April 26, 2023
By Blake Garlock
During the post-rut period in 2021, Cory Siem had a giant Iowa typical show up on the property where he hunts. In the region of Iowa where Cory hunts, there is plenty of hunting pressure, so he was excited to see a big deer show up late in the season. “There is a lot of hunting pressure here,” Cory explains. “There is a decent amount of public, and the private land I hunt isn’t a lease or anything. It’s family land, but the whole family hunts. I definitely don’t have a whole place to myself.”
Cory hunted the buck that muzzleloader season, but he never saw the deer and only received a few nighttime trail camera photos of the typical. Later in the winter, Cory’s cousin found both of the buck’s sheds. With an estimated spread of 18 inches, the pair green scored the sheds at 180 inches.
Leading up to Iowa’s 2022 hunting season, Cory tried to locate the buck. However, he never received any photos of the deer, and he never heard any other hunters mention the buck. So, when hunting season rolled around, Cory began pursuing other deer. He put his Iowa bow tag on a solid buck, and just like clockwork, the big typical arrived back on the property on Nov. 26, 2022. “Since I didn’t have a bow tag anymore, I couldn’t hunt the buck when he first showed back up on the property,” Cory recalls. “My buddy started hunting for him, but he never saw the deer. He was very elusive; it was crazy.”
This eye-catching typical carries over 200 gross inches of antler on a 10-point frame. Photo courtesy of Cory Siem Cory decided that with the upcoming holidays and a busy schedule, he would hunt Iowa’s second shotgun season instead of the late muzzleloader season that he normally hunts. On opening morning, there was extremely heavy fog on the property, and Cory didn’t see much. The following day was Sunday Dec. 11, and Cory made plans to hunt the typical.
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“The wind wasn’t right Sunday morning, but it switched directions later in the day,” Cory says. “The buck was hanging out in a bunch of cedar trees, so I walked the whole way around the property and set up on the edge of the cedars.”
At about 3:30 p.m., Cory had some does come out into the field near his grounded position. But shortly after arriving, one of the does got nervous and the group headed back to where they came from. Cory thought his hunt was over, but things quickly began heating up again. “About 40 minutes after the does left, the buck appeared just to my right,” Cory remembers. “It was like he was on a rope. He just walked out by me super content and had no worries at all.”
When the buck was broadside at 50 yards, Cory shot and dropped the buck. Cory was excited, and he dragged the deer out as he normally would. However, the feelings never really set in until the next day at work.
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“It’s every hunter’s dream to kill a 200-inch deer,” says Cory. “And I’m blessed for it to have actually happened. It never sank in until Monday morning at work, and it actually made me tear up. It really meant something for me to get this buck.”
Cory had his buck officially scored at the Iowa Deer Classic. The typical gross scores 205 3/8, and it nets 186 7/8. Photo courtesy of Cory Siem After realizing how special of a deer he had killed, Cory decided to take his trophy to the Iowa Deer Classic for official scoring by Boone and Crockett . Cory’s buck gross scores 205 3/8, and it nets 186 7/8. Those are impressive numbers for any typical, especially a mainframe 10-point.
