Connecticut police officer Dave Cari kicked off his unbeatable 2008 whitetail season with this monstrous Iowa buck, which green scored 184 gross.

Rutting action was in full swing by the time Connecticut police officer Dave Cari arrived for his Iowa hunt. A record heat wave had passed through the area the previous week, and local bucks were making up for lost time by chasing does all over the place. In fact, the woods were so busy with bucks in search of the first hot doe that Cari decided not to set his stand ahead of time for fear of running the deer off of the ridge.

The next morning, Cari headed into the dark, pre-dawn woods with a climbing stand on his back. Although he couldn’t see, he could hear a parade of deer activity buzzing along the hillside, and amid all the commotion, Cari admits excitement got the best of him, causing him to miss his tree by a good 100 yards.

Right at first light, Cari watched an average 8-pointer pass well out of bow range and decided to make a break for his original tree. He quickly second guessed his decision, as twice along the way he had to freeze and look back to investigate the sounds of deer on the move. Cari only got eight feet up the new tree when he heard the sounds of a high-speed chase heading right up the hill toward him. Cari’s internal “shot clock” started counting down, and he lunged for his pull rope and quickly hoisted up his bow and clicked his release on the string just in time to see the first deer come into view.

The small doe appeared frazzled by what was dogging her from behind and she quickly bounded past at 40 yards, followed almost immediately by a second doe. The grunts were getting louder and closer together as the third doe entered the picture. Cari’s strategy was to slow her and the vocal buck down by grunting loudly. The plan worked, and he watched the doe stop just long enough to catch a few quick gasps of air while she searched for the source of this new participant. She then fled as the buck came into view, and Cari had no problem sizing him up as a trophy. He had ranged the out-of-breath doe at 31 yards and came to full draw as the buck stopped to smell the ground where the doe had paused.

Cari triggered the release and watched a well-placed shot send the buck back down the bluff, knocking down anything in his path. Just before he got out of view, the Iowa giant stumbled straight into a large oak deadfall. The buck made a futile attempt to get back on its feet, but the antlers got caught in the tangle of branches.

Dave Cari followed up his Iowa giant (center) with similar one-day success on a 10-point, 155-inch Brown County, Ill., bruiser (left) and a 9-point, 152-inch stud near his Connecticut home (right).

As Cari watched, he wondered if his shot was really as deadly as he thought it was. In a moment of panic, Cari unknowingly left his stand the hard way. The eight-foot drop had little effect on him, and he jumped up, glanced to check his bow and ran down to check on his awesome Allamakee County buck. The 13-point rack had great mass all the way to the ends of the main beams, including the sticker/drop tine protruding straight out of the right beam.

Amazingly, after Cari was done admiring his trophy, he climbed back up into his tree and did some filming. I don’t know about anyone else, but I would have walked on water back to the farm, and when it came into view, they would have known by the decibel level I had returned.

Cari has a wall loaded with mounts at home; 20, to be exact. He likes to get the most out of every hunt and does just that by being a quick study, deadly accurate with his bow and always bringing his video camera. He filmed three other Pope and Young bucks that morning.

When he finally headed back to the farm with his prize, Cari and the landowner green scored the heavy rack at 184 gross.

Consistently killing mature, trophy-caliber whitetails takes commitment, skill and a little luck. With 20 trophy whitetails under his belt, bowhunter Dave Cari is as dedicated as they come.

He’s Just Getting Warmed Up
Next on the agenda for Cari was to call his good friend and outfitter Craig Neace and tell about his good fortune. Neace then told Cari he could head back to Illinois (where he had been the prior week) and continue hunting the property that had produced virtually nothing due to the excessive heat wave.

With his Iowa hunt done after just one sit, Cari loaded his buck into the back of the pickup and made a beeline for the Land of Lincoln. Arriving back in Brown County, Cari celebrated the fact that the temperature had dropped 55 degrees since his last visit. This change in the weather was precisely what was needed to get the bucks on their feet and chasing does.

Cari decided not to make the trek to his tree until shortly before daylight. The setup consisted of two fields that run tight to a creek that separates them. His tree sits on the far side of the farthest field, along the edge of the woods. The wind was just right for this early stalk, and venturing into the feeding area too early would spook everything into the next county.

That morning, while Cari was walking the cow pasture in front of the first picked cornfield riddled with knee-high stubble, he saw a nice buck running a doe. He bent down, grabbed his binoculars and watched as they made their way in his direction. Cari watched until they reached the wide creek and disappeared. He gave them plenty of time to reappear and was baffled when they didn’t show, because the wind hadn’t changed and he didn’t feel they busted him. Cari slowly moved along the edge of the field until he was 25 yards from the creek bank. He took a couple more steps and stopped when the frozen ground crunched under his feet.

At the sound, the doe stood up in clear view, just below the ledge of the bank. She jumped the creek, scrambled to the top of the bank on the far side and stopped to stare back at Cari. With an arrow nocked and his release already on his wrist, Cari took a few more steps in an effort to locate the trailing buck. The doe casually started trotting off, her white flag high and waving. Suddenly, the buc
k stood up. He was fixated on that doe and never even acknowledged the presence of Cari, who quickly came to full draw. The buck was standing broadside at 25 yards. Seconds later, he was lying motionless on the far bank.

Shocked at how everything fell so quickly and perfectly into place, Cari crossed the water, stood over the 10-pointer and searched for his cell phone. “You’re not going to believe this,” he told Neace. “This is like my dream season of all seasons here in the Midwest. I just shot a 150s-class buck on my way in to my treestand.”

For the second time in two days, Cari had dropped a book buck in the blink of an eye. This Illinois giant green scored 155 gross and looked great in the pickup next to the 184 from Iowa.

Cari capped his Illinois hunt by culling a doe for Neace and donating the venison to the needy. He also spent some time filming local rut activity before packing up his gear heading back East with two of the Midwest’s finest riding in the back.

But Wait, There’s More!

After Cari arrived home in Connecticut and dropped his bucks off at the taxidermist, he pondered whether to hunt the piece of property by his house or take a break. You already know his decision.

Early the next morning, Cari suited up, grabbed his bow and walked to his stand. He stopped well short of the treestand when he realized the wind was wrong. Bummed, but not without an option, he made his way to another stand on the same property. His regular hunting partner wasn’t hunting that day, so he climbed aboard and hung his bow. The stand was next to a field, and at 7:30 a.m., he watched a spike buck walk by and vanish into the woods. Thanks to trail camera images captured earlier in the fall, Dave knew there were two shooter bucks roaming the area.

As he sat replaying his Midwestern hunts in his mind, Cari heard a rustling sound in the leaves below him. When he turned to check on it, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Once again, Cari was staring at a trophy whitetail. Once again, he had a chip shot. And once again, Cari needed just one arrow to seal the deal and watch the buck pile up in full view. This homegrown 9-pointer green scored 152 gross and capped off a remarkable season!

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s three states, three hunts, three arrows and three record-book bucks — all in the blink of an eye.

Editor’s Note: Dave Cari tragically lost all the field photos from his remarkable 2008 whitetail season in a computer crash. Always back up your images!