Rack Magazine

Who Needs Fanfare?

Who Needs Fanfare?

By Tom Hough

Here’s the buck nobody saw at the Iowa Deer Classic.

When I first heard about Jason Chase’s buck, I was ogling several other world-class whitetails being measured behind the curtain at the 2013 Iowa Deer Classic. It seemed inconceivable that another deer of that caliber wasn’t even at the show (that it was hanging inside the Scheels store in Iowa City).

As the show wore on, curiosity got the better of me. I wound up calling my son, who attends the University of Iowa, and asked if he could go to the store and photograph the buck with his iPhone. He couldn’t get there as fast as I wanted, though, so I called the store on Sunday.

I asked for the manager, who confirmed the rumor. He also told me the buck was taken by Jason Chase, and that Jason worked part-time at the store. Afterward, I didn’t get just one picture; I got several, and a great story to boot.

Jason is a hard-working guy, self-employed, and the owner of Mid-RiverMarine.com. Now 39, he has been hunting deer for more than 20 years.

Living on the eastern side of Iowa has huge advantages when it comes to hunting monstrous whitetails. A body can travel north or south, and the odds are good either way.

Jason is a bow- and gun hunter and spends much of the off-season scouting and looking for areas that hold good deer.

On opening day of Iowa’s first gun season in 2012, Jason was hunting with a new guy in a group of four. The new guy got the first chance at does with his doe tag, but Jason had dibs on the first buck.

He had seen some nice ones on trail camera pictures, so he was hopeful.

The morning of Dec. 1 got off to a slow start. Nobody saw a deer until 8:00, when a big doe and yearling came onstage. Jason whispered to his partner, “Take her if you want.”

But just as he said that, he spotted more movement — antlers — and told his friend to wait. He knew right away it was a mature buck, obviously in hot pursuit of the doe.

The plan was for Jason to shoot first at the buck, after which his friend would shoot the doe.

When the buck quickly passed through the nearest shooting lane and stopped behind a tree, Jason could see only the buck’s midsection. After what seemed like eternity, the massive buck took a step forward and looked at the blind housing the two hunters.

Who Needs Fanfare?That’s when Jason squeezed his muzzleloader’s trigger.

A second or two later, Jason was surprised that there wasn’t a deer on the ground. He also remembered that his was the only gun that barked.

“Why didn’t you shoot?” he asked his friend, a first-timer.

“I couldn’t see through the smoke,” he answered. “Your deer was huge with points everywhere, and it ran to the left.”

Doe or no doe, he was just as excited as Jason. Both guys were shaking.

Not sure if he hit the buck, though he couldn’t see how he could’ve missed at a mere 50 or 60 yards, they waited for about 45 minutes. Jason knows that holes made by muzzleloader bullets are sometimes slow to leak, and not even the faint crash he thought he heard was enough to make him dispense with the rules of tracking.

When they finally headed out to look for blood, Jason went to where he’d last seen the buck. After walking between 70 and 80 yards, he found his prize, a buck that had somehow managed not to be photographed by a trail camera.

The rack’s mass, height, width and the number of points were amazing. The left main beam was broken, but that seemed almost immaterial.

The missing antler certainly didn’t rain on Jason’s parade.

Editor's Note: Anthony L. Hough is the founder of iowawhitetail.com and a retired Iowa DNR commissioner. He now owns Whitetail-Images.com.

Hunter: Jason Chase
BTR Score: 255 3/8
Blackpowder
Irregular

– Photos by Tom Hough

This article was published in the July 2014 edition of Rack Magazine. Subscribe today to have Rack Magazine delivered to your home.

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