Camp of a Lifetime

It was decided in mid October that Nick and I would have a deer camp in western Iowa at a buddies parents place. Ethan Shetler invited us to have this privilege the last few days before the new year. Nick and I headed out from Boone and made a quick stop at Jordan Creek to swap out my ring. We ended up getting to Ethan's later than we hoped but we were still able to shoot the shit and hang out. We put together our strategies for the morning hunt and to bed we went. The next morning we headed to our places and waited for something to happen. No shots fired. I got a text from Ethan a little before 8am saying I should start walking to the river. I could tell he was already getting antzy; we hadn't been sitting for an hour yet. Just at 8am I started to walk the road back to the river and eventually started walking the CRP along the creek. I would walk and pause about every 30 yards. When I could see blaze orange I pulled out my range finder and glassed out Nick just to make sure of his location. I walked about 50 more yards when I watched him stand up. About 20 more yards and CRACK! A cloud of smoke hovered over the prairie and I see Nick trying to look for what he shot at. He then starts running and I hear him yell. He yells for me to get over there quick he needed a second shot. A B-E-A-UIFUL buck was doing the spinny-whirlies in the bean field and needed a second shot. I handed Nick my gun and he took care of business. We look North to see Ethan come check out the ruckus. He was some 300 yards away, so all we really see is blaze orange bobbing up and down across the other bean field. He goes down into the creek and comes up over the top and then his eyes got as big as dinner plates. He expected a doe but now we have a brute of a buck on the ground. Unlike what we are used to, we took our time to slowly absorb the moment. We took a bunch of pics and talked about the mornings happenings. This was still just the first morning's hunt.

 

 After grabbing a bite to eat and hanging out for the rest of the morning and early afternoon (temps were in the upper 50s) we decided we could be just a productive in a deer blind. We headed out to the hut where we could bullshit, smoke cigars, and still deer hunt. I taught the two young guns how to blow smoke rings. We practiced for the better part of the afternoon.

At one point we actually got to see some deer. Three does filtered into the field for about 20 minutes before they retreated for no apparent reason. Then all hell broke loose. In the far corner, deer just started pouring in. We wanted to double as both Ethan and I had tags to fill. We practiced the count, which we had Nick do, and waited for the deer to get closer. Eventually, two deer started closing the distance and we got ready for the shots. Practice; One, two, three, bang.

"Ok Nick now." Ethan said.

"NO NO NO NOT YET!" I said

"Okay now Nick." I said 

"NO! Mine's takin' off. Just WAIT!" Said Ethan

Ethan's finally stopped and mine presented a shot.

 One, two, th- BOOM!
BOOM!
Ethan rattled off a shot before I knew what to do so I shot anyway. Mine deer dropped and his took a loop before keeling over. My deer was now trying to get up but failing miserably. We got out of the box blind and went to finish off mine and drag Ethan's back. I took Ethan's .357 and shot my deer again. Wouldn't you have it but the damn thing got up again. All I hear behind me is...
"Oh no you don't!"
Ethan is drawn and ready to shoot again but both Nick and I knew he was done and not going far. 50 yards and plop. Done. We drag both deer to the blind and take a few pics.

We figured as Ethan put it; "dumber things have happened", so we climbed back into the hut as we still had daylight left. Well, wouldn't you have it at 5 minutes to last light, a small deer showed up at the far corner of the field. We were both going to take a pop shot as the distance was 280 yards, according to the range finder diagram in the hut. I knew this was not going to happen with my gun so I backed out. Ethan propped up and squeezed off a shot. BOOM!....Thud. Ethan jumps up and does the "clutch-superbowl-catch-for-the-win" war cry and takes off across the field. He nailed this labrador retriever-esk doe at 277 yards. With a muzzleloader. UNREAL. He hit her right in the neck and she dropped in her tracks.

I never thought we could top the morning's buck. Then there was the not impossible but exceedingly difficult double which we accomplished. To top off the day, Ethan made the best shot I have ever had the privilege of witnessing, let along with a muzzleloader. We threw the deer in the back of the pickup and left to gut them at the farm as it was raining and we didn't want to fight it. Nick gutted the three of them in less than 15 minutes and we hung them for the evening. We retired to the man cave with a wood stove where we finished our evening with cards, fellowship, fine cigars, and unlimited amounts of John Prine.

Great day on earth.

The next morning we didn't feel the need to jump into anything but we still had tags to fill as farm tags went on the three doinker does. First push I missed an opportunity at a nice 8 pointer but he was booking it out. I then jumped five more does and they took off over the hill. I no more than got settled and BOOM! Ethan struck gold again on a big doe. The group then came back over the hill and stopped on the other side of the wooded finger I was in. I just couldn't get shot. Ethan's dad Ken and I met up with the pushers and then went to see his doe. After yesterday 35 yards was more than a chip shot. Ethan made short work of that.

 

As Nick gutted Ethan's deer, (camp wench), we all propped our guns up on this fence post and it just begged for a picture:

 

Oh how the muzzle loading world has changed...

We tried a couple more places before we decided this was more than enough deer hunting to satisfy the soul. We headed back to camp to get a truck and to start lunch. Ethan and I doubled back with his truck for the doe and Nick cut out tenderloins for lunch. Nick and Ken worked on frying up some potatoes and the inner loins of the doinkest doe and Nick's buck. It was awesome.As their dude cave is still in the works, we had to improvise food prep and feeding surface. We managed.

 

We got all of the deer harvested together for one last photo before processing of some and HUSH for others. 

This turned out to be one of the best if not the best camp I have even had the chance to be a part of. Ethan, his dad, and his mom were gracious hosts and did there best to make Nick and I comfortable. We went into this camp not needing to just shoot deer. We just wanted to hang out and spend some time in the woods. Fellowship, conversation, and maybe a sighting of a deer. Funny how that always seems to work out. I left seeing that Western/Southern Iowa really is God's country. Ethan, Ken, I hope we can join you guys next year.

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