By: Warren Gray
Copyright © 2023
“Now, therefore, take your weapons…and go
out to the field and take me some venison.
And make me savory meat…that I may eat.”
— Genesis 27:3-4
Deer-hunting in late summer has its own unique challenges and rewards. On the negative side, it’s still fairly hot, or at least warm outside, and a lot of hunters get overheated in their layers of camouflaged clothing, so many prefer not to hunt until the temperatures are cooler, in October. But Abraham Lincoln reportedly said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” So, my philosophy is to get out there in the heat and be the first hunter that the deer encounter.
In my state, archery season for whitetail deer opened on September 8th this year, 15 days before the Autumnal Equinox, signaling the beginning of fall, so there were two weeks of warm hunting. The good news was that most of the other hunters in my neighborhood didn’t hunt during this late-summer period, so the deer, which hadn’t been hunted at all for the past seven months and one week, were not expecting human hunters in the forest, and I was virtually alone out there to harvest any suitable specimens that came my way.
Hunting with a crossbow is another limitation of this time period, because firearms are not allowed until portions of October, then again in late November and most of December. A good crossbow only has an effective range of 25 yards, with 50-yard shots possible, but not recommended. I was using a fairly new Killer Instinct Lethal 405 crossbow, which fires 370-grain, HyprLite 20-inch arrows/bolts at a blazing 405 feet per second, or heavier, 415-grain, Barnett Headhunter arrows at about 370 feet per second. It was sighted-in perfectly at 25 yards, straight through a one-inch bullseye on a target block.
Killer Instinct Lethal 405 crossbow. Photo credit: Killer Instinct.
Fortunately, I have two different hunting locations to choose from, alternating back and forth between my own 10-foot-tall, wooden hunting blind in the pine forest behind my home, where the deer cannot see my body, so I can wear whatever feels comfortable, and a neighbor’s fully-exposed, 18-foot tree stand a quarter-mile to the north, where I must wear a full-camo outfit to avoid detection by the wildlife below.
Author’s 10-foot-tall, wooden hunting blind. Window at far left faces the feeder. Photo by author.
My view from the neighbor’s 18-foot-tall tree stand. Note yellow corn pile for legal bait on trail, and G5 Montec solid-steel broadhead. Photo by author.
This year, I began hunting right away on September 8th, but had no results for the entire first week at either location. Trail-cam photos showed mostly does, fawns, and young bucks with either two or four points, but nothing substantial. I persisted, though, hunting most mornings and evenings, except on Sunday the 10th, and by Saturday evening, September 16th, I was beginning to wonder if I was wasting my time with this late-summer hunt. I even had a legal feeder near my hunting blind at home, set to dispense five seconds’ worth of deer corn every day at 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Saturday was a hot day, reaching 84 degrees, and I had already walked eight miles for exercise, taken a shower at 5 p.m., and was up in my own octagonal hunting blind by 6 p.m., one hour before corn-feeding time, dressed in an OD-green T-shirt, khaki shorts, and brown, Merrell Moab 2 hiking boots. The first half-hour was totally uneventful, and I was texting back and forth with my wife, who was at home about 160 yards away.
I didn’t detect the large, healthy, gray buck until 6:35 p.m., about 120 yards behind me in the forest, being very cautious and cagey as he slowly crept toward my hunting blind, and the corn feeder just beyond it. I texted: “Big buck, tall rack, maybe a 6-point or better…staring at me…coming this way. Nice rack! He’s a seven-point!” (Actually eight, as I later discovered.)
He reached the feeder, directly in my line of aim, by 6:40 p.m., a full 20 minutes before the corn was set to release, and presented me with a very undesirable, tail-shot angle the entire time, slowly wandering out to 50 yards before he turned broadside to me. My crossbow is sighted dead-on at 25 yards, but the bolt (arrow) drops 9.5 inches at 50 yards, and I didn’t want to be wrong in guessing how much holdover to apply in order to hit his heart and lungs at that range, so I reluctantly let him go. As he walked away toward the north, my wife snapped this shot from inside our back door at 6:42 p.m.
Eight-point buck. Photo by Melody Gray.
As luck would have it, he was joined by two does and a fawn, and they all stopped 85 yards from my position to munch on the grass in my back lawn. I kept looking at my watch and texting my wife again, nervously waiting for the feeder to dispense its corn at 7 p.m., because I knew it would draw them in toward me, especially that nice buck. But at 6:57, they all spotted me in the hunting blind, and dashed off into my neighbor’s adjoining woods, with only three minutes remaining until feeding time. Argh!
As frustrating as this was, I soon spotted movement in the neighbor’s woods, and saw the four deer at his molasses lick on the ground. Patiently biding my time, my wristwatch ticked away the remaining minutes until the automatic feeder fired up at last, with a five-second supply of delicious deer corn now scattered on the ground exactly 22 yards from my fully concealed, seated position, just 10 feet above the forest floor.
This was minimalist hunting at its best, because I was casually dressed for hot weather, even though the ambient temperature had dropped to a balmy 72 degrees by 7 p.m., and all I had up there in my wooden box was a cell phone, my crossbow, and just one bolt/arrow, with a solid-steel, G5 Montec broadhead attached. The does and fawn came trotting straight toward the feeder at the sound of the spinner throwing corn, and I turned my head to the right, and spied the big buck following them.
I clicked the safety catch on my crossbow to “Off” before he was close enough to hear it, and raised the weapon to my right shoulder, peering just over the top of the Aim Sports 4x32mm scope as he approached very close to me. At 7:02 p.m., he stopped just short of the feeder and turned to look straight up at me. It was a perfect, broadside shot, and I fired at his heart/lung area, then he kicked his hind legs, and took off at a full run toward the west and southwest. Did I hit him?
Finding the bloody arrow imbedded in the ground near the feeder confirmed that I had made a solid shot, and next I had to track him for 200 yards, down a steep hill toward a nearby road, where I found his body in the crook of a small tree, about 10 feet above the roadway. The arrow had taken him through both lungs, and he was dead within less than 15 seconds, although making a valiant effort to flee at top speed.
The same buck on 8/11/23, with antlers still in velvet. Photo by author.
With the very capable assistance of my wife and next-door neighbor, we recovered the deer from beside the road, transported him to my backyard where I field-dressed him, and we had him to the meat processor by 8:40 p.m. He weighed in at 102 pounds fully dressed-out, or about 120 pounds in the wild. They gave me the antlers to mount on a wall plaque, and only later did I realize that he had eight points, not seven. The eighth point was tiny, to be sure, but just large enough to hang a ring from, which I did, technically qualifying as an eighth point, although just barely.
But the exciting story doesn’t end here, because I immediately purchased a “bonus-buck” stamp online for $10, allowing me to harvest a second buck within the same season, or a third buck for the entire year. Several neighbors have told me that there’s a very large, 10-point buck roving through our semi-rural area, even in broad daylight, so I’ll be up there, watching and waiting for him to show up! Enjoy your hunting seasons!
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Author on trail-camera image, September 15, 2023. A very cool, comfortable morning, at 41 degrees. Photo by author.
Warren Gray is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism, and is an NRA member. He served in Europe and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author, historian, and deer hunter.