Cassie Dean |
Hunting in Southeast Iowa
By Cassie Dean
Every hunter knows that they are going to spend many hours in the field, before they can take their trophy buck. Here is a hunter that has been spending many years looking for a trophy buck, but what he doesn’t know is that his opportunity is around the corner. Cameron Hopson has been hunting for five years where he has only shot one buck, which was a nice eight-point buck that was shot during his first year of youth season. After hearing many great stories from his grandfather, Gerald Hopson, his father, Kurt Hopson, and a family friend, Scott Flam, Cameron was ready to be a deer hunter. The next few years of watching his dad and Scott shoot trophy bucks, he found out that hunting is not as easy as what they made it out to be.
Since October started closing in all Cameron could think about was hunting. Cameron and Kurt started putting up stands throughout their 500 acres of timber and CRP fields and at the same time they were able to check out all of the scrapes and rubs. As Cameron was out scouting and getting his ladder stand set up close to heavy used trails, it was making him so pumped up and ready to hunt. It wasn’t until the evening October 1st when Cameron was able to go out and sit in his stand. The evening went well, and he was able to watch a doe and a yearling wonder around on the edge of the CRP field for a good half an hour.
Throughout the month of October and only seeing does, yearlings, spiked bucks, and some young mature bucks Cameron wasn’t looking at a great season and was hoping for November during the rut to hopefully pick up. As the rut started, Kurt, Scott, and Cameron weren’t seeing much and were not having a great season of rut. There was only a couple of weeks left of the end of November and Cameron was headed out to stand that was set up by some acorn trees. He had not been seeing much during the week and he thought this was going to be another day of watching some young mature bucks running the does around. He had been sitting for a good hour an a half and he heard some commotion coming from behind him and he knew he didn’t have much time before shooting hours were over, but all he could do was wait patiently for the deer to come into his line of sight. Not knowing what the deer was going to be, he was just hoping that it would be a nice buck.
After waiting for a few minutes he could see a deer out of the corner of his eye. He slowly started to turn his head and he could see antlers, and the deer ended up being a mature eight point. He became very excited knowing that this was a buck that he could see himself taking. As he was watching the eight points slowly close the distance between them. He fastened his release to his bow and waited as the deer was heading straight towards him. The deer was very alert and was concentrating on something to the other side of Cameron. Cameron knew that he could not make a lot of movement to look to the other side of him; therefore, all he could do was listen to see if he could hear anything coming. As he was debating on whether or not to shoot the eight-point and wondering what else was coming in from the other direction, Cameron realized that this eight point was a younger buck that would be a great buck for next year. It wasn’t but a few minutes before the other deer came into range and this buck was a bigger and more mature ten point. As the ten point started to walk towards an acorn tree, the eight-point became very agitated and he charged towards the older buck. This sent the ten point running the opposite way that Cameron wanted him too, but those bucks weren’t about to leave the area. The eight point chased the ten point around for about five minutes and then they started to calm down a little bit, and the ten point started to head back towards Cameron’s stand. Right as the deer stepped into his sight, he realized that he was not going to have much time before this buck moved out of range. Cameron pulled back to full draw and focused his sights on the buck’s chest, just waiting for the deer to turn broad side. The deer started to turn and he watched him for a few steps as he reached the twenty-yard mark and the buck stopped dead in his tracks focusing on the eight-point. Cameron pulled the switch on his release and the arrow took off and went right under his stomach, the deer took three steps and stopped looking around not knowing what happened. As Cameron reached for another arrow, the bucks got nervous and took off up the hill, not letting him get another shot. Cameron left his stand hoping that the mature ten-point would give him another chance.
It was narrowing down to the last week of November and Scott had seen a massive eight-point, with tall tines, crossing the road. He just knew that he needed to get out in the field. Scott grabbed his climber stand and headed out to a mid day hunt. As he chooses his tree and cleared some brush for good shoot windows, he quickly climbed up his tree and sprayed himself down. He knocked his arrow and sat down, it wasn’t but five minutes and the buck was headed right towards him. He stood up and pulled back to full draw, the buck walked right in front of him and he released his fingers to send the arrow right in the kill zone of the buck. The buck took off and made it about ten to fifteen yards and dropped to the ground. Scott waited for a while until the deer stopped moving and then climbed down to go retrieve his buck. As the week slowly went by and not seeing any mature bucks, Cameron and Kurt ended their bow season with empty tags.
As shotgun season started getting closer, so did winter. The evening before opening day of second season the snow started to come down, and the wind was picking up. The snow is always good for shotgun, because it is a lot easier to track deer, but when the wind starts blowing it just makes everything more difficult.
As everyone woke up around six in the morning on the first day of second season, all they could think about was the excitement of this day finally being here.
After stepping outside to check the temperature, Mother Nature had left them a few inches of snow on the ground and plenty of wind blowing across the fields; they knew that it was going to be a cold morning. As Cameron, Kurt, and Scott started to put on plenty of layers to keep warm they had noticed that the snow was lighting up the fields pretty early, therefore they needed to get a head start to their stands.
After heading out and sitting in their stands and not seeing anything, they decided to push a small section of their timber. Cameron started to head to the top of a hill, while Scott and Kurt were going to push the timber towards him. As Cameron reached the top of the hill, he decided to set up next to a fence where there was a heavy used trail only fifteen yards away. He had a CRP field behind him, which he would be able to see anything that would try and sneak in behind him. Cameron was sitting there for no longer than five minutes and noticed some movement through the thick timber; it was a young four-point buck roughly sixty yards away. As he watched the buck for a while, the deer stayed calm and started feeding on some acorns. Then shortly after Cameron noticed four more deer that showed up right behind the four point. Not knowing if any of the deer where mature bucks, Cameron just stayed calm and waited for them to step out in a clearing. As they stepped out to where he could see them, he couldn’t believe his eyes there was another four point, a six point, an eight point, and soon after a mature buck stepped out. As he watched the older buck, he guessed him to be around four or five years old and was about a 150 to a 160-class buck. Trying to stay calm he watched them feed on the acorns and they slowly moved their way towards him. As he was watching them, before he knew it a shot went off. Afraid that the deer were going start running he pulled his gun up and was ready to aim, but surprisingly the deer just stood there and continued to eat. Kurt and Scott where slowly closing in and Cameron knew that as soon as the deer would see them they would be gone in the blink of an eye. They deer started to get nervous and started running through the thick brush, Cameron ran a few yards to cut them off and they quickly came to an opening. Cameron took two shots and was hoping he made a good shot on the mature buck.
After meeting up with Kurt and Scott, they tracked him for a while and finally came across the first drops of blood. As they followed the blood trail, they came upon two spots where he had laid down and which at that point they knew that the buck was becoming very uncomfortable. Carefully they stayed on his trail and kept their eyes glancing forward. After they had been walking for what seemed like miles they came over a hill to find him bedded down for the third time, Cameron pulled up and took the fatal shot to leave him stunned and confused. He got up and ran a few yards and fell down what seemed like the biggest ravine possible.
After Cameron sprinted down the hill, he came face to face with the buck of his dreams. Cameron quickly counted his points; he turned out to be a mature eleven point that will be soon hanging on his wall. |
