Out of State 2011

          

            November proved to be a good month for out of state hunting trips in 2011.   We had three mature bucks killed, 2 from Ohio and a third from Virginia. 

         
            First to Score in the out of state category was my cousin Joe with this 150 pound eight pointer.   Joe killed his buck during the last 20 minutes of a seven day bow trip to Ohio.  Out of the four guys in his hunting party, Joe was the only hunter to fill his tag.   This deer was harvested on public land with an Excalibur Vortex crossbow outfitted with Spitfire broad heads.  

           On account of nightfall approaching Joe opted to wait until the following morning to recover his deer.  This buck only ran 40 yards before he ran out of blood.

     

         When Joe returned from his trip we took the deer to our local check station to have him weighed   For some reason the deer are not weighed in Ohio.    This deer dressed out at 150 pounds even.

  This big nine pointer was the next deer to be taken and it too is also an Ohio bow season kill. Elmer Killed this 130 class 9 pointer on a bow hunt Wednesday November 9th on  private ground.  Elmer shot this 170 pound buck as it was preparing to cross a stream.   He took a 60 yd shot with his Stryker crossbow hitting the buck in the spine and paralyzing it.   The deer then rolled down the embankment and landed in the stream where Elmer shot him again and then tied him to a fallen tree so as to keep him from floating down river.

 Elmer's buck wieghed in at 170 pounds even.

       Next to make a kill was my cousin Bill with this long tine eight pointer.   Bill took this Virginia buck during a morning hunt on 11-11-11 with his muzzle loader.   

Here is a cell phone pic of the buck as it lay where he shot it.

Bow Season 2011

Bow season started off this year extremely slow. Everyone had good activity on the trail cameras, but warm weather and an abundance of acorns made seeing and patterning the bucks difficult.

Uncle Roy killed this high racked seven pointer on an evening hunt on the the last day of regular bow season. He set up in the swamp where he was able to pattern regular buck movement. Roy was seeing 3 to five different bucks in this area regularly where he was set up on a crossroad of deer runs. This buck came right down the trail to him and he hammered him at point blank range strait down through the middle of the deer's sholder blades. His deer was real easy to track as it was spurting blood six feet into the air.

This deer had fairly decent heft to him and I would estimate he weighed in the 120 to 130 pound range.

Roy killed his buck with a Mathews Reezen compound bow in conjunction with Wasp Jak-Hammer three blade expandable broad heads.

My brother Andrew was next to chalk up a kill tagging this nice eight pointer on October 20th. After work Andrew decided to take his climber out on a windy afternoon. After watching this buck make a scrape, he was presented with a 40 yd broadside shot. Andrew got it done with his trusty Barnett Jackal crossbow and Vortex 125 grain expandable broadheads.

Andrew's buck weighed in at 122 pounds.

My son John was the first to tag a buck this year when he killed this 100 lb spike. John killed his buck with a Parker Bushwhacker Crossbow and Rage 100 grain broad heads. The deer came to him chasing two does and he shot the spike while quartering towards him at 5 yds. The bolt passed through the deer but left very little blood to track. With the limited blood trail we were not able to recover the deer until the next day.

Early Bow 2011

The early season started off this year with warm temperatures and wet humid conditions. making it a chore for NJ hunters to take to the woods to fill their first tags. After the first morning hunt on September 10th there was a mad rush at every local retail store of hunters trying to buy a thermocell machine. I know I wasted at least 4 hours driving around trying to get one. A few days later the weather cooled down and the bugs subsided. By the following weekend many hunters were able to fill thier Earn-A-Buck doe tag and begin hunting for a buck.

After tagging out on his EAB on the evening of September 17th, Steve went out the following evening (9-18) and killed this 2 year old 8 pointer. After sitting in the stand for about an hour, Steve decided to let out a few bleats and a couple of immature buck grunts. Shortly after, in came this deer which steve put a nice pass through shot with his crossbow just missing the heart and crushing through the opposite shoulder blade.

Steve got it done using a Horton and 100 grain Swhacker broadheads.

This buck was on the ground within 20 yards of the shot.

Steve's deer dressed out at 104 lbs.

Pre-Season 11

Today is the opening day of deer hunting for NJ. Hunters in most zones in south jersey are able to hunt an early season with the bow and/or crossbow with the stipulation that you "earn a buck" by killing and antler less deer first. With all of the rainfall we've had in the last few weeks (nearly30 inches), it feels more like you are the hunted and the mosquitoes are taking advantage of the early season.

Chances are its gonna be at least a few days before we have any bow kill posts. So in the mean time, I am posting up some August trail camera pictures of a real nice 10 pointer that my dad had captured locally.

Usually through the course of the summer I will run across a nice buck or two that gets clobbered by a motor vehicle an I will do a roadkill post. I prefer to use all original content but due to extenuating circumstances I plucked this thread from New Jersey Hunter. Reportedly this slammer was killed via automobile in August of 2011 in Sparta, NJ.