Bow Season 09

Last year in New Jersey there was an early bow season offered in september called "earn-a-buck". This allowed hunters to start bow hunting for whitetails the first Saturday in September as opposed to the first Saturday in October. The primary stipulation being that you needed to tag an antlerless deer before you could hunt for a buck. This year, they instituted Sunday hunting for bow hunters as well as usage of cross bows.

On the first day of early bow, a Saturday, my buddy Andy filled his doe tag right away. This made him eligible to take a buck, which he did on the following day, the first day of Sunday hunting in NJ ever. Andy managed to shoot this wide six pointer Sunday evening.

He estimates the weight of this deer in the 135 - 140- lbs range.

Next in our group to confirm a kill was my Uncle Roy who took this wide nine pointer on the first Sunday of Regular bow season, October 4th. This deer has a 21 in. spread. Same as in the case of Andy's deer, Roy didn't weigh his buck either. Him and my dad estimated it to weigh in the 150 to 160 lbs. range. It looked more like 140 lbs. class to me.

None the less, a great trophy for NJ.

Roy had seen this deer six different times before he was able to take a shot at it. He made a perfect double lung shot quartering away on this deer. In the heat of the moment he shot it again when it was down, slitting its throat with mechanical broad heads. Roy told me this buck was running with a bigger buck that wasn't as wide but had longer tines. He'll have to wait for extended bow to get a shot at that one.

Jim from Sweedsboro arrowed this sizable 9 pointer on October 21st. 2009. This buck came into the bait following a hot doe. Jim shot this deer with a Browning Mirage bow using Razor Back 5 broad heads missing the heart by one inch. The buck ran 50 yds. before expiring.

On October, 23 of regular bow season My buddy Dave managed to kill this massive Nine pointer that dressed out at 184 lbs. This deer was killed on State Game Land in Salem County.

Due to the late hour of recovery combined with the 60 degree weather, I, myself was not able to photograph this deer in person. Dave iced this deer down overnight and took it directly to the meat cutter,s in the morning. Preferably I like to snap the pictures myself to avoid obscured faces by antlers, but overall these pics aren't bad.

This deer has an 18 1/2" spread and we estimate it to be 4 1/2 years old minimum.

A great kill for regular bow season, and any season in NJ for that matter.

Shotgun and Muzzle Loader 08

I decided to combine both shotgun and muzzle loader this year on account that only one of us got a muzzle loader buck and it was during the early black powder season.

This is Ryan's early muzzle loader buck. He killed this deer over sweet potatoes on the first evening of the early season. Earlier that day his gun had misfired and missed this same deer.

Three days later, Ryan went out with the bow and filled another buck tag. He killed this spike in the Willaimstown area on December 4th.

So Ryan had 2 deer hanging before we even started off buck week.

On Monday of deer season (Buck Week) I shot this five pointer at 7:20 am right out back of my house. My wife had just recently completed her education in nursing and jokingly I said along as she was working by deer season I would be happy. Wouldn't you know, she started her lob on the first day of shotgun week. As a result i had to be out of the stand by 7:30 to get the kids on the bus. I shot this deer at 7:20. Just in time.

That evening Mike Bess killed this six pointer behind the factory at 3:15 pm. He said the shot was 80 yds.

The first two days of deer camp were cold. In the 20's. On the meeting Sunday night, Cousin Nicky (Meat Wagon), got wasted and ended up sleeping by the woodstove out in the shack.

On the third day, Wednesday, it started raining lightly. It rained for the rest of the week. We hunted in the rain. We got deer up at Harrisonville, but they were all does. We got deer up at Holly Hills Golf Course but they didn't break toward the standers, so we never found out what they were.

Jules killed this nice ten pointer from a stand Wednesday evening. He was sitting in the tree when the deer walked in at around 65yds. The buck was moving through the area at a constant pace and Jules shot him while he was on the move. He said it was under thirty seconds from when the deer came into view to the shot. He dropped him in his tracks.

On Thursday, it poured. Despite the rain, we ended up getting a nice 7 pointer shot by my buddy Dave.

This deer weighed in at 112 lbs. I thought it was bigger initially, but the scale doesn't lie.

That was it for our club. Two deer hanging by the end of the week.

But check out this deer killed by my cousins buddy in Virginia