"Diablo" my Iowa 8 point, 2007

This buck's name Diablo is fitting because of his physcial features and story. The picture doesn't do him justice but his brow tines are 7 inches long and half way up, turn out at a 70 degree angle. He has a broken G3 from fighting and big shoulders. I harvested this buck on November 2nd 2007 at 3:50 p.m. I had just finished hanging my stand on the edge of a fresh cut CRP field and in a pinch point between two tracks of large timber. No sooner had I hung up my cell phone with one of my hunting buddies Mike, this buck came running out of the timber and onto the edge of the field 150 yards away. This struck me as odd due to the time and the way the buck was looking over his shoulder and into the woods. I knew with the naked eye, if presented I would take this deer. Not being concerned of where he was coming, he was facing my direction and looked to have no desire to go back from where he came. When he slanted back into the timber angling south towards me, I knew I would have a shot. With the wind in my face I picked the buck up in the timber heading my way with a pep in his step. He would run a bit and stop to look over his shoulder, then run a bit more and stop to look. I figured the deer was spooked from another hunter, seeing that I was on public land, and thought I may have a difficult time stopping the deer. Without any time for more thoughts, the deer was in my shooting lane a mere 16 yards away. At full draw, I bleated and bleated and bleated before the buck stopped. Slap! The picture shows the double lung smoke job. The buck jumped and ran down the levee he was traveling. Not hearing him crash, I sat down and said in disbelief "it's over, my hunting season is over." I knew I would be putting my last tag on my first Iowa buck. The buck ran 60 yards before tipping over.
The story isn't over yet................As I knelt down and admired such a beautiful animal, I ran my hand across his large swollen rut crazed neck. When I brought my hand up it was covered in blood. Upon a closer look, I noticed the buck had a hole in his neck. My first thought was, while comparing the broken fighting tine, this buck got stabbed by another bucks tine during a fight. A closer look revealed the hair was cut.....a broadhead. When I walked back to my stand I wasn't surprised to find another hunter looking intently on the ground for blood on the edge of the field where I first saw the buck. As I appproached he asked "did you see that $#%$ deer?" I said I did and that "I shot that deer. Come on, I'll show him to you." The other part of the story was that this deer was chasing a doe and was circling this hunters stand, "the buck had his nose right on her" the hunter said. When he shot, his arrow was deflected by a branch and hit the buck in the neck. The arrow broke off and the broadhead stayed lodged in the bucks neck. This was one tough buck. Like I said, Diablo is a fitting name.