Careful study of deer movement between bedding and feeding areas can maximize your odds of connecting with a buck during Iowa’s late muzzleloader season. Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Fortunately, some of my best friends are beyond obsession when it comes to chasing trophy whitetails.

Kyle Allen's name comes up at the supper table at least a couple of times a week between November and the end of Iowa's late muzzleloader season when my wife goes into her seemingly perpetual diatribe about "too much deer hunting."

Allen only missed "tree time" five days last season from the beginning of bow season until the final 209 primer popped; two of those days he spent in the hospital. He hunted three states and probably spent thousands of dollars on gear, leases, food plots and other trappings of tall tine hunting.

Allen has only been married four years, and his being out in the woods for two hours on either side of daylight for months has taught him the virtues of reaffirming devotion. "I make it a point to call my wife several times each day," Allen said. "I send her flowers and get her surprise trips to the spa. But it's those phone calls -- sometimes whispered from a tree -- (that) are most critical."

Allen didn't tie the knot until he was almost 40 years old, and his wife, Lori, knew that fleas were part of the package when she took the old dog home. "Chasing trophy whitetails and marriage are both lifetime commitments," Allen stated. "There isn't a single day that goes by where I don't at least call my wife and say, 'I love you, 'deer.'"

Kyle Allen spends a great deal of time in his home state of Wisconsin waiting for big bucks in one of his 94 tree stands. He leases some ground in Buffalo County -- perhaps the No. 1 trophy whitetail county in the world.

This year, Kyle drew a late-season muzzleloader tag in Allamakee County, where I've lived for the past two years. I moved to Allamakee County from Illinois for three reasons: outstanding fishing, low property taxes and the fact that Allamakee County is among the best counties in the world for producing trophy deer!

The only reason I missed 15 days of hunting last fall is found in the first two reasons for moving to Iowa. Allamakee County is heaven on earth.

Work as an outdoor journalist takes me to a half-dozen states every year. These travels beyond our borders reveal an understated excellence in our Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Complaining about IDNR rules and procedures is universal among sportsmen -- and the agency certainly isn't perfect. But the stewardship of our natural resources people is far better than you'll find in any state with which we share a common border.

Iowa deer management is a case in point. Those truly obsessed with whitetails know that the late muzzleloader season holds the very best potential for harvesting a trophy animal. Those hunters with enough restraint to wait for this season to fill a firearm buck tag realize success comes in careful study of deer habits and movement between food sources and bedding areas.

The single-shot nature of muzzleloading makes stand-hunting a better option than Iowa's favored method of whitetail pursuit -- the deer drive.