COLUMN: Deer season is coming to an end

OFF THE MARK COLUMN
By: 
Mark Spensley
Express Co-Publisher

     The 2016 deer season is about to come to an end. For myself, I still have about 20 days left to bow hunt.

     At the start of the season I was pretty amped and had high expectations. My son Dillon spent quite a bit of time checking our trail cameras through the summer and early fall season. We felt like if not this year, next year could be really good.

     Several bucks were getting to a decent size and if they could survive the shotgun season and the upcoming winter cold we figured we might be in for a chance at a really nice buck.

     Plus we were getting lots of photos of some nice does to shoot as well.

     One week into the bow season, I whiffed on a really nice one. He was just a little farther distance wise than my yardage pins were set at and I overestimated that distance and shot right over his back.

     He also rubbed a little salt in my wounds that night as he passed by one of our cameras after I missed him. The nice 10-pointer appeared to look straight into my camera as if to say “see ya later, much later.” I never once saw that deer the rest of the season.

     The rest of the bow season was pretty uneventful for me. I’d get some bucks to come within range but I was holding out for a mature buck. With about a week left in the season I decided to arrow a nice doe. A perfect shot left her dead at just twenty yards.

     After that I mailed off my bowhunter survey I received from the Iowa DNR. This bow season I spent 75 hours in the timber over the course of 24 days. I recorded seeing 57 bucks, 170 does and 29 deer that I couldn’t distinguish (of course, many of these are the same deer).

     Other animals we are asked to record seeing that I witnessed were wild turkeys (34), raccoons (8), opossum (1) and house cats (2). This year I didn’t see any coyotes or fox.

     Gun season also passed and I didn’t have much luck there either. I ended up shooting a small doe. Several of the deer we hoped to see live did end up getting shot in the neighboring timbers, and that’s part of hunting.

     I am anxious to get back to the timber and check our cameras this week. Maybe I can catch another doe or a big buck making his way past my stand as the season wraps up.

     Spending time in the woods with both my boys is what I enjoyed most about my season. Those memories will be embedded in my mind forever! I feel fortunate I have a great place to hunt and am very thankful to the owners for letting us enjoy their property and affording us the opportunity to harvest deer each year. This was my 25th year of hunting my friends’ land.

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