The Hawkeye State has numerous opportunities for late-season shotgun bucks -- as Daniel White proved with this monster! Photo by Rick White.

Excitement grew as Dave Novak and I drove south through December's inky predawn darkness.

We'd spent pleasant fall days scouting out promising places for ambushing a large Iowa buck. After checking many public areas, we settled on a brushy patch of Shimek State Forest near Keosauqua that featured a blend of mature oaks, pine groves and thorny thickets surrounded by cornfields. The area contained classic deer habitat. Sign abounded, and we'd spotted impressive bucks during earlier squirrel hunting and scouting outings.

As the car approached this perfect spot on opening day, we discovered that the small Iowa Department of Natural Resources parking lot was crammed; a line of vehicles was parked along the road, within them sitting groups of coffee-drinking hunters who were waiting for legal hunting hours. Soon we watched them file into "our" perfect spot.

We weren't interested in competing with crowds. Across the road was a vast grassy area with patches of multiflora rose and clumps of box elders. It had recently been bought by the IDNR to construct Lake Sugema. Although open to public hunting, it looked like awful deer habitat. But we could either fight crowds in the woods, go somewhere else to fight other crowds, or work the poor looking grassland. We chose the grass.

In those days before rifled shotgun barrels, both Dave and I carried smoothbore shotguns with a 40- or 50-yard maximum range -- fine for the woods, but limiting when hunting in the open.

We walked through the grass about 100 yards apart, occasionally hearing shots from the woods. As I glanced over toward Dave, a slight movement in the grass in front of him caught my eye, and I was astonished to see, first, a massive pair of antlers and, then, the enormous buck wearing them -- crawling away from Dave. I could only watch: He was close to the deer, but couldn't see it; I could see it clearly, but was too far away for a shot. Unable to attract Dave's attention without spooking the animal, I looked helplessly on as it melted for good into the grass.

We didn't fill our tags that day -- but we did become better deer hunters, having learned things that have helped us bag deer on subsequent public-land hunts. The big buck taught us the most important lesson: Pressured deer, especially wise bucks, move from classic habitat to areas that most hunters avoid.

Iowa grows the nation's biggest bucks, because our state boasts a mix of abundant, nutritious food, excellent deer genes, and gifted herd management by the IDNR. In an effort to trim the herd, the state has essentially created a statewide quality deer management zone.

Our hunting seasons favor trophy bucks. Wisconsin, like many states, sets its firearms season to coincide with the rut, when bucks are most vulnerable. Iowa's shotgun season comes after the rut. Post-rut bucks are secretive and wary; many survive hunting seasons to grow bigger antlers the next year. Hunting big post-rut bucks is challenging -- but more of them are out there in Iowa than in other states.

And that's only part of the good news. Although we lack the vast national forests and other public hunting areas of Western and Lake states, smaller public areas are scattered all over Iowa. A hunter lacking access to private land can find a trophy on public land.