Cotton Eyed Joe: Pursuing a Giant Iowa Buck

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It’s hard to know where to start on our story with the buck we call “Cotton Eyed Joe,” because while we only knew of him for the span of two weeks, he’s the type of deer that you spend all your efforts trying to catch up to, whether you know he exists or not. He’s the type of buck that has made me brave single-digit temps, sit all day in a treestand, and put in extra time during the summer in preparation for the fall season. The type of buck that you always dream will show up — even when you know the odds are not in your favor. We may have only known of him for a couple of weeks, but in reality, the hunt for him had been much longer.

I’ve always looked forward to deer season, but over the past couple of years, between my husband, Nick, and I building our house and having a new baby together, neither of us had been able to put as much time into hunting as we would have liked. Going into this year, I really wanted to enjoy the season, take my time, and be a little extra picky about what I decided to shoot.

To help us spend more time afield, Nick and I flew my mom in from Georgia on October 22. She would be staying with us for a couple of weeks to help us care for our son, Easton, while Nick and I were in the field. During that time, I had some really fun hunts, and even passed up a buck I would have strongly considered shooting had my mom not been there to give me more time to be patient.

Then, like any big buck will do, Cotton Eyed Joe showed up at an inconvenient time — just one day before my mom had to leave to go home.

It was November 4, and I was at home when Nick called to ask me if I had checked our trail cameras recently. It had been raining all day, so I hadn’t paid much attention to the cameras since that morning.

Nick asked me to check the camera monitoring our clover plot. I did, and that’s when we got our first glimpse of Cotton Eyed Joe.

The buck wasn’t very close to the camera, but we could see a wall of tines going everywhere and knew he was a giant. Nick and I spent that evening excitedly trying to figure out a game plan for the next day. The weather forecast was for the rain to continue all night and into the following day.

The next morning, I walked to a ground blind at 9 a.m., with plans to sit there for the rest of the day. Nick sat in a blind just above mine, but neither of us saw any signs of Joe that day.

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Nick and I alternated hunts over the next week, so one of us could be home with our son while the other was in the woods. Our same luck continued, with no sightings of Cotton Eyed Joe or camera photos. It was then that Nick and I really started wondering if our one set of photos on November 4 was just a fluke, or the result of the rut.

At this point, I needed to decide whether to continue blindly hunting Cotton Eyed Joe or switch my focus back to my original target buck, “Scar.” I chose to do the latter for a few days, since Scar was a mature and unique buck that was also pretty active during daylight. But to hunt Scar effectively, I needed a new stand for the wind directions that were coming.

On November 11, Nick and I hung a stand that I would be able to sit for the next few days, based on the forecasted winds. The next morning, I rattled and, to my disbelief, Scar came in about 10 minutes later.

Scar was coming in on the main trail, and then turned to go right behind me. I drew my bow, shot…and completely missed him! I was really shocked and disappointed with myself, because it was a shot I should have made with no issue. But as every bowhunter knows, that’s all part of the total experience, and it’s the highs and lows that keep us in the field, doing what we love to do.

Shortly after, I got out of the stand and headed home to switch places with Nick, so he could hunt that evening. Nick was still planning to hunt the farm where Cotton Eyed Joe lived, in hopes of seeing him. Sure enough, eight days after our one and only picture of him, Joe reappeared that evening.

Nick watched the buck and his does for a few brief minutes before darkness finally fell. The good news came later that night, when Cotton Eyed Joe started showing up on several of our cameras.

I had planned to go back the next morning to where I had flubbed my shot at Scar, but my plans quickly changed after Nick’s sighting. Instead, I went to hunt the edge of the timber where Nick had seen Cotton Eyed Joe.

That morning, I too, saw Joe in person — only for about 20 seconds — but that was more than enough for me. He ran another buck off from a doe and then disappeared from there. I got down around 11:30 a.m., and then headed home again to switch places with Nick so he could hunt that evening.

The next morning, Nick’s mom came to watch Easton so that both of us could hunt. Nick went to where I had sat the previous morning, and I sat in the middle of the timber where I’d seen Joe. I sat there all day and saw good movement but no sign of the buck we were both after.

Several days passed with no sightings of Cotton Eyed Joe. With the rut starting to wind down, Nick and I both hoped this wasn’t an indication that he had left again — possibly never to return that season.

Then, on November 17, Joe started showing up again on our cameras. I hunted that evening with high expectations of his showing up, but I never saw him.

The next day, Nick had an auction to go to, so he wouldn’t be able to hunt in the morning — or be back in time for either of us to hunt that evening. Knowing Cotton Eyed Joe had been moving in the area during daylight, and with good weather conditions in the forecast, Nick and I both knew we had a short window of opportunity on which to capitalize.

So, my mother-in-law came to our rescue and made it to our house just in time for me to jump in the car and head down to the farm for an evening hunt. If you ask my mother-in-law about the situation she walked into upon her arrival, I’m sure she will jokingly tell you that I blurted out some incoherent care instructions for our son before rushing out the door!

The conditions were very similar to those of the previous evening. I had very high hopes of at least seeing Cotton Eyed Joe again in person as a result.

Several deer worked in and out of the field that I was watching. Then, around 4:15 p.m., I saw what appeared to be a buck crossing the field about 350 yards away. Could that be Cotton Eyed Joe? I thought, much like I had done with nearly every other buck I’d seen up to that point.

A look through my binoculars proved it wasn’t Joe. I decided to scan the field edge to see if I could see any deer headed to the field through the timber, and much to my surprise, I spotted Cotton Eyed Joe about 400 yards away!

He was standing on the field edge, and all I could see was from his neck up. I was excited to see that he was by himself for the first time, and I was hopeful he would work across the field toward the other deer, and me.

Within minutes, Joe came farther into the field. Then he turned and started walking away from me. This obviously wasn’t the move I wanted him to make, but it was still early, so I kept a very close watch on the sidehill in the timber, just below where he went in, in hopes he would circle back around to me.

Ten minutes later, I saw a deer moving through the timber. A quick look through my binos was all I needed to confirm it was Cotton Eyed Joe…and he was headed right to me!

From my experience hunting that location, I knew there was a very good chance of the buck eventually making his way to within my effective bow range. When Joe closed to less than 350 yards, I shifted my focus from watching the buck to making sure I was 100-percent ready — if he stayed his course.

I got my bow and rangefinder in hand, made sure I didn’t need to move anything around, and then I took a few deep, calming breaths while also reminding myself to take my time and wait for the perfect shot opportunity.

As Cotton Eyed Joe continued toward me, I started ranging him at 36 yards, then at 30. Once he hit the 30-yard mark, my comfort level increased tenfold, because I had been shooting off and on throughout the season and had just shot multiple sets at 30 yards the prior evening.

All the deer in the area were still calmly feeding, so I let Joe continue to work in closer. The next time I ranged him, he was at 25 yards, and I decided that if he turned broadside right there, I was going to take the shot. He did exactly what I’d hoped he would do.

I drew my bow, took a moment to steady myself and aim, then released. As soon as my arrow hit the buck, my initial thought was that my arrow had impacted too high — possibly even too high to be fatal.

But my silent self-disgust over what I thought was a bad shot was short-lived, as I then watched Cotton Eyed Joe run roughly 60 yards, stop briefly, then fall over dead! I was shocked and completely overwhelmed with emotions — especially during my phone call to Nick and my parents, to let them all know what had just happened.

Over the years, I’d spent a lot of time dreaming about a moment like this, and now that dream had become reality. Little did I know that it would be the calls of celebration and reminiscing about the hunt with the ones I loved that would be the most special part of all.

While some have said I might as well stop hunting after killing a buck of Cotton Eyed Joe’s caliber, I think it’s just the opposite. Accomplishing this goal and having this experience only fueled my desire for hunting even more, and I’m excited to carry this experience with me into future seasons as a reminder of what can happen to any bowhunter in the blink of an eye!

The author lives in Iowa with her husband, Nick, and son, Easton. She works as a stay-at-home mom and loves spending as much time outdoors with her family as possible.

Author’s Note

My archery equipment on this hunt included a Mathews Prima bow, Carbon Express Maxima Red arrows, 100-grain Rage Hypodermic broadheads, and HHA Tetra RYZ sight. I shot Cotton Eyed Joe from a Banks Stump 4 Phantom Blind. The buck of my dreams scored 196 2/8 gross and 191 2/8 net, and that was after he broke off 10 inches of antler!