U.S. Army Reserve veteran Tyler Woehlk might’ve had a rough start to this deer season. But things turned around in January, when he tagged two big Iowa bucks just two days apart.
“This started out as a pretty tough deer season,” Woehlk tells Outdoor Life. “I hurt my back in bow season drawing on a big 10-pointer. Then the hectic holidays. But my favorite time is late muzzleloader season and it’s been special.”
This late season was also the first time that Woehlk, a disabled Army Reserve veteran, had an Iowa Disabled Veterans Deer Tag. The new, either-sex whitetail tag was just made available for the 2025-26 season, and it allowed him to hunt during any established firearm season. Which meant he had two tags to fill with his muzzleloader.
On Jan. 2, Woehlk shot a 140-inch 10-pointer on a private farm in Marshall County. He then moved over to a different piece of private ground in the same central Iowa county.
Hunting that property two days later, on Jan. 4, it was sunny and comparatively warm, with air temps in the mid 30s. Woehlk headed out in the afternoon and settled into some ground cover near a corn field with a south wind in his favor.
“I sat on a small 3-legged stool in some brush, and about 5 p.m. I saw a doe cross a nearby farm road,” says Woehlk, who lives in Melbourne. “The doe was headed toward the cut corn, and not far behind her was a good buck.”
There were eight more does behind the buck, all crossing the rural road. He was worried that a passing truck could spook the deer from heading into the corn, but no vehicles showed. Pretty soon the buck was in the cut corn field and heading into muzzleloader range.
“He was moving fast, but then he slowed to a walk at 80 yards, and I put my scope crosshairs of my .50 caliber muzzleloader behind his shoulder and fired.”
He watched the hit buck run with its tail down, but lost sight of the deer as it ran into cover. Woehlk walked to where he shot the deer, found a faint blood trail, then left to get some friends to help track it.
It was 9 p.m. and fully dark when Woehlk and his friends Jermey Ruddick and Adam Shortley returned to look for the deer. The going was tough with a scant blood trail and no snow on the ground. But after walking 500 yards or so, they found the deer dead in the corn field, not far from where it was shot.
“Jeremy found the buck and yelled out to me that ‘he’s a giant’,” says Woehlk. “The deer made a big circle in the field, and I think he went so far because he was running with other deer. I made a good broadside shot right behind the shoulder with a 150-grain sabot bullet.”
The hunters field dressed the buck and loaded it into a truck. Then they sat on the tailgate and enjoyed the moment, capping off a successful day afield. Afterwards, they drove the buck back to Woehlk’s home, where friends and family were waiting to see the estimated 250-pound, 6.5-year-old deer. Woehlk was especially excited to show his two daughters, Natalee and Alexis.
The 14-point buck has not been officially green scored yet, but a rough estimate put the antlers around 185 inches. It’s the biggest deer Woehlk has ever taken.
“I had no idea the 14-pointer was the caliber deer that he was. I’m truly blessed to harvest such an animal and enjoy it with such great friends and family.”
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