Iowa Bowhunter Jared Mills captured one of the best self-filmed whitetail hunts of all time

A cold front moved into eastern Iowa in early October, and videographer Jared Mills knew it was high time to hunt a buck he had trail camera photos of in Louisa County.

“I had only hunted one day since the opening of bow season in Iowa on Oct. 1, and this was the first time I had tried a spot where I had summer shots of a big buck,” Mills, 36, said. Outdoor living. “I first heard about him last year through trailcam photos. But I hadn’t hunted him until the evening of October 7.”

Mills was on private property in a spot that had mostly native CRP grasses. But there were also some timber-lined creeks and low swampy areas nearby where he caught the big buck on camera. Until that evening, he had never seen the buck in real life.

“I had made some fake scrapes near my tree stand, and I had photos of the buck working some of those scrapes,” says Mills, a professional videographer from Iowa City. “With the approaching cold front, I ended up in my tree house early, at 3:30 p.m.”

Mills said the place he hunted was a staging area for young bucks. He recorded video of young deer as they browsed and foraged through the area. But the larger buck was like a ghost, visible especially at night and always elusive.

Mills posted one detailed YouTube video show his yacht. He used two video cameras on arms attached to his forked tree from which his stand hung. One camera stands behind him, capturing his entire hunting ground – with him in the foreground, standing twenty feet high.

Mills has a second camera, which is attached to an adjustable camera arm. Switching from holding his camera to his bow, the 17-point buck feeds in an open field 27 yards away.

Mills says a doe with two fawns was seen in the open area near his stand that afternoon, prowling within 20 feet of him. They were soon joined by a flock of feeding turkeys.

“All of a sudden the turkeys started chasing and the doe barking,” he says, which happened around 6 p.m. “I thought a coyote or a bobcat was scaring them, but I didn’t know what was happening because I couldn’t see what was causing the commotion.”

A few small dollars appeared. Then Mills heard a heavy deer in a nearby creek.

“I knew this was the big money I wanted,” Mills says. ‘I saw him walking 100 yards towards the other smaller bucks. He ate for a few minutes and came towards me through a dense area of ​​willows. A few minutes later he got out 40 yards away, stopped and kept walking until he was standing next to me in the open air 27 yards away.

Mills zooms in tight on the buck with one camera and then reaches for his bow, a Hoyt Alpha

The second camera behind Mills records him as he draws. He releases his arrow just as the buck steps forward, exposing his entire ribcage.

It’s a textbook breakthrough, low and behind the buck’s shoulder. The cameras record the shot of the buck jumping and trotting from twenty meters. He then crosses the open field. The deer slows down, turns to the side, wobbles a bit and then falls dead. It falls into its stand just 40 yards away from Mills.

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The YouTube video is a remarkable recording of a giant buck being captured by an archer who remains calm under pressure and makes a perfect shot. For serious deer hunters, it’s an incredibly satisfying series, in part because there’s no cheesy music, no fake reconstructions, and no overreaction. Just simple and authentic hunting image.

Once the deer was down, Mills called some local friends to help load the field-dressed deer into a truck before taking it home for processing. It had 17 points, including cleft brow teeth.

“We didn’t weigh the buck, but I estimate it was a liveweight of 250 pounds,” Mills said. “We green scored it at 181 5/8 inches. I’ll have a European skull frame made of him.’