Before the video posts below, it has been quite some time since I’ve posted a blog. In my defense, I do have an excuse. As the mercury dropped, I put my fishing rods away and picked up my gun. Cold days are far better suited to trap shooting and deer hunting than they are for chasing trout (although there has been a bit of a warm spell in the past week or so which has got me thinking about trout again). Anyways, I spent nearly every second possible sitting in the woods during New Jersey’s six day firearm deer season in December and struck out–I didn’t see a single buck. Needing some venison for the freezer, I sucked it up and paid $28 for a deer permit which would extend my season to mid-February. The money didn’t stop here though, as NJ required me to pay another $28 to be allowed to shoot a buck (I had no intentions of shooting a doe, but for some reason was required to buy both permits in order to shoot a buck). Of course New Years came and went and I was still without a deer, so I spent even more money to chase my white whale.

Well, about a week and a half ago I finally got lucky and a number of bucks trickled by my blind. The first one I saw was a small spike, followed by a 4 pointer and then a 6 pointer and then an 8 pointer that was big enough for me to take the safety off the gun. I heard something tearing through the woods, and noticed a broken tine on the 8 pointer and took a gamble and let him walk. No more than 20 seconds later, my targeted 8 pointer made an appearance, but wasn’t stopping. I whistled loud enough to get him to stop, raised my gun and dropped him at 35 yards with a single shot–my first buck!

A nice NJ 8 pointer

We cooked the tenderloins a few nights later using this recipe I found online–they were absolutely incredible. http://www.recipezaar.com/Sweet-Bacon-Wrapped-Venison-Tenderloin-139664. Venison burgers are on the menu tonight, and venison chili is going to be my contribution to the Super Bowl party! At the rate I’m going, I may need to go get another deer before the season ends.