South Jersey Deer Hunt: 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.