Bottom of the Ninth Iowa Giant
I have had the desire of bowhunting Midwest whitetails since I was a kid. Then in October 2013 I booked a hunt with Southwest Iowa Outfitters. It should have only taken me 3 years to draw; however, with the growing popularity of non-resident hunters applying in Iowa it took me 4 years. The hunt started November 6th and went through November 12th. The first 2 days were good but no shooters showed themselves in bow range. The morning of day 3 gave me my first opportunity at a solid buck. Around 9:30 am I saw a good set of antlers moving through the timber toward me. I got my bow off of the ez hanger and waited. When I got a clear view of him I saw a main frame 9 point with some trash around his bases. This buck made me think really hard as it was my goal to reach 160 or better. After some quick thinking I put my bow back on the hanger and watched him walk away. All I could think about the rest of the day was “should I have shot that buck?”. The next few days were a serious grind as the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. These conditions made all days sits very tough. The last morning did not start off good. First I discovered that my phone didn’t charge. Then I was running about 15 minutes late to the stand. After finally getting settled in the stand the rain came down. Luckily I had packed my rain gear. Around 8 am the rain quit and deer started to move. I had several small bucks cruise by searching for does. Just when I thought my luck had turned around I get a text from my lease manager in the Panhandle of Texas that said “want the good news or the bad news?”. I replied bad and I received “Jason shot the 10 point on the no shoot list”. We have a 6.5 year old minimum on that lease and I had gone above and beyond to protect a 5.5 year old 150 class 10 point. A new lease member had shot him after seeing numerous pictures via, email, text, and on my computer in person. This all happened around 10 am. I was livid at this point and started to get even madder thinking about the long drive home empty handed in Iowa. About 11:40 am my luck started to turn around. I heard a deep grunt/roar behind me and immediately grabbed my bow. I slowly turned around and saw a big buck with a flyer point headed my way. I thought he was going to walk down the trail as the other deer had that morning and get a perfect shot at 25 yards. Just as he was getting close he took a turn for the worse and headed directly behind my tree through a briar patch. I told myself I’m going to make this happen and got into position for the shot. I tried stopping him several times with no luck. He was slowly walking through the briars about 18 yards behind me when I released the arrow. In disbelieve I watched as my arrow hit high and dropped him. I quickly knocked another arrow and shot him right where I was aiming the first time. I’m not sure if I hit a briar or just had my bow torqued too much but he was mine! After seeing he was done from the tree I packed my gear and got down. As I approached he started to grow and I noticed a huge extra drop/flyer point! I couldn’t believe his frame size, caribou g2, flyer, and flyer/drop make him one of a kind! He taped out at 185 2/8ths gross. He was right at 160 as a main frame 9. Holding out till the last day had paid off big time!
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