JIGSAW

Brennen Nading - Iowa - October 16th, 2025

By: Brennen Nading (@nadingbr)

With an early muzzleloader tag in my pocket, I had hopes of hunting the "main farm" for an old mature buck that I call "Popeye".  Only problem was, I needed north winds to hunt the farm smartly.  I did get to sit on that farm on Monday, encountered a pile of deer, but no "Popeye".  The next several days the wind was out of the south, so it was time to go to plan B.  I decided my best play was to sit at the "Gateway Farm".  It set up perfectly for south winds.  I have had 2 mature bucks on camera over there recently, "Jigsaw" and "Verizon".  Both deer have been on the cameras for the last 5 years..both fully mature deer that I'd be happy to shoot.  It's a very small property, and the bucks definitely don't live there, but they pass through just enough to make you feel like you're in the game each sit.  Just after sunset, a small buck appeared in the draw, a few minutes later a doe popped onto the food plot.  With light fading, "Jigsaw" appeared at the back end of the plot.  After staring into the field for a while, he jumped the fence and fed right to one of my scrape trees.  As he was nosing the scrape, I let the muzzleloader eat.  He ran 40 yards and piled up just out of sight.  It was a surreal feeling walking up on a buck that I have hundreds, if not thousands of photos of over the last 5 years.  This marked the first time I had ever laid eyes on him!