Jesse Jans

USA – North Liberty, IA

The buck scored 202 3/8 and here are some pictures of him. I scouted this buck starting last year and had several encounters with him in the tree stand in 2010, but never had an ethical shot I felt. This year he started to show up on camera around Oct. 1st and I was getting consistent pictures of him even during rut. I feel that this proves that if you can find a mature buck's core rutting area and he is showing up during daylight hours, there is an opportunity to harvest him. After getting his pictures on one camera for about a week, I then set up one more camera on trails that I thought he may be using. I also set one other camera at the top of a long creek bottom I thought he may use to get between two bedding areas. He began showing up on all of the cameras. On Oct. 20th, I set two stands, and it literally took me all day to set these two stands. One stand I felt was a morning area and the other was an evening area. Both stands backed up to large bedding areas, but also had food plots within 100 yards. Perfect setup, just needed the right wind.
I always take Nov. 1st through the 14th off as I feel that this is the best time in Iowa to harvest a buck during the rut. I have had success in the later part of the rut, but have missed a 236" deer on Nov. 13th (got hit by a car two weeks later), and have seen several other mature bucks ranging from 160-180" during this time frame. Starting on Nov. 2. I started hunting the two stands that I felt I had the best chance to see this buck. I also hunted a third stand which I felt he may show up at because I had opportunities at this buck last year from that stand. I hunted him pretty much all day from Nov. 2 to Nov. 10. On Nov. 10 at 3:37pm he showed up utilizing a trail parallel to me exactly 30 yards away. I knew that this trail was exactly 30 yards away because there was a down tree across the trail and I had ranged it several days ago. The funny thing here is that I took a long time to set my stand in this spot and trimmed, what I thought were great lanes, all to 30 yards. However, this was the one trail I did not trim a lane because first of all the trail was on a high hump and I figured that any deer that used this trail would turn downhill and come down towards me, providing a better shot opportunity.
This mature buck was smart and was not going to come down the high hump. He was going to head directly away from he, heading up the creek bed and not down to the food plot and scrapes I was covering. One would have thought that I would have been nervous or panicky at this point because I did not have a lane to shoot and he was moving through the brush fast. However, when I bow hunt, I practice drawing on every decent buck I see and pretend that I am taking a shot at them. I really think this helped me in this situation. I basically stood up really slow, grabbed my bow, and began leaning over as far as I could because I knew there was a small opening in the brush to which I figured I could get an arrow through. My only thought was that you better stop him perfect, or it will be over. As I was leaning over, all I could see was that big drop tine moving through the brush, so when his head passed my opening, I made a slight bleep with my mouth and the deer stopped in the hole with his vitals clearly showing. I counted to three and lifted my bow to where I could see my 30 yard pin and held right behind his shoulder and released. The arrow went cleanly through the deer. In fact, the arrow passed through the deer so fast, the deer did not even know what hit him. I saw the deer buck with his hind legs and then he turned and looked right at me. He stood there for 10 seconds or so, then took off at a 3/4 pace. I could tell he was hit hard by the way he was running and the way he tucked his tail. I could also see my arrow coated in blood laying on the ground.
I then about fell out of my tree stand as the nerves really kicked in. Good thing for safety harnesses! I could not believe what just happened. I sent a couple of text messages and waited in the stand for about 45min. I climbed down and went to look at my arrow. The arrow looked good, but I wanted to give the deer a full hour to pass. I then began tracking the deer and he went about 75 yards and fell into a deep creek bed. I then stood over him about 5min before even touching him, just taking in what happened.
I wanted to thank you for making a great product. I truly believe my Muzzy 4 blade 100grain broad heads are some of the best on the market. I typically shoot about 18-20 deer a year with my bow. I mostly shoot does because we have a heavy population, but either way, I have never had a Muzzy stick in a deer. I look for a broad head that will perform in unfavorable conditions as I have found with bow hunting, the deer never give you the perfect shot. Your broad head needs to perform on a high level in any condition and any shot placement. What I really like about the Muzzy is that it flies well with my bow and it does a great job penetrating bone and cutting on contact. I have shot turkeys, coyotes, and coons with these broad heads and they perform consistently each time. In fact now, my buddies are all switching to Muzzy's because of my results.