So far, 2022 has been nothing short of outstanding for Amy and I. What started off kind of slow in early October sure finished strong. Now, as we head into late muzzy, we both once again have buck tags.

Going into this late season, there isn’t a buck that I truly want to kill. There are big bucks around, but all of them I have a history with, enough of a history that I think I will likely give them all a pass simply because I want them to live so that I can hunt them another season. It has nothing to do with size, or score, or even age at this point. They are all big bucks. There really is no issue. The thing for me is how much can I learn from these deer and how can I hunt them again another year. That’s where my hunting has gone over the past few years. We’ll see. I had a ton of encounters with the drop tine buck this year and could have killed him a few times, now it seems like for me it would be waaaaay more fun to hunt him another year than to kill him. Same goes for this really big 9 pointer we have behind the house. I can’t say the same thing about Gummy, but Amy had an encounter with him while doe hunting and he was right below her stand. At this point, I’ve gotten some picture here lately that shows that many of the bucks I saw during archery season have made it through the gun seasons. I’m hoping to pick of a giant big old buck this late season that comes out of nowhere. That’s the goal right now. It’s gonna be fun!

The big 9 pointer above has made it so far and I have no reason to believe he’ll get shot at this point. I’ve had so many encounters with this buck. (update 12/28, I was too quick to say this was the big 9 pointer I’ve seen all year. This is in fact a 10 point, new buck that has showed up this late season. I saw him in person 12/28…see update below for 12/28.)

Above, looks like ol’ drop tine is gonna make it through the gun seasons. I was wondering if he was still around. He’s a really big buck, it will be hard for me to pass him again.

The picture below was taken on the last day of late muzzy last year (Jan. 10th 2022) I believe I saw this buck hunting one evening during last year’s late muzzy behind the house but it was very late in the evening, very close to quitting time, and I only got to see him for about 10 seconds. As you can see he’s a really big buck. Right now, he’s my target for this year…however, like Ranger, I have no idea if he is alive this year. I don’t have a single picture or sighting of him. I’m just hoping he shows up looking for food and cover which we have.

12/19 Tonight I had south winds which allowed me to hunt a transition area for deer on a bed to feed pattern. This transition area is pretty far off the main food source. The advantage of hunting closer to bedding or in a transition area is that on an evening hunt, it is likely that deer will be all done moving around by you before quitting time. This allows you to get down and out without bumping deer. On the opposite end of the spectrum is hunting right over food this time of year. I do hunt right over food a lot during the late season, but when given the chance no to, I’ll take advantage of that. Access has to be perfect if going in close to bedding this time of year though…which I had tonight.

I saw 15 or so does and fawns and another 7 or 8 small bucks. Deer were moving from the time I got into my stand around 3 until about 4:45. I didn’t see a single deer during the last half hour of hunting which is perfect!

The plan for the rest of late season is to move around as much as I can hunting away from food when I can, then sitting food when I have a good way to get out at the end of hunting. I don’t want to over hunt and burn out my food sources…so that’s the play at this point. Good to be back out there hunting. I have no target bucks at this point even though there are several big bucks around. Looking more for a buck to show up that hasn’t been around all fall. It can happen this time of year as cold and snow forces deer to seek food sources.

12/20 Tonight I sat the cabin farm. I haven’t hunted this farm during late muzzleloader since 2012. This farm has always been a solid farm during the late season because we always have standing corn or beans over there. This year, because of the drought, there isn’t much left. There are some beans, but not many. I suspect they will be gone in a few days.

I was hoping to see a surprise buck show up but didn’t. The other thing, I was hoping to get my eyes on some up and comers over there. I did. I saw two really nice 10 pointers that will be really big in the coming years. And they are using that farm pretty consistently. Both bucks came out at different times but were using a bedding area on the property that I’ve done a ton of work in over the years. They won’t be going anywhere any time soon. There is one 10 point I might consider shooting on that farm, but I’d like to get a good look at him first, and tonight he didn’t show.

There is a huge snow storm and winter blizzard bearing down on the mid-West the next few days. I will hunt tomorrow if I can, then I’ll have to wait and see about hunting Thursday and Friday when temps are supposed to be -30 or lower with wind chills. I’m not saying deer won’t move in that weather, but it would be extremely difficult for me to hunt and stay out in that weather.

12/21 Tonight, I sat behind the house on standing corn in a blind we put out this summer in anticipation of late muzzy. My hopes were to pick up a buck that I hadn’t seen before. The one buck I thought I had a good chance of seeing was Gummy. He showed up about a half hour before quitting time and fed out in front of me until quitting time. I wasn’t sure if I would kill him or not, but decided quickly that it was so cool being able to hunt him this year…and I wanted to hunt him again next year. So, I gave him a pass tonight. I did take some good footage of him and he’s a great deer. It was a fun night, and I look forward to hunting this deer next year.

At quitting time I lit up the coyote call and cleared the field in front of me. Because of that call, I got out clean and I’ll likely be back again to hunt that standing corn later in the season.

I tried loading a short clip of Gummy that I took tonight but I can’t get it to download. I’ll work on it tomorrow maybe during the blizzard and see if I can get it to go. He’s big, just not wanting to end my season quite yet.

12/22 First, above, I got that short clip of Gummy loader today. You can see it right above this.

It was a crazy night of hunting today. As I was walking to my stand tonight, it was -13F actual temperature with -40 to -50 with wind chills. I had about a 1/4 mile walk because I cheated and drove the ranger a little closer than I would like. By the time I got in, I was pretty cold already. I never really did warm up or catch up with keeping warm even though I layered up and turned on my electric socks. By quitting time, I started shaking a little from the cold. I don’t know if I could have handled it much longer than I did.

I did see somewhere between 30 and 40 deer and about 10 to maybe 15 bucks. Three bucks were really nice and one might have been a shooter for me since I had never seen this buck before, but he had a busted main beam right after his G2 on one side. So he got a pass. Two of the larger bucks faced off and locked antlers pretty aggressively. I was surprised to see this so late in the season. The deer fed heavily in the corn and I once again spooked them off about 15 minutes after quitting time with the coyote call. I did not get any footage or attempt to take any pictures as my hands were numb at best. I don’t know if conditions are the same tomorrow if I’ll go again. I really had a hard time getting out at quitting time because of the cold…if the ranger hadn’t started for example, I would have had a long walk home in that cold. I don’t know if it’s worth it? That standing corn sure had deer pouring in tonight though. I think if it was warmer, deer would have more options…but not with this frigid weather.

12/23 I almost didn’t go hunting tonight. Amy took the truck home because we have Lily’s car which hasn’t performed all that well in the past during extreme cold weather. No problem…I’ve been using the Ranger. Only, the Ranger had 3 flat tires today. When I pumped them up, they would not hold air. One by one, I took them off, pumped them up and brought them inside where I could find the leaks, put a patch in, and then put them back on the UTV. I did get all three to hold air and was able to get out hunting this evening. They are all filled with Slime, but I think in this bitter cold, the slime just wouldn’t work to fill the holes left by hundreds of honey locust thorn holes.

Anyhow, I did get in decent tonight and again saw 30-40 deer. Mostly the same deer as I’ve been seeing but another new buck showed up. It was a main frame 12 pointer with a bunch of busted tines. I also saw Gummy again right at quitting time. What I found interesting (I guess I’ve seen this before?) is that every do and doe fawn that fed into the corn field was nudged and checked out by the bucks. At times it got aggressive, and at times the bucks actually squared off. DAMN…if I was out there in that cold I’d eat as fast as I could then get back to cover. But these deer just don’t feel the cold I guess like we do. The deer sure did eat hard in that corn though! It’s drawing a ton of deer!

12/24 Another great night hunting behind the house. I really need to go to a different stand but as long as I’m getting in and out perfectly clean in this blind, and nothing is busting me while on stand, I feel I can keep hunting this blind. Tonight, I saw a nice buck that I have not seen yet this year. It was exactly what I wanted, but the buck, although really nice, is not what I wanted. He’s a really wide 8 pointer and he sure put on a good show with another nice buck. There were a few times they locked horns and sparred. They even worked a scrape right below the blind. A very exciting night on stand. I did try to take a picture of that 8, and did, but my cheap phone is not the best.

12/25 So, once I made the decision to pass on Gummy a few days ago, I have been trying to figure out where he lives and beds. I’ve seen him several times this late season but only right on the food source. I have not seen where he comes from really only where he is entering the corn plot. So tonight, I had a goal of trying to see him as far off the food source as I could. This would help me figure out where he is bedding. Now, you could make the argument that where he is bedding right now is not necessarily where he will be bedding in say October or November. I won’t debate that with you, but considering that a buck’s home range in southern Iowa is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe 1000 to 1500 acres, seeing where he beds right now will surely help. And, I would argue, that where they are bedding now will be a spot that they will use in the fall. No doubt. This is part of putting together a game plan to hunt him next year. Yes, that’s right. I’m scouting now during the late muzzy season for putting together a plan for next year’s archery season.

The strategy paid off. I sat an observation sit tonight (and froze) but got a great look at Gummy coming out of some cover and walking across a harvested corn field almost 1/2 mile from my standing corn plot. He fed in the cut corn, but was headed toward my plot probably getting there right at quitting time. But now, I have a great idea where at least one piece of bedding cover he’s using. It wasn’t a surprise quite frankly but like using past data helped me to kill Ranger this year, I’m hoping this intelligence will help me possibly put a hunt together on Gummy next year. For this reason, tonight’s hunt was a success. Other than that, I did see a bunch of deer…all more or less heading to my corn food plot. I was forced to set off my coyote call about 15 minutes early tonight because I had deer getting down wind of me then…it worked as usual and I was home almost by quitting time.

Amy will be home tomorrow so I’ll once again have my professional dropper offer back in camp. This will allow me to hunt several stands I’d like to hunt that require someone to drop me off for the best access. I’ll also be trying to get back to the cabin farm soon as well.

12/26 Tonight, I didn’t hunt but instead decided to drop back 400 yards or so from where I saw Gummy last night. The goal was to once again see where he was bedding. I was hoping to further narrow down where he was coming from…again this is scouting for next year. To my surprise, he exited a thicket with other deer about 800+ yards from my standing corn plot. I was a little surprised he was traveling that far, but not really after I thought about it a little. That thicket has very good thermal cover in there from a bunch of cedars covering a hill side. No doubt, this is where he goes when the weather turns cold and windy. I’ll definitely put this information to use next season. At this point, if I wanted to, I’m comfortable that I could shoot this big 10 point this year. But that’s unlikely at this point.

I see the next week shows increasingly warmer weather which I am looking forward to. It will allow me to go to some of my open stands (not a blind) in hopes of still catching a new buck this year.

12/27 Well, I wish I had more exciting posts to be bringing you. I sat the cabin farm tonight and saw about 15 does and fawns and two small bucks. Most of the food there is gone now so it’s not surprising that I saw less deer, and the deer I did see were moving fairly quickly through the beans. I think they were moving so fast because they are looking for the last remaining beans. If the drought hadn’t killed me over there, and the turkeys didn’t annihilate the corn, I think there would have been a good chance to pull in a great buck from outside that core area. As it stands, there are certainly some bigger deer there but this time of year (I know it’s a broken record at this point) I really want to only shoot a buck that has come in from another area. I just as soon let the core bucks that are staying on the farms I hunt go.

The weather is looking really warm coming into the next weekend which will allow me to get into some stands where I can hunt without freezing my butt off in the colder temps. I’m looking forward to it honestly.

12/28 What a fun night tonight. I sat a permission farm tonight and was about 1/2 mile away from food and close to bedding. We had really windy conditions today when I went in which allowed me to go to this spot closer to cover without bumping deer this time of year. It was also very warm this time of year, near 50, so my thought was that deer will always move on their evening feeding cycle but might not get to the food source this time of year when it’s this warm out. They will instead move but then stage and browse longer when conditions aren’t so brutal. In other words, they are much less deliberate and not as concerned with conserving energy when it’s this warm out. My thoughts were correct. I got in shortly after 2 and deer were moving almost right away. Most of the deer just browsed in and around cover, staging up and moving toward food later in the evening. Had you been hunting right over food you would think “deer don’t move when it’s this warm this time of year”. But they do, and will. But with less conviction. Getting closer to cover or staging areas is key when they don’t have to move all the way out to food right away. I saw a ton of deer for the better part of almost 3 hours before sunset. And some really nice bucks. I don’t have a good count for sure because much of the night I was in total lock down unable to move because I had deer around me. I was able to film a few of the deer. All in all, I would guess maybe 15 bucks and the same in does and fawns. These deer are piled into good cover near food this time of year…and where they haven’t been pressured from hunters yet this year.

Amy sat an observation sit tonight and glassed from the truck. She also saw a ton of deer, all on a bed to feed pattern. I thought deer didn’t move when it was warm out? Boy, all those years that I believed that deer didn’t move when it was warm…I was soooo wrong. If you can’t see deer when it’s warm out, adjust how you are hunting. That’s the best advice I can give in regards to hunting different weather patterns. Deer always move regardless of warm or cold weather. They might move differently though. Learn to adjust. They won’t move very good though if pressured!!! They will avoid pressure like their life depends on it and for good reason.

Here is a very good article about how deer move in all types of weather based on GPS collared deer. Click HERE for the article by the National Deer Association. Want more, here’s a YouTube podcast with two of the leaders in this GPS research. Click HERE. I did not listen to this specific podcast but there are many out there.

Don’t believe all the hype out there…”them cold fronts got them on their feet” crap. I used to somewhat believe this even though I’ve killed big bucks during very warm weather. The reason I believed it is because when I was hunting directly over food (something I do less and less these days) it sure seemed like I saw more deer on cold days or cold fronts. This might actually be true, or at least somewhat true. But then adjust to their pattern instead of thinking well it’s warm out they won’t move. It’s just not true that they won’t move when it’s warm out, or that they move better when it’s cold out. In fact, now that we know that this is all BS because of GPS technology, you have to wonder why hunters keep repeating and believing it?

12/29 I had a slow night. I picked a spot close to bedding tonight, but I think I picked the wrong bedding. Temps today were very warm, even setting some records. In my goal of moving around as much as I can, I chose a different spot tonight close to bedding…only this bedding is mostly tall grasses and thick cedars. Perfect cover when the temps get really cold, but not perfect cover for record December temps. I should have known really. I still think I need to move around as much as I can, so from that aspect, it was a good sit. But I should have picked something more conducive to the weather we had. I did see 3-6 does and fawns and 3 smaller bucks. I’d like to get a north wind to hunt a spot I’d really like to try on the south side of some good bedding cover. Even a west wind would work pretty good, but I need it to be fairly windy to get in there clean. We’ll see if we get it?

12/30 and 12/31

On 12/30, I sat a stand closer again to bedding. Forest and Jessica have come down from Wisconsin to spend a few days with us, so they sat out and glassed with Amy while I hunted. Before going any further, this year is not the average year. Most of the deer got really bunched up and congregated around the best cover and the best food in the area when we had that extreme cold and snow before Christmas. Many years, this just doesn’t happen and the deer stay somewhat spread out. This is important to let you know. So, I saw just 3-5 does and fawns and movement was very suppressed. Had I been hunting by myself, and had no other information available to me, I would or could have come to the conclusion that deer weren’t moving. Or they were moving late. Or they were not using the bedding cover area I was hunting. Well….

Amy, Forest and Jessica were set up in an area where they could watch any deer leaving the bedding cover I was hunting to the north. I was only covering a small portion of that same bedding cover. They saw close to 89 deer leave that area. Now, it’s a big area. But 89 deer total and of those 19 were racked bucks. Of those 19 racked bucks, 5 came out and travelled together that were all mature in a bachelor group. INSANE!!! This is why you have to be so careful judging if deer moved good, or if deer moved to a food source, etc. with only limited information (your experience). Where they saw those deer moving, I couldn’t hunt there even if I tried because of access and winds. But the point is be careful judging what is going on based on your small sampling of what you are seeing on any single given day.

On 12/31, Forest and I sat the cabin farm hoping to start shooting some does, and Amy and Jessica sat behind the house hoping for a doe or possibly a big buck (maybe Gummy). We all four had uneventful sits seeing just a few deer and no shots. What is happening…possible the deer are starting to spread back out because our weather has been getting warmer and move food is now available again…like leftover grains in the harvested fields.

We’ll keep at it, but the focus might start turning to doe harvests at this point. For me, I don’t see that it is likely that a giant will move in from another surrounding area. The warm weather means more food in more locations is available besides my standing grain food plots lowering the likelihood of picking up a buck that moves in. Still not giving up. But we’ll see.

I won’t update now most likely until 1/03.

1/01-1/03 The past few days Forest and Jessica have been down visiting. So, a couple nights I sat out with Forest, and Amy sat out with Jessica. Through the past 3 days, we’ve been seeing a bunch of deer and they’ve all been mostly spread out somewhat. The corn plot behind the house is being used less now that there is no snow and foraging has been easier for the deer. The corn and soybeans at the cabin farm is mostly gone. I’ve been trying to bounce around as much as I can. One night, while glassing, Amy, Forest, and Jessica saw a group of bucks bachelored up, and 5 of the bucks that were together were or looked to be mature.

I’ve somewhat started to transition to killing some does for meat and herd management. Tonight, I shot one doe at the cabin farm. Right after I saw a few more does being chased by two bucks…one was a beautiful massive 8 point that is I think 3 years old. He’s a super pretty and awesome deer for only 3. I got a short video clip of him. (Below)

We will continue to bounce around trying to pick up a new giant buck. It’s so fun hunting this time of year if you have good cover, low pressure, and food. We make sure we have those three things going into late season every year which makes it so fun. I surely can’t complain so far as I’ve passed I think 5 or maybe 6 different mature bucks so far.

1/04-1/05 Yesterday, I sat with Amy behind the house on standing corn. We only saw 4 does and fawns. That’s a far cry from the 40 deer I was seeing a night a week ago on that same corn. The difference is we have no snow, and the temps are warmer. That is making more food available to the deer and they are all spread out. Beside the local deer bedded right on our farm, no other deer are making it to the corn until well after dark during this warmer weather. So, tonight I sat about 3/4 of a mile away from our corn plot, and really quite far from any food source just to see what I could pick up closer to cover…and farther from food. I only saw one deer, and it was Gummy. I knew he was in that area, but honestly it surprised me that he was by himself that farm from food. He came through about a half hour before quitting time and was in bow range. It was a shocker to me but really cool to see him again. The good part is, I now have one more piece of the puzzle for hunting him next year.

1/06 I forgot to talk a little about yesterday’s hunt for Amy. She sat a permission farm in a scouting/hunting mode trying to see if any deer were coming out and using some picked corn at that farm. Her objective was to see if a shooter buck would come out, and at the same time see if and where does were using this field to possibly take a doe off that farm. The field is rather large, so an observation hunt seemed in order. On her way in to her blind/observation spot, there was a UTV parked out at the farm. Since it is a permission farm, her reaction was to back out and contact the landowners to make sure that somebody else wasn’t hunting there…so that she wouldn’t screw up their hunt. She was told, that nope only her, myself, and one other person would be hunting there and that the other person was done for the year. Weird right? So she sat in the truck for the hunt and glassed. Way after quitting time, 2 hunters walked out through the farm and got to the UTV and drove out toward Amy. They were trespassing. Amy, not being a hard ass, and it not being our land just showed some level of disgust toward the hunters who admitted they knew they were trespassing but didn’t want to walk that far to their blind? (WTF). Anyhow, again, Amy not wanting to be a jerk, or not wanting to cause issues, just said in so many words that they did in fact screw up her hunt and that it was kind of gutsy to do what they did. The next part gets really weird in my opinion…instead of saying hey, we were in the wrong, won’t happen again, the hunters instead asked when we would be hunting there and then suggesting how and when we should hunt so that they could continue to trespass and park where they were. Takes guts I guess to knowingly trespass and then keep on doing it.

We are grateful to be able to hunt this farm…all farms that are not ours. Amy contacted the landowner not to bitch, but just to let her know what had happened and what was going on. Hunters like this give a bad name to all of us. No doubt they’ll keep doing what they have always done, no shame!

Tonight, I sat with Amy at the cabin farm. We saw 3 little bucks and a handful of does and fawns. No food left over there but we are still seeing deer. It looks more and more like this late muzzy will go without us picking up a giant to hunt but it’s been so much fun so far. We have 4 days left and some hunting left. Never giving up. Some does will get killed for food here going forward and we’ll just keep moving around as much as we can.

1/07-1/08 The past two nights, Amy and I sat the cabin farm and split up tonight closer to home. Both nights the goals was to try and see a new buck, and if not to try and take a doe or two. In both regards, we failed. Yesterday, neither of us saw a doe and I saw one little buck. Tonight, we split up at home. Amy sat a permission farm that she wanted to spend some time in and saw a few does and fawns. She was using her archery equipment and nothing came in range. She did see a buck that we are now calling the Zebra buck because Amy says he has a pretty face? I’ll go with that! It’s that really nice 9 pointer I have a little footage of back on 12/28. Good to see he’s not going anywhere.

I sat behind the house close to our corn plot but where I can overlook a different cut corn field not too far away. I was also gunning for a doe but had no chance at one. Without giving away all the details of exactly where I was, I saw a bunch of deer and two pretty good bucks. One buck near quitting time was none other than Gummy. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen Gummy in the past 3 years, and now I’ve seen him something like maybe 6 or 7 times just this late season. That’s kind of incredible to me. And then I saw another deer that I was able to get some footage of…he’s a buck I had seen several times during archery season but then nothing since. And tonight he showed back up. Good to see him make it. I cut up a short clip below. He now has a busted up right side but he should be a really nice buck next year.

Tomorrow, Amy and I plan to split up again and go for does. I plan to sit in a home made ground blind behind the house. Amy is going back to the farm where she encountered trespassers a few days ago.

1/10 Well, only 263 more days until next year’s season opener. Tonight, Amy and I split up. She sat the standing corn behind the house and didn’t see a single deer. I sat an observation stand tonight that I was just hoping to see some deer and have some fun…possibly shoot a doe. I saw a ton of deer, mostly from long distance and two really big bucks. I don’t know for sure how big the two bucks were, but they both had really big frames and a bunch of points. Bottom line, no shots tonight but I did have some fun. I’m going to circle back tomorrow and do a final update about the late muzzy season as a whole, what we learned, what worked, mistakes now that we have the season to look back on. Thank you for following along.

1/11 Late Muzzy Lessons Learned

We saw a ton of deer this late muzzy season. I would guess, that I saw more deer and more bigger older class bucks than in any other late season hunting. Still out there today are at least 7 or 8 bucks that on a normal year Amy or I would have gladly shot. But this year was kind of different for us, we just didn’t see the need or want to kill any of those bucks…instead we just can’t wait to hunt them again next year.

We saw deer congregated up around standing grains for a period of about 5 days centered around December 25th. Standing corn or soybeans was the ticket during that period of extreme cold and snow. But, before then, and then again after, deer were spread out as mild temps and no snow left them with many options for feeding in the evening. Our small standing plot of corn behind the house made for easy pickings during that cold snap, but hardly a deer came to that more or less exposed (to the road) plot during the mild days. On mild days, deer were everywhere. A small lesson there…had we only hunting our food sources at home, on permission farms, and at our cabin farm, we could easily have fallen into the trap and misconception that deer were only moving on the cold days.

Take last night for one final example. I sat overlooking cut corn where I could see a lot of ground…Amy sat the corn plot. I had no real anticipation of killing a big buck last night, but wanted to see what I could see. Now, I could see a ton of acres, but I saw deer all over the place, and early. At 3 in the afternoon, I saw a big buck following two does about 500 yards away. He was huge. I saw another big buck later in the hunt, and about 20 more bucks in between. Some, actually many of these deer were on land I couldn’t even shoot to. But it was crazy to see this much activity on a day reaching nearly 50 degrees on January 10th.

That all being said, it was also clear to Amy and I that although our access and exit to our corn plot is really good, and I (we) cleared that plot each time we sat it with the coyote call, that pressure also led to decreased deer sightings. I think once the weather got warmer, the deer simply didn’t come to that plot until after dark. Would they have still come during the warmer weather with no hunting pressure on that plot? Maybe? It is impossible to put zero pressure on any hunting land, but we take extreme caution to do our best.

Thanks for following along. I will be starting up habitat work updates in the blog going forward. I have some work starting today, the day after our season has ended. Oh…it never really ends!!!