My father let me skip kindergarten in 1956 to go with him deer hunting. He was ground hunting, as almost all hunters did back then, and using paper hulled, hand loaded buckshot shells, from Ray's Sport Shop. He wore an all red hunting suit, as there was no such thing as hunter orange back then. We saw a herd of deer about 3/4 of a mile away with his binoculars, and that was that; we had a great day!

I started bow hunting at age 10, in 1961. I had a fiberglass Bear bow and shot mismatched wooden arrows, tipped with Hillbre broadheads. There were not as many deer back then and even finding a deer track, made for a lively story when telling friends of your hunt. I never even saw a deer that 1st year bow hunting, it wouldn't be until 1969 that I harvested my first bow kill after 8 years of hunting. Oh how proud I was of that little 7 pointer.

I had climbed a big oak tree on the edge of a field and this deer walked out into the field stopping at about 25 yards. I shot five arrows over the back of the clueless buck and he never moved. My 6th and last arrow was a perfect lung shot. Admiring that rack today, still brings back such pleasant memories of a young hunters' first success. 

I shot my first deer with a gun, I believe, in 1972; a spike taken with a slug at first light, again after I had shimmied up a tree; a pine this time. Over the years, deer populations have exploded. The Baker tree climbers opened the way for portable tree stands; compound bow made bow hunting much more effective. Slug guns made it possible to take longer shots with much better accuracy. Experience gained from a proliferation of deer hunting books and magazines helped fill in the missing pieces and the freezer filled up every year; many years the freezer became too full, so friends and neighbors became the beneficiaries of the excess venison.

Baiting almost made it too easy, I still hunt out of some of the same stands I hunted from before baiting was legal and it takes much less time to punch my tag from those time tested locations. Nowadays though, I see ominous things happening; as more and more hunting land is being built upon, many towns are looking for ways to restrict or stop hunting altogether. Some of the areas that have an over population of deer are letting only authorized "agents" hunt there, only a select few "professionals" get to harvest the deer. The average Joe is getting squeezed out. I spoke with one of these agents this week and he said he shot 34 deer for a town, this year alone. This seems to be the politically correct way to hunt now, a sad, but not an all too uncommon fact.

For myself, 25 years ago I had a choice; buy a house or buy hunting land. For me the choice was a no-brainer and I still rent today, but at least I have 211 acres of pure paradise to hunt and fish on. This land is in NY State, as I could never have afforded that much land here in NJ. I'm 57 now and I have a bad ticker, I don't know how many more opening days I have left; 10, maybe 15? What I do know, is that I cherish each and every one of them and can only wish that anyone reading this enjoys the outdoors as much as I do.

I have so many adventures and pleasant memories associated with hunting, I hope to share some of them with you from time to time. Until then, I wish you all good health and good hunting.

Barry Ott

NJ-Hunter community member