My oldest daughter (21) and I have been impatiently waiting for Iowa's late muzzleloader season to start deer hunting. We use single shot specialty pistols because they're perfectly legal in this season and we love them.
We're in SE Iowa near the Mississippi River and have some nice whitetails. Last year we had the ground blind in the wrong place and, while we filled our tags, we could see lots more deer and two very large bucks about 1/2 mile to the east on the same property. So this year, I set up trail cameras for the first time to see what we could see. We're not trophy hunters by any stretch of the imagination - we shoot the first adult deer that presents a good shot because they're delicious. But we won't pass on a nice buck either.
We got two nice bucks on camera, one big 8 point and one big 10 point. The first week of the season (it opened December 23) we committed to not pulling a trigger unless it was one of the big bucks. We had several small bucks and nice does in range and held off the first few days. No big bucks showed during shooting hours, though cameras told us they were still around.
Then went traveling for family Christmas gatherings.
Finally got back out yesterday morning and kicked off the new year right. We split up - Grace went to the blind on the field where we saw the big bucks last year. I stayed in the blind where we've succeeded the last few years. At 8:15 I heard her .357 Max TC Encore light up. I texted her and asked if she needed help. "YES! I just shot one!" "Was it the big boy?" "One of them!" She took me to where she saw the buck running, hoping he would be lying in the field and not made it to the trees, because the trees mean ridiculously steep wooded ravines. I know the area pretty well and the farmer keeps a nice strip of grass around the fields. We popped over a low rise and I saw a large log where I knew a large log didn't belong in the grass. "He's right there." "WHERE!" "See that log? It's not a log." She took off at a dead sprint, whooping at her success. She shot one of the big boys - but it's a buck we've never had on camera. Very similar frame and structure to the big 10 point, but definitely a different deer with 12 points if one counts stickers. She centerpunched both lungs at 100 yards with a 180 gr. Speer moving at 2200 fps from her 18" Max barrel. We loaded him up and went back to the house to skin and cape him out. She wants a shoulder mount - something we've never done before.
I went back out for the afternoon to the same blind with one of our 6 year old twins who desperately wants to deer hunt and settles for coming along to track "his" deer. This is his third year hunting with us. We sat and sat, he impatiently asked when the deer were going to show up. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Finally, we get down to the literal last minute of legal time and I'm counting down the seconds on my watch. We hit the last 30 and I make one last survey before calling it. Coming from a place we've NEVER had deer approach I spot an adult deer. I quickly move the tripod, and before Abner could even spot the deer I put crosshairs on and squeezed off the trigger of my .350 Rem Mag XP-100. We got out the flashlights and I let Abner find the trail. Looked like a garden hose on full blast. I let him follow it out and to the 8 point buck. Not the big 8 point, but one we've had on camera with the big 10 point and the body is just as big. The 200 gr. Hornady moving a 2750 fps muzzle velocity hit him in the armpit just above the brisket, destroying the bottom third of the heart but also rupturing the stomach, making for a mess. I wasn't really sure how far away he was when I fired because I was so short on time, but I had guessed around 100 yards. After getting back into the blind in daylight today, it was much closer to 50 yards, which may explain why it looks like a grenade went off in his armpit...
It was a solid New Year's Day for 2025 in the Rosin household!
We took the boys out this afternoon/evening in the lovely snowfall we had, but didn't have any deer show up. But they had a good time in the blinds!
We're in SE Iowa near the Mississippi River and have some nice whitetails. Last year we had the ground blind in the wrong place and, while we filled our tags, we could see lots more deer and two very large bucks about 1/2 mile to the east on the same property. So this year, I set up trail cameras for the first time to see what we could see. We're not trophy hunters by any stretch of the imagination - we shoot the first adult deer that presents a good shot because they're delicious. But we won't pass on a nice buck either.
We got two nice bucks on camera, one big 8 point and one big 10 point. The first week of the season (it opened December 23) we committed to not pulling a trigger unless it was one of the big bucks. We had several small bucks and nice does in range and held off the first few days. No big bucks showed during shooting hours, though cameras told us they were still around.
Then went traveling for family Christmas gatherings.
Finally got back out yesterday morning and kicked off the new year right. We split up - Grace went to the blind on the field where we saw the big bucks last year. I stayed in the blind where we've succeeded the last few years. At 8:15 I heard her .357 Max TC Encore light up. I texted her and asked if she needed help. "YES! I just shot one!" "Was it the big boy?" "One of them!" She took me to where she saw the buck running, hoping he would be lying in the field and not made it to the trees, because the trees mean ridiculously steep wooded ravines. I know the area pretty well and the farmer keeps a nice strip of grass around the fields. We popped over a low rise and I saw a large log where I knew a large log didn't belong in the grass. "He's right there." "WHERE!" "See that log? It's not a log." She took off at a dead sprint, whooping at her success. She shot one of the big boys - but it's a buck we've never had on camera. Very similar frame and structure to the big 10 point, but definitely a different deer with 12 points if one counts stickers. She centerpunched both lungs at 100 yards with a 180 gr. Speer moving at 2200 fps from her 18" Max barrel. We loaded him up and went back to the house to skin and cape him out. She wants a shoulder mount - something we've never done before.
I went back out for the afternoon to the same blind with one of our 6 year old twins who desperately wants to deer hunt and settles for coming along to track "his" deer. This is his third year hunting with us. We sat and sat, he impatiently asked when the deer were going to show up. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Finally, we get down to the literal last minute of legal time and I'm counting down the seconds on my watch. We hit the last 30 and I make one last survey before calling it. Coming from a place we've NEVER had deer approach I spot an adult deer. I quickly move the tripod, and before Abner could even spot the deer I put crosshairs on and squeezed off the trigger of my .350 Rem Mag XP-100. We got out the flashlights and I let Abner find the trail. Looked like a garden hose on full blast. I let him follow it out and to the 8 point buck. Not the big 8 point, but one we've had on camera with the big 10 point and the body is just as big. The 200 gr. Hornady moving a 2750 fps muzzle velocity hit him in the armpit just above the brisket, destroying the bottom third of the heart but also rupturing the stomach, making for a mess. I wasn't really sure how far away he was when I fired because I was so short on time, but I had guessed around 100 yards. After getting back into the blind in daylight today, it was much closer to 50 yards, which may explain why it looks like a grenade went off in his armpit...
It was a solid New Year's Day for 2025 in the Rosin household!
We took the boys out this afternoon/evening in the lovely snowfall we had, but didn't have any deer show up. But they had a good time in the blinds!
