2010 Journal
"Persistence"
Well it has been a very long year, but finally all the hard work has paid off. Bow season started off slow, as I had very little encounters with any deer at all. It is funny how one year an individual cannot enter the woods without some kind of deer activity and the next year not have any at all. Finally, just before gun season opened in NH I had a doe walk directly under my stand. With my trigger finger getting itchy, I decided to attempt to put some meat in the freezer. However, the straight down shot proved to be difficult as I slipped the arrow a little too far back. After tracking for hours and going back the next day, I concluded that I was not going to be lucky enough to find the deer.
With the little activity and the misfortune with the doe, I was looking forward to the rut and the ability to hold a firearm in my hands. I was able to get the first two weeks of November off and I was slightly optimistic. The first week I hunted NH hard. Days turned into nights, and Monday turned into Sunday, but still not one deer. As I began to grow weary a family hunting trip to Nova Scotia, Canada boosted my motivation. However, this trip did not go as planned. High winds of 50 mph and rain everyday plagued the trip, not to mention anti-hunters with air horns, poachers on fourwheelers, and jacked deer gut piles being left at the base of my stand. Needless to say I was not having the action I had hoped for. Fortunately with these problems my brother was able to take an awesome 11 pointer the first day and a friend was able to take a ten on the last. This along with good times in the cabin made the trip more enjoyable even though there were no deer moving in front of my sights.
Back to NH we headed for one last shot at a buck with our firearms. As we got back into familiar stands my dad was able to drop a stud 8 pointer which had 5 inch bases that held its mass all the way up its beams. This gave me the energy I needed to get back in the stand and log more hours. I decided to move a set that I knew deer where at, but just needed to be pushed in. Thanksgiving day came and the weather was perfect. I planned on an all day sit, but ended up not needing to. The wind was in my favor, so I tried my luck with a bleat call. A little buck popped up directly behind me and walked off. As I lost sight of him I saw a tail flicker heading in my direction. At first I thought it was the little buck headed back. That is until a saw a high rack stick out of the bushes. I began to raise the gun when the buck caught movement. I froze as we stared each other down. When he dropped his head it seemed so fast as I raised my gun and fired. I hit him in the heart as he went thirty yards and dropped. After such a long season, emotion came over me as I almost fell from my stand with excitement. It was a nice 8 point with a tall rack. My hard work had paid off after the slowest season I have ever had, but then again that's why its called hunting.
~Rick Sprankle, NH
November 11th
"The Buckeye State"
On November 4th I left New Hampshire for my annual New York/Ohio rut bowhunt. My first stop was Wayne County, NY. I was set to video Wes O'Connor for a few days as he attemped to kill a buck that we thought would net boone and crockett as a typical 10 pointer. We hunted him for three days but unfortunately never laid eyes on him. He did however have cool encounters with a mature 8 pointer that was missing half his rack and a 140 class 10. After hunting in NY for a few days we headed out to Coshocton/Holmes County Ohio to hunt for 5 days on a DIY bowhunt. Wes and I ran around like mad men on Sunday morning trying to get all our sets hung in time to jump into the tree for the evening hunt. Luckily because I was familiar the properties from last yaer we didn't have too much trouble getting all our sets hung that morning. Over the next 4 days we saw great movement and rut activity and approximately 20 different bucks. The warmer temperatures had most the the movement confined to the AM. Around 11:30 with the rising temperature the movement shut down. We hunted hard but didn't see any true Ohio giants. On the fourth morning a beautiful 3.5 year old 9 pointer worked his way up the hardwood ridge to about 30 yards. With Wes locked on with the camera I sent a rage screaming through his lungs and he went 40 yards before tipping over on video. It was a great hunt and some great footage. I want to personally thank Wes O'Connor for running a camera for me in Ohio. I think it paid off big time! Now its back to NH to pursue a few different mature bucks I have been keeping tabs on with the trail cameras.
~Brett Joy, NH
October 31st
"A Big Miss, A Doe Down, and a New Giant"
Well it's prime time in the deer woods and this weekend reflected that for team Oak Ridge. To start off whenever possible we try to hunt with a camera man to capture all of our action. Unfortunately this sometimes is just not realistic. Saturday morning the 30th was one of those days for me, and I end up filming myself. Anyone who has tried to film themselves in the past knows this is no easy task. Situated in an awesome pinch point near a primary scrape that has been getting lots of daylight action from three different shooters this past week, I was excited to say the least. No more than 30 seconds into camera light on opening morning of the NH muzzleloader season I had a familiar buck come charging into the estrus I had put out about 5 yards from my tree. He was the funky 5 pointer that I thought might be mature from trail camera pictures over the past week but just wasn't sure. His smallish funky rack and poor genetics were misleading. I knew I'd have to see him in person to decide whether he was 3.5 or older and a shooter or not. It took one look at him from 10 yards charging towards my tree to determine he was a mature deer and that I was going to shoot him. Unfortunately getting the camera on him when he was at 5 yards beneath me was harder than expected. To make a long story short the camera allowed a big buck to walk another day as I missed him at a mere 8 yards.
Team member Jay Dubois scored on a nice doe in the Florida pan handle Saturday afternoon. He made a PERFECT 20 yard shot and the rage did its job. Meat in the freezer and a deer on the board.
I won't say where or who but one team member got these three pictures of a new buck that is an absolute monster! We think he very well may gross boone and crockett as a typical 10 pointer. We have never seen him before and this just goes to show that mature deer are covering some ground. Hopefully we can get on this deer in the coming weeks. Keep checking in the rut is on and its an exciting time in the deer woods.
~Brett Joy, NH
October 18th
What a great opening weekend!! Saw over 15 bucks and a lot of deer overall. The movement was great on Saturday after a big front blew through. Lesson learned over the weekend is twofold:
1.) Paying attention to the weather is key. The next 24 hours after a cold front comes through can be an exciting time in the woods.
2.) The deer in upstate NY are crushing the soft mast crops. Acorns and apples seem to be a big food source for our deer right now.
Wes and I used both of these to our advantage on Saturday night and were able to harvest a great 10 point on film. The footage is excellent and we are very excited to get it edited and out for everyone to see. The buck should score close to 130" and weighed 163lbs field dressed. He was a bonified pig and we are so grateful to have finally capitalized on an opportunity at a mature buck. Hard work pays off! All the offseason work and scouting allowed us to get it done on opening night!
Wes and I decided during our morning hunt that we were going to get a little crazy and take our climbers to the backend of our property to a staging area before an apple orchard. Little did we know that we were going into an area where we were going to see over 25 deer and 2 shooters! The afternoon got off to a fast start when doe after doe started filtering in to eat some acorns. We were covered up in deer all afternoon! The movement started at about 4:15pm and was non-stop all evening. The first shooter 8 point came through just out of range at about 5pm. Then we had a few year and a half’s come through and pushed the does around for a bit. It was about a half hour before dark when Wes said,” Nate, shooter, SHOOTER!” I look at the top of the hill and here comes a big ten that we called “Magnum” coming straight down the hill right for the base of the tree. He came to 5 yards, gave me a broadside shot and the PSE Bowmadness hammered a Rage through the offside shoulder and the big buck ran about 55 yards and piled up. It was an intense hunt as you can imagine having a mature, 200lbs buck at 5 steps!! The hunt ended up being the most exciting hunt of our lives and one we will never forget!
Couldn't have kicked off the 2010 season any better! Good luck to everyone out there and I hope everyone can get an opportunity like we did. I'll be behind the camera the rest of the season trying to get my main man Wes another one on film for us!!
Best of luck,
Nate Elvers
October 17th
If I could tell my fellow hunters one thing it would be get in the woods! The movement has been picking up with the cooler temperatures and the prerut kicking in. Rubbing and scraping has been getting more prevalent and a lot of younger deer have been on their feet during daylight hours. The whole Oak Ridge team saw good movement over the weekend even with the high winds through out most of the northeast. I have several close encounters with mature does over the weekend and once again was reminded that they can be as tough to close the deal on as a mature buck. One of my shooter bucks showed back up on my trail camera. Things are starting to get exciting in the deer woods. I took a three day trip to Maryland's eastern shore to hunt with good friend Josh Roach. Unfortunately the temps hovered near 80 degrees most of the trip, which kept the bigger deer off their feet. We were lucky enough to see 25+ deer including a few smaller bucks as they fed on the drying soybeans. Overall it was a great trip even though no deer hit the ground.
~Brett Joy, NH
September 28th
"Finishing Touches"
The 2010 New York State deer season is quickly approaching and the "Upstate" boys are beyond excited to get into a tree stand!! We saddled up the troops on Saturday, September 18th to go out and put the finishing touches on our 200 acre QDM farm. Chainsaws, clippers, mowers, pole-saws, screw-in steps and tree stands were all in hand for the hard days work ahead of us. After about eight hours of intense labor, we had accomplished our task at hand and now it's all a waiting game until opening day.
Since the last day of the spring turkey season we've had big deer on our minds. Our team sat down during the off-season and decided that we needed to make some essential purchases to improve the quality of our farm as well as our overall hunting experience. We purchased a 1966 International tractor with a disc, yorkrake, and brush-hog. This has been a life-saver to all of us and has cut our labor time almost in half. We also needed to replant some of our key foodplot locations. So come mid-July, Nathan and I began the re-planting process with our new equipment and in just two weeks we had a seed-bed full of Biologic Maximum. Our three favorite plots look absolutely amazing and are already showing signs of deer activity on our Cuddeback trail cams.
The last big off-season move was the recent purchase of a new Canon GL2 professional camera. Nathan and I are extremely excited to get our hands on this thing and put it to the test this fall. We would like to thank fellow team member Brett Joy for all of his help and advice for buying this camera!
I'm sure everyone is anxious to hear about our 2010 hit-list, so we wanted to take a second and get ya'll up to speed. We have a couple of studs roaming the property as well as an ol' friend that has decided to make an appearance once again. "Topheavy" is a spectacular buck that we had at 18-steps last year but were unable to get an ethical crack at em'. He graced us with a blurry glimpse of him in early July as he darted infront of the trailcam. We were also fortunate enough to lay eyes on the split g-2 buck in a nearby bean field in early August. We can only hope that all our stars align and we can get an opportunity at this buck of a lifetime. A buck we like to call "Magnum" has sported himself numerous times on our trail cameras and is a buck that will not be passed up.
The bows are dialed in and the "Upstate" boys have extremely high expectations for the upcoming season. Stay tuned as we will keep everyone updated on our progress throughout the entire season. Goodluck to all my blood brothers at Oak Ridge Outdoors as well as all of our loyal fans.
~Wes O'Connor
September 12th
Team Oak Ridge has had a busy, busy summer getting ready for deer season. We've been running cameras, shooting bows, planting food plots, and scouting for the season. It's been a long hot dry summer and this season is much anticipated. Pictures have been coming in from New Hampshire, New York, and Florida. There are lots of big mature bucks to hunt this fall. For myself I've had a tough summer I managed to break my leg, tear three ligament and cartiladge. It goes without saying that I will be very limited in my hunting this fall and will be lucky to climb a tree in time for the rut. However I have trips planned to Maryland, New York, and Ohio as usually. The season is days away in some places, good luck and hunt safe.
-Brett Joy, NH
July 25th
"Southern Heat"
After getting bit with the hunting bug about three weeks ago I started scouting the huge tracts of land that NW Florida has to offer. I know what your probably thinking. Deer hunting in Florida? Do they even have deer there? Well Im here to tell you that yes not only does Florida have a huge deer population, but they also have some pretty decent bucks that call this state home. In just a couple of short weeks I have found two shooter eight pointers that are frequenting two of my stand locations at all hours of the day. With a little bit of luck and some good scent management I think that these bucks will stay in my area and give me a chance to harvest them this up coming bow season.
~ Jay Dubois
May 1st
"Double Trouble"
Opening day of the 2010 spring turkey season was one for the ages for the "Upstate" New York Boyz. Not one, but TWO gobblers were shell shocked in the Savannah, NY timber. Our mission for opening day was to get my father, Terry O'Connor, his first ever bird on film. We also brought along a new addition to the hunting arsenal- a fully mounted strutter decoy that we like to call "Big Slick."
Nathan Elvers was the main man behind the camera while My father and I sat side by side next to one another. The morning did not start out the way we had planned. Neighboring hunters cut-off the birds we were calling in and took a crack at them. We pretty much threw in the towel for our morning hunt until we heard a gobble about 200 yards away from out setup. We got settled back in and before we knew it we had a gobbler at 40 yards gobbling his head off. Unfortunately, my father wasn't in position to pull the trigger, so he whispered in my ear to take him out, and I did just that. It appeared that we had just killed a nice gobbler but when went to pick him up we quickly saw that it was a jake. We were still estatic that we killed a nice bird on film.
After eating some breakfast and taking pictures of the bird, we decided to sit outside my basement door and listen for some more gobbles. Just as we sat down to listen, we heard a big gobble touch off right behind the house. We immediately packed up our gear once again and sneaked our way back into the hardwoods. We got "Big Slick" set up and within minutes the big boy was on his way. After about 15 minutes of not seeing or hearing him, we began to worry that he got spoked. Nate creeped up over the knoll and he quickly sat back down as the gobbler was about 90 yards out strutting with a hen. This bird was hung up and big slick was out of his sight. So Nate gave me the sign to leave my duties behind the camera and go get big slick to move him to the top of the knoll. Once I got to big slick, I tucked in behind him and began to raise him over my head, moving him side to side. The big gobbler laid eyes on big slick and started to mimic every move I was making with him. It was truly remarkable what this real decoy was able to do. After about 25 minutes of dooking it out the this gobbler, he decided to come check things out. Little did he know that Nate and my Dad were waiting for him. Again, my Dad was out of the picture and he gave Nate the green light to let him have it!!
After the shot we jumping for joy. High-fives, laughs, fist-pumps, hoots and hollers were heard all around. It was beyond our wildest dreams that we had just pulled this gobbler away from a hen with big slick and that we also killed 2 birds on opening day. This day was very special for all of us and to be able to capture it all on film is something that we will store in our memory bank for a long long time.
~Wes O'Connor
May 3rd
"Pass it Along"
Opening day of the New Hampshire turkey season has come around once again. This time my girlfriend Amanda will be going on not only her first turkey hunt ever, but her first hunt completely. I had a blind set up at one of my spots where I have been watching a group of toms. I knew it would be farely simple to call one in with Amanda filming the action.
I could see the excitement and pure anticipation as I woke her up at 3 am and told her it was time for her to get ready. She absolutely couldnt wait. As we got to the location my hand lost feeling when she squeezed my arm as we walked in the dark to the blind. After we were settled in it wasnt long before day broke and several long beards started breaking the silence. Over and over they sounded off in the distance. At last, a big tom cracked off about thirty yards to my right as he sat on the edge of the field. He worked out slowly but would not come into the decoys. After about a half hour of watching him gobble and stand and gobble and stand and gobble and stand... I decided it was time to make a move.
I slowly took the camera from Amanda and placed it in front of me. I attempted
to stand over it as i took aim. Then Bang! Bird on the ground! As I yelled out,
Amanda looked at me and stated how extremely loud the gun was. All in all it was a great day that I got to share with her and I cant wait to take her out again. The bird weighed in at 20 lbs with a 9 " beard.
~ Rick Sprankle
May 12th
"A Long Two Years"
My last two turkey seasons have been very humbling for me as I tried to harvest a mature gobbler with archery tackle on video. The 2009 spring passed with countless close encounters, one very BIG unrecovered tom, but no kills on video. When the 2010 season rolled around I made the decision to give the archery tackle a go again on my first couple outtings then pick up the boomstick if things got tough, and got tough they did.
The first week in NH I was plagued with windy, rainy, and warm weather and tight lipped birds, even birds that refused to fly out of the roost! I finally decided to give the scatter gun a try and was able to roost a bird I call "Gimpy" one night. He is at least a 3 year old gobbler, most likely 4, that myself and others have spotted in the area numerous times in past few years. He got his name from the severe limp that he walked around with.
The morning after I roosted him I only heard a few gobbles in the distance but old Gimpy wouldn't let loose. Finally after some hens flew down Gimpy pitched out of his tree and made an appearance. Soon a jake and another gobbler arrived on the scene and the lame Gimpy didn't want a fight so he vanished into the woods. After the two other male birds moved off, sure enough here comes Gimpy strutting into the field. When he worked in as close as he was going to, I let him have it on video. Gimpy had seen his last sunrise. It was a long two years and it feels good to finally get it done with on bird with such a story behind him.
~Brett Joy
May 15th
"Three Strikes and Your Out"
When I spoke with Steve "Beanie" Byrd earlier this week he told me he had missed a nice tom. When I talked to him last night he once again had bad news, he had missed again! This morning I was hoping old Beanie wasn't going to strike out because I was behind the camera! We started off the morning at one of Beanie's spots but had three birds hung up just over a stone wall for two about hours. We decided to switch locations to find some birds that were a little more receptive, and I knew just the spot.
We headed to my father's property where I had seen lots of birds in and around my food plot. The property hadn't been hunted yet this year and it didn't take long. As we pulled into the property we had barely passed the gate when we saw a longbeard headed toward my Biologic Clover Plus food plot. I knew just what we had to do and we parked at the barn and headed down in behind the food plot. I called, he gobbled and was coming fast! We quickly set up and I saw him heading town the old dirt drive to the plot. I gave a few clucks and that sealed the deal. He came right into the plot and Beanie flattened him on video at 35 yards! No third strike here for Beanie.
~Brett Joy
