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Iowa 10-point By: John Eberhart
As much as I love the difficult challenges of bow hunting in Michigan with its 300,000 plus bow hunters, I can’t begin to tell you how much I look forward to traveling out of my home state to continue bow hunting during our gun season (I quit gun hunting in 1991). Unless you have hunted in a pressured area where it is common in one section (a square mile) to compete with up to 30 other bow hunters for the same couple mature bucks, you have no idea how refreshing it is to hunt in states that pale in comparison as far as hunting pressure goes.
I started bow hunting in Iowa back in 1997 and first received permission by purchasing plat books and cold calling property owners listed in them. I always hunted alone and assumed it sent an air of seriousness to the property owners I asked permission from. All three property owners in Iowa that I received permission from owned more than 500 acres whereas the properties I hunted back home in Michigan averaged 20 to 40 acres in size.
It is awesome to go to a state where you can actually hunt a bucks entire core area and not just 300 to 400 yards of it. It is also gratifying not to have bait hunters totally ruin the natural movements of an entire deer herd. You can actually hunt out there.
Another very unique situation is the mature buck to mature doe ratios, they are damn near 1 to 1 (this ratio does not include fawn sightings). The gun hunters do lots of drives and they tend to shoot deer not just bucks. The property owners at two of the places I received permission always take far more does than bucks.
When buck to doe ratios are close to one another the rut phases are extremely competitive and just about any tactic works, oftentimes even when they are improperly performed. That is why nearly all the TV and video personalities hunt in states or on property that share these high buck to doe ratio’s, big bucks are simply very easy to kill.
In the 7 years I have drawn permits for Iowa 7 good bucks have been taken, and the properties I hunt are not even close to the caliber of micro-managed properties the so-called TV and video experts hunt. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you have never hunted in a state that receives light hunting pressure you owe it to yourself to do so. It may require some work to get permission, but once you do you will never regret it. Statistically the top states are; Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, and the Dakota’s. Statistically the worst states are; Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, W. Virginia, and Virginia.
In 2006 I asked 2 of the property owners if they minded me bringing my son along and they both said, of course you can bring your son. So in 2006 I finally broke down and applied with my son Jon. We did not get drawn that year but did get permits for 2007.
We arranged our trip so that we would arrive at daybreak and be able to spend the entire first day setting-up our hunting locations and doing a little scouting. Since I had been hunting on both properties several times before the actual scouting for new locations would be quite minimal. Our plan was to hunt my old standby locations and adjust accordingly to what we saw during our hunts.
The first thing we did was to let the property owners know we were there and introduce my son to them, then it was time to go to work. That first day we set-up up 2 trees on an island which was only accessible by boat, one in a tight funnel of cover behind one of the property owners home, and 3 behind the other property owners home in what I refer to as “The Hole”.
We then drove the 15 miles to our hotel and checked in. The hotel owner had given us a cheap weekly rate of $300 (I booked the room and requested a weekly rate as soon as our permits came in September), and the room had 2 double beds, a large living area for storing our junk, and a kitchenette. If you ever go make sure you try to find a hotel that offers rooms with kitchenette’s, because after several days of hunting you will want some hot food and there is no time for restaurants on short term hunts.
We decided to hunt the island the first two days. The island is about 400 acres of all mature timber and although there are always several monster bucks on it, it has proven over the years to be the most difficult of all the locations to score. Anytime you have a large piece of property and it is all similar in make-up, it is very difficult to find specific destination areas because the deer tend to wander.
Both locations we set-up in were primary scrape areas, but because the rut was at its peak (mid November) the older dominant bucks were mated-up and not moving much. There is no doubt that the pre-rut phase (first week of November) is the best time to go, but because I write about bow hunting pressured deer I feel committed to hunting them in Michigan until gun season opens.
We had several opportunities at bucks on the island including a few 2 ½ year olds, but that is not what we were after. Jon was quite impressed because he saw more bucks than does and two of the 2 ½ year old bucks he passed on would have been taxidermy material back home in Michigan.
It was time to hunt “the hole”. The hole has been a consistent producer simply because it is conducive for close encounters. To the north is a steep bluff that drops down into an area of cover that runs along the north side of a major river. On top of the bluff there are flat crop fields as far as the eye can see. In 2007 Iowa had received a lot of rainfall and many areas of cover in the hole were under water, confining movements even more than normal.
When the crops are up most of the good bucks bed in the standing corn and are very difficult to hunt, but by mid November it is almost guaranteed that all the crops will be down and the deer will be confined to the best available cover, which happens to be along the river bottom.
The hole was not laid out well for morning hunts because it had to be entered from the crop fields above the bluff, and before daylight entries would spook deer feeding in them, so our first hunt in the hole was an evening hunt. We both saw several bucks and Jon saw a shooter, but not within bow range.
That night we decided to sleep in the next morning and hunt the hole from 9am until dark. We wanted to take advantage of the midday and evening movements, but did not want to spook deer with a morning entry.
I decided to hunt the third tree we had set-up, where in 2003 I had taken a 180 inch 12 point. I also packed in my Carrylite decoy and set it up as a doe. My plan was to sit all day in that tree but by 11:30am after sighting only one small buck and one doe I was just not happy with my location and decided to move.
After pulling my steps as I descended the tree, I took apart the decoy and put it in its military duffle bag for carrying. It was windy that day as I slowly scouted my way to a new, unknown location.
I spooked a couple does during my search but after about an hour I found the spot, the only problem was going to be finding a suitable tree. The area was a bit more open with tall weeds and scattered trees and brush throughout it, and there was a maze of runways, rubs, and scrapes.
One advantage I had with the decoy is that I didn’t “have” to find a tree in an exact location, as I would have without it. When hunting a specific destination area without a decoy I always want to be in a tree that allows me as many shot opportunities as possible to the destination area. With the decoy, I only had to set-up within visual distance of the main activity and the decoy would hopefully do its job by luring any bucks within shooting distance.
After about a half hour I decided on a maple tree that offered some background cover and a good visual area for the decoy. Of course the tree was enormously large, leaned about 15 degree’s, and was covered in poison ivy, but hey, that’s par for the course out their. No problem though, with my Ambush saddle leaning trees and their large diameters mean absolutely nothing other than added comfort and cover once set-up.
After about an hour of placing steps up the tree and carefully cutting poison ivy as I went, the set-up was ready for business. I got down and set-up the decoy about 20 yards away in an easy to see location, looked back at the set-up, and liked the way the entire hunting scenario was going. Sometimes you just feel like everything is right, and this was one of those times.
By 2:45 I was hunting once again. Just for the record, I rarely change locations because it takes so long, but this time I felt it needed to be done.
At around 3:00 a doe meandered through and stopped at one of the nearby scrapes as though she was in or close to her estrous cycle. She urinated in the scrape, looked over at the decoy, and headed towards the bluff. Not long after, a small 8-point following her exact path showed up and after he smelled her urine in the scrape, he took up the chase.
This was the spot because as soon as the 8-point left a 5-point came in from a different direction. He gravitated directly towards the decoy and hung around the fake doe for several minutes before moving off in Jon’s direction.
I was thoroughly enjoying the evening hunt and felt like something good was going to happen, and about 20 minutes later it did. A good buck was making his way through the brush and was soon standing over and working a different scrape about 50 yards away.
I made a vocal blatt to get him to look around and notice the decoy. It worked and he very casually and slowly moved towards it. As he was working his way to the downwind side of the decoy he offered me a 20-yard broadside shot. The Carbon Express arrow found its mark and I watched as the buck ran about 70 yards and expired in some tall weeds.
The decoy had done its job, enticing the buck to within bow range. It was a respectable, symmetrical 10-point with a 17 inch inside spread. Not a monster by Iowa standards but a keeper just the same. Oh, and by the way, I did get infected by the poison ivy and suffered through the rest of the week while Jon was doing his thing.
Between Jon and myself our gear totally filled the back of Jon’s pickup with a topper and a Deep-V 14-foot Starcraft boat that we used to access the island. If interested here is a list of items I take on Out-of-State hunting trips.
-2 Bows - you never know when you may have issues and a back-up bow may save the entire trip.
-Loaded quiver
-Target for practicing
-Target arrows
-Tackle box with extra bow components and miscellaneous gear and extra broadheads
-Camera’s
-Tripod – for taking self timer pictures when hunting alone
-Hunting clothing for all weather conditions – all hunting clothing is kept in Scent Totes or other types of air tight containers
-Activated Scent Lok suits – In Scent Totes
-Rivers West suit for foul weather – wash in scent free detergent prior to leaving
-Rubber boots-non insulated, pack boots, hip boots, chest waders
-Peete boot dryer with extensions
-Small electric heater
-Versa-Cart - for getting deer out
-Ice Sled - for getting deer out in the snow and for loading deer into my mini-van when hunting alone
-Ramp – I use this when hunting alone for sliding sled into van
-Pulley system (minimum 50 foot long) – I use this when hunting alone to hook to trees and pull loaded (buck on it) Versa-Cart up steep bluffs.
-Ambush saddle - this is what I hunt from, and I only take one
-Backpacks – I take 2 identical backpacks and alternate them to keep them scent free
-1 of the backpacks is loaded with my hunting gear prior to leaving and other than while hunting is kept in a Scent Tote during the entire trip
-Scouting clothes – I use my old Scent Lok suits for scouting
-Scouting pack – this backpack contains tree steps, reflective tacks, climbing harness for preparing trees, sheathed 14 inch bladed sierra saw, folding hand saw, 2 water bottles, compass, GPS, and rope
- 16 foot extendable pole saw with rope cutter – this tool is a must have
-Freelance packs – these are fanny packs with about 20 steps in each (enough to set-up one tree)
-Decoys – I take a Carrylite and a Montana (Montana is for packing in long distances)
-Street clothes – for traveling, going to Laundromat, or going to eat.
-Money
-Overnight bag with all non scent toiletries, alarm clocks, extra batteries, Z-pack (Z-pack is a prescription so that if I get sick on the trip it will clear it up quicker), decongestant tablets, etc.
-License’s
-State map with individual counties listing back roads
-Plat books of any counties I will be hunting
-Aerial photo’s of any property I plan on hunting
-Phone numbers of property owners
-Scents-tarsal glands – I rarely use scents but I take some just in case a situation presents itself
-Extra reflective tacks
-Flagging tape – I have never used it but may someday while blood trailing
-Slim fast – replaces breakfast
-Flashlights
-Non-scent laundry detergent
-Large coolers for putting meat in
-Extra tree steps
-Food is purchased when I get there
