December 13th
Late Season Magic in the "Big Oak"
Blistery, frigid, damp, cold, and wet...This pretty much summed up the elements we took on for our last adventure into the timber for the 2009 New York State deer season. Let's go back to the previous weekend Nate and I were afield. We were hunting in a set that we put alot of hard work into during the off-season. We hunted it a few times during archery and gun season but didn't have the movement that we anticipated, so Nate and I decided that it was essential for us to make a strategic move to the "Big Oak." This beautiful oak tree sits alone on a golden rod ridge top. It's a primetime spot that we knew was going to produce someday. We moved the set to the big oak and decided that we were going to give it a whirl on the last day of shotgun season the next weekend. After bearing the elements for almost 2 hours on December 13th, Nate and I were beginning to lose our patience. Around 8:45am, Nate said to me, "Wes, we need to get these stands a littler higher." So we safely moved the set another 5ft higher from our previous spot. Nate and I were sitting in the stand soaking it all up. We were talking about how exciting this spot was going to be next year during the rut. All of a sudden, Nate grabs my arm and says, "Wes, wes, wes, wes, BIG BUCK!!" I grabbed the Remington 870 Wingmaster for Nate and he quickly took aim on the injured brute. As Nate was preparing for a shot, I was on my hands and knees trying to grab the camera, that was 3ft below my stand. As soon as I was able to get the camera, and turn it on, Nate had the buck stopped and took a 50 yard shot. Nate dropped him dead in his tracks!! We were both astonished at what had just occured and couldn't believe that we had just killed a shooter out of the "Big Oak"-On our first hunt let alone. How Crazy is that?!?! When we got up to the buck, we were amazed how skinny and thin he was. We figured it was most likely from a long and stressful rut. But after examining the deer more we discovered that he had some severe battle scars. He was shot in his right front leg and was unable to walk on it. We also later determined that the brute had been hit by a vehicle. To say the least, we were extremely excited to end the 2009 campaign with a BANG! We never had any previous encounters with this buck in person but we did manage to capture a couple pictures of him on the Cuddeback Trail Cameras. "The Big Oak" proved our theory to be right, that it was going to be a "Hot" spot for big bucks. Nate and I are looking forward to going in there in the off season and making a few adjustments, so we can tackle another bruiser in 2010. It was another dream season for us here in Upstate New York. We're already preping for next season, and ready to shell shock some ol' gobblers in the spring. Thanks again to Brett Joy and everyone involved with Oak Ridge Outdoors!
November 17th
Mr. October - click on for video footage of Mr. October
I received a picture text message today containing a picture of Mr. October, dead. I must admit it broke my heart, I did a little homework and found that local hunter Joe Coleman was the man of the hour. Hunting on an agacent property he had a close encounter with the giant on November the 15th cruising past his stand. Then on the 17th he once again encountered Mr. October making a scrape and one shot dropped the giant in his tracks. The giant New Hampshire 8 pointer dressed out at 178 lbs and has an incredible green gross score of 162 7/8". His left G2 measured 14" and he had near 27 inch main beams on both sides. This is truely a world class 8 pointer and it came right out of southern NH! Although I am disappointed I never got a crack at the buck that I captured on my trail cameras several times on my Biologic foodplot, he couldn't have fallen to a nicer guy than Joe Coleman, Congrats Joe!
November 9th
Brett Joy and I traveled to Coshocton County Ohio, with big
expectations for the first week of November. Brett was lucky enough to tag out early in the week with a brute measuring 163". I, on the other hand did not have great luck, depending on how one looks at it during the beginning of the week. I began the week seeing a couple nice shooters, but they were out of range. Still this got me fired up.On Wednesday I hit some bad luck as I stepped on the treestand cable and fell 20ft to the ground. Fortunately, even though the safety strap I had broke, it happened to flip me to land feet first. I brushed myself off and changed my stand locations. Thursday, my bad luck continued as a property owner walked up to my stand and scared a 150" giant. The buck was 50 yards out and headed directly under my stand. Later on that day, the same buck followed a doe 40 yards from my stand. I stopped him and shot. However my arrow hit a branch half way between me and the buck and deflected. Friday morning came and I gave one last go before heading 12 hrs home. What appeared to be a nice ten pointer came into 40 yards, and I took the shot. I hit him perfectly and he dropped thirty yards out. He ended up having a unique right side with a browtine and a huge spike, which made him a nice 7 pointer. I was pumped to have a good deer on the ground after a rough week. Brett and I returned from Ohio early Saturday morning and where eager to get out and take down some of the mature bucks we have been watching in NH. I went out to hang a stand at one of my spots on Sunday afternoon after sitting in the morning without much luck. My father and I found a nice spot deep in the hardwoods off a ridge where we knew the bucks would be cruising for does. The next morning came around and I got out in my stand extra early. I didn't have any action until 8 AM when a heard a branch break over my shoulder. I peaked around the tree to see a big body deer moving through. At the same time I saw a white flicker down to my left and saw a doe step out. Sure enough right behind her was what looked like a mature buck on her tail. I raised the gun and shot him at 70 yards right behind the shoulder. He took a few steps and dropped! Then the celebration began. He was a massive 6 pointer and weighed in at 205 lbs. His bases looked like a baseball bat and he was very wide. He is the biggest 6 I have ever seen.This years off too a good start with several nice bucks hitting the dirt.
-Rick Sprankle, NH
November 7th
Team member Jay Dubois was lucky enough to go on leave from the Air Force for most of the month of November. He decided to take out youth hunter Dylan Cadorette out for an evening New Hampshire muzzleloader hunt. Just before dark Dylan had this nice 117 lb five pointer come down the hill out of the hemlocks. Dylan waited patiently as the buck worked into 10 yards. As soon as the bucks head was screened by a tree Dylan quickly threw his gun up took aim and promtly dropped the buck in its tracks with his .50 cal. This is Dylan's second deer in as many years and I'm sure a sign of what's to come. Congrats on your first buck Dylan!
-Brett Joy, NH
November 6th
Mr. October
The New 11
Team member Rick Sprankle and I traveled to Coshocton County Ohio last week for a 5 day do it yourself bowhunting with Wolf Creek Outfitters run by Ben Rising and Jarod Hawkins. We were both lucky enough to harvest nice bucks. My buck was the biggest of my life a main frame 12 pointer grossing 163". I killed my buck on the second morning of the hunting and he was the 11th buck I saw. Hunting a ridge top above about 50 acres of standing corn, he worked into 32 yards and I smoked him on video with the rage. Rick was able to get it done on the last morning Nov. 6th with a very uniqued racked 7 pointer. We are both pleased to be fortunate enough to drive 12 hours to Ohio and both harvest great deer. I was pleasently surprised when I got home on the 7th to check my trail camera and see the familiar face of Mr. October and a new equally impressive buck. We are exciting to get in these woods and try to kill these two NH giants.
-Brett Joy, NH
October 19th
Well after nearly spending all of Monday afternoon at a local library studing for upcoming tests at college, I decided that my brain could no longer breakdown anymore balance sheets or financial statements, so I decided to hit the Savannah timber en route for a doe. A warm westerly wind allowed me to slip into a new stand that my father and I put up this summer for the ole' man to hunt during gun season. This stand is located on the inside corner of an alphala and standing corn field. It is in an excellent location to catch deer moving from bed to field and is easily accessible without spooking much game. Much to my suprise, I barely got situated in the new big game 16' ladder stand, and coming down the trail were two nice does. These does were hungry as they were covering ground very fast in my direction. So I ranged out the trail that the does were on and when the Bushnell rangefinder said 20 yards on the dot, I knew that mama doe was gonna be in trouble. The Ross CR-334 was ready to rip, along with a PSE Radial Weave arrow and the deadliest broadhead on the market-RAGE! I touched her off and watched the arrow blow right through both lungs. She took two steps and expired. What an awesome hunt. Unfortunately, my right hand man and camera man Nathan Elvers, was out making dinero at work. So none of this was caught on film. This weekend we will be back in the timber as I'll step behind the Unclebuck is an up and coming deer on the 200 acre QDM property. A young "hocamera and see if Nate and I can have some Pre-rut magic in Upstate New York.
The overall movement for the start of the 2009 New York State bowseason was pretty slow, as was the case for most hunters in the area. We believe we are in the "October Lull" stage, as much of our Cuddeback trail cameras show deer movement to be at night. But we know that things will change soon as the best hunting is still ahead of us. We've got two studs on our trail cam pics that we have named "Topheavy" and "Uncle Buck". Topheavy is a remarkable deer that we have never laid eyes on prior to this year. A main-frame 10, that scares ya with his split G2 on his right side. We believe he is at least 4 1/2 years old. tshoe" of a ten who we believe is only 3 1/2. There is also one more buck that we have our eyes on but hasn't showed his face yet this year. His name is "Boomhammer". This deer is the most magnificant whitetail we have ever laid eyes on. We had two heart-pounding encounters with him during the 2008 bowseason and to our knowledge this "god" of a buck is still roaming the woods. We estimate that he is atleast in the mid 160's. So with alot of preparation and a little bit of lady luck, were hoping one of these bruisers steps out and presents us with a great opportunity to share it all with you. Nate and I would also like to thank Bretty Joy for asking us to join Oakridge Outdoors. We are honored to share the same passion and love for whitetails with you guys. With that said, we wish everyone tremendous luck from here on out, and hope to be talkin to ya'll soon with a Booner in hand.
Kind Regards,
Wesley O'Connor, NY
October 18th
On saturday the 17th opening day of New York bow season Mike Brown and I teamed up on the Brown family land to try to capture some hunts on film. The plan for the weekend would be both of us up the same tree with our bows myself shooting a doe if she came in and Mike taking any shooter buck. An opening day storm kept deer movement to a minimum but after the front passed through day two brought good movement for most of the day, unfortunately not shooter bucks. We sat Mike's food plots for the first three sits but then relocated our stand to a rub line running through some mature oaks. We saw great movement and I was able to harvest a doe at 5:30 PM on the 18th. Unfortunately the action was lost because someone (myself) forgot to push that little red button on the camera! I was a little disappointed we didn't capture the shot and deer going down but at least we helped Mike manage his land and put some more meat in the freezer! The bucks are really starting to put some distance on their feet at night, and the prerut is heating up. I got this picture of this near 140" 8 pointer on my biologic clover plus plot. Get in the woods boys the action is about to heat up!
-Brett Joy, NH
October 3rd
Oak Ridge Outdoors is excited to announce that we have added two more team members just in time for our 2009 deer season. Two more New York boys, Wes O'Connor and Nate Elvers have been hunting partners for as long as they can remember, and have been video partners for a number of years now. Centered out of Lyons, New York, one of their most notable accomplishments in the outdoors has been killing the 139" non-typical pictured above on video! We are excited about the commitment, passion, and experience Nate and Wes will bring to team Oak Ridge. Our new New York duo is very excited about the 09' season and has been working hard for a number of years managing and making improvements on their farm and truely believe it is starting to pay off big time! Welcome boys we know you will fit right and we are anticipating big things!
September 29th
Mike Brown, New York Oak Ridge team member, spent the summer clearing out 6 new quarter acre food plots. The plots were planted with maximum, oats, wheat, and peas. Although the seed wasn’t in the ground until mid-august, the plots are doing well. Deer have already been frequenting the plots over the past three weeks, as evidenced by trial camera videos/pictures. The plots should afford for an early season doe harvest or two, and hopefully a mature buck harvest during the rut.
September 15th
Well it's been a while since you've heard from us, but we've been extremely busy over the summer with our personal lives and preparing for the upcoming deer season that for our New Hampshire team members has already arrived. Opening night of NH archery season proved to be a sucess as team member Brett Joy was able to kill this mature doe on video over a clover field he had been scouting prior to the season. With Steve "Beanie" Byrd on the camera, these three does fed into the clover field early with plenti of camera light left. Unfortunately the biggest 108 pound doe (dressed) jumped the string and a poor shot was made, FORTUNATLEY Brett was shooting a two blade rage broadhead which severed a major artery and left a major blood trail that lead to the doe just 100 yards outside of the field. If you look closely you can see the arrow over the doe's shoulder in the second photo captured from the tape. Team member Rick Sprankle also scored on September 25th with a nice young buck which also fell victim to a two blade rage at 10 yards. Night two brought Brett on the camera and Beanie Byrd on the bow. Just as dark they had a shooter buck come in to 30 yards but he hung up just out of a shooting lane until dark. On the same night Rick shot his deer, Brett had a shooter buck standing at 20 yards in his shooting lane with 10 minutes of shooting light left. Unfortunately good camera light had expired and Brett let the nice buck walk off. As a team we are excited about the way we started things, and are excited about what is still to come. Goodluck in the woods, and check in, the updates will become more frequent!
May 24th
New Oak Ridge team member Rick Sprankle was able to call in this nice 21 pound double bearded bird that had 15" of beard! The hunt occured on the second day of the season but unfortunatley was not able to be captured on film. Later in the month Mike Brown was able to call him his first bird in New York. Mike toyed with this same bird for a few days before things came together for him and the bird flew down and came running in to his calling. Mike's first gobbler weighed in at 20 pounds and sported a 9" beard.
April 25th
April 25th dawned and it was time to kick off Oak Ridge Outdoors 2009 turkey season with a NH youth hunt. For the second year in a row the trio of Brett Joy, Steve "Beanie" Byrd, and youth hunter Jay Trabucco would try to get it done on film the weekend before NH's general season opened. Team member Brett Joy was able to roost several birds the evening of the 24th, then wait until the cover of darkness to sneak in and set up a ground blind under the birds. The alarm sounded at 3:45 and off to the spring turkey woods it was. Once in the blind the trees erupted with the gobbles of several good toms. At first light a few hens flew down into the decoy set and were soon accompanied by a jake. The two long beards that followed didn't like the sight of a juvenile with their birds and a fight ensued. Unfortunately this fight prevented Jay from getting on the bird and we had to let the two toms run the jake off out of sight. Luckily another long beard was strutting 80 yards away down the clearing and a little sweet talking brought the bird trotting into the decoys where he received a face full of copper plated number 6's. This was Jay's second successful youth weekend in a row on film and his first mature gobbler. What a great way to kick of the 2009 season, tagged out by 6:15 on April the 25th. All images are stills captured from the video.
March 21st
March is a great time of year to get outside, scout for turkeys, and shed hunt. It's also good time of year to scout those areas that were a little too sensitive and you didn't want to pressure during the deer season. Team Oak Ridge has been outdoors more and more in New Hampshire as the weather warms doing just that and we've had some great success finding sheds and locating some good areas for next fall. All these sheds were from two days of hunting in southern NH. Oak Ridge welcomes new team member Rick Sprankle from Milford, NH who was lucky enough to find one of these big 5 point sheds. Rick is another young passionate hunter who is already very accomplished in the woods and will appear on our upcoming turkey hunting DVD.
March 14th
Team Oak Ridge has been busy preparing not only for the upcoming May turkey season but for next deer season. In the fall of 09' team Oak Ridge plans to hunt 5 different states in search of mature whitetails. The turkey season is fast approaching and scouting has already yielded some incredible footage of some rowdy birds establishing the pecking order. However, one situation was a little different from the norm; team members Brett Joy and Jay Dubois were able to lay down footage of seven jakes ganging up on and beating up two mature toms. We were amazed at this and would like to share the footage with you. This really got our blood pumping and got us excited for the upcoming turkey season. We plan to add a few additional team members this spring and hopefully capture enough kills to put together a DVD. Stay tuned as team members Brett Joy and Jay Dubois attempted to fill both NH tags with archery tackle this spring on film!
Turkey Fight Scouting Footage
