Iowa Bowhunter Jared Mills Captured One of the Best Self-Filmed Whitetail Hunts of All Time

An early October cold front was headed for Eastern Iowa and videographer Jared Mills knew it was prime time to hunt a buck he had trail camera photos of in Louisa County.

“I’d only hunted one day since opening of the Iowa bow season on Oct. 1, and this was the first time I tried a spot where I had summer photos of a big buck,” Mills, age 36, tells Outdoor Life. “I’d first learned about him from trail cam photos last year. But I hadn’t hunted him until the evening of Oct. 7.”

Mills was on private property in a spot that held mostly CRP native grasses. But there were also some timber-lined creeks and low marshy areas nearby, which is where he’d captured the big buck on camera. He’d never seen the buck in person until that evening.

“I’d made some mock scrapes in the area 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 that cold front moving in, I got into my tree stand early, by 3:30 p.m.”

Mills said the spot he hunted was a gathering place for young bucks. He recorded video of young deer as they sparred and fed through the area. But the bigger buck was like a ghost, showing mostly at night, and always elusive.

Mills posted a detailed YouTube video showing his hunt. He used two video cameras on arms fitted to his forked tree where his stand was hung. One camera is behind him capturing his entire hunting area — with him in the foreground, 20 feet high in his stand. 

Mills runs a second camera, which is attached to an adjustable camera arm. As he switches from holding his camera to his bow, the 17-point buck feeds in an open field at 27 yards.

Mills says a doe with twin fawns showed in the open area near his stand that afternoon, and browsed to within 20 feet of him. They soon were joined by a flock of feeding turkeys.

“Suddenly the turkeys started putting and the doe began blowing,” he says, which happened at about 6 p.m. “I figured a coyote or a bobcat spooked them, but I didn’t know what happened because I couldn’t see what caused the ruckus.”

A couple small bucks appeared. Then Mills heard a heavy deer in a nearby creek.

“I knew it was the big buck I wanted,” says Mills. “I saw him at 100 yards walking toward the other smaller bucks. He fed for a few minutes and started coming my way through a thick area of willows. A few minutes later he stepped out at 40 yards, stopped, and kept walking until he was broadside to me in the open at 27 yards.”

Mills zooms in one camera tight to the buck and then reaches for his bow, a Hoyt Alpha X set at 65 pounds and firing a Day Six Evo 125-grain broadhead.

The second camera behind Mills records him drawing. He releases his arrow just as the buck steps forward, exposing its full rib cage.

It’s a textbook pass-through hit, low and behind the buck’s shoulder. The cameras record the shot, showing the buck jumping and trotting off 20 yards. Then it crosses the open field. The deer slows, turns broadside, wobbles a bit, then falls dead. It drops only 40 yards away from Mills in his stand.

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The YouTube video is a remarkable recording of a giant buck being taken by an archer who stays calm under pressure and makes a perfect shot. For serious deer hunters, its an incredibly satisfying series in part because there is no cheesy music, no fake recreates, and no over-the top reaction. Just simple and authentic hunting footage. 

With the deer down, Mills phoned a couple local friends to help load the field-dressed buck into a truck bed before taking it home for processing. It had 17 points, including split brow tines.

“We didn’t weigh the buck, but I’d guess it was 250 pounds live weight,” says Mills. “We green scored it at 181 5/8 inches. I’ll have a European skull mount made of him.”