Bill McKinley received a TenPoint Crossbow for his 70th birthday, along with arrows and HellRazor broadheads. McKinley lives in Maryland, where a recent stretch of cool, mid-fall weather seemed to have the deer moving.
“I awoke early yesterday morning and thought I’d test out the new crossbow in one of my favorite stands,” he said. “I knew that deer often transitioned through a small patch of woods from an alfalfa field, and I could hardly believe my eyes when a big 8-point in full velvet moved right toward my stand. It paused at 20 yards and the TenPoint was deadly accurate and shot through both lungs and buried the bolt six inches in the ground on the other side.”
Probably a 3.5-year-old deer, McKinley was thrilled with the hefty harvest and the rack in full velvet.
Early season can be one of the best and most predictable times of year to bowhunt. And who among us wouldn’t want to hear other hunters’ strategies for success? Check out this helpful article from OutdoorHub.
While I don’t love the mosquitoes that often accompany an early season deer hunt, I do love the opportunity that early bowhunting presents. Deer are in predictable patterns during the early weeks of many states’ archery seasons in September.
Whitetail bucks are in velvet until about the first of September. In fact, the bucks in my area lose their velvet nearly always within a week of September 1. Up until that time, the bucks are generally bunched up into what we often refer to as bachelor groups. These are usually three to six bucks of all ages that are traveling, bedding, and feeding together. You can find them quite easily with a pair of binoculars in August, just start snooping around at the alfalfa and soybean fields and they’ll turn up during the last hour of daylight.
Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
