When bitter winter weather hits the upper Midwest, nothing draws whitetails like corn. Here you can see evidence of the deer sucking the kernels off the cob.

Frigid December weather in Iowa makes for hot whitetail hunting with a muzzleloader.

I have a love/hate relationship with snow and cold.

After living, hunting and guiding for nearly 15 years in Alaska, the move a few years ago to southern Arizona was a welcome change. After a while the snow and cold of the Far North just got to me, and it feels good to stay thawed out 12 months a year. I swore I would never be in a snowstorm again unless I was in deer camp – which is where I always seem to end up in late November or December.

Last year it was western Iowa, where my friend Judd Cooney runs a very successful operation called Iowa Trophy Whitetail Outfitters. I had wanted to hunt Judd’s place for years, but it wasn’t until 2007 that the planets lined up. I drew a tag, then made my way to camp with friend and hunting television personality Chad Schearer and fellow outdoor writer Dave Dolbee. Chad had booked us for five days of muzzleloader hunting in mid-December, a time when I have had great success chasing oversized whitetails with my CVA Optima Elite.

My last December trip to Iowa had been two years earlier, when temperatures held below zero more than they climbed above single digits. On that trip I learned a lot about muzzleloader hunting in the snow and bitter cold. And after all was said and done and I’d shot a dandy nine-point (actually a 10 with a broken G-3) that scored 155 SCI points, three lessons stood out. First, you need to dress properly to handle the bitter cold. Second, great care is needed to make sure your muzzleloader goes boom when you want it to. And last, but certainly not least, when the mercury plummets, deer must eat a lot to stay warm. This means they gravitate to whatever agriculture is still available. While lots of food sources will do, nothing beats corn or soybeans for fueling them right up.

Perfect Weather

If you were an ardent cross-country skier, snowshoer, ice fisherman (or whitetail hunter), in the middle of December 2007 in western Iowa, conditions for your sport could not have been better. Bitter storms raced through the upper Midwest, snarling traffic, closing airports and blanketing the countryside with a couple of feet of snow.

Cooney grew up in this area and now leases a large expanse of prime farmland for deer hunting. In addition to the spread’s agriculture programs, Cooney plants numerous food plot blends, as well as small plots of soybeans, corn, brassicas and clover. Along these plots he strategically sets his tree stands and ground blinds to cover places where deer activity suddenly increases. On our hunt, with fresh snow sporadically falling and morning temperatures in the teens, the food plots were happening.

One thing I have always liked about Judd is the fact that, when it comes to the outdoors, the former biologist, trapper and game warden is the real deal. He knows what it takes to put on a top-quality hunt. He keeps hunting pressure low and takes great pains to not overhunt any one stand. He also prefers not to hunt directly on the food plots, instead backing his stands off sometimes more than 100 yards to catch the deer coming and going. “That way you don’t spook the older deer away from the magnets that keep bringing them back regularly,” he told me. This is how to hunt free-ranging whitetails over 3-1/2 years old – never let them know you’re in the neighborhood until it’s too late.

Stick & Move

Chad and his cameraman, Clay, spent several days in the “Taj Mahal,” an oversized wooden blind set along the edge of a big food plot. They saw dozens of deer and several nice bucks each day, but chose to hold out for one of the whoppers we all knew were in the area. Dave Dolbee hunted funnels leading to feeding areas, and he, too, saw lots of deer but held out for a dandy. I hunted a mix of tree-stand setups and ground blinds, like the others seeing plenty of deer but no real shooters the first couple days.

This type of hunting is often a game of cat-and-mouse, with the cat – you – at first setting up on the fringes where you can see a long way. Your hope is to get a shot from where you’re set up, of course, but also to see if there might be a better stand location nearby. It’s a fun way to hunt, and for me, on this trip, it proved to be the ticket to paradise.

One afternoon I sat a stand set on a cut cornfield holding perhaps a half-acre of standing corn at the far end. A brushy hillside bordered the field, perfect for deer to bed high and out of sight while staying close to the calories. That afternoon I saw several very nice bucks and quite a few does working the corn without a care in the world. Promising.

That evening after supper, Judd and I came up with a plan. The next morning I would sit a ground blind situated in a funnel I’d hunted previously. If I did no good, I’d leave that setup a bit early so we could move a ground blind into position in the corner corn. It was time for the ol’ “Stick & Move.”

Making Our Move

The morning broke cold with scattered snow showers, ideal deer hunting weather. I struck out that morning, seeing a handful of does and one small buck. At 10 a.m. I called for a pickup, and after a quick bite, Judd and I headed off to the corn. On the way we picked up a prototype ground blind made from lightweight fiberglass and about the size of a standard outhouse. Not much to look at, but it loaded easily into the truck’s bed. A short, bumpy ride along the edges of the frozen field put us about 100 yards downwind of the standing grain.

Surveying the situation, Judd moved to tuck the blind on the edge of the tree line bordering the field. I wanted to brush it in as much as possible, always fearing that a new blind could scare off deer until they get used to it.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve had deer come right by this thing the first time I set it out,” Judd told me with a grin. I hoped he wasn’t kidding.

It was only 12:30 by the time we were done setting up the new blind, but I had Judd leave me then and there. I had five hours to go until dark. The good news about the long sit ahead was that the blind gave me absolute protection from the biting wind. And by darkening one of the small side windows, it was impossible for a deer to see me inside. I had some snacks, a little water, and a good book, so after using my Bushnell Scout 1000 laser rangefinder to take a few readings, I capped the muzzleloader and got comfortable.

Nothing happened until about 3:30, when a trio of does came running up to the cornfield and passed within five steps of the blind. This will be the acid test, I thought, but when none of them showed any interest in the blind, I was both surprised and relieved.

As the afternoon wore on, small, scattered groups of does, yearlings and young bucks came and went, but nothing of any interest. Then, at about quarter to five, I saw two bucks heading my way through the trees and corn stalks. One was an average deer, but his partner was dark-horned, big-bodied and, at first glance, appeared to have exceptional antlers. They were still 200 yards out and coming when I slid the CVA out the window.

The smaller of the two came right through the stalks and began feeding on the edge in the wide open not 80 yards away but the larger buck remained screened by the corn. I watched the tops of the stalks shake as he gorged on the hanging corn. With legal light creeping in, he finally began working my way through the stalks and into the open. At 100 yards I could see all I needed to see through the Bushnell 3-9X scope turned up high. I settled the crosshairs behind his shoulder, and when he stopped to grab another mouthful, I squeezed the trigger.

No Blood?

As the smoke cleared, I saw one of the bucks streaking north while the other headed due west through the trees. I wasn’t sure which was which, so I reloaded and went to check for blood.

When I couldn’t immediately find any sign, I nearly soiled my drawers. How could I have missed? Had I missed? There were tracks everywhere so I called Judd on the radio.

We did a quick grid search and, sure enough, heading up the hill was the first speck of blood. It soon became many specks, then lots of blood, and then, 75 yards up the snowy hill, was my buck. The 300-grain PowerBelt slug had entered right behind the front shoulder and destroyed his lungs. Yet the deer – which weighed nearly 240 pounds field dressed – was able to race up the slope. And what a buck he was! He was a nine-point thanks to a G-3 that had been broken off, yet he still taped 164 3/8 SCI points. For the second time in two tries, a bitter-weather December muzzleloader hunt in Iowa had produced a whopper whitetail for me.

Epilogue

The next day Judd and I took photographs and cared for the deer, and I cleaned gear before I departed a day early to make my connections for what proved to be a super Coues whitetail hunt in Chihuahua, Mexico. Chad and Dave hunted their full five days, both hoping for monster bucks. In the last-half hours of their hunts, each took very nice eight-pointers.

I still have no real affection for snow and cold, but I can promise you this: I will be making sure I get a preference point for Iowa this year. Because as sure as the sun rises in the east, I’ll be trying to get a tag for 2009 and hoping to make it three for three on bitter-weather Iowa bucks.