My name's Zach, I'm 27 and live in New Jersey. I'm a plumber. I work for my cousin's company and luckily he's very understanding of my hunting obsession. I work overtime all spring and summer then during hunting season I pretty much work just enough to keep the bills paid. My season started out of state on September 1. I spent the first couple days scouting, and not finding a whole lot. It was bone dry and hot so I started walking all the creek bottoms, streams, etc. A lot of stuff was dried up, but on the evening of day 2 I found a water hole that had trails coming to it like spokes on a wheel, and tons of tracks in the mud around it. There were no good trees to get in, so I just tucked myself into the tall grass on the edge of the pond, and within an hour I was at full draw on a beautiful 10 point buck in velvet. Unfortunately the tall grass and brush prevented my arrow from finding it's mark. The next day I got right back in there, on the other side of the pond closer to where the bucks came from. Again, no trees to get in, but there happened to be a utility pole with a 6 foot tall cement base right where I wanted to be.
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See where this is going? Yup....
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5 minutes before the end of legal shooting light I spotted velvet antlers in the tall grass, making their way towards the water hole. I grabbed the bow and got in position, keeping the utility pole between me and the deer. Once he was in bow range I started my shot process that I'd been practicing in the back yard all summer. I've struggled with rushing my shots in the past and this was the first time I was able to make a totally controlled shot on an animal. I shot him at 30 yards and he disappeared into the sea of chest high grass, but the track job was shorter than the shot! I hit right behind the pin, perfect double lung shot.
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Then on opening day in NJ a buddy and I did some 2 man drives where we basically still-hunt CRP fields about 40 yards apart, with our bows (both wearing blaze orange). When one of us bumps a deer, they will often run 40-50 yards then stop to try to see what spooked them, hopefully giving the other guy a shot opportunity. That's exactly what happened opening day, he bumped a group of deer and one stopped 15 yards from me, giving me a perfect shot.
I'll be in a tree tonight setting up on a big 8 point. Had him and a smaller 8 all over me last night in a patch of white oaks on a marsh point, but never had a good shot at the big one. Good luck to everyone else hunting tonight, looking forward to following along with everyone's season!