I think this is from 2009, a year I had horrible bow luck
What a long and arduous Iowa season. Long story short I missed one great buck, lost another, and have been really down in the dumps. I walked a very large chunk of private ground looking for my lost buck and happened upon another hunters buck. I called the landowner and told him about it as well as the 4 sheds I found while looking. He said to just pile them up and he'd take care of the head for the neighbor. At this point I was hoping for some karma rather than hoarding some sheds and a stinky rotten deer head. I hunted Thursday morning in Iowa and saw zero deer, I was bummed but yet excited to head to Illinois to meet up with Jarin and his family.
We did the usual hellos on Thursday night and Friday I was directed to a stand where they had been seeing a lot of deer... I got skunked while everyone else saw deer after deer. I just shook my head and went to help Steve (Jarin's bro) find a wheeler to get his buck and doe out. After lunch I got antsy and couldn't decide where to go. I wanted to hunt "The Knob" but Steve Sr kept saying that place sucked while the brothers said it didn't. There are awesome thigh sized rubs all over the place and long story short again I decided to go with my gut feeling from two days before and finally hunt "The Knob". I hiked across a 300 acre picked bean field and thought, "No way in heck a deer will be up there after watching me come in" and shortly after crossing the creek into the timber I was rewarded by seeing a deer's hind end. I quickly went into stealth mode and stalked to a big tree for some glassing. It appeared to be a very nice heavy 8 pointer so I closed the distance a little more wanting to get a better look at him. Two trees and 70 yards from the buck I noticed he bedded down where I could only see his neck and head. At this point I thought he was tending a doe so didn't want to push it. As he was in super thick cover I knew I'd probably not get another shot so I leaned on downed log that was laying against a tree (ROCK solid) and squeezed off a shot into the upper neck. He didn't flinch.
As I walked up the buck just grew and grew. There was junk all over and the mass is incredible. We had finally found the culprit to the thigh sized rubs all over the place! I texted a few people and sat down to start/finish my king size Skittles while I waited for Steve to come give me a hand. Closer inspection reveals a very disgusting gore wound on his right side giving way to a 12x6 inch oval pus pocket oozing with bacteria. We all think this deer was coming up to the thick bedding cover on the knob to die, he stunk and was severely run down, I think I did him a favor with that well placed bullet. Although this deer isn't "huge" he is something I've dreamed about for a long time. Multiple browtines and tons of character, oh yeah, his one base is right at 9 inches and the other is 8 1/2 inches on the burrs. Not super wide and no points over 7 inches with well worn teeth, my best guess is 7+ years old.
I named him Junk Food because that morning I had consumed 8 pop tarts, a king size bag of milk duds, a snickers, and a topped it off with a king size skittles. He was also the very first, and ONLY deer, I saw while hunting in Illinois. Pretty crazy, and I believe the karma has paid off and if I don't climb up again this year I am satisfied.
I am probably done with hunting this year for awhile, both girls have pink eye, double ear infections, and just came down with bronchitis this morning. I had to leave at 0430 in the morning to come back early and help out with more important things. I feel quite fortunate to wrap a tag on something this year. I will take better pics tomorrow, but until then you have to make due with these.
