"My hunting career changed forever on the afternoon of Oct. 27, 2008," Steve said. On that remarkable autumn afternoon, Steve watched a 160-class buck bed down in front of him, but he could never get a shot. Later on, this mega-giant showed up. At 242 non-typical inches, Steve's buck is Iowa's fifth-largest bow buck of all time!

During the first part of the workday on Oct. 27, 2008, all I could think about was getting in my tree stand. I was scheduled to get off at 1:30, and that left me plenty of time for an evening hunt. I was excited because I knew a cold front was moving in. Cold fronts usually mean exceptional deer movement, and I could hardly wait to get in the woods.

This knowledge came from many years of hunting with my father in the rolling hills of Ohio as a young man. My dad taught me about the importance of changes in the weather, along with many other tidbits of information that helped mold me into the hunter I am today.

I learned such things as getting up bright and early, moving quietly, and covering your scent. Dad also taught me to sit still or use a ground blind or a tree stand to help conceal my movement. Dad taught me the importance of making a good, clean, ethical shot. In many cases, we never even took certain shots because of the area in which we hunted.

We lived in the suburbs of Akron and we had to travel to southern Ohio to hunt on public land. Unfortunately, so did many other suburbanites.

I got to see many deer, but they were usually running full bore from all of the lead flying at them from the many other hunters populating the same land we were on. There were a few times I got lucky and a doe would come running my way. So I was able to bring home some meat from hunting camp. I just never could connect with a buck.

NEW HUNTING HORIZONS
It wasn't until later in life when my family moved to the Midwest that I was able to really hone my hunting skills, instead of depending on dumb luck. My brother settled in Iowa and I lived with my parents in Missouri.

Back in Ohio I always tried to do my best and use my skills, but hunting public land with so many other hunters was difficult at best. In the Midwest, I found that the hunting pressure was less intense and the land more plentiful. With this new opportunity, and the basic hunting skills I had already learned, I was able to finally harvest my first buck in 1999. He was a nice 8-pointer and I was completely hooked on whitetail hunting after that.

In Missouri, I hunted mainly with a gun. I bowhunted once in a while, but it wasn't until I moved to Iowa later on that I really started to become the diehard bowhunter I am today.

My brother, Mike, who was already living and hunting in the area, got permission for me to join him on a farm he had been hunting for years. We did a lot of scouting and hung a few stands. There was one stand in particular that I was very fond of. It hung over a creek bed between a feeding and bedding area. The deer traveled this corridor often, and I hunted this stand every time the wind was right.

page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5