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.

Extended Shotgun 2011

We put on some drives during doe season for the first time in a long time this past January. I am usually not into shooting does but we had a few hunters that were new to the sport and wanted to give them some shot opportunities. A few of us did have the foresight to purchase buck tags and it ended up paying off.

Bill killed this pal-mated 8 pointer on an evening drive January 8th 2011. He dropped it with one shot using 3" 00 buckshot in his Franchi Automatic. The deer weighed in at the checkstation 140 lbs.

Steve scored the other buck kill, the three pointer pictured above.

All in all we killed 2 bucks and seven does. It was nice having the snow to hunt in for a change.

Shotgun Season 07

Shotgun season 07 proved to be a difficult hunt. We had Limited succuss in the stands on Monday morning. My buddy Mikey Bess did happen to put down this basket seven at around quarter to 8.

We hunted hard Monday and Tuesday both sitting and in the stands. There was alot of talk among hunters about the devastation of blue tongue and I was starting to buy into the hype.We hadn't seen a deer.

Wednesday, Mother Nature provided us with a treat....Snow.

My Cousin...MEAT-WAGON

It started snowing a little past mid-day and managed to free up people schedules whom were otherwise obligated to work. We rallied and set up a few drives in Franklinville where we have had past success. On the first drive, I caught a flash of what looked to be a big deer through heavily falling snow. Upon inspection of the tracks, I knew that I had missed out on the opportunity of the season. On the next drive i got 2 deer up and My cousin pepe put three shots into this 4 pointer.

It broke to the field and just as it was about to fall Johnny Wengert finished it off with a slug from a ladder stand center field.

Friday, after a fruitless week of sitting in the mornings and evenings in a new spot I was trying out, I opted to hunt my dad's piece to increase my chances of succuss. Early on I saw three does come in close. They milled around for a while and then passed through. About half an hour before dark I had a descent Y buck come through. He presented me with a 50 yd broadside opportunity and I took it. He ran another 50 yds. before dying here.

I took him to the Checking station and he weighed in at just under 100lbs.

While I was checking him in, we ran into this bruiser at the scale....



The last day, Saturday, was a bust. It was drizzling, the guys were disorganized, and i decided not to go out.

Not long after, in regular muzzle loader, Pepe's uncle Punch killed a nice Y buck.

All in all, 2007 turned out to be the year of the 4 pointer. We confirmed a few kills with more points than four, but out of the seven deer taken, 4 were 4 pointers. I can live with that.

As a footnote, this was a considerable buck that was dispatched by an automobile.

Early Muzzle Loader 2007

Due to the weather, early muzzle loader was a challenging hunt. The first morning was rainy. When that cleared up the wind picked up. It was difficult to hear and or see anything in the woods.

On account of the rain, most people that I know didn't even go out on Monday. I did. I did see one deer, a small buck, that didn't give me a shot.

Tuesday morning, my cousin Mark killed this eight pointer despite the wind.



He shot at 7:20 AM at about 25 yards.




the deer dressed out at 135 pounds.

Pepe had this deer done European.  

This is how it turned out.