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Rachel Swanke  Cedar
Rapids, IA
Rachel (age 14) shot her 7th deer with her bow last night (10-25-2007). We got to the stand at 5:30 (late start with school & work) and 10 minutes later we had a group of 12 turkeys scratching on the hillside in front of us. I told Rachel that with all the commotion on the ground I thought it might be a good time to rattle. Shortly after starting the rattling session, Rachel said she could see a buck approaching. It was a 100" class, 8 pointer and it passed by our tree at 15 yards. Rachel said she wanted to wait for something bigger. The buck walked off and began chasing a doe. I rattled again at last light and immediately could hear a buck busting tree limbs and scraping the ground. Rachel said that another buck was approaching and that this one was a shooter. The buck walked in directly toward our tree but after not seeing any deer in the area, turned and walked directly away. I grunted at him, he stopped, looked, and continued on. I grunted at him a second time and had the same result. So, with the deer 35 yards out and walking away I tried as a last ditch effort a quick, sharp rattle. To my surprise the buck turned and walked straight back to our tree. I stopped him broadside at 8 yards with a bleat. Rachel's low-light shot wouldn't have won any 3-D archery competitions but the deer only made it 50 yards. ent ones.   Mike Grossman's
Story
I was laying up watching bedding
cover to
figure out some day end patterns, I hoped. As I watch the deer start to
filter from cover towards the fence row I sat in one doe with a pair of
fawns would stop and give away the location of other deer as she
stopped feeding and stared in their direction. I glassed several deer
as she pointed them out. As I watched her at about 150 yards she seemed
to lock in on me. I was in a thin fence row and the sun was behind me
but I was still shocked that she picked me off. As this continued for
several minutes suddenly I notice movement just 6 yards in front of me
and left. I thought one of these does had snuck in on me. The antlers
came clear of the cover and there I stood empty handed with this guy
below me at 3 yards. He wanted to cross the fence right under my tree
but I had trimmed a limb and let it fall over the wire at that
crossing. He just looked at the limb backed up and move to a crossing
twenty yards from my tree. As he was coming clear I drew and my arrow
fell from the string making plenty of noise. He was stopped broad side
at 20 yards and watched me nock the arrow that I soon sent his way. I
blew through both shoulders as I believe I may have had a slight
defection, he kicked and the arrow broke somewhere near the middle. He thundered into the corn I what his advance
through the stock movement. He stopped at 75 yards, with in the next
few minutes all movement stops until he crashed or so I thought. After
30 minutes I crawled down inspected the impact sight and the arrow.
There was blood everywhere. I follow the trail in the fourth row of
corn from the field edge until I came upon two plate size pools of
jelly like frothy lung blood. The trail stopped and no buck. I looked
for sign of his direction and was very concerned that I had bumped him.
Suddenly I can hear him stumbling back the way he had come. I moved
slowly, disappointed with myself for complicating my recovery. As I
near the fence he crossed just prior the shot I heard him hit the river
just yards ahead of me. I jumped the fence and hustled to the high bank
over looking the river, there he was. He was nearly done, head up,
front legs on an island ten yards out into the river. I put a finisher
into him and he rolled over into the current and began floating rather
quickly down stream. I skid down the embankment at an angle to
intercept the floater. Lucky he came close enough to my bank for me to
reach out and snag his rear leg. As I labored against the current and
the floaters dead weight I lost my footing and rolled into the river up
to my neck. At this point I am still having a blast and I have my hands
firmly around Turds rear leg. I had a hard time getting him secure and
out of the water at that that particular mud slide but I finally did.
My new indestructible phone was put to the test and passed, still
working after a good dunking. YEA! 25 foot of chain and 25 foot of tow
rope, one F150 and up the bank he came. I dressed him in my wet
clothing and never felt a chill. I think everyone here know where the
warmth was coming from.
I was going to call this guy the River Buck but after some conversation and the fact that he was indeed a floater I decided Turd was a better fit.  IBA Member
Jordan Pleima Jordan Pleima, age 12, shot his first deer with a bow, 10/25/07. Bow; Darton Maverick set at 40 lbs. 85 gr. Mangus Stringer Broadhead Ground blind made of grass and cedar limbs. "
This
was the first deer I had ever shot at with a bow.I was shaking so
bad I shot under him the first time. Slowly nocked another arrow, took a couple deep breathes and made a 25 yd heart shot. My grandpa was 20 yds behind watching everything that happened. He was so proud."  IBA
Member Doug Meixner
Wapello Chiefs Club
When October 22, 2007 Time of day 6:00 pm Weight,score, etc. 8 pt. Type of equipment Mathews Outback Shot yardage 40 yards  IBA Member & Wapello Chiefs
Member Wade Lindner.
When October 7, 2007 Time of day 5:30 pm Weight,score, etc. 5x7 160" Type of equipment Hoyt Magnatech 80#, Gold Tip 5575
arrows, 125
grain Wasp Hammer Broadheads
Shot yardage 12 yds "The deer spotted me but with patience he settled, turned and gave me a perfect broadside shot"  I
asked Mark Bro for more
information to go with the photos he sent me.
This is Marks story The Agate Buck
I don't know about "great
reading" - I'm not much of a
writer, butI'll at least give you the information. To me it's always been more about the hunt than the kill. A friend of mine, Jim Little, got me interested in finding arrowheads about 15 years ago. After a few years of imagining how the points I found had been used I decided to learn to make them. I struggled along on my own with the help of a couple of books I managed to make some crude points, but not satisfactory for hunting. I heard about a professor at Grinnell College (Dr. Whittaker) who had a group that got together in the afternoon to "flintknap" so I joined his bunch and he taught how to make them right - thin and sharp. I got my first buck with a stone point about 10 years ago and my first one with a stone point and a homemade A "stickbow" around 3 years later. There's tremendous satisfaction getting a deer with a home made bow and arrow - especially from a tree you planted and a rock from the local quarry. This time I used and agate because it made such a beautiful arrowhead and a factory recurve so I could reach out a little farther (I didn't get a deer close enough last year). I was worried I would lose the arrow, but I was lucky it was still in the deer and didn't even break. I was sitting in a 10 foot tree stand in a small stand of trees I had planted about 20 years ago and about ready to go home when I heard some deer moving off to my right. A group of about 6 does and a buck moved into view and I watched the buck chasing the does. One by one as they got tired of being harassed the does ran off the wrong direction, but for some reason the last one came by me and the buck followed. He was good enough to stop in a clearing about 15 yards from me and look away. I had drawn the bow while he was moving so I just picked a point and let go. He ran about 60 or 70 yards and piled up against a fence post. Now that I finally got my "agate buck" I'll probably go back to all primitive gear for next year. Mark    Awesome
Hunt and Adventure
I was looking for a big bear while on vacation at Thaddeus Lake Lodge, but didnt really know what I was getting into when the vacation started. There was a full camp of hunters, and if the bears would start to come in, ole Rocky would be really really busy. The weather was rather nasty with wind, rain, snow, then more wind and rain thats the way it went all week. My bait was being hit, but just never when I was there. With the canopy of pine bows over my head and timber all around, the wind and rain didnt bother me too much while on stand. When the bears dont cooperate, the time on stand can be pretty long and lonesome. A couple of times though, I heard the not too distant sound of howling wolves. That tends to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Friday night brought the last night of hunting, and since nothing had been happening throughout the week, I decided that a honey burn might change my luck. After a few hours of smoke, I heard for the first time that tell tale sound of a single branch breaking, and then one more. Soon, I could see the black bowling ball meandering down through the woods from the clear cut. He checked a couple things with his nose and decided the coast was clear, then proceeded to the bait. He sniffed the honey burn, but paid no more attention to it. I already decided to pass up the average size bear even though he had a W-shaped white crest on its chest. After snarfing up most of the bait, he pulled a log off the crib and just so happed that the log hit the honey burner, tipped it over, and proceeded to start on fire. At first it was a small flame, then just kept growing and growing until I figured I better get down there and put that thing out. After throwing my liquid smoke bottle at Mr. Bear, then my back pack, he finally moved off into the woods. But I could still see him in the shadows. He just didnt want to leave. He didnt care that things were blazing; he was going to finish his meal. I climbed down out of my stand and by now I could hear him moving off into the night. What a week I said to myself, I finally had the chance to pass up a bear instead of shooting the first one that showed up. Vacations and hunting trips are what you make of them and this one was another good one. Even managed to have a few walleye feasts during the week. We left Saturday morning and headed for home. Just outside camp, we stopped to admire a young bull moose in a clear cut. Made a few grunts to him, then he went on his way, and we continued on ours. Of course, when we thought about getting him on video, it was too late. It wasnt until another hour passed that I realized I forgot my bow back at camp that my good buddy Klondike made for me. We discussed the subject a bit, then out of nowhere, a wolf appeared in the middle of our lane down the road a piece. He just kept walking straight down our lane. We came up behind him and almost came to a stop, then he moved over to the other lane and stood there. We pulled up beside him about 4 feet away, stopped on the road, no other vehicles coming, and just sat there talking to this wolf while he was peering back at us through eyes that seem to look right through you. We finally decided to get some video of him, before it was too late. Those things are pretty good size eh !! Finally, he moved off into the woods, probably never to be seen again. We continued on our way home, but all the time kept thinking the wolf was trying to tell us something. Dennis (aka Klondike) and I kept talking about it. We believe in some of the Indian lore about animals and how they convey messages to us in their own way. So, after about fifteen minutes, I looked at Dennis and said - - were going back. He said that was fine with him. We werent sure what we were getting into, so we stopped in Dryden for a couple necessities before returning to camp. Back at camp, we pretty much surprised Rocky and Jeramie. They didnt know that I forgot my bow, and thought we had trouble with the trailer or vehicle. We said no, no trouble, just decided to come back for the bow. Although Rocky lives in Iowa during the off-season, only four hours from my home, we figured we would just go get it now instead of having him bring it.. After a few words, we all sat down together and pondered the situation. It was at that time that our host was gracious enough to let us stay another week, instead of just picking up the bow and heading home once again. So we both called work, got it okd on that end, and yep, were here for a second week. Looks like that wolf knew what he was talking about eh! Saturday night we didn't hunt because of time constraints of putting our tree stands back up, so we just took the night off and enjoyed the Canadian wilderness. The second week, my bait seemed to be the only one in camp that was getting hit. No one else has seen a bear since we got back. I didnt know it at the time, but Sunday night was the beginning of a very interesting time. A nice bear came in at about 6:30 and spent the next hour and a half at the bait. He was bigger at about 250 lbs with a white crest on his chest, but still not the one I was looking for. He kept me in the tree way longer than I should have been, and everyone was waiting for my story when I got back. Now Monday night got real interesting! Right about 7-o-clock, a very nice bear came in all by itself, grabbed the bucket with one bite, and went back into the timber. Very strange I thought. It then came back to eat a bit, and I could hear something back in the woods. Two bears now I thought. Maybe the bigger one is coming eh! The bear went back into the woods a few more times, but no other bear showed up. Then the bear came back in and finished the bait, and started smelling around. It went to the tree where I had one of my shirts hanging high, stood on its hind legs, sniffing, then back down on all fours and came to my tree. I was looking down at it through my tree stand. Back to the bait it went and then back in the timber. I thought the show was over and I could get down now, so started getting ready and, NOPE, guess I'll stay a while longer. Over my shoulder I seen one, no, two, no, three black blobs coming straight for my tree. It was a sow that was at the bait and now has its cubs with her, and shes now coming to my tree with them in tow. Not a good situation! Shes evidently teaching the cubs some tricks of the trade and using me as a teaching aid! But it gets better or worse one might say. She starts to climb my tree and is now sniffing my backpack hanging on the top step of my ladder. About one foot from my feet. And if that isnt enough, one of her cubs climbed the tree next to mine about three feet away. This is really turning into an interesting situation now!! So I lean over and start talking to the sow in a very nice way. She evidently didn't like that and backed down. But her cub is still in the tree only three feet away. If I dont get that cub down, and it bawls, guess where that sow is coming back to?!. So I told the cub to get down in a very nice way also. They finally went on their merry way through the woods! Wow, what a thrill!! Ya cant get that in a pill!! At the same time though, she could have taken my leg off just about any time she wanted. Good thing I said some nice words to her eh!! The next night brought a new light on the subject as we figured out from the trail camera pictures that the big bear I wanted was actually the sow I just seen. My wife Debra has been wanting a bear for a full body mount, and if the right one came, it could be in trouble. Well, it just so happened that an average size bear with a huge V-shaped white crest came to the bait. I let it eat and get comfortable, then drew, took close aim, and let the arrow go straight and true. At ten yards, it just doesnt take long for that arrow to get there. He roared, jumped, ran over to a knoll in the ground, stood there for a second, then stumbled back to the path I walk in on and expired. A whole ten yards from the bait. I kind a like those type of tracking jobs. So into the cooler it went, and in a couple days, was all wrapped in freezer paper. Some trophies are not measured in how big they are, but the experience that goes with them, and what one really wants as a memory when its all over with. This one will make a beautiful full body mount, and with the other five bears that I encountered during the trip, along with forgetting my bow, staying a second week at Thaddeus Lake Lodge, playing with the moose, and talking to a wolf, it will be a trip that Ill long remember. Thanks to Rocky and Thaddeus Lake Lodge for another awesome hunt and adventure! Check them out at thaddeuslakelodge.com. Larry Krohn Board member  |
