Bringing in 2008 with a bang.

Well, let me start by saying I’m sorry I have neglected this blog for a while. It was a busy Christmas season and New Years too. The first week of the year I was swamped at work and didn’t get home until almost 10:30pm most evenings, hardly saw my kids at all. I also became a Council Member for the United Bowhunters of New Jersey, and had been a little busy learning some things about this organization and what we have on the table for 2008, and I think it's going to be a very good year. I really didn’t think anyone would notice a few weeks without a new post, but I guess that feeling comes with the territory on these blogs, as comments are left infrequently and we just don’t know if anyone is reading. It was nice to see someone was paying attention though.

There wasn’t much time for writing, and less for hunting, but I did manage to get out with my niece on Saturday, January 12th. We went to the place I have been having all the problems with trespassers this year. The weekend before, my friend who leases the property with me, called and wanted to do a little rabbit hunting and walk the place to see what the deer were doing. Neither of us had spent much time scouting the farm because we wanted to keep the intrusion pressure as low as possible. After walking around, we found our efforts were for nothing. For the first few hours of the morning we walked the northern end of the farm, kicked up a few rabbits, missed a few shots, but eventually I managed to bag one bunny. In our travels across the farm, we found several dead deer, 5 bucks and 2 does to be precise. The field was full of ruts where some trespassers had been driving back our roads and into the fields, I suppose to shoot deer. I found a few shotgun wads in the field, along with two carcasses. A few more dead deer were found in the woods, and two were found, gutted, with the head and antlers still attached, dumped right along the road not far from our gate. I have no idea why someone would do that, but it’s typical of the type of outlaws we have to deal with in this part of Salem County.

While kicking around at mid morning, we did see four deer run from the cedar thicket on the north end, across the field, and into a briar tangle in the center of the property…that was somewhat encouraging. Unfortunately, I had previously told my niece and brother to buy the permits for this particular deer management zone in New Jersey. I had no other place in that zone to hunt, so we had to go there, despite all the poaching the property has endured.

On Saturday, just before 3:00pm, we made our way to our stands. It was a very mild day for January, with temperatures in the low 50’s and sunny skies…a perfect day for a new hunter to get a pleasant taste of the great outdoors. Not long after we got settled…well, I’ll let the video tell the story. I'll just end with this…this was only the second hunt for my niece and she did very well. She had a great time, and I had a blast being there with her. Check out the video to see what the afternoon hunt held for us.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and here's hoping 2008 is a great year for you.

I haven't been out hunting much in the last few weeks. I made several trips to Ohio this year and hunted in New Jersey plenty as well, so now I'm turning my attention back to family time. I still would like to shoot another deer or two for the freezer, and some speciality cuts. I like to get a shoulder smoked each year that we later cut into bite-sized chunks and then use what's left on the bones for a nice steaming pot of split pea or Navy bean soup. I also have a good friend who makes some speciality items that I get a few bags of each year. I like to cook too so as deer season winds down, I will be puting the fruits of my labor (yeah, like i can really call hunting labor :~) ) to use on the dinner table.

I have plans to try and videotape a few deer hunts before the season is over too, and my niece is still trying to get her first deer, so I'm not done venturing outdoors quite yet.

Christmas Day was a busy one as usual. We started off early with the kids opening their gifts, and then by 11:45am we were at my father-in-laws house for Christmas dinner with my wifes family...and more gifts. I grew up eating a big turkery dinner with all the trimings for Christmas, but my wife comes from a traditional Italian family and Christmas dinner is an Italian dinner. We started with appetizers of marinated olives stuffed with provolone cheese, garlic olives, shrimp cocktail, hot pepper shooters, more olives, pickles, dips and chips and other addicting snack foods. Part way through the appetizers, I saw the bathroom scale sitting on the floor in the kitchen. Now, I don't know why the scale is in the kitchen instead of the bathroom but I couldn't resist the temptation of a little experiment. I jumped on the scale and checked my weight before eating another ounce. Once we were done feasting on a dinner of sausage, meatballs, lasagna and salad, I hit the scale again...exactly 4 pounds heavier. I ATE FOUR POUNDS OF FOOD AT DINNER!! We were having desert at my mothers house, and opening more gifts, so I wasn't done yet.

As we pulled into my mothers driveway I noticed the conspicuous absence of my brother's family vehicle. As we walked in the door, the rest of the family was just finishing up dinner, much later than we expected. It was then explained that a bit of a crisis had kept my brother, and his wife from dinner, and delayed it for everyone else. Seems that someone else in a hurry to get to their own Christmas dinner ran a stop sign and broadsided the minivan, sending my brother to the hospital, luckily only for pre-cautionary measures. His wife and kids were fine, and the kids were actually at my mothers with a somewhat battered Chrsitmas Turkey that they were bringing over for dinner. Fortunately, my Mom was cooking TWO turkeys, and there was enough for dinner, but leftovers were scarce. By 7:00pm, Jeff walked through the door with a neck collar on but none the worse for wear. Desert was apple pie, pumpkin pie, a large assortment of Christmas cookies, and hot black coffee...but no more scale, I really didn't want to know.

I hope you have a safe and happy New Years, and like always,
Good Hunting-DV

Firearms Season.

Well, our firearms season started off with a bang, or a blast, or, I guess, more like a gust. It was windy, very windy. The first day dawned cool and clearing, after a rain storm passed through. The weather stations posted a wind advisory beginning at 7:00am, sustained winds from 25 to 30 mph, gusts up to 50 mph. I didn’t hunt the first morning, but did go out in the afternoon with the video camera and sat with my brother and niece. I got out late, but it didn’t matter. With the tremendous wind gusts, not much was moving and there was no way a deer could hear me move into the stand late in the day. Once settled in the tree, I didn’t think I was going to stay there long. It was so windy I was sure the tree was going to blow over, and in fact a big dead oak did come crashing to the ground just 15 yards from where we sat huddled against a lone white oak tree. There was very little shooting, except for my brother, who was hunting a little ways from us and managed to miss a buck at 25 yards with his slug gun. I guess I can understand that seeing how hard it would be to steady the crosshairs on a deer with the tree tops blowing around like a 5 ticket amusement park ride…it was crazy out there.

Tuesday brought more of the same, but with frigid temperatures. The mercury dipped into the 20’s, with a high of only 38, and 25 to 30 mph winds again. The wind did lay down a little at 4:00pm, but slowed only to 15 to 20. However, it was enough for my brother Jeff to kill a nice 4-pointer

Wednesday morning dawned calm, but a cold 19 degrees, and the high was not supposed to go over 35 all day. The winds had subsided and an ominous red sky foretold what was to come…red sky in morning, sailors take warning. I remember that old saying used by seagoers to predict fair or foul seas, and this day the red sky in the morning was indicative of an Alberta Clipper headed our way. The red faded quickly and by 8:00am, dim gray clouds covered the Delaware Valley. The snow flakes started to gently trickle to the ground every so often at 11:00am. By 12:30, there was a heavy snow shower, which slowed at about 1:30pm. At approximately 3:00pm, the snow started to come again and never let up. I took up the vigil after work in a ladder stand, about 75 yards from a cut bean field. It would be the first chance I had to actually hunt our 6-day firearm season.

I have a Biologic Maximum food plot planted on the edge of the field and the deer have started to hit it. I figured with these cold temps and snow, deer would be on a food source and this was as good a spot as any. While walking in I saw a Redtail hawk hovering and hunting for a last minute meal before taking refuge from the storm.



I also noticed that a cedar tree up near the field, maybe 40 yards from my stand, had been freshly rubbed. I was in here on Saturday and noticed what amounted to a scratch on that tree, which was now rubbed bare. This gave me hope for the remainder of the day and I sat with great anticipation, despite the snow and ice building on me and all my gear. It wasn’t completely uneventful, I did see a small four-pointer and as darkness crept into the cedars, two does and two fawns came under the tree as they made their way to the food plot. They stopped 15 yards away and sized up the open field for danger before venturing from the cover. I don’t know how they didn’t hear me as it seemed with every breath, ice crackled and snow fell from my clothes. After 15 minutes they seemed convinced the coast was clear and hustled out into the blowing snow to munch on the brassica plot. This was the view from my stand.

The snow continued to fall and by morning, we had almost 4 inches. It was a beautiful day on Thursday, with sunny blue skies and a fresh blanket of snow coating the ground and sagging tree branches all across Salem County. Unfortunately, I didn’t get out.

My next chance to hunt came late Friday afternoon. At about 4:00pm, I parked my truck at the gate and hustled a short distance in to a tree where I could watch an open piece of woods between a bedding thicket and field. Before I was even settled in my climber, I noticed deer moving towards the field about 75 yards away. A doe and two fawns slowly made their way from cover into a secluded corner of the field to feed. I watched them until dark, but they were never joined by a buck. Saturday morning I visited a friend who killed a very big 10 pointer the day before. I took some nice photos and measured the deer for him. It taped out right at 130 inches, and had a great spread of 19 & ¾ inches. It was a beautiful deer, but in the process of taking pictures, helping him get the deer to the butcher and measured, my camera was damaged and none of the pictures of the deer, or the snow from Thursday, could be retrieved.

Saturday afternoon, I had some chores to do around the house but once finished, I went to a ladder stand just off the edge of the brassica plot for the last hour of the day. As I walked in at 3:45pm, I spooked 3 deer already feeding on the plot. I quickly got settled in and waited until shooting light faded from the cedars without seeing a deer. As I walked out, I saw 4 deer feeding on the plot again. I checked them with my binoculars but none had antlers. It was barely light enough to see their outlines in the field as I walked out, yet there was ALOT of shooting happening on the surrounding properties. Makes me wonder if those guys could actually see what they were shooting at or just launching last minute shots at the closing bell. Hope some of you guys did better than we did.

Good hunting-DV

Getting ready for gun season.

Tomorrow, December 3rd, begins New Jersey 6-day firearm season. It's a day I look to with mixed feelings every year. On one hand, it brings great anticipation of whats to come. Even though me and my brothers never do that well during the gun season, it's always a fun week to be out in the woods...or at least it used to be. What it has become in the last several years is why I now have mixed emotions about it. My farm in Alloway Township is the constant target of poaching outlaws who and drive the land. I spend much of my time patrolling it or getting down to pursue trespasser when I hear a shot from our property. I will be out there much of the opening day, but in the afternoon, I will be going to sit with my brother and his daughter to video tape their first hunt. Patrolling the farm that afternoon will have to be left to the other guys who hunt it.

I usually do alot of video taping each season, but this year, camera problems and the fact I could never hook up with my brothers to either tape them or have them run the camera for me prevented me from getting much footage. We usually put together some good hunts on video, and I like to do a short clip summary of the season. Here is one from last year.


I don't have too much material to do one this year, but maybe I'll get some good footage Monday afternoon.

Good hunting-DV

Back in the stand.

Well on 11/16, Friday afternoon, after work, I slipped in to a stand I have on a small food plot. It was very windy, and pretty darn cold too. I figured this would be a good spot because it’s hidden back in the cover a little off the field, which gives the deer some security and protection from the wind in the open field. I have noticed the past few days that the fall colors are just barely past their peak, and it’s the middle of November. We don’t usually have leaves on the trees this late into the year but I’m enjoying the brilliant display of falls finest these last few days.

My foodplot finally came up and actually grew pretty well, thanks to good rainfall and warm temperatures later in the fall than normal. It’s mostly brassica’s, and usually by this time of year, the deer have really turned on to this food source. However this year they haven’t touched them. I don’t understand it. There are basically no acorns on this part of the farm, the bean fields have been harvested for some time, and my brassica plot seems like it would be a likely place to see a deer, yet the plants look untouched. I quickly climbed the tree and settled in anyhow, thinking maybe today would be the day they decide to start on the plot. The tire tracks through the plot were just a sign of bad things to come, and evidence of why hunting has been very slow on this piece.


The wind whipped the trees around until just before dark. At 5:02pm, I heard a shot so loud it nearly made me jump form the stand. Someone had just fired into our hayfield, probably at a deer. I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket and hit the game wardens number on the speed dial…voice mail, figures. I left him a message and tuned my ears for sounds of a vehicle entering the field. After straining for ten minutes, I didn’t hear anything that sounded like someone retrieving a deer, but I did hear a snap and turned to see a small doe 10 yards away. She had slipped in under the cover of the gusting wind and was now nervously pacing the edge of the plot. Whether it was from the strong wind, or the shot in the field, that deer was extremely wary and she never got up the nerve to enter the open. As shooting light faded, I scurried down the tree and hurried to the edge of the hayfield. I waited there for some time to see if the poacher would attempt to recover a deer under the cover of darkness, but really didn’t even know if the outlaw hit his target. After 20 minutes of no action, I returned to my truck and stowed my gear.

On my way home I stopped at the neighbors house to see if she had heard the shot and noticed a vehicle. She said she hadn’t on this particular day but, according to her, people shoot into that field once or twice a week from the road, and trucks are driving in and out of it all the time, has been that way all year. She related that a few times a week, she sees them drive into the field and vanish into the woods, will often hear shots “back there”, and then see the trucks drive out, sometimes as late as 11:30pm. The road out of the hayfield leads through the woods, through my plot and to the harvested bean field. From seeing the tire tracks through the plot, I can tell the poachers have been visiting this place regularly over the last few weeks while I was in Ohio.


She said she has called the State Police so many times they don’t even respond any longer, and at that moment I understood why our luck on this farm has been so bad. I could do an entire book on how much I despise trespassing jerks like those that constantly plague our leased property, but I don’t feel like getting that angry right now. Hopefully I’ll be writing in the next few weeks about how I caught the poaching dirtbags in the act and got the last laugh.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’ll be out trying again. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Good hunting-DV

Looking back at the last 3 weeks...

Well, I’m finally going to slow down a little and take some time to write. I hunted alot between October 26 and November 14th. With the exception of working a few days, I spent every possible minute in the woods in either New Jersey or Ohio. This year I hunted a total of 14 days in Ohio, all but 4 of them in that 10/26 to 11/14 time span. We had a tough time finding mature deer. I saw plenty of 1.5 yr old bucks, and a few 2.5 year olds that would have been shooters in New Jersey, but were just too small in Ohio. I did pass on a shot at a nice 2.5 yr old 10 pointer that looked a lot like the buck I killed last year. This one was a 3.5 year old buck.

The 2.5 year old I saw this year was just a bit smaller, and quartering away at 12 yards. I just couldn't drop the string. He should be a good one next year.


Overall, the rutting activity was disappointingly slim in Ohio this year.
I saw very little chasing, heard only a grunt or two, and never really saw it bust loose like it has in the past. There were a lot of acorns in the woods, so maybe that kept the deer from moving much. One other thing I observed is that in the last 5 years, the amount of hunting pressure during bow season where we hunt has increased tremendously. It’s almost as crowded as New Jersey is during 6-day firearm season during the rut in SE Ohio, it’s really crazy there now. I have to believe that the huge increase in the amount of human activity in the woods has also affected deer movement, especially mature buck movements.

I had a few close encounters in New Jersey during that time. The farm I hunt in Alloway Township was a bit of a disappointment again this year, but I had a good encounter on another small piece of land I hunt. A gusty rain storm had ended just before noon, so I headed to the stand at 12:30. I climbed into the stand, pulled my bow up, placed it on the hanger and then began searching my backpack for my release. Before I even dug it out, I heard a snap and looked down to see a great buck passing 10 yards from me. It was very windy, and the woods were still dripping from the rain, so he never heard me come in and I never heard him walking towards me. He was through my shooting lane in about 2 seconds and gone from sight shortly afterwards. He was a big buck, and I hoped he would come back. At a few minutes before 2:00pm, I saw sunlight glint off an antler and watched as this nice 10 pointer came in the same way as the big buck had.


I decided to give him a pass, hoping to use my tag on the bigger buck and let this one grow another year. He should be a real slammer next year. Other than that, so far the rut has been pretty uneventful for me this year in New Jersey. There is a little time left to catch bucks searching, but it's winding down. Hopefully the late season will be good to us as the deer turn back onto food sources.

Good Hunting-DV

Last minute buck

The last hour of the hunt is just as good as the first hour of the hunt… The last hour of the hunt is just as good as the first hour of the hunt. I kept thinking about that line I read in a magazine article by Bill Winke earlier this morning while drinking coffee at the house. I needed to keep telling myself that as my hunting time in Ohio was winding down. It was very warm, in the 60’s, and windy this last morning of my hunt, and at 8:15am, the rain started coming too. I had planned to get out of the tree at 10:00am, go pick up Brian and head to the house where we would give it a good cleaning, pack up and head for home by noon. We had just arrived Sunday afternoon, November 11th, but both had to return home by Wednesday evening, the 14th, for other obligations, so this trip would be shorter than anticipated. It had been a rough season for all of us. My brother’s buck was the only big one taken and only one or two other shooter bucks seen among our group of 11 hunters over the last 3 weeks. The rut seemed sporadic and mostly little bucks were running the does, we were all baffled and getting a bit discouraged.

As I sat in my stand thinking about that line, I was also going over scenarios in my head about how the perfect hunt would go down at this spot. This season, I have been having serious problems with both shoulders, and drawing my bow has become more than a chore, actually it’s more like an Olympic Powerlifter attempting a deadlift on a world record amount of iron. It takes me quite a bit of effort to get my bow back, and because of that, a few opportunities have been spoiled this season. I cannot draw smoothly with minimal effort, and any deer within shooting distance is going to pick me off while trying to wrangle my bow to full draw. So I sat there, visualizing the most perfect scenario for a shot at this stand…let’s see, if the buck comes along that hillside, and goes behind those three trees growing close together I can draw when he's blocked by them. Then when he steps out, I have a perfect broadside 20 yard shot. Well, it’s nice to dream anyway, there isn’t even a deer trail there.

By 8:55am, the rain had let up a little, but the wind still swayed the trees and it felt more like a spring day than mid November. My cell phone buzzed. Got a text message from Brian…you see any? No, I replied, just a few dogs, how about you? Nothing, he replied, No deer for you, just dogs? Dogs…, I replied. As I folded the phone up and placed it in my pocket, I looked up and saw two deer standing on the hillside 85 yards away. A doe and a fawn had slipped in, it was now 8:58am, and the last hour of the hunt was upon me. I watched them browse over the crest of the hill, and they were joined by a button buck a minute or so later. Well, at least some deer are moving now I thought, so I kept a watchful eye on that hill and just a few minutes later I saw a crown of antlers bobbing towards me. I watched as the buck closed the distance and stopped where the doe and fawn had been, then he looked down the hill. He was looking down the hill and I was looking at him through my binoculars trying to decide if I wanted to shoot him. Then I saw a doe emerge from a clump of trees, and knew what he was looking at. The doe meandered down the hill, and the buck started to follow. It looked like they were going to go off the hill about 70 yards away, then the doe changed course and started towards my stand. The buck came towards her down the hill and she seemed not to be ready for that and sprinted away from him, right towards me, stopping 8 yards from the base of my tree. The buck then started to close the distance and I figured I’d pick up my bow just in case. I still wasn’t sure this was a shooter, but as he got closer, I could see he was a heavy 3.5 year old buck with some junk on his bases, which were pretty massive. I decided he was good enough and watched in awe as he seemed to have read my thoughts from earlier. He stayed about 30 yards uphill of the doe and walked along the hillside…right behind those three trees, as if he had read the script. I came to full draw and decided to complete the story. He did hear something when I drew, and stopped behind the trees. I waited. The buck peeled up the hill a little and emerged from the trees only to walk behind another. I placed my pin right next to that tree and watched as his head and antlers, then neck, and finally shoulder cleared the tree. He stopped, I settled in, and released. The arrow traveled the 22 yards to his shoulder and found it’s mark, center punching both lungs. At first glance it seemed high, but as he ran up the hill I could see the trail would be easy to follow. He covered the 40 yards to the top, lurched into a pine thicket and crashed down about 7 seconds after the shot. He was done. I looked at my phone…9:16am, the last hour of the hunt. My brother killed his buck in the first hour of our Ohio hunt on October 27th, and here I am in the last hour of my last day, putting truth to Bill Winke’s words. Yes, the last hour was just as good as the first. Well, almost, Brian’s buck was bigger.

Brians Buck.