKS to them and also our friends, the Hockenson's, who watched the boys Friday night before the grandparents got here.

 

Friday night, October 18th was our first sit, and proved to be the best hunt of the weekend.  The deer started moving early and often.  Trish had 2 tags, one for an antlerless deer and one for any sex.  She was looking to fill the antlerless one right away and then spend the rest of the weekend hunting for a nice buck.  She had some decent chances Friday afternoon, and finally a big doe presented a shot at about 75 yards.  Unfortunately the shot was a miss, but at least we were seeing deer.

 

We had 2 deer walk by within 15 yards of our stand Friday night, but unfortunately one was a button buck and the other was a little spike buck.  She wisely let them walk to gain more years, more meat, and more inches of antler!  The video is a clip of the button buck walking by at close range.



 

 

 

Saturday we hunted morning and evening, with no luck other than a few deer sighted at long range.  The weather wasn't horrible Saturday, but there was a persistent wind that kept deer movement down.

Sunday we hit the morning hunt early and were skunked!  After some naps during the day, and grandparents hitting the road shortly after lunch, Trish decided to give it a go by herself that evening.  It was a first in the Bartlett household, Mom went hunting while dad stayed home to watch the boys.  We knew the wind was going to be strong that afternoon, so after our morning hunt we constructed a quick & dirty ground blind out of some fallen limbs.  It provided good cover and excellent shots in the directions we'd seen deer moving earlier in the weekend.  The make-shift ground blind looked great and served its purpose as the wind was strong all evening, but the deer didn't cooperate and nothing showed up before it got dark.

All in all I am proud of my wife for sticking it out for about 13 hours on-stand during the weekend.  Even though we didn't see many deer after Friday night, I think the addiction has begun to take hold.  She made a comment to me Sunday night that deer hunting was like gambling...if she could just go one more time, maybe she'd hit the jackpot and something would show up!  She has tasted the world of the whitetail and as I've known for years, it's an addiction with no cure.  For Trish, there's no turning back.

Joanna's First Buck

This past Thursday, October 17th, I had to go to my best friends wedding rehearsal in the afternoon. Joanna had the day off, and she was going hunting. It was the first day of her planned 4 day mini vacation. The plan was to get in as much hunting as possible before the end of Iowa's early muzzleloader season which came to a close with the sunset on day 4 of her vacation. Turned out, Joanna didn't need 4 days.

She went out and sat in a fence line Thursday morning and got busted by a yearling. Nothing else showed up so she drew a line through the morning's hunt and came home to regroup.  She called me during lunch at work and we talked about where to go in the evening. We both agreed that the best place would be on the same farm but a different spot we call "the ditch". The only problem was she thought she should go to the south side of the ditch and I recommended the north side. She chose the south side.

The ditch is wooded and there was corn along the south side. Joanna is a die hard corn field hunter so it was perfect for her. She went in until she was 10 rows from the edge of the ditch. Because of the woods, the last 10 rows of corn were shorter, making it perfect to monitor deer movement and negotiate a shot. Not long into the hunt, Joanna spied movement.

She saw it was a buck and as he got closer more of his rack became visible.  She could tell it wasn't a huge buck but it was good enough to be her first buck.  He moved along the edge of the woods towards Joanna. She slowly raised her gun. He was so close she had a hard time finding him in the scope.  She finally got him lined up in the cross hairs and pulled the trigger. The puff of white smoke muzzleloaders are known for obstructed her view as the buck retreated, crashing through the corn field.

I got a text while sitting in a church in Iowa City. "Just shot at a buck, still shaking!" I snuck away and called her. I told her to call her dad and go look for some blood.  She didn't find anything at first but then noticed some blood in the corn. She followed the trail, spotty at first, then she saw something she said she'd never forget. There was an entire row of corn that was completely sprayed with blood and knew it was a good hit.  She eventually found the buck in a waterway and her dad drove right up and they got it loaded in the truck. By the time I got home the deer had been hung up and skinned out and Joanna was sitting on the couch relaxing!  

I couldn't be happier and more proud of the hunter my wife has become. Congratulations, I love you honey!

1st Sit of the Year

I was able to make it out to the treestand yesterday morning for the first time this year.  It was more of a scouting mission than anything as my wife is going out this weekend for her first deer hunt ever with her new muzzleloader.  I wanted to see if the deer were moving, where and what time they were showing up at the food source so we could put the hit on a big doe, and hopefully a buck, as she has an antlerless tag and a statewide tag for early muzzleloader season.

I don't have any good pictures from the hunt so this post is going to be more of a story than anything else, but it's a story that is worth the read.  I got out a little late as is usual with the first hunt of the year; working out the kinks in gear and what I need to take to the stand.  I hurried into our 2-person ladder stand on the edge of a 5 acre corn field just as legal shooting light time started.  Luckily I didn't spook anything out of the corn walking to the stand or bedded in the nearby timber.

It wasn't long until the first deer showed up.  Right at sunrise I heard a noise behind me and slowly turned to see a HUGE doe sneaking out of the timber and towards the corn.  She came RIGHT under the ladder stand I was in and stopped.  Normally I would have had an antlerless tag myself and would have tried to fill it right then and there, but I gave her the pass in hopes she'd return this upcoming weekend for my wife.  She must have smelled a little of my scent trail because she became a little spooked and turned around.  She circled back through the timber and came out in my turnip plot about 75 yards away.  I should have taken a picture when she was right under me, but the thought didn't cross my mind until she was 75 yards away and not standing still.  So for the sake of breaking up all this writing, here's  the best pic I got of her.

Terrible pic, I know, but you can make out the brown dot amongst the green turnips.  Trust me, it's a deer.

This doe made her way through the corn, coming back a little closer to my location, and presenting several good 50 yard shot opportunities that would have been ideal for a muzzleloader!  It made me even more excited for the upcoming weekend.

Shortly after she disappeared, I heard a noise to my right.  Turning I saw a big fox squirrel perched on a down tree.  I have always kept an arrow in my quiver with a field point on it, for such opportunities.  I slowly took the current arrow out of my bow rest, placed it in the quiver, eased out the other arrow and nocked it to the string.  The squirrel sat straight up, still perched on the tree.  I happened to glance back at the plot in the picture above and was startled to see a deer out in it, making its way right towards me!  It looked like a yearling deer, with no antlers, so I turned my attention back to the squirrel.  Slowly drawing my bow back, I anchored the string to my cheek.  The shot couldn't have been more than 15 yards as I settled my top pin on the squirrel and hit the trigger of my release.

The arrow flew true and smacked the squirrel right where I was aiming, catapulting it off its perch and onto the ground.  I heard a little kick from the tree rat and then nothing.  I turned back to the deer, who was none the wiser, as it approached a 20 yard shooting lane.  I noticed it was a button buck and it briskly walked off into the timber.  I was sort of excited to have knocked some rust off with a good shot on my first hunt and couldn't wait to get down later and retrieve the squirrel.

The morning hunt continued on with one more yearling deer showing up behind me for a moment and then moving on.  The wind picked up early and I think that kept most deer movement down, but it was good to see some deer up close on the first hunt of the year.  As I sat there nearing the end of my hunt I heard another scratching noise behind me.  Thinking it was another squirrel, I turned around found the source of the noise in a large Red Oak tree.

There, 30 feet up the tree was a large fox squirrel with an arrow sticking out of it!!!!!  I could hardly believe my eyes.  I watched as it tried to get in a hole in the tree but was unable due to 12 inches of arrow sticking out both sides of its body!  The squirrel made its way down the tree, arrow and all, and stopped at the bottom on the ground.  The arrow had literally blasted through both front shoulders and was sticking equally out both sides of the squirrel. 

I thought surely it couldn't go far on  the ground with an arrow sticking out of it and I'd retrieve it shortly after getting down.  Where I was hunting was near the edge of our property line and the neighbors have a secluded fenced-in garden right on the line.  The neighbor lady picked THAT time to come out and collect apples off her tree!  Not wanting to make a "scene" by either flinging arrows at a crippled squirrel or running it down, knife in hand; I did the neighborly thing by climbing down slowly and making a point to talk to her.  All the while biting my lip in anticipation of going after that squirrel!

Finally after about 10 minutes of chit-chat I went back to the base of the Red Oak.  The squirrel was nowhere to be found.  I conducted a grid search of the immediate area, turning up nothing.  I looked up into every tree too, but no arrow or squirrel perched up high.  I tried to find a blood trail, but only found one drop of blood by the base of the tree.  The Terminator Squirrel had literally disappeared, taking my good arrow with it!

I spent most of the day at the property, making final preparations for the weekend ahead.  I took the time on several occasions to do more searching, but in the end was unable to find the squirrel or the arrow.  I truly think it will turn up in the near future as more leaves and vegetation disappear.

Nonetheless it was an exciting hunt.  Hopefully this weekend will provide even more excitement in the form of 2 dead deer by the hands of my wife and her muzzleloader!  Stay tuned........

Trail Cam Update

Hello everyone, deer season is almost upon us!

I checked a trail cam today and I'm happy to say I've found two or three bucks to add to the hit list... for 2015.  I gotta be honest, I'm just pumped to see some antlers turn up on the camera.  It's been a pretty bleak summer of running trail cams and just to know there's something out there is encouraging.  We set up the camera on a family walk earlier this month.  I placed it at a T-intersection on our trail system that had good cover all around. Here's the results and call signs for each respective deer:

"Standard 8"

"Future 1st season Fatality" 

"The Funky Five"

"Pointer"