Just got in from Iowa late last night. It turned out to be a real experience. To start w/ it was so darn CCCCOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDDD, I never thought I'd hunt whitetails in temps below 0 but, it has now happened.

When we arrived there was fresh snow on the ground so, we were able to find several tracks. We scouted out an area and found a couple of stand locations and got everything set up for the hunt.

On Day 1 it was in the teens and snowed like crazy for several hours, no deer seen.

On Day two it was three degrees and snowing (AGAIN) at daylight and I spotted 31 doe and one 4pt. All of those deer had been spooked by by the locals doing drives.

On Day three it was -13 degrees out (about too darn cold to be sitting in a dang treestand). After about an hour into day 3 we hadn't fired a shot nor seen many deer at all, we stayed in the stands about an hour and then pulled out, it was too cold and we had to come up w/ another plan because the deer were obviously not moving. Most of the locals were murdering everything that jumped into site so we gathered right quick that throphy hunting wasn't going to be too easy in the area. The farmer had shown us another area the evening before but, it was just a mere thickety fence row down the edge of a big corn field so, we had our doubts but, boy did that change. On day three after we froze for an hour in the stands we decided we might as well try and drive out a deer like the locals, after all we didn't have much time left. The three of us went over to the new spot the farmer had shown us the evening before and we were pretty much dulled out, I thought we'd probably go home empty handed but, that all changed right quickly. As we eased down the field edge along the brush line we jumped up a little 8 about 14" wide and Ronnie popped at him while he was running about 200 yards away (Alittle too much for the ole slug gun.) then we eased on down the brush line and Ronnie said "Don't Move a Muscle!" in a whisper so, we all three just froze as he pointed his shotgun toward the brush and then I spotted the buck just a mere 60 or so yards away standing in the brush like a statue. It appeared to be a nice 8pt or so but, I couldn't tell for the tall weeds blocking his rack from good view. BAAM, he fired at the buck and the deer never even flinched and I said Hit Him Again! and BAAM he then staggered to the ground. We made our way through the brush and Boy what a Buck it turned out to be, a Big 10 w/ a couple of little kickers that Scored 162-3/8" and had 5 more inches of horn broke off from fighting. He ended up placing both of those slugs about two inchs from each other in the heart area but, it took the second blow that got int the shoulder bone to stagger him down.

Here's Ronnie's Buck:



The Hunt was definitely turning for the better w/ that big brusier going down but, we had one day to go and two buck tags to fill.

On the Last Morning right at Daylight a pretty nice 10pt popped out at 100 yards broadside and I layed him down w/ Ronnie's slug gun. It was a beautiful sight that I wish all of you could have seen, it had snowed all throughout the night and he popped up on a ridge above us right as the sun was rising behind him on the snowy peak, all you could see was the black silhouette against the sky. He wasn't a great big buck but, I was just tickled to get anything after braving the cold for 4 days.

Here's my buck:



As I was gutting my buck Dusty and Ronnie slipped down the same brush line where Ronnie busted the big 12 and sure enough when they reached the same spot I heard that auto shotgun rally off three rounds and looked up to see a huge 150 class 10 pter disappear over the ridge. They said it jumped up alittle too far but, Dusty went ahead and let him know we were in the field I guess you could say.

Finally on the very last hour before Dusty had to leave to catch a Plane in Omaha we did a drive w/ some locals and pushed a nice 8 right over the top of him and he laid em' on down w/ two cracks of the slug gun. I was sure hoping it was him that shot as I was one of the drivers slipping through the bottom and jumped the buck. I knew there was a good deer in the draw as I was following some good sized long strided tracks in the fresh snow.

It went down to the last minute but we succesfully filled our tags w/ some pretty nice bucks.

I just love it when a plan comes together.

Here's a pic of the three laid out right before we started skinning:




Good Luck to All

Reloader

Congrats! I hunted IA as a resident for 5 seasons. You can NEVER get use to that cold.

Thought of you the other day!

I was thanking God that I already had my deer and didn't do any Iowa hunting the day it was -3 out, and realized that you were out in that weather!

Nice work!

I tried coyote hunting a couple of years ago when it was -20 here in Idaho. We got out and the wind picked up a little. My partner and I lasted about 20 minutes!

What a dumb idea I was thinking as we raced back for the truck.....

IV

I know the cold.....hunted in -20 deg once here in Wisconsin...near Winter WI.....I'm older and smarter now.....I stay in when it gets that cold.....

Congrats on the nice whitetails.....good shooting.

try taking a sleeping bag or one of those new stand wraps with you when you have to sit out in the cold for quite awhile. Also, make sure you wear a hood and a face mask. you will be able to stay out a lot longer.

good job---what towns were you hunting close to?? got relatives in the southwest Iowa--you know all the years we lived in Nebr. and my dad and mom being from Iowa we never hunted deer there--chris

NEJack, Yep it was sure enough too cold but, we managed to hang in there. That Morning that My truck console hit -13 I thought it was a misread until the Truckstop Temp was reading on Par w/ it.

It was very cold but, I really didn't get too cold. I had 3 pairs of thermals, Thick insulated Bibs, a light fleece jacket, Browning Quad Parka (Hydro Fleece), Tabogon, Hood, and gloves on and I was quite warm most of the time. Luckily the wind didn't blow much while we were out.

csutton77, We were hunting around Oakland mostly, and we got the last buck down around Sidney w/ some real nice gents that invited us on a drive.

I will definitely say that the People we ran into in Iowa were some of the absolutely nicest bunch of folks I ever encountered while on a hunting trip. We met several folks that didn't know us from Adam but, they invited us right into there homes and fixed coffee and cocoa for us. Heck, one nice fella invited us to his home and let us clean our deer in his garage as well as gave us fresh towels and a warm bucket of water to clean up w/. Then another family inited us in for super one night. Just some real nice folks up that way, made us feel right at home like we'd known them for years. It was an great vacation as well as a good hunt. I'll definitely be putting in for the draw again.

Reloader

cold? what cold? it ain't even january yet... congrats on the great deer, by the way!

DGK

By the way Reloader , I recall a few months back when you asked about the possibilities of an Iowa hunt , some sky-is-falling types warned you that hunting in Ia during the slug season or participating in a deer drive there would get you killed , or at least shot to doll rags by trigger happy Iowans carelessly flinging slugs around........

I was curious , after you have done a few deer drives there , what do you think of the method ?

Is it a fairly effective hunting style , considering the terrain and weapon limitations ?

And it does it tend to keep you a little warmer than sitting in a tree at sub-zero (grin) ?

quote:

By the way Reloader , I recall a few months back when you asked about the possibilities of an Iowa hunt , some sky-is-falling types warned you that hunting in Ia during the slug season or participating in a deer drive there would get you killed , or at least shot to doll rags by trigger happy Iowans carelessly flinging slugs around........

I was curious , after you have done a few deer drives there , what do you think of the method ?

Is it a fairly effective hunting style , considering the terrain and weapon limitations ?

And it does it tend to keep you a little warmer than sitting in a tree at sub-zero (grin) ?

You bring up a very good Point sdgunslinger.

I was on the "It's Too Dangerous Band Wagon" when I first decided to go to Iowa but, I left w/ a whole different outlook on Drives.

The Most important thing is that it can be dangerous BUT, it is no more dangerous than many other types of hunting and the Danger Level depends solely on the Hunter's Safety techniques that are involved in these drives. Safe Hunters can do it very effectively. I could tell right quick that these guys we went w/ on the last day had a very good system and were very aware of safety. They all had on lots of Orange some even full body orange. They strategically planned out the drive before it ever took place they knew where each person would be and the drivers stayed in visual and verbal contact of each other. We did have a beauty of a 10 pt jump and run right through the drivers and they all shouted " BETWEEN US!, BETWEEN US!" and no one fired a shot at the brute. The standers located themselves on field edges and in draws that led out of the timber the drives were in so they could get a shot as the deer spooked out of these various routes.

It was definitely a well thought out process that these guys have been doing on the same land for years and years. I felt quite comfortable doing the type of hunting they did. I was one of the Drivers that day since I had filled my tag.

It was defnitely a much more productive way to harvest the animals in such a short 5 day season when the weather was so harsh the deer weren't moving much on their own.

We took all of our deer by "Driving" after we hunted for 2.5 days w/o any luck at all on the stands.

We did our own drives to take a couple of deer by just standing beside each other and easing down brushy fence rows where we were shooting in the same direction.

I can see where Driving deer could be very dangerous if not done in a planned matter but, the way that those fellas had it planned out it was a piece of cake. They killed 15 deer the first two days so, they were definitely doing something right.

It was not near as dangerous as alot of the Bird hunts I've been on.

I like to think of myself as being super super safety conscious during any gun or hunting related activities and I'll say that I plan on doing Drives again one day in Iowa.

I sure wouldn't mind hitting their rut w/ my Bow either. I found some nice spots that were natural funnels and looked to be great Bow spots.

Have a Good one

Reloader

That buck on the right looks a little emaciated.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
try taking a sleeping bag or one of those new stand wraps with you when you have to sit out in the cold for quite awhile. Also, make sure you wear a hood and a face mask. you will be able to stay out a lot longer.

Right on!

I have taken a mummy bag along and wrapped it around my lower torso many a times hunting far northern Minnesota.. north of Hibbing and south of International Falls...Biggest Buck I ever shot was at 30 below... heading into a swamp with a bunch of others to keep warm when the temp started dropping...

This puppy field cleaned at 265 lbs...

To keep the old head warm and the snow out of my face.. I always wore a baseball cap and just put a wool ski hat over that and my head... with just the brim sticking out... kept the snow out of my face... oh, and then the hood of the jacket was over that....under my coat, I also wore a hooded insulated sweatshirt on backwards....The hood of the sweat shirt when on backwards, blocks wind from blowing down your neck in front and also is good to tuck up under your nose.. but keep your eyeballs open to look...

20 and 30 below definitely separates the men from the boys come hunting season....

cheers
seafire