IOWA BOWHUNTER FALL 2023/WINTER 2024

BONKER’S WORLD WINTER ISSUE

This December isn’t Decembering like Decembers have Decembered in the past. I wish I could take credit for that saying, but I read it somewhere. One more piece of proof that I’ve never had an original thought in my life. I only went hunting twice during the second gun season. The first day it was 50 and I was hunting in about as few layers as I have ever gun hunted. Well, to clarify, I didn’t look like the Stay Puft Man, but I still had layers. That was a Friday and on Sunday I looked like the Stay Puft and Michelin Man rolled into one. As I’m sure you are all aware the weather this fall caused a wide spread outbreak of late season EHD. I hunt in Northeast Iowa for bow and Southeast Iowa for gun. We went to the ground we have permission on to check our stands a few days before the first gun season. The neighbor of the land owner came into the field just to chat. A conversation that starts “Well, I’ve got some bad news for you,” is never going to be fun. Short story long, the neighbor said he had found 42 dead deer in the area. The size of the area was couched in local terms such as “over on our south farm,” “the timber behind my uncle’s place,” and “down by the river over west,” so it could have been anywhere from one to ten sections or even more. He was concerned, rightfully so, about how many more carcasses

would be found when his family hunted their ground. When we walked through the timber and fields between out stands there wasn’t much sign. Trails that in past years had looked well used were now covered with leaves and looked like they hadn’t been used at all. Areas that were usually full of rubs and scrapes were devoid of any buck sign at all. Sure, there were deer tracks in the fields, but what stood out to me was the amount of wast grains, this year it was beans, still in the field. I started to get an uneasy feeling. The first day we were able to go hunting during the second gun season was, as I said above, the 50 degree Friday. We were running a little late so instead of hunting the tree stands we went to a different part of the farm. I always sit behind an old shed in a grassy draw and my son sits a 100 yards or so away on the back of a pond dike. It was a very pleasant sit, warm, partly cloudy, the slight breeze was in my favor, the D9 that was building a terrace 200 yards away wasn’t too bothersome, nor was it in the direction I was watching. As I recall it was a two mini Kit Kat, one mini Snickers and a half bottle of water sit, so call it two hours. I didn’t see anything, I heard very few shots and one of the shots was probably quarter mile away. Was the weather too

warm? Was the D9 an issue? Did I stink more than normal? I met my son on the walk back to the truck. He reported that he had seen deer and he showed me the pics. Two really nice bucks and two does. All in various stages of decomposition. The land owner had heard the same shot we did and drove over in his side by side to see if we needed any help getting deer hauled out. We told him what my son had seen and he wasn’t surprised. The groups that hunt the area first season had reported a down year as well. We were hunting with regular tags and depredation tags. I told him that I thought mother nature may have taken care of his deer problem. We made it back down for closing day. Talk about weather change, hardly 36 hours later it was cloudy, 35 degrees with a west wind at 15. The tree stands are about a half mile from where we park. I walked to my stand with several light layers on and used a backpack to carry my heavy outer layers. Once I get up in the stand I usually wait until I’m chilly to add layers. Not that day. When I got to the stand I put it all on. I’ve hunted colder temps and stronger winds, but I think my ability to withstand the cold decreases exponentially every year I hunt, so I would say by next year the 50 degree days with a slight breeze will feel terrible.

16 IOWA BOWHUNTERS ASSOCIATION

www.iowabowhunters.org