The sun has set on our 2008 deer season. Prostaffers Brett Joy and Jay Dubois extended their season a few more weeks by heading south across the border into Massachusetts to hunt their late season muzzleloader. They chased around this 130 class nine pointer that frequented the trail cameras, mostly at night. Unfortunatley the "big 9" always seemed to be a step ahead of them, and they were unsuccesful at filling their Mass tags. 2008 seemed to be a diffucult year for the Oak Ridge team, things just didn't go our way for filming deer hunts. However we were able to persivere and go 4 for 4 with all team members, both NY and NH, all killing nice bucks, always a plus! We really had to earn our deer this year, all together the four Oak Ridge boys were able to harvest 12 deer total, not bad for what was considered an off year for us. The good thing is the 2009 nine season will be here before we know it and we have already started planning hunts and getting ready. Here at Oak Ridge Outdoors the deer season is a 12 month a year obsession. To pass the time we will be doing some predator hunting, and trying to go 4 for 4 with turkey kills on film in May. We'll keep you updated, make sure to check in and good luck to everyone in the new year!
November
Team Oak Ridge has had a whirl wind 24 hours in New Hampshire. After prostaffer Jay Dubois dropped the hammer on his 9 pointer on the 27th, himself and prostaffer Brett Joy climbed into a tree stand the next day on Thanksgiving morning. After little action out of the treestand they decided to be proactive and get out after them. They set up on either end of a thick known buck bedding area. Jay was able to bump this beautiful New Hampshire 8 pointer to Brett. The buck came in on a line but got a little nervous and tried to bail out. However he made the fatal mistake of stopping in one of Brett's shooting lanes at 70 yards, the Remington 870 barked and a 12 gauge slug took out the bucks heart. He went just 20 short yards before tipping over in sight and the Oak Ridge boys from New Hampshire had two great bucks down within less than 24 hours. This buck was familiar to Oak Ridge because it was a deer that Brett had captured velvet footage of as a 2.5 year old two summers back. With the rut coming to an end and December right around the corner its time to hunt some food sources and try to fill our New Hampshire archery tags!
November continues to treat Oak Ridge Outdoors well. Prostaffer Jay Dubois has had a rough string of hunting with lots of bad luck thrown in. Jay has hunted hard but things just haven't been falling into place for him as of late. On the 26th the day before Thanksgiving he was able to still hunt up upon this nice New Hampshire 9 pointer and a doe, and put the buck down with a 90 yard shotgun shot. Jay was following fresh dry land tracks into a bedding area and jumped this dandy out of his bed. The buck was a main frame 7 pointer with a beautiful 4 point side and then a smaller non-typical 5 point side. The buck had two kickers and broke off what appeared to be a double main beam growing out of his base. This is one of Jay's best bucks ever!
Prostaffer Luke Nellis scored on November the 20th with a great 120" 8 pointer that weighed in at 180 lbs. This is Oak Ridge's best buck of the year so far, Luke's second best buck ever, and his best gun buck. He traveled up to New York's northern zone and hung his set on the edge of a deep woods swamp. In the morning he had a group of does come by and he decided just to climb down for a quick break and climbed right back up for the afternoon hunt. An hour before dark a hot doe came by his stand and shortly after was followed by this big boy. Luke dropped him in his tracks with a 80 yard shot out of his Remington 7mm .08.
November was here for only a day before prostaffer Mike Brown was able to put a Rage three blade through both lungs of this beautiful 3.5 year old New York 8 pointer. Hunting a set that has shown great chasing activity over the last couple of days with several younger bucks chasing unresponsive does, Mike decided to stick with it for another morning on the 2nd. An hour into the hunt this buck came past his set at 30 yards trailing a doe and Mike was able to make a tough shot that put him down within 25 yards. It took until November but team Oak Ridge was pleased to break the ice with our first nice buck of the year. Congratulations to Mike, the action should only get hotter from here!
October
The slow deer movement of September seemed to carry right over into October, with little day time activity and little or not movement of mature bucks. A few mature shooters were sighted but no shot opportunities were presented. To break the slow northeastern movement prostaffers Brett Joy and Jay Dubois traveled to Maryland's eastern shore to hunt with good friend Josh Roach. During the 3 day early muzzleloader season team Oak Ridge was able to fill 3 anterless tags and put a smaller buck on the ground but no mature bucks were harvested. Luckily the rut is still ahead of us as we roll right into sweet November.
September
Well the first week of the early bow season in New Hampshire has been fairly slow. Buck movement has seemed to be sluggish and restricted to nighttime only. Team Oak Ridge has struggled and has not been able to put any good bucks on the ground. Fortunately the deer activity over the Biologic food plots has been good even though it has been limited to dusk and nightime. We're hoping the activity will continue to pickup as we have been finding some rubs and even some scrapes in the last week. These are a couple of pictures from one of the cameras over a Biologic Outfitters Blend and Maximum food plot. These two does seem to be dancing together and this shooter buck came in 10 min. after shooting light and is standing right under one of our stands. Hopefully he continues to use the Biologic plot.
September is here and the New Hampshire bow season is just a few shorts days away. The trail cameras have been hard at work and the early part of the month has rendered some interesting images. This is a buck we have dubbed "forkie". He is a mature seven pointer that we estimate to be 3.5 to 4.5 years old. We have captured footage of this buck numerous times with the video camera over the summer, (check it out under our "Video Hunts"). As you can see he is in full velvet on the 3rd, but has completely shed all his velvet by the 7th. Unfortunately he didn't pose for the camera with velvet hanging from his rack between the 3rd and 7th. It's exciting to see those first hard horned bucks after watching them in velvet all summer. Forkie is the SMALLEST of four different shooter bucks we have scouted in this area! Hopefully we can get a crack at him or one of this older, bigger buddies next week with our bows. A black bear has also been showing up at one of the cameras over the past week. The New Hampshire woods seem to be alive with action this September.
August
Well the end of the summer is near and bow season is right around the corner. In New Hampshire prostaffers Brett and Jay have kept busy all summer planting food plots, scouting, monitoring trail cameras, and shooting our bows. This year we have planted Imperial No-Plow, Evolved Habits Shot Plot, and Biologic Outfitters Blend and Full Draw. The food plots have been doing well aside from the pressure from the turkeys which seem to have their way with the lush brassicas. Meanwhile the vevlet footage has been rolling and we have been able to capture several shooter bucks on film. Check out the footage under our video hunts. We have word from prostaffer Mike Brown in NY that his wildeye has been getting some good footage as well. Unfortunately Mike recently had surgery on his shoulder that will prevent him from shooting his bow until right before the bow opener.
May
Oakridge team members Brett Joy and Jay Dubois teamed up on a rainy May 3rd opening day of NH turkey season. After the initial first light action was over with a few smaller bird's passed, Jay's preseason scouting really paid off. Hunting Jay's family land we were able to ambush two toms late in the morning after Jay patterned these bird's for the last month or so. One shot from the 12 Gauge Remington 870 put the big tom down. The gobbler weighed in at 21.5 lbs and sported a double beard with lengths of 9 3/4" and 9 1/4". This bird was good enough to win the turkey pool at the local Wildlife Sports and Taxidermy store. The prize was a good chunk of cash and a free turkey mount. Special thanks to Jay and especially his father for allowing us to hunt his land.
Well team members Brett Joy and Jay Dubois did it again! This time it was Brett who returned the favor to Jay. Brett roosted a flock of birds that included 3 nice gobblers. The set up was perfect and Brett predicted the gobblers would fly down right into Jay's lap. Sure enough no decoys or even calling and the three gobblers flew down and strutted 25 yards out in a little field. There was only one minor glitch, Jay was using Brett's scattergun and his first shot was a bit low hitting the bird in the body, however a quick reload and instinctive shot brought the bird down out of the air at about 40 yards, truly an incredible shot. The bird weighed in at 20 lbs with a 10 3/8" beard good enough for Jay to also win his turkey pool. Best of all we were able to capture the hunt on film!
Team member and prostaff member southpaw Luke Nellis was able to find a break from striking out Div. I college hitters long enough to bag this nice NY gobbler. Himself and Brett Hanson were able to call this bird and a jake into about 50 yards where the birds hung up. Thank god for his Remington 870 and super full turkey chokes because 50 yards was close enough! The longbeard was 20 lbs with a 9 1/2" beard.
FEBRUARY
Well the 60 day drying period is over and Buck Mercier a local scorer for The NH Antler and Skull Trophy Club officially scored prostaff member Brett Joy's 2007 muzzleloader buck. Scored as a perfect typical the rack grossed 138" and netted 135 4/8 with only 2 4/8" of deductions. The rack sported 10 points with an 11th G5 broken off. This is Oak Ridge's second biggest buck after prostaff member Luke Nellis' 2006 Pope and Young NY bow buck. This buck sported only 8 points but grossed 143", and netted 140 as a typical, a true monster for an 8 pointer.
JANUARY
Prostaff member Brett Joy was on his way to set up a bait site on some family land when he spotted this wily yote cruising along through the hardwoods. He was able to get his Remington .270 loaded and rest on a snow drift before the yote was out of sight. One shot through the lungs dropped him in his tracks. Brett was fortunate enough to help out the deer herd on this land and harvest a nice coyote.
