Sarah Bowhunts an Iowa GIANT Buck w a BEAST Broadhead

Welcome back to Beaumar Bowhunting. On this episode we're chasing giant whitetails in Iowa. Every season Josh and I target a couple of monster bucks and this year I was hunting two absolute legends on our farm. One we called Swoops and the other we called the Old Ten. At six and a half, Swoops blew into a giant. By far one of the heaviest body deer we've ever seen, which is saying something because we've shot some absolute mammoth body giants over the years. The weight of Dozer. A lot of you guessed. There it is. 290.6 pounds live weight. Now you guys are seeing why I call him Dozer. But what made Swoops really special was the fact he was one of the biggest typicals we've ever documented. We were certain Swoops was in the high 70s maybe even 80s as a typical, which is so rare and so incredible. But as for the Old Ten, he was no slouch either. He too was an absolute heavyweight, easily weighing over 280 pounds. Now he didn't score as high as Swoops, but he was just as mature and still likely in the 60s, so he was a shooter for me. But on September 16th everything changed. The Old Ten made his last appearance and vanished. From that day forward we never saw him again. Not a single picture, not a single sighting, literally nothing. We had heard of EHD outbreaks in our area, so we just assumed the worst. Nature likely had reclaimed another one of its legends, so we quickly switched all of our focus and strategy to hunting Swoops. Let's dive into a little history on Swoops. We've documented him since 2022, where we assumed he was four years old. Yes, he was nice, but we felt with one more year he would blow up. In 2023 he got a little bit bigger, but he didn't make that giant jump we were hoping for. So we let him go yet again, hoping he'd make it through season. That spring we got our answer. We were shed hunting with the family and wouldn't you know it, we found his sheds. Look at this! Holy smokes! Yeah! This is a buck we passed and he's been holding strong. We couldn't wait to see what he turned into this summer and I gotta say we weren't disappointed because he blew into an absolute giant at six and a half years old. So we did all the traditional farm prep, planting food plots, getting everything ready for the fall, so when season finally started I couldn't wait to start hunting. I was patiently aggressive, hunting hard when the conditions were perfect, but even with perfect conditions, like many old bucks, we never laid eyes on him. Hunt after hunt we saw a lot of deer, but no sign of Swoops. He was hitting the cameras from time to time, mostly after dark. Definitely not consistent, but it did not matter. We kept hunting in hopes the one chance he'd show up, we'd be there. But despite three weeks of hunting, many cold fronts, and perfect conditions, we had yet to lay eyes on Swoops. However, on October 17th that all changed. The weather was absolutely perfect, the barometric pressure was on the rise, and it was looking like perfect conditions for big buck movement. The only problem was the wind was marginal for us, so I was going to have to keep the blind windows shut to reduce our scent footprint. The hunt started out great, we had a ton of deer movement early, including some nice bucks. Then, right before dark, I caught movement in the tree line, and it was big. Really big. It was him. Finally, after a month of season, he was standing right in front of me. This was my chance, I had to make it count. Once he moved into bow range, I was ready. It was time to open the window and take my shot. As I cracked the window, my worst nightmare came true. A small buck right beneath us caught our scent and blew out of there, running right by Swoops. He didn't know exactly what happened, but he wasn't sticking around to find out, so he disappeared into the timber. That was a really cool sit. I feel like we saw almost every deer in the county, a lot of little bucks, and then right at last light, Swoops came in, and I don't think he was nervous necessarily, but there were a lot of deer in the field, and then we had the windows open because we were getting ready to, you know, if he was going to step out, then we needed to have the windows open, and so I don't know if the wind swirled once we did that or what, but the deer started to get a little bit nervous, and then one blew. I kind of scattered around. He didn't really go anywhere, but he did just kind of slowly meander to like the edge of the timber, and then came back in, and then by the time he was back in the field, one, he was too far, and two, it was past legal shooting light, but still really cool to see that big of a deer. Unfortunately, it just wasn't my night, but I don't think we spooked him at all. He just slowly walked off, so I think tomorrow is going to be a good sit. The rest is cold front. We're supposed to get our first freeze tonight, and then it'll be cold again tomorrow, so we'll see what we're gonna do. We monitored the cameras for the next week, but unfortunately Swoops became more inconsistent and hadn't daylighted again, but we thought that might change with the massive cold front coming through on October 23rd. Another high pressure system was coming, so we decided to go back out and hunt the same spot we did before in hopes of the small chance that he could come by. The hunt was going great. Deer seemed to be on their feet. We even had a couple small bucks move through early. I could just feel it. This was going to be one of those magical sits. Time passed, and the evening progressed. I was enjoying watching the deer moving through and daydreaming of the many encounters I had over the years in this exact same field. From my hunt for daggers to spending the entire season hunting Big Mac, ending that story in the exact same field. But then the moment of nostalgia was abruptly interrupted when I looked up and my heart stopped. It wasn't Swoops. It was a ghost. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the old ten standing 25 yards away. For a second, I couldn't breathe. I was so caught off guard. How could this be? He was supposed to be dead, and yet here he stands. He had completely surprised us. Every window was shut. I wasn't ready, and he was on the move. I quickly sprung into action and went straight into kill mode. Everything turned into chaos. He started walking out of my first shooting lane away from us, so I had to switch positions and try to get the next window open. He kept getting further and further away. I quickly ranged him, and he was at 45 yards quartering hard. I could feel my opportunity slipping away every step he took. I went full draw to take a quick shot, but as I'm about to shoot, I hear the worst possible words from the cameraman. I'm not on him. My heart sank. I'm at full draw. This deer is seconds away from bolting. Every second felt like an eternity as the cameraman tried to get in position to get the shot. Finally, after what felt like forever, I hear the words, I'm on him. The angle wasn't great, but I knew with the beast broadhead, I had total confidence it would go straight through. So I settled in, buried the pin on his ham, and ran my shot. My arrow hits the mark, and the beast 2.3 disappeared, no doubtedly burying deep into the chest cavity. I knew immediately he couldn't hold that shot, and he wouldn't make it far. I was shaking. I couldn't believe what just happened. A ghost from the past that we hadn't seen since September 16th was just in front of me. What a crazy hunt. I couldn't wait to call Josh and share the good news. I shot him. First and foremost, I should not have taken a quartering away shot like that. He was so, so, so quartered away, but these deer weren't nervous. We had a bunch of turkeys underneath us, and as soon as I opened the window, for whatever reason, they got really nervous. He came in chasing a doe. Did not expect to see that deer tonight. Like I said, should not have taken that shot, but that's why we use the broadhead that we do, and that arrow disappeared completely into him. Like, it went in that back hip, and I think it went straight through his cavity all the way up to that offside shoulder. So, we are going to wait until it gets dark to get out of the blind, and we're going to wait for Josh to track, because we still have swoops here, and we obviously don't want to mess the spot up. So, we're not going to make a ton of noise. We're going to get out just as quietly as if we were still hunting, and wait for Josh, and then start tracking. So, wish us luck. Hey. Hey. Congrats, honey. Thanks. That's pretty awesome. I mean, obviously, shooting at that angle is a bad idea, but I mean, when you aim for the offside shoulder, I mean, it literally went all the way through. So, I mean, I would not be surprised if it buried in the offside shoulder. So, it should have went through guts, liver, lungs, and heart. It was low enough. That was the beast 2.3, and it's still all the way through. So, I don't think it's going to go very far. That deer, I guarantee you, stopped within 60 yards. So, I mean, we'll try to follow blood, and go 100, and then if we can't find him, we'll back out, come back in the morning. Okay. So, based on the video, it's got to be this trail, but I mean, the thing is, with that shot, it's not going to bleed hardly at all, you know, because it goes right through the intestines. Intestines plug it up, and then all the internal bleeding is going to happen here. It can't get through the exit. So, the only blood we would find is a little meat blood. Babe, he's right here. You found him? Are you kidding me? Baby, he didn't even go 50 yards. I mean, look, you can see where the truck is. I mean, he went 45 yards. Like, nowhere. Oh my gosh. Congrats, babe. Wow. I'm so proud of you. That's amazing. This is what great management looks like. I mean, you guys can see this is a really, really old deer. You can literally see the notch in his forehead. I mean, we're talking about a seven, you know, six, seven-year-old deer at the youngest, and he's been on our farm for a long time. I've just never really caught him anything other than the old 10. Should be called Ghost, because he... Well, that's the thing, guys. It's like, we run cameras like everyone else, and cell cams, and I got pictures of him this summer, and I'm like, oh my god, the old 10 looks really good this year. I said, this is, this will be the year to get after him, and he was our target buck, for sure, because Swoops hasn't showed up. And then, all of a sudden, that deer disappears. September 16th was the last picture we got of him. And it's October 23rd. And it's October 23rd. Not a single picture, nothing. And like Sarah said, I was gonna walk the river, because I thought for sure the deer was dead. I just, I didn't want to screw up your hunt for Swoops. When you called me, and you told me you shot him, and I'm like, I'm like, oh no, because I thought, you know. Yeah, it was a different deer. It was a different deer, and sure enough, you know, it was the old 10. I mean. Well, I knew it was big when it came in, like, and he was just running those does. You could tell he was. This is incredible. He's so big. So let's honor this buck, and take the best photos that we can, babe. I mean, my god, what a beast. Thanks. Congrats. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. If you haven't subscribed, make sure to hit that subscribe button, and give this video a like. It really helps with the algorithm. As always, we appreciate you guys. We'll see you in the next video.