October Iowa Trip

The three AWH Bowhunters left Wisconsin at 11:00 am for our October Iowa Trip in my 96 Silverado pulling a camper for our weekend stay. We made it to our campground at 4:30, with just enough time to grab our stands for the evening hunt.

The weather could not have been worse for deer moventment, with daytime highs in the upper 80's and nightime lows in the 60's.

We dropped Randy off at his favorite spot which is a good half mile walk to his stand where he took his 150 class buck last November. He went off with his Hatfield Recurve and his lonewolf treestand. It is a good stand of timber overlooking a huge CRP field with a river directly behind the stand which creates a perfect funnel.

I then dropped John off on the east side of the properity to hunt another spot on he edge of a corn field overlooking a AWH clover food plot. John was sat in a ladder stand set up to hunt the food plot.

I then drove to the west side of the farm and set up my climbing sticks and my Gorilla stand in a hugh oak overlooking a cut bean field and a corn field. With the temperatures in the 80's, I was sweating in no time. In Mid-August northeast Iowa got a over 10 inches of rain which resulted in a bumper crop of skeeters. I am telling you that there is nothing worse then trying to bowhunt in 80 degree weather with a hundred skeeters buzzing around your head. Just as I was starting to cool down and enjoy the Iowa sunset, the farmer decieded to take down the rest of the corn right in front of me. He did scare out 3 does that headed to the river bottom behind me. That was all I saw that evening. John didn't see a thing on the east side. Randy had deer all around him from the time he was seeting up his stand to the time he left. No bucks though. That was it for day one of our 4 day October Iowa Trip.

The alarm went off at 5:00 am and as usual I had to get up and turn on a light to get everyone up. After a quick breakfest, we were on the road to sit the same stands that we sat the night before. The winds were expected to be out of the south the whole weekend. I dropped off Randy first, then John, and then I parked and crossed the field and climbed into my oak tree stand.

All was quiet until about 7:00 am when I heard a twig snap behind me, down by the river bottom. A minute or two later I could see a buck moving through the brush into the wind going south. That was the only deer I saw that morning. After I climbed down, I went over to the east side to meet up with John. John was his usual sarcastic self stating that the only thing he saw was mosquitos. I brought the pole trimmer and trimmed out John's stand and another stand we have set near the east food plot. We then went to pickup Randy who was hunting 5 miles west of us, he was late getting out to the road, so John and I snoozed in the truck waiting for him. When Randy finally did show up carring his bow, treestand, climbing sticks, and pac, he was sweating after the 1/2 mile walk in 80 degree heat. We all went back to camp for a nice big brunch.

After some freshening up, we headed out to brush out some treestands. We normally do this before the hunting season begins, but the weekend we were here to do that in August, it rained and rained and did not stop. So we had to trim out stands in October. After we trimmed out about 6 stands, everyone was hot and crabby in the near 90 degree heat, so we headed back to camp to change clothes and take a nap.

It was still warm when we went out for the afternoon hunt but the strong south winds gave us a little relief. John sat in the far south east corner stand, which is a great funnel that overlooks a corn field. Randy sat overlooking the southwest food plot, and I sat overlooking the west cut corn field. I did not see a deer that evening. Randy saw a couple of yearling bucks. John saw nothing again. The heat really did a number on the deer movement. We headed back to camp for a good meal and a good nights rest. Which brought a end to the second day of our October Iowa Trip.

We woke up to the same warm south wind that was blowing the whole weekend. Today we would all hunt the same farm. So after a quick breakfest we were off to the woods. John sat in his Lone Wolf on the southeast corner of the large cornfield while Randy and I went to the east side. Randy sat overlooking the southwest foodplot. I sat in my ladder stand on the north west side down in the river bottom. I saw nothing but mosquitos. Randy saw a small buck, and John saw a couple of does out of range.

As the temperature rose into the eighties again with strong storms in the forcast, we decieded that it would be a wise choice to head home a day early. The deer just were not moving in the warm weather. So we went back to camp had a good lunch, packed up and headed back to Wisconsin.

As we drove home we started making plans for the November hunt. We always plan our ten day November hunt to coincide the the rut. This year we will be leaving on November 2nd and returning on November 11th. The bucks should be searching for does, the corn will be down, and hopefully the weather will be cooler. This is the one week out of the whole year that I look foward to the most. It is a great time for the three of us to spend a whole week togeather, with lots of laughs and good times, the biggest reason is to hunt huge, Iowa bucks. Knowing that you have a chance to shoot the biggest buck in your life on this trip makes you really want to hunt hard.

See you in November, Dale

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