IOWA BOWHUNTER FALL 2024/WINTER 2025

DEER SEASON 2024 By Ryder La Bar

On November 16 my father and I set out on our afternoon hunt. We were seeing rutting activity and wanted to get in our stands early. After lunch we headed to an area where we were seeing the most of the does. I was hunting a stand that was next to an old logging road that I was hoping would be highly traveled by does. On the way to my stand there were fresh scrapes on the road which got me thinking I picked the right stand for my afternoon hunt. I climbed up in my stand, set up and was sure that it wouldn’t be long before I started seeing deer. After the first hour passed and not seeing a single deer, I started to question my decision of picking this stand for my afternoon hunt. Another hour past without a deer in sight and the idea I had of bucks chasing does up and down the logging road was not reality. The last couple of years the deer densities were quite lower than years past but it was the rut so I knew at any time the woods could come alive with deer activity. I saw my first deer feeding in the distance and moving through some timber that was very far away. I realized the does were heading away from me and there were no bucks in sight. The sun was starting to set and I knew it was prime time and time to stay alert. I caught movement of a deer that seemed to heading up the logging road that was only 20 yards from my treestand. As the deer got

closer, I could see it was a buck. It was obvious he was on the move looking for does and there was no sign of him slowing his pace. I quickly drew my bow and made grunt noise to make him stop. I released my arrow and the shot seemed to hit a bit high but the shot angle looked perfect. The deer jumped high with the impact from my arrow and as he ran away, I could see about 6” of my arrow sticking out of the deer. The buck stopped running after about 80 yards and started walking in circles and slowly started walking to the nearest timber. He disappeared and I thought I heard a crash but was not sure. My stand was on an embankment next to the trail and I was high above the deer, so I started to second guess my shot. I began thinking I should have placed my arrow lower on the deer compensating the height of the stand. I called my father and he met me at my stand at dark. We started tracking the deer with our flashlights, but with no passthrough, the blood was not very heavy. Where I saw the deer walking in circles, we found the top part of my arrow and tracked the deer to the edge of the timber where we decided to leave the deer overnight and start tracking again at first light. In the morning, we started looking for blood at our marker from the night before, but the

lack of blood was concerning. My father and I agreed that we felt the deer could not have gone far because I believed it was still a good shot. We started to grid search the area where I was on the top of the ridge looking down and my father was at the bottom. There was still a lot of low-lying brush that the body of a bedded deer could easily be overlooked. After two hours of looking, I started to think we may never find my deer. When we got to the end of the timber block after our planned grid search my father asked me what I wanted to do. I thought about it and told my dad that maybe I could have done a better job and I felt we should do it again. My father agreed to do it again and I took over the spot my father walked previously. I was only about 100 yards into my new search I saw antlers sticking above some brush. I yelled to my dad and could not contain my excitement. This was my first 10 pointer, and taking this deer with a bow made it even more of an accomplishment. This was the moment that all hunters cherish, all the hard work and patience came together with a successful hunt. I was so glad my father was with me to share such a special hunt that I will always remember.

26 IOWA BOWHUNTERS ASSOCIATION

www.iowabowhunters.org