Knight Rifles Pro Staffers Get First Taste of Iowa Hunting

 

Knight Rifles Pro Staffers and expert hunters Bear Kelly and Jack Coad know there's something special about Iowa whitetails. So after receiving their invitation to the Knight Rifles Invitational Hunt in southern Iowa, the two New Yorkers eagerly awaited the opportunity to harvest their first Iowa buck.

"We were not let down," Coad said. "I saw close to 300 deer in just five days. The deer are very healthy and much larger than the deer here in New York."

The hunt started with typical northern weather - sleet, freezing rain, and temperatures in the low 20s. While the deer bedded down, Kelly and Coad spent the day learning the lay of the land and anticipating weather that would get the big bucks moving. Day two was cold and blustery, but the sun occasionally peaked through the thinning clouds.

Coad spent much of the morning on a stand, but he eventually climbed down and scouted the area for buck signs. "With a howling wind and the thermometer hovering around 15 degrees, it felt like zero," Coad said. "I figured the deer had to find a good food supply to get ready for this cold weather." He scouted along an 800-acre soy bean field and found a section where plenty of beans were left on the ground.

After locating several fresh trails and a few rubs, Coad devised a plan. "I located a heavily used trail that I suspected was a doe trail, and in the corner of the field I saw a more hidden trail." He walked a few yards down the hidden trail and noticed several rubs. "I backed up and built a little blind next to a fallen tree at the edge of the field," Coad said. "The lay of the land featured a rise that hid the corner of the field from me, meaning that any buck that came out would be within 100 yards when it topped the rise."

A few hours later as the sun neared the horizon, deer began pouring out into the field. Coad was watching the buck feed when a doe broke out onto the field. As she stopped and stood frozen, a massive buck emerged from the trees. He approached the now motionless doe, about130 yards from Coad. "It was a good buck - it was the buck I'd come to Iowa for," he said. "I have an eight-point on the wall and I really wanted a 10."

While his prize buck sniffed the ground, Coad counted five points on the left beam. Because the deer was facing him, Coad couldn't judge the tine length but with one swift move, the buck snapped his head up and lip-curled. "I'd never seen that in the wild," Coad said. "At that instant I noticed the length of the tines and moved my crosshairs to the kill zone." Coad squeezed the trigger on his Knight Disc Extreme .52 caliber. The stiff wind blew the smoke away instantly and he saw steam coming from the entry point in the right side of the buck's chest.

"Kelly and I waited about 20 minutes before we went to find the buck," Coad said. "When we got to the spot he'd been standing, I couldn't find any hair or blood and I started to get a little worried," he said. While Kelly remained in the area looking for signs of the buck, Coad headed to the last place he'd seen him: the trail he'd earlier identified as the buck trail. "I looked over the fence and about 10 yards into the grass I could see a huge left-hand tine," he recalled. With arms raised Coad let out a war whoop and brought Kelly running.

The buck had five points on the left side but only four on the right, leaving Coad one tine short of his 10-point goal. Still, he was not disappointed. "My first Iowa buck! He may not have been the biggest our crew killed over the five days of hunting, but the buck's scars showed he was combat tested," Coad said. "What a fantastic hunt; it was one that I’ll remember forever."