IOWA BOWHUNTER FALL 2024/WINTER 2025

BONKER’S WORLD (CONT.) WINTER ISSUE

small bucks were giving him, they were posturing, sparing and pushing each other around. Eventually a giant buck came into the field. Mr. Big split his time between grazing and watching the does. At one point in time Mr. Big got tired of the little guys pushing and shoving each other, so kind of like an adult telling some unruly children to settle down, he merely walked in their direction. Mr. Big’s approach was all it took for the youngster’s behavior to change. Relative quiet was restored; all of the deer went back to grazing. But as it is with children, the smaller bucks once again started roughhousing. Mr. Big did not appreciate their rowdiness. This time he meant business and chased one of the little bucks in the Guide’s direction. The little buck wasn’t moving fast enough so Mr. Big picked up the pace, the little buck moved faster, but the pace was still too slow for Mr. Big so he moved even faster followed by a reciprocal move by the little buck. They were closing the 200 yard gap quickly, the Guide couldn’t believe his luck, pipsqueak was bringing Mr. Big right to him, that is until pipsqueak made it into the cedar trees and of course that is when Mr. Big stopped 25 yards away behind the only tree there was between him and the Guide. The stand off lasted for what I am sure seemed like a life time,

the buck and the rack attached to it would be the biggest the guide had ever taken with either gun or bow. The stalemate ended when Mr. Big spun around and trotted back to the other deer never giving the Guide an ethical shot. And again the Guide watched for a very long time replaying the scene over and over and over. That was the last buck my personal guide has seen to date. If you haven’t figured it out yet, that one opportunity that was lost due to hunter error was made by me. I’ll be experiencing unpleasant flash backs while I tell this story. It was the first day of deer camp, the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, temps were in the high 40’s the winds were light and variable. The stand I chose was in the bottom of a small bowl relatively close to the cabin. This stand is called by various names but I prefer “The very tall ladder stand in the small bowl that is chained to a four by four that spans a wide yoke in a tree that is pretty close to the cabin”. You may think I chose this stand because I knew the temps were going to be cooling off so the air, and therefore my stench, would be sinking along with it. Silly goose, I chose it because it was close to the cabin. The walk to the stand is down the hill, which of course means the opposite is true; the walk back to the cabin is up the mountain. I climbed into the stand about

four hours before sunset. I made the stand as comfy as I could, which wasn’t hard. All it needed was my Fatboy butt pad in its appropriate spot and my back pack situated so the pocket that held the salted nut rolls was next to me. I was a solid 7.639 on the Bonker Comfy Scale, and I was ready. I got out my range finder to see if anything had moved in the past couple of years since I had been in this stand. I was facing west, I remembered there was a major trail above and to the north east of me that started out at about 60 yards away and the closest part of that trail was about 35 yards straight north. From that point the deer could either stay on that trail or come down one of the several minor tails that lead down into the bowl and through several possible shooting lanes. I ranged some likely spots in those lanes and settled in. I’m going to give you some back ground here, when I sit in a blind while turkey hunting I wear a black head cover over my hat, and over the opening for my eyes I wear a mesh mask. The mask makes a nice tent where it hangs over the bill of my hat. I figure the combination will stop any potential turkey spooking glare from my glasses and hide my eye movements. I can’t say that this practice has definitively helped me kill turkeys but in my mind it hasn’t hurt. With that thought in mind I put on my hat, my head cover and the mesh mask. camo head

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