New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

January 14, 2004

"New Jersey has by the far the most liberal deer seasons in the Northeast where you can enjoy over 120 days of deer hunting and harvest a large number of quality deer," said Division Director Martin J. McHugh. "Last year, New Jersey hunters harvested about 64,000 deer, which included about 21,000 antlered bucks. Twenty years ago, our total deer harvest was only 22,000 deer with 13,000 of them being antlered bucks. A solid management program that is constantly modified to fit the state’s changing needs; one that is developed and implemented by the Division’s many talented professional wildlife biologists, is the reason for this success."

Deer hunters spend more than 100 million dollars each year as they enjoy in excess of 1.6 million recreation-days hunting deer. Money spent in the course of deer hunting benefits a wide variety of New Jersey businesses. Hunting and other types of outdoor recreation are forms of “eco-tourism” in New Jersey. Eco-tourism offers a big boost to the Garden State’s economy and translates into millions of dollars annually for the state’s general treasury in sales taxes, thousands of jobs and substantial state income taxes related to these jobs. Without a doubt, deer hunting is big business and an important part of New Jersey’s economy.

Fifty-one deer were entered in the Outstanding Deer Program for the 2002 –2003 hunting season and were displayed at the Classic. Ninety-four percent of this year’s entries came from either Quality Deer Management Zones or Earn-a-Buck Zones. Of these deer, 25% percent came from QDM zones and 69% came from Earn-a-Buck zones. The leading counties for Outstanding Deer entries were Hunterdon (9), Sussex (7) and Monmouth (6). Although Monmouth came in third in the number of entries, it claimed the prize for the best deer with five of the six entries finishing in the top three in the various categories.

This was the second year the Classic was held in conjunction with the Garden State Outdoor Sportsmen’s Show bringing the display of outstanding New Jersey deer to the largest audience in the history of the Deer Classic. This year’s 60-foot display of outstanding antlered deer from the 2002-2003 hunting season included a special section where a New Jersey Record Deer taken in 2001 was on display. In addition to the deer display, visitors experienced deer hunting seminars during the weekend. Division of Fish and Wildlife deer biologists were on hand each day to answer questions, provide information and score antlers for anyone who brought their antlers to the display area.

Outstanding deer are those that meet certain criteria for antler development or weight as determined by New Jersey’s Outstanding White-tailed Deer Program. All antlered deer are scored using the Boone & Crockett Club scoring system that gives credit to antler length, spread, number of points and symmetry. A minimum Boone and Crockett score of 125 is required for an antlered deer to be eligible for entry in the Outstanding Deer Program. The program includes categories for typical and non-typical antlered deer taken with bow, shotgun and muzzleloading rifle in addition to the 200-pound buck and 135-pound doe field-dressed weight categories.

The next Garden State Deer Classic will be held again at the Garden State Outdoor Sportsmen’s Show in January of 2005. Application forms to enter deer taken during the 2003-2004 hunting seasons can be obtained by downloading from the Forms page on Division’s website or by sending a self-addressed, business-sized, stamped (60-cents) envelope to: NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, Outstanding Deer Program, P.O. Box 400, Trenton, NJ 08625-0400.

A standing room only crowd was on hand for the special awards program that was held on Sunday, January 11 for the top three 2002-2003 entries in each category. A list of the 2002-03 winners is below, and pictures of winning entries can be viewed on the Deer Classic 2004 Winner Photos page.

Category	Place	Name	Score	County Harvested	DMZ	Harvested
135 Pound Doe Club - Muzzleloader	1st	Carol A. Pierson	145 lbs.	Salem	27	12/30/02
200 Pound Buck Club - Bow	3rd	Robert Staudt, Jr	218 lbs.	Somerset	14	10/17/03
	2nd	Steve Ferraro	219 lbs.	Monmouth	15	10/04/02
	1st	Alfred T. Bachman	220 lbs.	Morris	6	11/06/02
	1st	Frank Loew	220 lbs.	Cumberland	28	10/01/02
Non-typical Bow	3rd	Joseph L. Trogani	150 3/8	Sussex	5	10/07/02
	2nd	Steve Ferraro	152 3/8	Monmouth	15	10/04/02
	1st	Edward H. McCay, Jr.	161 4/8	Monmouth	16	11/20/02
Non-typical Muzzleloader	1st	Barry Lied	173 3/8	Monmouth	16	12/30/02
Non-typical Shotgun	1st	William A. Brown	191 1/8	Monmouth	51	12/09/02
Typical Bow	3rd	James Ruggieri	145 0/8	Sussex	6	09/30/02
	2nd	Scott Lang	146 3/8	Cumberland	29	11/08/02
	1st	Mark Spoto	158 0/8	Morris	6	09/28/02
Typical Muzzleloader	3rd	Danny Kane	135 3/8	Sussex	6	01/03/03
	2nd	Mike Catalano	139 3/8	Salem	27	12/03/02
	1st	Joseph Caruso	148 1/8	Burlington	48	12/03/02
Typical Shotgun	3rd	Michael Stawicki	140 5/8	Somerset	12	12/14/02
	2nd	Michael Smentkowski	159 1/8	Hunterdon	11	12/09/02
	1st	David L. Tampier	165 7/8	Hunterdon	7	12/09/02