Strike Early to Secure a Mature Velvet Whitetail

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I told Brodie, my client for the opening day of bow season, to follow the worn roadbed for 100 yards and then hang a right at the toilet. I’m not sure why there was an abandoned porcelain throne sitting next to a cluster of maple and sweet gum saplings, upright, as if it were still used on occasion, but it was there, and there was no mistaking it as a waypoint to the stand.

The wood lot was only 18 acres, but it was a perfect spot for an early season bait set—which, for better or worse, is how most big September whitetails are taken. The south side of the lot was bordered by hundreds of acres of cover and crops. It was flanked on the east and west by houses and lawns, and the north border was a paved backroad, too small for a center stripe, with more crop fields on the other side. The wood lot was a funnel that deer were comfortable passing through in the daylight, but where they didn’t linger, making it easy to slip in and out to freshen the bait and hang a stand.

I hung trail cameras and started a corn pile in mid-July. Lots of deer hit the bait, and there was often a loose bachelor band of two to four bucks in the mix. The biggest of them had a soybean gut and lopsided rack with four long tines on one side and a giant fork on the other. That deer was a regular for weeks. But just before bow season, he disappeared. I noticed his pattern becoming erratic in mid-August and by September 5, opening day, I’d only gotten one picture of him during the previous week. I wondered if he’d shed his velvet, or found a better bait pile elsewhere? Perhaps some greener soybeans? Had I spooked him?

Regardless of the doubts, I showed pictures of the deer to Brodie and suggested we try the stand for a least a couple afternoons.

SUMMER STRATEGY

Some say that big bucks are easier to kill in early September than at any other time of year, and that’s probably true. But the odds of shooting a big whitetail with a bow are still low. Always. And if you go deer hunting for crazy reasons, like for the fun of it, September in the Southeast sucks indeed. The deer movement is agonizingly slow until the last hour of daylight, and the heat and the bugs make sitting until then rather miserable. The velvet that many hunters covet on their deer antlers in September is fragile, difficult to preserve and usually infested with ticks.

Still, it is deer season, and the numbers don’t lie. Some of the country’s most impressive archery whitetails are killed in September every year. It’s when I took both of my best bow bucks. And if you want to hunt that time of year, there are plenty of places to go. Legacy destinations include my home state of Kentucky, as well as Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota and Kansas, but consider some southern sleeper states, too, like Tennessee, Mississippi, Maryland and North Carolina.

FOOD: FAKE IT

Baiting is the best way to put the odds in your favor in late summer. Some wring their hands and insist that hunting deer over bait isn’t real hunting at all because it takes the challenge away from it. If that’s you, consider this your trigger warning.

It’s easy to get pictures of deer over bait. Killing them there with a bow is another matter. Think of bait as a tool not for getting pictures of them where they’re already going anyway, but for steering them into a spot that’s advantageous for an ambush. That might mean studying the terrain before pouring corn on the ground.

On the macro level, the best baiting setups are in staging areas between bedding cover and primary crop-field food sources, where you can sneak in and out undetected. On the micro level, you need to be well hidden in a good tree, 20 to 25 yards from the bait, with a prevailing wind that steers your scent away from it and away from where you expect the deer to appear. It never hurts to have two stands for two winds. I like to scatter shelled corn alongside a log. Deer will typically gobble up the corn while quartering slightly toward it. You can use that for shot angles and draw your bow when the buck drops his head behind it to take a bite.

Get your corn pile going in July, but don’t panic if a good deer doesn’t show on camera the first week or two. In my experience, it often takes steady traffic from does and young bucks before a mature animal feels comfortable hitting bait. I typically freshen my sites once per week, but deer will still visit for a few days after the last kernel is eaten.

FOOD: FIND IT

Of course, baiting is illegal in many places. When that’s the case, you need to zero in on the most attractive food sources in your area, which can be a challenge in September when the browse is still green and abundant.

I look to the edges of open fields. Soybeans are the top choice in my neck of the woods, but it might be an alfalfa hayfield or a good food plot where you hunt. Zero in on young, tender beans that were planted late or growing in a moist area because deer much prefer those over dry, yellowing ones. Most beanfields are large enough to watch with a spotting scope on late summer evenings, and that’s a far more productive, low-impact way to scout them than by lining the edges with trail cameras.

VELVET CARE

Antler velvet can be as delicate as peeling skin after a sunburn, so step one in preserving it is being careful while taking photos. Hold your buck by the nap of the neck for hero pics when possible (maybe spray the critter down with tick spray first). Then, bring bubble wrap, tape and cable ties. We wrap the beams and each tine with multiple layers of bubble wrap and secure it tightly. I usually quarter and cape the deer in the field. An ATV is handy, but without that, it’s helpful to have a buddy assist with the drag. One person pulls the front legs, while the other supports the head and keeps the antlers from snagging brush. Once you’re home, put the antlers into the freezer, and then get them to the taxidermist as soon as possible.

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