Last Chance Bucks

Late season is the perfect time to take a last chance buck, but it’s often a narrow, winding and cold trail to get there. Heavy hunting pressure, the rigors of rut and unpredictable weather swings have made the Whitetail wary.

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The aggressive tactics of the most popular style of hunting deer in Iowa –deer drives- has pushed the herd into the thickest corners of cover available. The ones that have survived the orange invasion are educated, skittish and sensitive to human pressure. In many locations deer turn completely nocturnal or are scarcely seen in the daylight outside their sanctuary. Now more than ever weather is either a tremendous asset to hunting success, or an unpredictable foe.

Moving to feed.

For field watchers and stand sitters, warm air is not a friend. That comfortable sit in October-like temps usually yields very little deer movement to food sources. Arctic is our new favorite word despite the brutal cold and snow that usually accompanies that caliber of Canadian air. 40° is the new 70°, and the deer know they’re being hunted. So when it warms up, they keep their cool in the safety of thick bedding. Their bodies don’t burn as many calories and they can keep warm on a safer diet of forbs, multi-flora rose leaves and other snacks in their core area. In short, they don’t need to move, so they don’t move. Canadian cold and sub-freezing conditions stack the odds in a hunter’s favor as it draws deer from the safety of their bedding areas to stock up on food to survive the winter. Stalking and still-hunting bedding areas can work very well in warm weather. It can also produce when wind chills are atrocious as Arctic air pours more winter into Iowa.

Deer reports came flooding in in the fog and icy aftermath of the freezing drizzle event on December 20th.

Windless cold is great hunting weather. Relentless wind saps energy from hunters and deer alike making dangerous wind chills an enemy of late season stand hunter. Deer are in winter survival mode and everything is about energy balance. If a deer loses more heat from the wind, than it can gain back in food consumed, the energy bank account has experienced a withdrawl. In that situation, moving to feed was a bad decision and over time the deer would lose body mass and eventually may starve or freeze to death as a result of prolonged cold and snow. Nature has ensured the deer that understand this balance have better odds of survival and reaching maturity.

Hunting an active rub line. Activity turned nocturnal after shotgun season.

In bitter cold, big herds can be found in wind breaks, small food plots and out in the open on ridges when the winds are light. Arctic high pressure when the barometer is high and steady can be great producers of late season activity. Even better hunting weather can be found the evening before a winter storm. Easterly winds picking up, a winter gray sky, and a falling barometer with the first flakes falling send signals to the deer to feed now and stock up before the storm hits. They’ll feed heavily even as the snow is piling up and this is a great time to get set up on a food source.

Happy holidays from Heather, Harley and Me.

Hopefully you can find some time to “enjoy” the tundra-like temperatures of our Canadian heat waves over the next few weeks. Whether you’re toting the trusty smoke pole or you’re aiming for a longshot with your bow, I wish you the best of luck and happy holidays.

Second Season

The shotguns are sighted in, tags are bought and the hunting clothes laid out.

Tags are packed, let's get on with hunting season!!

For close to 100,000 Iowans the anticipation is building for opening day. Snowcover, reasonable temps and a late secondary rut may make this your year to take a big buck with a shotgun.

What more could you ask for? Reasonably cold with morning snow showers.
Sounds like good huntin' weather to me!

First off, I came across and article on Crestonnews.com and learned that this is the 60th anniversary of shotgun season here in Iowa. It seems crazy to think that the deer we hunt were nearly non-existent at the turn of the 19th century. Responsible hunting and resource management has blessed Iowans with good hunting opportunities and I am extremely proud to be a part of the shotgunning tradition.

I don't know who's more proud; father who shot or son who helped
 spot this nice 10 pt.

Opening day has Iowans grabbing the gun and heading outdoors with the blaze orange badge of a hunter. One of the things I love the most about this hunting holiday season is the fun, camaraderie and time spent with family.

Tracking, spotting, flushing all made easier by a light snow-pack.

This year there's snow on the ground and perhaps some more on the way. This is excellent news for shotgun hunters! The temperatures will also be tolerable mainly in the 20s for opening weekend with lows in the teens. Sunday morning will be frigid with fresh snow and clear sky. The fields will fill with deer at night, and morning movement should be better than average.

My first buck. Picture taken by my grandpa.

We've also got an overlap between the secondary rut and the second season of shotgun. Many bowhunters can attest the archery season was "off" and I believe rut came late this year. If that's true, the secondary peak of rut will be overlapping the first half of Iowa's second shotgun season. On the morning of December 13th I observed a beautiful, mature buck with his nose down searching the woods for a girlfriend. Young does and fawns may be coming into late cycle estrous and as a result have a bigger and antlered shadow. I'm not sure how much this will impact experienced, mature bucks when they know they're being hunted, but if they let their guard down - the inexperience of the young does should give hunters a serious edge.

One models guess on the new snow by noon Saturday. In any case, fresh snow would be  a blessing!

Next week's warm up into the 30s and 40s may be a negative factor. Deer have acclimated to the cold after a few battles with Arctic air so they may hunker down in their sanctuary instead of moving to feed in those temps. Daylight movement during the week will likely be significantly reduced due to weekend hunting pressure and the "warmer" readings on the thermometer.

Grandpa's beautiful Browning. It's just a great all-around gun!

There's a special place in my heart for deer hunting second season. This season was my introduction to deer hunting and one of the best and last memories I made with my grandpa before he passed. Normally, I hunt with the muzzleloader, but this year I'm going afield with his gun and a great group of friends. Maybe I'll hear the familiar report from the Browning 12 gauge, maybe not. But one things for sure, I'll be making more good memories with the gun that sparked my passion for hunting over a decade ago.

Good luck to you and be safe this season!

Open Season for Ice Anglers

The Arctic ice maker has sent another cold blast to central Iowa pushing numbers 20-25 below average.

It's the caliber of cold that has kept shot-gunners shivering, but it's the same cold that's putting a smile on the faces of central Iowa ice anglers.

Although early ice conditions are quite variable, fishable ice can be found in much of central Iowa. Based on variables like the average air temperature,  ice thickness, snow pack, wind speed, sky cover and others I have put together a "best guess" model of the ice growth in central Iowa.

By my "best guess" it appears central Iowa should expect 5"-7" ice thicknesses as of December 11th - and it's growing. Southern and western Iowa has seen much slower growing ice and thicknesses will still be iffy between 2" - 4".

According to the Minnesota DNR 4" of ice is recommended for ice fishing. Thinner ice can support a person, but it's very dangerous. As always, if you choose to go out test the thickness often. Feel free to send me pictures and I'll put them on the blog cconoan@myabc5.com.

Be safe and good luck!

Cold & Snowy Shotgun 1

These will come in handy with frigid weekend temps.

A giant slice of the Arctic pie has slammed into the Midwest and Iowa for the Gun season opener. According to the DNR over 70,000 hunters will don the blaze and brave the cold. So while you're contemplating your sanity and getting ready for the hunt, I thought we'd talk about the good, the bad and the ugly about hunting in Arctic cold.

Rutting activity is still being observed and will collide with gun season.

The good: Cold moves game. Especially windless cold. Just like your furnace kicking on relentlessly, a deer's metabolism increases to burn calories and maintain body temperature. And just like the natural gas, electricity or wood burned for fuel, deer require energy to stay warm. So they feed like crazy, especially where the wind is weak. At the center of an Arctic high pressure is a heartless, windless cold and the deer flood food sources. I expect that's where they'll be come opening morning!

Active scrape refreshed by a nice buck on December 4th.

A light to moderate snow storm is shaping up for day 2 of shotgun season this year. As the storm moves in, the barometer falls and cirrostratus clouds filter the sunlight. This signal sends a message to deer to not only eat enough to stay warm, but pack in a little extra chow because the weather's going to turn, and it may not be worth it to come back to food the following day if the wind is howling and the snow is 2 feet deep. One of my favorite times to hunt is the afternoon before a winter storm.

Cirrostratus ahead of a winter storm.

Snow is expected to blanket most of the state in 2"-4" of fresh powder. Snow can be one of the very best weather conditions to hunt in for many reasons. Chiefly, it makes the normally well camouflaged deer stand out like sore thumbs. Visually, it blocks distant vantages so that deer that picks you off and tips off the herd when you park your truck a mile away will have no idea you're coming. It also disorients when falling heavily allowing you to slip up on a wary whitetail. Our steps are quieter in the woods when there's fresh snow and cutting a big track is a breeze. You can even guess the age of a track within minutes as snow is falling using a best guess on its freshness and the rate of snow falling.

Bundle Up!

The bad: You'll have to fight through many layers, and odds are you wont have enough to truly abate the nasty wind chill. Guns, trucks and other mechanical things break, and they do it on the coldest day of the year. Gun oil has viscosity that nearly solidifies in extreme cold conditions, resulting in a dangerous misfire or seized firing pin and otherwise useless weapon. And usually you don't know it until that 11pt buck steps into range.

Ice conditions are variable and can be dangerous this time of year.

The ice is growing, but still dangerous and recent wind has made for broken ice, pressure fissures and variable ice depths. Cross rivers, streams and other waterways with extreme caution if you choose to cross at all. I will be putting out an ice-depth chart and forecast in the next blog and I expect ice conditions to improve vastly by next weekend. Finally, aside from the brutal and harassing arctic wind chill, the woods will be exceptionally noisy as it often is under high pressure and frozen ground. Expect sounds like your truck door closing or snow boots over crunchy leaves to carry well beyond shotgun range. Turn this problem into an asset and you'll be standing over an Arctic trophy.

The Ugly: I lied. There's no uglyness to Arctic cold. It just is. So be prepared for it and go get that buck that escaped me during bow season. Be sure to dress warmly. Once you think you've got enough layers-add another. And if you have the luxury, crank up the heat in a blind overlooking a good travel corridor. That way you can roast marshmallows, read a book and stay toasty while the rest of us push the deer for ya! Then go cut some tracks in the snow on Sunday in the 20° weather. It'll seem like a heat wave :)

Good luck!