Nov 205 min read

Fall Update - 2024 Season

I am about 60 days behind schedule on this post, but better late than never. This will be an interesting blog update with me trying to include October and November as one big item. Oh well, let's give it a try. Thanks for waiting for me!

Pre-Arrival of Archery Hunters (Oct 1st - Oct 23rd)

Cameras were slow to dead. Plots were drying up thanks to little rain. Scrapes weren't firing due to how dry it was. Corn was standing everywhere for some reason despite how dry it was. It was very odd. Worrying about EHD, it was hard for me not to go to my worst thoughts on what would come in the last week of October and the first week or so of November, but there isn't much I can do at this point. I had a bowhunter coming in around the 10/23 to start some investigative sits. I also had other guys arriving 10/27 to start hunting hard, and the cameras weren't adding confidence. Yet, the one investigative hunter and I bumped a monster from his bed on the 23rd while checking a stand and camera, and we backed out. I had not seen that deer on camera yet, but he's bedded right there in the middle of my farm. Weird! Still, warm temps, dry conditions, and lots of corn were going to lead to a less than ideal hunt. Yet, I knew that it only takes one second for the right encounter to occur, and we can't kill them if we don't try.

Archery Hunters Out Hunting (Oct 24th - Nov 11th)

Nothing changed much as far as conditions - warm, standing corn, but we did get rain, and we did see some improvements on scrape action, but most was nocturnal and random. This can be normal if the air is too warm. We sat on average 10-15 degrees too warm daily throughout this stretch, and all I did was curse Al Gore. My hunters in Zone 6 were going to leave by November 7th at the latest, so I figured they'd miss most of the good action unless the weather and wind cooperated. It did not. Yet, we still had a 20yd hit on a good buck, but the arrow nicked a limb and became a flesh wound. My guys tracked the deer for 500yds, found arrow, and decided it was likely a leg or shoulder wound. Super unfortunate for my hunter. The other two guys there hunted hard, but the conditions just sucked enough to not produce the shots and sightings we are expecting there on that farm. Hard to kill bedded bucks in a timbered setting. Those hunters had to go back home to MN Rifle opener, so they missed out on the best action (coming up in next section). My Zone 5 guys kept hunting, stuck one in the shoulder, passed a few, chased a few, and saw quite a bit. Yet, the standing corn did more against us in Zone 5 than we expected. Of course, more rain and easterly winds came, and that did not help. Even yet, warm air 10-15 degrees warmer remained. It is important to note that I have had 1 x hunter this year actually hunt my preferred 10 days, but he came and went a few times due to guiding commitments in northern Missouri. He's had the best deer to chase on his farms, 3-4 booners alone to hunt. Cat and mouse stuff. So, ending around the 11th, which is normally the end of our best 5-7 days of hunting, we were sitting very well underserved. I feel horrible for my guys who just came in too early or didn't get to stay long enough to experience the good movement and cooler temps that have since came.

No Archery Hunters Out Hunting (Nov 12th - Nov 20th, Present)

Of course, when hunters leave and farms open up, big deer appear! Weird! We have not yet really gotten the cool/cold air until today (high around 43), but I can say the buck action in daylight improved 5x to 10x in the last week. With the cooler air finally hitting (and hopefully staying), more consistent movement should occur, especially with some food sources being the focal points. With no hunters here, these deer are free to roam around, which sets up nicely for our incoming gun hunters (1st Gun is Dec 7-11, 2nd Gun is Dec 13-21, Late Muzz is Dec 27-Jan10). Yet, I am absolutely pissed off at how poor the bow hunting has been. That is usually our bread and butter. Did we have a trickle rut? Maybe. Maybe not. Did we have some EHD that we just haven't discovered? Maybe... Did we have too much standing corn and too much warm temp days to get deer moving? Yes. With no hunters in, I scratch my head wishing I had some of them back to hunt these farms, but I'll have to settle on my gun guys coming in in just over 2 weeks. As my cameras are showing me the last 8+ days, we are still in the rut, but it is slowing to the late rut phase - another good thing for my gun hunters who will be on the food where bucks will come eat and scent check for those late remaining does.

FutureCast - Deer Activity - 1st Gun Season December 7th - 11th, 2024

It is my guess that with that late rut action, more big bucks will move in daylight to start the season on the weekend. Obviously weather-dependent, if we keep the cold and even add some snow, it'll be a fabulous time. All I know is I have plenty of big deer on camera to satisfy my gun hunters who want a chance at a true trophy. I will share some of the bucks below. I only have two 1st season and two 2nd season hunters coming, and they're all going to our best archery spots and gun spots on our biggest bucks. I have zero concern about camera photo/video timing of these deer, as I can't control such. Yet, if we have them on camera recently, odds are they'll be close enough for us to be in the game when the gun season opens. I will be out with a gun tag myself to try and knock something either old or big down for marketing material since we couldn't in archery, but I'll also be there patrolling farms and making sure nobody is trespassing during the gun seasons. #saynotodeerdrivesandpartyhuntinginiowa

Some of our deer on camera thus far....

Big Frame 9pt - Est. 160" gross score

7x8 Typical Freak - Est. 180" + gross score