George Dean was born and raised in Iowa. His passion for the outdoors and deer hunting can be tracked back to his youth. George’s dreams of owning ground and managing it was fulfilled in 2005.  George now spends his summers planting food plots, improving timber stands and caring for the farm.  His rewards are watching the deer grow and sharing in the experiences of his wife and children as they go on their first deer hunts.

George's 2010 Hit List

"Gunther"

If I was given one deer hunting wish this fall, it would be to harvest this buck.  I have walked more miles looking for his sheds. I have hung more cameras trying to pattern this deer’s daily routine.  My guts are tied in knots every time I hear that my neighbors have taken a large buck. When I head south to hunt, this is the deer I am hunting.  I have more history, sheds and stories of this deer than any other buck.  Twice in the past three years I have over thought my stand locations and hunted myself right out of the chance to harvest this deer.  But he has a huge weakness and after watching him repeat it for the last three years.  I am going to use it to my full advantage this year.  The window is small, but the pattern is consistent.  Gunther cannot stand mock scrapes in his core area. Every year he destroys the scrapes I make and I get many daylight pictures of this awesome deer in the same time period.  I played it safe with this deer to long.  This year I am either going to succeed or fail trying.   

"Temptation"

As a young 3 ½ eight point buck, Temptation was very hard to pass up in November as he stood a mere 25 yards away.  I will be the first to admit, I second guessed myself as he walked away.  But letting a good deer grow into a better deer is tough for any hunter.  Words cannot express my feelings when I looked at Temptation's 2010 pictures and videos.  He exploded into a nice wide main frame ten.  He grew an easy 20 plus inches and is a now a solid 150 class deer.  Now the only question is should he go one more year?  This is why his name stays the same for 2010, because now more than ever he is a huge temptation.         

"Junior"

Last year Junior made my hit list as a management buck for my kids.  As a 2 ½ year old wannabee 9 pointer, he lacked brow tine length (an undesirable trait we would like to manage out of our heard).   Last year I claimed Junior was the offspring of No Brow.  Well as hard as we tried Junior slipped through the cracks and made it through last year’s season.  It is funny how a year changes things.  Now as an older 3 ½ year old deer and has grown to a main frame 10 with split brow tines.  This is a tough one; he still is a young deer.  His brow tines are split, but they still are very small.  Based on our goals for the property he should be up again, but something tells me this deer is different.  We have two other deer with little no brow tines to take his place as management bucks.  So the jury is still out on this deer.  But if my daughter or son sees this deer during youth season, the outcome will be very different for Junior.  

"Ghost"

Ghost is a very old smart deer.  I have very few pictures of this deer and my history with this deer is spotty at best.  This is how he got his name, he seems to appear and disappear like a ghost.  What makes him so hard to hunt is his summer range does not include my property.  So it is hard to pattern him.  In the last few years I only see this deer during the rut.   But something changed last year.  I saw this deer more and got more pictures of him then I have in the last five years combined.  Age is catching up with this deer and I hope he shows himself one more time.  This is the one deer I fear may die of old age before I get a chance to harvest him. 

George's 2009 Hit List

Keep checking back for updates on George's hit list as the season goes on.  George may be adding or taking off a few of these bucks and if all goes right, he may kill one of them as well.

"NO BROW": This deer would make an awesome typical 8 point, but the fact that his brow tines are barley an inch long gave him the name “No Brow" and put him #1 on the Management Deer hit list.   This deer was really noticed in 2008 with his wide frame.  At first it was believed the tines broke off but trial camera photos showed this is how he developed.  "No Brow’s" 8/09 photos show just how wide tall he will be for this fall. 

Along with being very tall and wide, "No Brow" has main beams that are very impressive as well. 

"BLADE": We believe "Blade" is a new deer to our area. After looking back at past trail camera pictures we can not match him to any of the deer we have on files. "Blade" appears to be in that 3 1/2 year plus age group. He has alot of character to his left side and really good height. We are eager to see him with his velvet is off.

"TEMPTATION": "Temptation" has all the makings of a good buck. He is most likely a 3 1/2 year old deer based on the size of his bases and by the looks of his pictures he is trying to grow two more tines. He has great brow tines and he is very symmetrical, But everything else tells me "Temptation" needs to get a free pass this year, but it will be tough, especially when he is standing broad side at 25 yards. Thus the name "Temptation".