waitin is almost over

[picksbigwagon]

I leave tomorrow at noon for my Deer hunt in Iowa, near Cascade in Dubuque county. We were down there a month ago and saw good to great sign, saw a good number of does and the corn in the back field was the last standing corn within 3 miles......It will be nice not having to hunt in rain or fog like the last two years. Would be nice if we had an inch of snow though....

I will post pictures if Mr. Big decides to come out of the tree nursery on a good line in front of the posters. (yes, we do deer drives)

[Gordie]

Good Luck!

[HNTNBUX]

Good luck. I was able to draw a tag just south of you in Jackson County again after not drawing last year. I am leaving to night to be there for sunrise. I set a couple stands and cameras two weeks ago and have not been able to sleep since then. I keep trying to think of the best places to sit, and where I can actually see. Lots of good looking spots but thick enough that I can only cover one at a time unless I just watch the top edge. I swear deer hunting will drive me crazy but duck hunting and lake trout do the same thing to me.

One evening stand on a picked cornfield, one in a draw and another in the cedars along what should be the downwind side. I plan to set one more and a ground blind for the mid day sit.

[picksbigwagon]

Well, Saturday morning was a cold start to the weekend, we got to our first drive of the morning (yep, I typed that) and my eyelashes were icing up due to the fact I was wearing a neck gator. This was a new drive for our group, which usually numbers 8 but we were down to 6. The road we came in on was literally I494, there seemed to be 75 vehicles on the road and one very suspicious plane circling the area. (more on that later)

As we drove to our spot, we met the neighboring party, they had 12 guys ready to walk their first drive of the day, we thought we would wait them out since they had a 2-3 mile walk to go and they would undoubtedly kick deer back to our area. They waited for us to drive first since their posters were still getting in place and all we moved out of the woods was a coyote going mach 5.

As we were getting ready to move to spot number two, we could hear the big group start shooting. About a mile off, we could see three deer heading our way, at full speed. One guy uncased his shotgun and started running around the finger of woods towards the fence line 400 yards away. As I was watching him run around the corner, I uncased my shotgun and threw some shells in. I walk over a little hill and see 2 does and a buck running at us, they went down a hill and I ran into position and waited for the first doe to pass, and shot the buck. The third doe stopped in her tracks and disappeared. I couldn't understand why these deer didn't hit the woods when there were 3 trucks on a hill, and 7 people standing and talking. then I turned around and was blinded by the sun, they must of not been able to see us.

here is my ten pointer from my Iowa hunt this year.

Later that afternoon, my friend shot quite possibly the biggest doe I have ever seen in my life. On Sunday another member of our party took a big 8 pointer, definitely 4 years old.

Oh yeah, the mysterious plane: Well after I had shot my buck and we had it loaded up, a green ford pickup truck was pulled off talking to the large group who had returned to get their trucks. One of our trucks stopped to talk with the group and after 4-5 minutes and telling them about the buck in our truck, he realized, oh, you're DNR. We drove by the vehicles and were heading back to the farm when the DNR came racing up the road with lights a flashing. We all had our licenses and id's, etc. The officer was really nice and was just checking tags and vehicles. I asked him as we were small talking with him, if the plane circling over was the DNR plane, he hesitated and said there were a lot of different planes flying around this morning weren't there. There wasn't, but when a lone stretch of gravel road has 75 vehicles on it all parked in different fields, and there are 100 guys in orange in various fields and draws, it makes it really easy for the DNR plane to send him our way. This is not the first year we have seen the plane, but the first time we have been checked. In fact it was the first time I have ever been checked while deer hunting, fishing or pheasant hunting.

Long day at work today, the 5;30 hour drive home yesterday took 7 hours

[BuckSutherland]

So you got checked by the game warden?

Are you going to sue the IA DNR for profiling you?? They shouldnt be allowed to check you like that.

[harvey lee]

NO profiling, seem's only non white's claim they are profiled.

By the way, congrats on a very nice buck.

[96trigger]

Nice looking buck, congrats.