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2 stories to share, one from last Friday and one from last night. Last Friday in the sleet and driving rain I finally popped an Iowa bird... after missing 3 in the past month... After a smashing 30 second double in Kansas I have had the biggest and baddest monkey on my back in many many years of turkey hunting. 2 misses with the bow and one with the gun and I was pretty irritated with myself. It seemed every time I hunted with a buddy, they got shots and good weather, whenever I was hunting as the shooter I got garbage weather. Last night was more of the same. It was 37 degrees when I pulled in the gate hole and by the time I got set up I was soaked to the bone and my hands were icicles. It was only 1:30 pm, I had a LOOONG time before I would allow myself to quit. Ended up seeing quite a few birds, just nothing close until about 7:00 or so when this guy and some hens walked by. It's hard to see because everything was simply soaked but he had a 11 3/4 in beard, 1 5/8 in spurs (you can see them sticking out by my knuckle), and my moms bathroom scale said 25.6 pounds. It was very gratifying to stomp his head into the mud and FINALLY wrap a tag. Monkey off my back. Then last night in the perfect conditions I had a cake walk of a hunt that had more drive time than hunt time. Made a deal with my wife that if I helped clean the house yesterday afternoon I could go turkey hunting this afternoon. I had a pre school recital that caused a late start, but I was just happy it was sunny for once. I did a quick drive by on 2 easy accessible farms looking/sounding for birds with no success so headed to a larger farm that I've always had great luck on. After hopping out of the truck I slammed the door shut and had one sound off not far away. I sorta blinked in shock but grabbed my gear and headed thru the old farmstead buildings near where I park. Rounding a corner I did a crow call and he sounded off again so I set up shop. A few minutes and yelps later he showed up and that was that. I walked the 150 yards back to the truck and headed home with my 4th gobbler of the spring. Though quite a bit lighter than yesterdays bird (probably cuz he's dry) he's still a nice bird with good hooks and a full beard. Pics came out real nice too for a phone cam tied to a branch with a 10 second timer. Maybe it's me, but I think his color is quite nice as well. It was fun coming home this time, the kids were all awake, excited, and curious to see the turkey. The boy is getting the hero pose down All together.

Public land here in Iowa from 2011. Kills from further back will take some time to dig up. This morning I was up and at 'em very early, around 0400. I looked at weather, ate some breakfast, and got stuff loaded up. I opened the garage door and there standing in the driveway in suburbia was a nice little 2 year old buck out crusing for petunias I suppose. I took it as a good omen and hopped in and drove to an out of the way chunk of public land that did not receive a lot of pressure due to it's way out of the way location. I had quite a walk and wanted to get moving. This set is on an old fenceline that must have been a boarder between two old pastures or fields. The fenceline is thick, but has very large oaks on it. The areas to it's side are now EXTREMELY thick undergrowth and key doe bedding ares. I was positioned on the downwind side on the edge of a steep drop off with a drainage ditch below me. This location is bulletproof for being winded and a location I"ve been wanting to hunt since this springs shed hunt. Sure enough I had several bucks cruise the downwind side of this doe bedding area looking for love, but I was positioned perfectly. I had a doe, her fawn, and a dink come thru fairly early. Then another couple dinks came thru on that does track. I immediately figured she was close to being hot because they were really dogging her. As I was sitting in stand I noticed another buck in the bottoms and grunted to him a couple times. As I was glassing him all of a sudden to my right the timber just freaking blew up. I looked over slowly to see a very nice looking buck taking his frustrations out on a tree. I can only assume he was following that does track and heard my grunting and came in blind. He worked that tree over, made a scrape, peed in it and on himself and then started my way. Every step he would grunt loudly and posture and then after a few more steps he would stop and repeat the process. In total he made 5 scrapes and rubs in an EXTREMELY aggressive manner. I don't really know what happened when he got to 30 yards, I drew my bow knowing that he was smaller than any buck I've shot in 5 years but I didn't care. I was shaking on adreneline and this buck was about 30 seconds from taking on a Grim Reaper tipped carbon lollipop. When he stopped at 18 yards I punched him. He took 2 bounds and I was certain he was in deep trouble as he was REALLY pumping blood. I never saw him go down but shortly after he ran away another buck came from the same direction and kept looking back and posturing up at something in the deep brush. I climbed down and immediately found my arrow and unbelieveable sign. At this point I thought it would be fun to video myself with my camera so I'll just post the video and you can see my reaction about 20 minutes after the shot. I accidentally hit the stop button so the video is in 2 segments. Part 2 I guess. Also for fun I decided to try and film the blood trail, I apologize it's a little shaky and also hard to see but you'll get the idea. There's also some footage of the buck when I get up to him, you will see it was indeed "smoke city". Here are some photos of the blood trail. Freaking best blood trail I've ever had. The end of the trail The buck had, in my opinion, some ground shrinkage and I'll admit a twinge of disappointment but it soon faded, especially after I got home to show the kids. Their excitement made this public land buck quite possibly the best bow kill I've ever had simply because they knew daddy had done something cool. The following are some photos of the autopsy and a little tribute to Rancid and his knife. Entrance lung Exit side lung I named him Dinkasaurus just to be odd. He's a great buck and one I'm very proud of. Here's a picture of him cleaned up and positioned a little. Thanks for reading the story of my first archey public land buck.

I have several people around my area and a few in other parts of the nation trying to find me small pistol primers. If anyone can hook me up with a brick or two at a reasonable price please let me know. Thanks.

I made the switch to Spott Hogg several years ago, won't go anywhere else. Bought a "Real Deal" used and upgraded to a 5 pin wrapped Hogg It the next year. If I lived in a more open area I'd go with the 7 Deadly Pins for longer range shooting. Fact of the matter is for my midwest hunting I don't need more than 3 pins.

Now that's a sweet looking Merriams! Snow tips!

A few greeting howls followed up by cottontail distress 10 minutes later brought this big female in. About a 160 yard shot as she was trotting and the 22/250 ate her up. Rubbed really bad on the back and her canine teeth were both cracked, one was busted half off. Good to get her out of the area. This is the first coyote I've called up using hand/mouth calls rather than electronically, really really cool.

Whoa whoa whoa!!! Let me check my supplies but I believe I have ample amounts of small rifle primers. Send me a PM as a reminder after a few days as I get busy with the kids.

Chasing Tail portrays hunters poorly in my opinion, I will never watch that show again.

There is a pile of 17 HMR ammo at the local sporting good store by me... but I'm in Iowa.

That is a beautiful rifle.

Sunofa... you're too many states away... If you're driving thru Iowa and have this let me know. Dangit... bummed.

Any Grim Reapers?

I played in the band from 5th grade thru college, it's all about using your diaphragm!!! That and calling until you see black and white dancing spots.

22-250 I've found that since the December shooting ammo for this rifle is MUCH easier to find than 223 or 308. Puts 'em down nice too.

This post is pretty bitter sweet. I've been pretty non existent for awhile due to the sudden and unexpected death of my father. This is the 3rd very close family member I've buried since last March, my only Grandma and Grandpa went last March and May, now my Dad is gone. Anyway, Dad had a gun/archery shop so I've been working on getting his Federal Firearms License closed properly, which in itself is huge undertaking along with figuring out what to do with all the shop inventory. In the shuffle I found an electronic caller, I managed to find the charger and much to my surprise, it works great. Now the story has to back up a bit, the day we buried Dad we got back from the cemetery and the delivery guy showed up and needed a signature. I really didn't want to deal with anything at the moment so signed for the package and went in the house. The next day I went out and uncovered a beautiful Remington 700 bolt gun in 22-250... The last gun Dad ever ordered, the order date was Thursday, he died the following Monday morning. We made some inquiries and in the end decided it would be easier to keep the gun rather than try to find someone to do the paperwork for us. I cut mom a check and took the gun home. A few weeks later I had it topped out with a very nice Nikon "Coyote Special" BDC reticle 4-12x40 scope. Just sighting in the gun was tough, anything to do with Dad/hunting/shooting just tears me up, but after 8 shots I had a 1 inch group at 100 yards. Fast forward another week to last night. I managed to get a coyote hunt in, made special by the fact that my wife had a major shoulder surgery last week and needs constant attention. She felt good, the kids were at grandmas, and I hustled to make a couple set ups. The first set up was nice and quiet, something that I really need anymore. Sitting there thinking about Dad and the hunting trips we had shared started to choke me up again so after 40 minutes I elected to move. The next spot I knew there were dogs in the area. I did a challenge male howl on the caller and was IMMEDIATELY rewarded with a deep, husky, male answer. I started shaking really bad, this was a first for me. I hit the cottontail and after 5 minutes had 2 dogs eyeing me from quite a ways off. They eventually went into a brushy ditch so I sat tight. After 20 minutes it was getting dark and I needed to go so I figured I'd come back another time. While walking out, about 100 yards from my set up, the chorus started up. First a male howl, then a female, then the pups serenading made the timber shake and the hair on my neck stand up. I ran back to my fence post and set the caller up again. I hit 2 male challenge howls followed by 3 female challenge howls and hit the mute button. 20 seconds later I had a string of 3 coyotes trotting towards me and as it was getting dark and I was terribly excited I took the first shot I had. At 175-200 yards I lined up the BDC circle and dumped the lead dog with a bullet placed in his ear.... and what a dog for my first one! It was the big male and it is evident from the gun/coyote comparison pic he was obviously in charge in the area. I"m about 6' 2" and the coyotes back feet in the 2nd picture are above my shoulders how I'm holding him and his nose was in the snow, he is huge. It wasn't long after getting to the coyote that I got emotional again. Sitting there in a snow covered field, no wind, and a bright moon took my mind back to all those times Dad and I walked in and out from hunting to the sounds of coyotes howling and how scared I always was. He'd take my hand and say "Don't worry son, I won't let them get you" and I'd feel better. Standing there crying I knew he was still with me in a way. The last rife he ever ordered slung on my back I drug the big old coyote out to the truck. I'm getting it tanned in remembrance of my first called in coyote on pretty much my ever coyote hunt. I'll never forget Dad, never.

I hem hawed around on a place to hunt but finally settled on Kansas, the same place where I went a few years ago and doubled up in one afternoon. Little preface here... After the death of my dad a couple months ago I decided to hunt out this year with his bow. I cranked it up and got it sighted in and this was the maiden voyage. Along with were several of his hunting pieces of equipment. My buddy Nate and I got a late start and finished our 8 hour drive at about 0230 in the morning at a gas station near the hunting area. We changed clothes in the lights of the gas pumps and got our stuff situated. I basically made him walk in and we got set up in our field by 0400 and laid down in the blind to try and catch some ZZZZs. I was afraid if we slept in the truck we'd lose the spot to another hunter or sleep late. Anyway, the cold front came thru and with it a high 25+ mph wind from the north... the double bull is not a great tent. It kept the main gusts off but it was cold out there, VERY cold. We dozed and at about 0530 I heard one of the decoys rolling around, we hopped up and looked out and in the moonlight there was a great horned owl straddling both of the DSD hen decoys pecking/biting their heads!! It was one of the crazier things I've seen! He flew off and I got the deeks set back up and settled back into the blind. 45 minutes later the birds cut loose. There were a lot of birds in the area and as best as I could tell we had 3 gobblers and numerous jakes battling it out from the tree tops. They all flew down and continued the noisy serenade thru the first bits of dawn. I kept working the birds and finally 2 fans made their way to the tree line and out into the field on a run right at BigBoi the worlds best decoy. A few feet shy of him they both screeched to a hault and got all wussy on us, I think these small Rios were a little intimidated by a full body Eastern decoy/mount. I pulled back and settled the pin and touched it off a bit too quickly as I managed to only draw a huge pile of tail feathers. The birds retreated and that was that. A few minutes later they followed a large group of hens into the field and were themselves followed by a gaggle of jakes. Once on the other side of the field one of the same 2 gobblers decided he wanted to flog on my newly acquired DSD jake decoy. He tuff walked up and my buddy dew, anchored, and shot... thru the blind. As he sat there cussing I was already at full draw batting clean up and immediately put an arrow right through the sweet spot on the gobbler. He pretty much went down like a hammer hit him and as soon as he flopped a few times the army of short beards CHARGED. I whispered to my buddy, "Dude, get ready, they're charging and its ON!" The group of 8 jakes jumped on my dead gobbler in a frenzy as he came to full draw and sailed an arrow right under another one. They did a chinese fire drill around the decoy and dead bird but by that time I was back to full draw myself and put an arrow thru the closest one. He ran about 5 steps and face planted into the dust. The other jakes ran off but my buddy opted to pass on the far off shot. The birds all worked off and after some time we decided to get outta the area and go hit some other public walk in areas and then return later in the afternoon. This was an optimal time for some heroes. We did get on numerous birds at 2 different locations, but couldn't quite get the birds to commit close enough. In the end we made the long trek back to the canyon field and set up. I took a quick nap and then 10 minutes into my buddy's nap I noticed a white tipped fan 200 yards away. It was on like donkey kong again. I worked the gobbler with his hen and eventually called the hen right up to the decoys, bringing with her the lone gobbler. As the hen turned and started away the gobbler made that critical step towards the DSD jake and at 12 yards my buddy made a PERFECT shot on a helluva Rio gobblers. He went right down and that was the 3rd bird down on this field today. My gobbler was probably a 2 year old with the typical 3/4 inch spurs but his had over 1 inch spurs, a very nice and beautifully colored bird. We finally ended up at a cabin for some shut eye and the 5 hour sleep was not long enough. We had a great set up in the morning but it didn't pan out. As we watched 8 birds strutting on private leased land we decided to leave early and get home before dark. Great trip, we had out chances and still managed to tag 3 outta 4.

Same stand on same piece of public, only this was 2012. Had a great hunt this morning. Saw a few turkeys, some does, a dink or two, and then I saw a buck on a ridge far away from me. It's as simple as I banged the horns together, grunted a few times, and he came on a string from about 300 yards I suppose. As he came down the timber edge he was raking trees and brush, made a scrape right under me, and by the time I knew it he was dead again. It was a VERY cool hunt, there is just something about calling whitetails that makes me find it hard to keep my composure. He shrank like last years buck, but honestly I was so pumped up it was crazy. I put a great shot on him and he went about 50 yards and barrel rolled within sight. Thanks to DWilk and jmoose for dragging help, they can attest that Grim Reapers put a HURT on deer, it looked like I axe murdered 3 people out in the timber. Not much else to say, public land hunting is very frustrating (had 3 people and their dogs come by Saturday) and today it panned out. The pics are off my phone, I'll add some more when I get them from DWilk Here's a few more pictures from the day. Nothing special really, just wanted to share the carnage. I know some of you are possibly upset by the fact I called the deer "Dinkasaurus", please remember that I'm someone not to be taken too seriously. Half the reason I used that name was because I shot the buck about 200 yards from where I shot my buck last year on the same chunk of public. This is also the 3rd buck I've shot on this same ridge in about 4 years. If I stood where this particular buck died I can see all 3 stand locations as well as where all 3 bucks died. Pretty good little piece. I know many of you hate mechanicals, but I'm sold on Grim Reapers, they put a HURT on things. Carting out of the public, this year I finally had help.

Ooops. Typo up there. I have one (1) box for sale.

I have 1 dozen GoldTip Hunter Expedition arrows for sale. They are both new in the box, uncut, and fletched with 2 inch blazers. $60 a dozen, I'll pay shipping.

This appears to be the HHA Optimizer Lite 1 pin used but in good condition NO SPACERS OR SCREWS OR OTHER HARDWARE AVAILABLE, COULDN'T FIND THE SCREWS $75 or best offer, they appear to be $125+ new on amazon and ebay

sold pending payment

South central. I could get more specific, but then I'd have to kill you.

Found the 2010 archery buck Well, I am quite happy to be making this post this year. After some bad luck last year and a surprise pregnancy I knew that I wouldn't have much time in the tree but as luck would have it I got just enough time in Gods creation. Again this year I lost some good ground and had to rely a lot on public ground and then as luck would have it a new neighbor happened to have 23 acres of ground that I could hunt. What was awesome is that it's the RIGHT 23 acres situated in that perfect location between two giant chunks of timber. What's that saying I'd rather have the right 25 acres than the wrong 500? Anyway, I've had a slow but fun season. Lots of deer sightings but no hawgs, until this morning. I've found out that with kids everything takes on a whole new light. I never knew that the girls would become 5 pm monsters and that hunting in the afternoon would NEVER happen if I wanted to stay married, so, I was stuck hunting mornings. Last night I couldn't decide where to go because none of the weather sites could agree on a wind. In the end I just averaged them all together and hoped for the best. I got up early and made my way to the stand, getting set up around 0530, which is PLENTY early. I guess I'd rather be early than late, eh? I caught up on some emails and still had time to say a quick prayer, count stars, and just enjoy some peace and quiet. As it got gray I stood up and just sat tight until about 0725 when I decided to rattle. The morning was so stinking quiet and peacefull that I actually startled myself with the horn banging. As the echoes faded away I grabbed my bow and stayed vigilant. With the lack of wind there was swirling so I kept my eyes peeled in the upwind direction while I ground my teeth as I looked downwind. About 3 minutes eeeked by when I suddenly saw tines running up out of a ditch and onto my little point. I had about 20 seconds to glass, decide whether or not to shoot, and then actually draw while the buck charged like a bull and went right under me at 9 yards. As he passed behind a decent tree I got drawn and aimed while he was running passed me. I managed a few "merps" and he slowed to a trot, I aimed, followed along, and released one of my new Grim Reaper Whitetail Specials into the boiler room! I hit him high but the arrow angled into him from the 6th rib back and came out his right leg joint, right in the "pocket" of his arm pit. I honestly couldn't believe it had happened that quick this early. I replayed the scenario and that's when the shakes took hold of me, I mean, REALLY took hold of me. I knew it was serious because when I looked up into the sky to say "Thank You" I couldn't help but laugh at how badly the tree was shaking, not even kidding here! A few texts, phone calls, and a quick climb down and I was on the track. With the high hit there wasn't much blood but what was there was frothy and pink, just the way I like it. After about 100 yards I started to get nervous but knew he was done for. About another 30 yards and I spotted the big white belly in a ditch. That's when I hit euphoria! I thought he sorta shrunk after I found him, but as I kept looking at him through the photo shoot and while down at stuffy's place he started to grow again, a GOOD problem to have! Anyway, thanks for reading, here's some pics. Seconds after the shot I was pretty overcome, especially when I turned around and saw this. My prayer was answered. How do you make a buck look big? Stick him next to a 2 year old! Olivia actually pointed to the goo in the bottom of the truck and proclaimed it a "Mess Daddy, Deer, Mess" Entire turn out And the photoshoot, I am seriously pumped up over this Iowa giant.

New to the site, buddy turned me onto it. I'm in Iowa but have wanted to journey to the SW to hunt Merriams, elk, and mulies at some point. Looking forward to hanging around. Matt