Jared Robinson is an avid bowhunter, but he's also a hard-working farmer, and as such he always has to put work ahead of hunting. But when the skies open up and it's too wet to work, Jared grabs his bow and heads for the woods!
By Randy Templeton
As the 2007 archery season got under way in Iowa, 25-year-old Jared Robinson of Lenox hoped to see the huge double-main-beam buck that he'd captured on trail camera photos in mid-July. However, since he hadn't seen this awesome buck for nearly two months, he was sure the deer had pulled a disappearing act in early September.
Jared Robinson is the first to admit that if it hadn't rained on Oct. 16, 2007, he never would have been hunting in his tree stand. He knew this 207 4/8-inch monster was in the area, through trail camera photos and one previous sighting, and everything seemed to fall into place on that magical rainy afternoon!
Since mature bucks often go totally nocturnal after breaking away from their bachelor groups at this time of year, Jared wondered if he'd ever see the monster again. The thought of actually putting an arrow into this Iowa brute was almost more than he could think about.
THE EARLY YEARS Jared began hunting deer at the impressionable age of 12 with his father, Pat. What a year that turned out to be. During the first morning of the Iowa firearms season, the young hunter dropped a 150-class 9-pointer. Two days later he bagged a second buck, a 12-pointer that grossed 160 inches.
Jared's father had been bowhunting for most of his adult life, and he'd taken several nice deer over the years. No doubt Jared had heard plenty of exciting war stories about hunting whitetails with a bow from his father, but for some reason Jared never developed an interest in archery while he was growing up. But all of that changed four years ago.
At the time, Jared didn't even own a bow. Nonetheless, he decided one evening to sit in a stand that his cousin Jeremy Robinson had left up. It was late December. The gun season had just closed, so the deer were still quite skittish. However, Jared had deer all around his stand. And even though they were within very close quarters, they seemed to be clueless that he was perched in a tree nearby. As it turned out, that one incident was solely responsible for planting the seed. Since then, Jared's interest in bowhunting has turned into a full-blown addiction.
Living in a part of the country where farming and green agricultural equipment are a way of life, Jared's career path was set at a young age. After high school, he attended Iowa State University, where he majored in Ag Studies. Upon graduating, he teamed up with his father.
"My dad and I have a fairly large farming operation," Jared said. "We typically raise about 150 head of cattle, but our primary business revolves around agricultural crops. Naturally, the harvest season begins about the same time as deer season. Like any other business, farming comes first and hunting has to come second. Unless it's raining, we're usually in the field getting out crops.
SPRING SCOUTING "2007 was actually the first year I had gained permission to hunt this particular piece of ground," Jared continued. "Naturally, I really didn't know much about the property, and I really didn't get a chance to look the place over until sometime in April. The turkey season had just opened, so I took the opportunity to hunt turkeys and scout the area for deer sign as well.
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