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.

Shotgun & Muzzle Loader 09

My brother Andrew was the first of us to make a kill with the guns this season. He shot this seven pointer in the heart on Tuesday morning, the second day of early muzzle loader with an 80 yd. shot

I hosted deer camp officially for the second year in 2009 during six day firearm. The first day we met up at a little after nine o'clock after a morning sit. We hit the woods hard all day and pushed quite a few deer around but nothing with antlers.

Tuesday we hit the woods hard again and got an early start at daybreak. As soon as we got out of the trucks we heard a shot. A hunter in a stand shot a decent six or seven pointer that we didn't get a chance to get a picture of. We lined up and pushed the piece chasing out 5 does. On the second drive, my cousin Mark a.k.a. Pepe, took a shot at a Y buck but there was only a small amount of blood and we surmised that he didn't hit the deer that good. Zach had a red fox break toward him but he decided to pass up the shot. In the evening Dave scored a kill on a nice big Y buck on an stalk. This buck dressed out at 140 lbs. and was the heaviest deer of all seven that we killed during buck week.

On Tuesday of buck week at around 4:00 pm Mike Bess dispatched this six pointer with a slug right between the eyes.

Thursday was the best day for us. On a morning sit, Frank killed what would have been a an 8 pointer but due to a broken main beam ended up being a five pointer. Just as I had received the text about franks deer, I had a buck and a doe come into me while sitting in a swamp stand on the second drive of the day. I hit the buck with a slug in the liver, a little farther back than I would have liked. When the drivers caught up to me we tracked the deer about 50 yards to a nursery field and my cousin La Ray put a little more lead in him. This buck, our third kill for the week was a one-horned four pointer or what I call "half an eight".

When I was at the check station checking in my half an eight, we ran into this fellow named Adam that had just killed this beautiful 10 pointer. This was his first deer ever.

After the checking station, we took a ride out to some newly acquired hunting grounds in Cedarville. Being a new piece the first drive ended up being a little botched. The day before, Wednesday, it had poured down rain in the amount of 5 inches. The woods were flooded and one guy, Smithman, fell into the swamp up to his balls and had to go swimming for his boots. On the second drive however, Frank's sidekick Jimmy put down this decent sized spike with one round of buckshot at 10 yards. On account of the wetness of the woods we improvised a shoulder pole to take this deer out through the deep water in the swamp.

Frank's 5 point; My 4 point; Dave's 4 point; Jimmy's spike

Here is a picture of Muckett holding the "playbook", a collection of aerial maps laminated and bound.

Saturday was another good day. We started off early in the day with a nice eight point tagged in by my cousin Petey. This was the nicest rack of the week. On another drive in Rosenhayn, 2 more bucks got passed the standers with one being missed twice along with a coyote that got away after being shot several times. On the last drive of the day Smithman shot this crooked horned spike which was his first buck ever. Later that night, Bill a.k.a. Broncosbp, rolled into camp with a Y buck that he had gotten on a sit that evening. That brought the total tally of deer camp up to seven bucks (3) 4's (2) spikes (1) eight & (1) five.

Gary shot this 9 pointer out of his stand during six day firearm.

Just after shotgun week was over and muzzle loader came back in, Jack, a former neighbor from Iona, Killed this beautiful 10 pointer in Winslow on December 16th.