BEANS

Brennen Nading - Iowa - October 13th, 2024

By: Brennen Nading (@nadingbr)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Iowa deer hunting regulations, I will give you a quick rundown. As a resident, you are allowed to purchase a statewide either sex tag for archery season and also for ONE of the firearm seasons (there are 4). The firearm seasons are Early Muzzleloader (Oct 12-20 this year), Shotgun 1 (Dec 7-11), Shotgun 2 (Dec 14-22), and Late Muzzleloader (Dec 23 - Jan 10). Like I said, you are only allowed to purchase an either sex tag for ONE of the 4 firearm options.  For the past decade, I have always opted to hunt one of the later seasons simply because they are longer. This year, I was looking at it from a different perspective.  Although the Early Muzz season is a gamble, I felt like the historic camera intel told me that if we get the right weather during this part of October, mature deer are on their feet in the daylight. Keeping a close eye on the forecast, I was looking for a significant weather change to hit during the 9 day season.  As luck would have it, day 2 of the season would be 25-30 degrees cooler, and rising pressure over the next 3-4 day span. That is all I needed to see...I purchased my license, and headed to the range to make sure my gun was sighted in.  Even though the season is short, I decided not to hunt on opening day when the temps were in the mid to upper 80s.  Instead, I waited for the north winds and big temp drop on day 2. The wait was worth it. Deer were on their feet early and "Beans" was fired up.   We watched him work multiple scrapes, step down a beautiful 4 year old buck, and nudge several does and fawns around. It's something special just to witness a fully mature buck doing his thing. After the 20 minute encounter, my bullet found its mark.  October cold fronts are no joke!