Another great deer story came to me from Iowa the other day. Steve Hanson, a friend, guide, and whitetail fanatic from Monroe County, actually knew the buck pictured here quite well. “We had seen him several times in velvet and had lots of trail camera photos of him,” Steve says. “We knew he was a monster and I had a client coming in for the archery opener. I hoped he’d have a chance at the buck.”
The client did indeed get a crack at the buck. Unfortunately, after a thorough blood trailing job, they were unable to find the deer.
Steve is so busy guiding hunters he rarely has time to hunt himself. But when he had a free afternoon during the resident muzzleloader season, he decided to visit the same area. “I didn’t really have this buck on my radar,” Steve says. “But there were others nearby worth looking for.” Despite some lousy weather (rain, wind, and occasional thunder) Steve crawled up in a tree stand. “The rain just kept getting worse, but deer were feeding heavily. Suddenly a big buck came into the field. I had to watch him for a long time before I knew the deer I was looking at, it was raining so hard.”
Steve made a 120 yard shot, and found the buck soon after. Interestingly, Steve shot the buck only 200 yards from where his client had wounded it only weeks before. “It was really interesting,” he says. “When you add up all the sightings and pictures, this buck was a real homebody. He had a very small core area.”
Congrats on a world-class whitetail, Steve! Hunt Stats Date: October 15, 2007 Location: Monroe County, Iowa Weight: unknown Points: 17 Green Score: 212 B&C (gross non-typical) Weapon: Savage muzzleloader Method: Tree stand
Now that's gotta be one of the weirdest bucks I've ever seen for sure.
I certainly hope he had plenty of chances to spread his genes around the country, but a homebody - probably not. Maybe it's just the water....
Sounds like there are others in the area taht may be similar, enough to lure a guide to hunt there. Good stuff.
( I bet his home turf was even smaller after been wounded )
Fantastic buck. Out of curosity did your friend say where the archery hunter had hit that buck. If they had followed a blood trail and lost it, there must have been an old wound on it somewhere.
Sorry kh only found the story because there were some pictures posted here with no known story so I hunted it down. Gives everyone a little more background.
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That must be a hybrid....look at those muley forks at the back !! 