November 23, 2022
By Cameron Coble
A five-year wait and a three-hour hunt is all it took for Minnesota native Brandon Johannes to score big in Iowa on opening day of the Hawkeye State’s archery season.
Brandon booked a hunt with Nick Boley, owner of Windy Ridge Outfitters, in southeast Iowa prior to the start of season. Brandon drew a long-awaited nonresident archery tag (a five-year wait). Originally Brandon hadn’t planned on hunting Iowa until November. However, in July Nick began getting trail camera pictures of a rather unique and big buck.
“I didn’t know if the buck was a local buck from last year that exploded into a giant, or if he was a new one that moved in,” Nick says. Regardless, he was definitely one worthy of going after. The buck was on a pretty regular pattern, and Nick felt if he kept doing what he was doing he could be killed.
After waiting for five years to draw his Iowa archery tag, Brandon Johannes killed a monster non-typical. “I gave Brandon a call a few days before the season,” Nick says. “And I asked if he’d like to have a go at this buck.”
Brandon obliged and soon was in Iowa anxiously waiting to get in a tree. An unusual southeast wind changed things up a bit, so Nick and Brandon decided it would be best to hang a stand where it would blow Brandon’s scent out over a pond.
The stand was situated at the edge of the timber and a standing bean field, and after they hung the stand around 2:00 p.m., Brandon stayed and hunted it.
Around 5:00 p.m., the buck made his appearance and Brandon made the most of his opportunity with a 35-yard shot with his Mathews v3 bow. The buck didn’t go far and crashed within sight of Brandon’s stand!
Brandon initially wanted to hunt Iowa during November, but when his outfitter told him this giant deer had the potential to be around during the early season, Brandon decided to hunt sooner. Brandon’s biggest buck before this was a 147-inch deer. This Van Buren County, Iowa, giant surpassed that easily with an unofficial gross score of 207 5/8.
