My 2019 Iowa season

Opening day of the Iowa early muzzle loader season. Connor did not make it out, me and Devon did not see any deer. Dad saw one nice doe but no shot oppurtunity. That was the morning sit.

For the afternoon the rain stopped about 4 30. With the rising water I'm blocked from the stand I sat this morning. I decided to lean against a tree in a field edge.

My evening view
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Recap from last night.
After dads shot I wait for a txt. Usually he will txt that he needs help tracking or loading a deer or tells me to keep hunting. A half hour goes by and no txt. I try and call him but no answer. Just to make sure everything is ok I pack up and drive around to the other side of the farm.

His stand is in a wooded slough between a picked corn field and a small crp field. I walk around the slough and find dad looking for blood in the crp field. We go back to his stand and he shows me what happened. He is color blind so sometimes he has a hard time seeing blood.

Turns out the doe was behind his stand about 70 yards and behind some brush. While trying to shoot behind the stand, fighting his safety harness thats strapped to the tree, and the brush he feels he rushed the shot . I take a look around and find a few pieces of belly hair. Clean and white I'm sure she just got a hair cut. I do follow where she ran but no blood.

With about 45 minutes of light left he gets back in his stand and I go to a stand on the other side of crp. Both Connor and Devon passed on small deer.

My view from the crp.
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Sorry for putting this off for awhile. Its been a busy month.

OK the 2 bucks were shot sunday evening of opening weekend. I was sitting on the same field edge as the night before. I am sitting right on the boundary fence facing southwest, the wind is blowing from west to east. Its all timber behind me on the other property that I know deer like to use. Do to the high water that timber is somewhat secluded. Im expecting the deer to come out to my southwest. After about an hour I hear twigs snap behind me. I know that deer will come out to my east wich is directly down wind. As soon as I saw the little buck step out he got my wind and was gone. About a half hour later a nice doe did exactly what the small buck had done. Another half hour goes by and twigs snap again right behind me but really close. I slowly turned my head and theres a deer turning at about 6 yards. It turned so fast that I didn't get a look if it was a buck or a doe. At this point Im thinking I need to set up different but theres only about 45 minutes of light left so I don't really want to get up and move and stir things up.

With about 30 minutes left once again I hear twigs snap behind me. Im hoping this deer will follow the same path as the first 2. I reposition the way I am sitting and get the gun up to my shoulder. If this deer does the same I know its coming out directly down wind. My only hope is that it gives me a few seconds for a possible shot before it winds me. I don't know if something was wrong with his nose or he just didn't care but he steps right out in the open at about 60 yards and puts his head down to eat. Watching this through my scope it only took a few seconds to center the reticle and let fly. He spun around and back in the timber he goes. I hear him go down so I wait about 10 minutes and walk over to find blood. I don't want to track him yet but just checking for a hit. Just as I see good blood on the corn stalks I hear my son Devon fire one off on the other side of the property.My nfirst thought was 2 deer down on a sunday night. Im on my own for butchering on Monday.

In Iowa it is legal to retrieve game animals on private property as long as you leave your weapon on the property you have permission for. following the blood trail I know im legal to retrieve this deer. Devon calls me and tells me he will be over as soon as he gets his deer loaded up. About the time I get mine gutted out Devon comes driving down the road. We get em loaded up and back home to snap a couple pictures. Well the boys have to be back to work Monday morning and dad doesn't like to butcher so I spend Monday getting mine completely done and Devons skinned and quartered. Tuesday Devons gets finished up.
 
Throughout the week dad missed a decent buck. From the way he explained it Im guessing it to be about a 150 yard shot. He doesn't use a range finder so im thinking he misjudged the distance. That was the last shot oppurtunity for dad during the muzzleloader season.

Friday night of the last weekend my wife and I were visiting my stepdaughter and I get a call from Connor. He put a spiker down. He already had it hanging in the garage by the time I made it home. The next day we butchered his up. Very happy with how the season turned out.


Connor with his spiker9.jpg
 
Today is the last day for my open water fishing.

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Its 20 degrees with 15 mph winds today. I took my boy Devon to a small dam we usually get a few walleye. I thought since the river is down below this embankment we should be ok. I was wrong, the wind blew right down it. With no walleye and cold hands I decided to put the open water gear away.
 
Made it up to the cabin to do a little ice fishing. 20191221_101419.jpg20191221_101415.jpg20191221_151529.jpg

We fished 3 days. The first day I went with a buddy in the morning. Dad showed up around 1 30. We ended up with 70 bluegills and a couple perch. Day 2 we were out all day and only got 4 keeper bluegills and a few small fish that went back in the river. Day 3 it was just me and dad. About 4 hours on the ice we got 17 keepers and alot of small fish.

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The following day I went to cabelas to do a little Christmas shopping. Ended up with a new electric fillet knife for myself.
 

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