Big Buck Profile: The 2025 Gandy Buck
Big Buck Profile: The 2025 Gandy Buck
Ok, this first big buck profile is a little self-serving in that it is of a buck that I personally took this past deer season. While it is likely not the “biggest” big buck that we will profile this year it is definitely one of my most special deer ever.
Turning a Dream into Reality
As has been noted in several articles since 2023, my family and I finally put together the means to purchase our very own piece of Iowa ground. “The 32,” as we call it, has become a passion project to see if we could take an unassuming piece of real estate and harvest a mature deer from there by giving him all he needs in the way of habitat. This year was the first year that the farm would be huntable in the state in which we intended due to construction projects over the past couple of seasons.
My land partner and I placed the farm into the CRP program and watched it grow over this summer creating thick bedding and cover. As part of that program, we placed an acre and a half into a food plot near a natural funnel from the timber that would hopefully incite deer movement into the plot in range for a shot opportunity. The plan worked like a charm.
An Early Season Plan
During the late summer this particular buck was identified as a shooter by using trail camera photos. He displayed some unique characteristics in velvet and made me really anxious to get to the stand and hopefully harvest my very first buck on my own property: a dream that has been about 20 years in the making.
On the evening of October 7 that plan came together. This buck, along with several of his buddies, made their way into a turnip plot that was surrounded by standing corn. This came off of the heels of the very first cool snap of the year blowing in: a perfect early season scenario. The buck “read the script” and worked his way cautiously into the food and presented a great shot opportunity. The rest is history. Again, while I have taken much larger bucks in my life, I cannot say that many were more meaningful that getting a deer on my own property.
A Time to Celebrate
My family and I celebrated! A friend helped me track the buck that evening about 2 hours post shot. The reason for giving it that much time was because I noted the shot being a touch further back than I would have liked so we gave the deer extra time to expire. To our chagrin, upon locating the buck, we realized that coyotes had already had their way with him. I went from extreme high to extreme low in realizing that the coyotes were consuming the meat of the deer from the ribs back.
I’m confident that the dogs got to him before he had fully expired based on the disorientation of the habitat where we found him. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life! Nevertheless, we salvaged what we could and made our way out. I ended up with one decent photo but a head and heart full of memories.
March 2026
By Noel Gandy
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