Out of State 2010

My father and my Uncle Roy made their annual trip to Ontario this November and brought my Uncle Ray along for his first Ontario Whitetail Hunt. The weather was warm for this time of year with temperatures reaching into the sixties for some days. Needless to say, not the best weather for big woods whitetails. Despite the conditions the first timer, Uncle Ray was able to score on this 205 pound eleven pointer.

My dad killed this six pointer on the second from

the last day of the ten day hunt.

Uncle Rays buck had a 17 1/2 inch outside to outside spread.

Below Are a few nice buck that were killed by other hunters and hung in camp.

It is hard to tell with the trash bag but the buck above is a 170

class 10 pointer with g2's and g3's over 12 inches and 6 inch brows.

This shed antler, found by one of the guys in camp has 16 points over 1" long.

Regular Bow 2010.

On Sunday October 24th Dave Z. of SJ Fowl Addictions killed this magnificent main frame 10 pointer during his morning stand. He could hear this buck from a ways off freshening up his scrape line and tangling his rack in his licking branches. Brian grunted this deer in and smoked him at close range. This deer also had 2 sticker points making it a 12 pointer all together. He killed this buck during the heatwave weekend of the 23rd thru 24th when many hunters were seeing very little deer movement.

This buck has a 20 inch inside spread and should make the book. This buck was not weighed in due to some renovations occurring at our local check station, it was estimated to weigh in the 180 lbs. range.

On the evening of of Tuesday October 26th Steve P. killed this 114 lbs. Y buck. The deer came into a mock scrape and Steve shot him at 20 yds. with a bank shot off of a tree. The arrow hit a branch and ricocheted hitting the deer in the vitals and leaving a gaping wound from the Rage mechanical broad heads. This deer ran 50 yds before expiring.

Here is a pick of the rage exit wound

Cousin Petey also was able to fill his buck tag for regular bow season with this 100lbs. spike buck. Petey shot this deer out of his brothers stahd on the evening of October 23rd.

I called this post Regular Bow because today marked the start of traditional bow season statewide in NJ. However, there are a few new policies introduced in 2009 by Fish and Game that make the title "Regular Bow" seem not so regular at all.

First off is the sanctioning of Crossbows. Now in the NJ Fish and Wildlife Digest the crossbow has added to the long bow, recurve bow and compound bow as legal for hunting during all archery seasons. Second is the EAB (earn-a-buck) policy, which is an early hunting season offered for killing a doe before taking a buck.

Many bow hunters in the South Jersey area harvested their EAB antlerless deer to to earn the right for an early season chance at a possible trophy buck in velvet. Some hunters were even were able to fill their buck tag within that early season. Statewide starting today open season was declared in New Jersey in both EAB territories as well as zones that did not offer the earn-a-buck early season.

This symmetrical 8 was taken just minutes before 7:00 am on October 2nd with a crossbow straight through both lungs. He ran only thirty yards before succumbing to his wound and piling up. He dressed out a a formidable 141 pounds.

Wesley was able to place a clean kill shot on target just a few seconds after this buck came moving quickly into his range. The action happened so fast that Wes didn't have much time to make an assessment on the deer. In fact he was a little surprised at just how nice this buck was when he came upon it at the moment of recovery.

With this bucks symmetry there should be very few deductions side to side but it might just fall short of the 125" mark needed to be recorded in the record book.

Early Bow 2010

My buddy Andy ended his regular bow season early when he killed this substantial 9 pointer early this morning. After killing his earn-a-buck doe just last evening (9-12), this buck walked into his range around 7:00 this morning. Andy told me that this deer was traveling with another buck, a tall racked 8 pointer with short brow tines that I believe my father had just caught on a trail cam the day before.

The deer presented him with a quartering toward shot, which is not ideal, but Andy made the shot count slicing him wide open with an expanding head. Although his shot did hit vital organs he also penetrated the entrails so he decided to leave the woods for a few hours to give ample time for the buck to expire. There was a limited blood trail which made the tracking a challenge but he found his deer not one hundred yards away.

Road Kill 2010

In anticipation of the 2010 bow season I've decided to post up a couple of extraordinary South Jersey Road Kill bucks. The first was found dead by the side of the road in Salem county in January. All in all this deer had a total of 22 points and reportedly scored over 180" non-typical.

Next is a big eight pointer that hit by a automoblie just last week, august 30th. This deer grossed 148 5/8 and netted 144 3/8.

This 8 pointer has an inside spread of just over 21 inches.