10/28 We are lucky to have some of the best places in the world to hunt whitetail living in southern Iowa. And, with that being said, we are equally lucky to have friends and neighbors that let us hunt on their land. “Eva Longoria” is one of them.

This spring, I decided on that farm to put in some clover and alfala in a plot right in front of where we normally put a blind for Amy to hunt on “Eva’s” farm. With the drought, most of the legumes burned up and died, so this August, with rain in the forecast, I over-seeded some winter rye. The rains never came, and the rye seed was consumed shortly by the turkeys. I over-seeded a second time with Amy and then went on my annual Elk hunt in September. We caught one timely rain mid-September and the plot was semi-salvage.

On this farm, and on that plot, we had one camera. A mature 9 point with a mule deer fork started showing up on this small plot. We didn’t necessarily nickname the buck muley, but it stuck. About two weeks ago, Amy sat that blind and saw Muley on an 80 degree day but he never made it into the plot. It was our first official mature buck sighting of 2022.

Last night, Amy finally had off from helping out at school and was anxious to get after one of the bucks we were targeting. We had an east wind going into the night’s hunt, so she planned on going after Muley again on that farm. That blind and small food plot work really well for hunting with a south or east wind, and she knew it. What makes the spot set up so well for her is the access getting into the spot for evening sits. So it was decided, Amy sit the blind on Eva’s farm.

Then, our discussion centered around where I would sit. The thought was I would sit a hang on stand on that same farm that also hunts very good for an east wind. The problem…with that same east wind, if I see a buck that I don’t want to target and he makes it past me…or any deer for that matter, there’s at least a good chance they could make it down wind of me and blow the farm up before ever making it to Amy’s position. So, a last minute decision was made—Amy is going after Muley by herself, I’ll stay and hunt at home.

Amy settled into her blind about 2:30 in the afternoon on a gorgeous upper 60’s afternoon. The blind was sweltering heat though. It’s black plastic and with that bright sun Amy was boots off, and in a long sleeve T shirt. It was hot. The food plot is now somewhat green, some clover, and some winter rye. Two fawns came out at 3 and ate around for a bit before bedding down in the food plot. About 3:30 another doe and fawn came into the plot, ate, licked each other, and did what does and fawns do. Then another doe. The deer were definitely feeding on those scarce greens, and showed no signs of being nervous.

Around 5, a small yearling buck with another 10 point buck came into the plot and chased all the bald deer off the plot. The 10 pointer had a beautiful rack, with double forked brow tines, but was not a mature deer. Small shoulders, a skinny neck…she decided to pass. Muley is the target for tonight she thought. Although the 10 point had a nice set of antlers, she wanted a mature buck. And by our estimation, Muley was a mature buck.

At 5:30 Muley steps out onto the east side of the plot. He worked a scrape there, and really displayed his dominance over the other two bucks. At one point he put his ears back and slow walked toward the 10 pointer who cowarded and left the field. The small buck wasn’t far behind him. With the plot to himself, Muley started eating. The 10 pointer came back but with caution and stayed a distance from Muley. At this point, Amy knows she want to kill Muley, but just needs the buck to get closer. He’s at about 50 yards and needs to get to within 40. It takes about 1/2 hour, and finally Muley is range. Complete broadside, the shot is now. At the sound of the shot, the field clears with both deer running back the same way they came. “Did I hit him?” She wasn’t sure, but after looking with her binoculars she could already see a significant blood trail still from the blind. It was a hit, and she was confident a good one at the amount of blood she was seeing.

“I hope I hit him good” she thinks questioning the shot as you always do. But it was obvious again, after leaving the blind and checking out the blood trail that wherever this deer was hit, he was bleeding badly.

Hurry, text Tom. She does. No reply. Well, call Eva is the next idea. Eva later thinks Amy is having a heart attack or something is wrong because she can’t understand anything…something about shooting her first buck. Should they both go get it right away or wait for Tom. The decision is made to head home to get Tom. He must not be getting the text messages.

A few hours later, nephew Brady and Eva along with, and the tracking job is short. Amy hit a little forward but the exit hole is devastating. Muley makes it 70 yards or so and is Amy’s first buck during archery season.