Iowa Deer Shotgun Season 2 2010

Iowa Shotgun Season 2,  December 11 - 19th, started off very breezy and by 9:00A.M. the blustery winds began to carry huge white flakes. Several inches of snow blanketed the ground in a couple of hours.

Another neighbor and a friend of his came to try their hand at taking a couple of deer here at Timber Life. They spent a couple hours in wait on the first day. As for myself I was busy rendering the buck given to me earlier in the week. While working away I heard a gun shot and soon a knock came at the door. They were looking for permission for the friend to bring his ATV to transport the young doe out of the timber back to his house. The weather was declining, no time to waste in retrieval..

I didn't try my hand seriously at hunting again until the last few days of the second season due to lack of storage. I got  this feeling that spurred me on ...What if I hadn't tried to fill those tags?

There were a few Spot & Stalks.On one of the mornings the deer came back and started to bed down within 400 yards of the house.The wind was favorable, but not all the deer were facing away from my direction of approach...

Saturday, December 18th, I bundled up and headed to stand in the vicinity where my Mentor had his two successes on the first two days of the first season. I stood for three hours in the silence of the waning light. The rays of sun playing in the snow crystals, twinkling and winking as I worked on my strategy for the morning of the last day.

I got up on Sunday morning , the last day of the season, filled with expectation and hope. Getting all my winter weather tolerating layers applied and topping it off with my hunter's orange I was out the backdoor. My focus was on the same general area bordering a fence line.

Standing the day before I envisioned taking my position inside a fallen tree to try a shot as the deer were coming back close by.

Maybe you can guess what happened?!?

Heading over to take my place, the deer went running out of the very place I had wanted to hide. They headed back north and then east over to my Mentor's property. I went to a spot that would allow a great shot if they came back over the fence. They tarried for quite some time before going on east inside my Mentor's timber. No more opportunities presented themselves to get back out.

So ended my experiences for Iowa Shotgun Seasons 1 & 2  2010. Time to start thinking about what will happen for preparation in 2011. .. ;)