I never know what to think when meeting a hunter for the first time.  Are they for real?  Do they have what it takes to stay patient and put together a good hunt?  Well, many hunters truly believe they are hunting hard…even smart.  But in many cases they are simply acting out what they see on the hunting videos and TV shows.  A self-admitted whitetail hunting show watcher (like most of us are)…Marc Alberto didn’t take the bait.

It was apparent to me early on that Marc could separate the hype from reality.  Simply put Marc hunted hard and smart.  After two weeks of solid hunting and several all day sits, on November 19th he chose an interior food plot stand I call the cage fight.  It is a clover plot situated on the down wind side of some massive amounts of bedding habitat.  The down wind side of bedding habitat is a perfect spot to hunt during the rut especially later parts of the rut during peak breeding when most mature bucks are with hot does.  Early in the hunt Marc saw several bucks including one good one far off in the distance on an alfalfa field.  Several more yearling and adolescent bucks past by him over the next couple hours but nothing he wanted to shoot.  By mid day, the action had slowed down.  It’s at this point that most hunters would abandon their stands for a good meal…but Marc made the tough choice to stick it out all day….again.

At about 1 in the afternoon, a doe busted out acting that classic way a doe does when being chased by a buck.  They chased through the back of the plot and disappeared into the thick timber.  Marc knew the buck was good and fearing he missed his chance he made one grunt hoping to turn the deer in his direction.  Moments later Marc heard something behind him and noticed the doe had circled around…the buck was there too.  In an instant the buck made his way into a shooting lane off his left shoulder.  Marc was ready and made a perfect shot just behind the front shoulder.  I got the call minutes later!

After hunting the better part of most days and a few all day sits, most hunters start to get impatient.  It’s easy to quit early or to take some time off.  Patience and persistence led Marc to this mature Iowa whitetail.  Congratulations Marc, you earned it!

Marc Alberto with his 10 point Iowa buck.