1.) Pick the Right Cover When the cover under your stand or around your blind is thin, bucksare more likely to hang up at a distance and look for the deer they heard grunting, bleating or fighting. In general terms, it is usually wise to place your stand near thick cover, as bucks like to walk these edges and whitetails are defined as edge lovers; however, setting up near cover is even more important if you plan to call regularly. Set up near thickets and bucks will come closer to investigate your calls.
2.) Watch Your Calling Distance I have scared deer that were too close when I began calling to them. They didn't stop and stare, they bolted and never looked back. After several such encounters, I now let them walk away to a distance of 100 yards before I call. Even then, it makes the most sense to open up with a few soft grunts and read their body language before taking things up a notch.
In bowhunting situations, deciding whether to call becomes a real dilemma. A buck can be too far to shoot but too close to call. Maintain your patience until a buck is at least 100 yards away or hidden from view; then you have a decent chance to call it back. I have never called a buck from 50 yards to 20 yards-they always became wary and slinked away. They must think, Where is the deer I just heard? But I have called plenty of them from 100 yards to 20 yards.
3.) Rattling Vs. Grunting Use the right type of calling at the proper time. I usually prefer grunting for two reasons. First, a grunt call is more portable than antlers and is much quieter to carry to the tree. Second, I believe a grunt is more common and less startling and intimidating to deer. Even if I were carrying antlers, I would still open up any calling sequence with grunting. This is especially true when calling to deer I can see. When you can see the deer, you can gauge their reaction to your calls and adjust your style accordingly. It makes a lot of sense to start conservatively and work up to calls that are more aggressive.
This is not to say that rattling has no place. It is by far the best method to attract attention on windy days or when calling long distances. Deer can hear the crack of antlers much farther than they can hear a low-pitched, guttural grunt. Also, bucks behave according to their moods, and their moods change rapidly. Sometimes an aggressive call will bring a response when a subtle sound does not. A simple grunt may not get a buck agitated, while a fight among schoolyard bullies is right up his alley. It makes sense to carry both grunt call and antlers and to use them both, the antlers more sparingly and only during the intense portion of the rut.
4.) Use a Loud Grunt Call The best grunt calls are the ones you can blow loud and soft without destroying the tone quality. Many of the grunt calls on the market sound great at low volume but like duck calls when you crank them up. Of course, their manufacturers feel you don't need to blow them loud. I respectfully disagree.
Many times over the past few seasons, I have grunted at passing bucks that never so much as paused or looked my way. These bucks were not call shy; they never heard the call. A grunt call is nearly inaudible beyond 75 yards on a windy day, so it pays to look for one that you can blow loudly.
However, there is always a balance. A few years ago, I called to a giant 185-inch buck that had just stepped into the same woodlot I was guarding below the house. I had been after him all season. He was about 80 to 100 yards away when the excitement of what I was looking at first registered. When he took a step away from me, I let him have it with a loud grunt. I was too excited to be subtle. The buck bolted and never looked back. It was too loud for those close quarters. Now, I always start out at a normal, soft tone and then continue to increase the volume until I am certain the buck has heard me.
5.) Use the Right Tone Some calls, such as Primos' RubberNeck Deer Grunt, will change tones from young to mature buck grunts. Though this is part marketing, using the right tone with a buck does help. For example, if you see a young buck cruising that you want to call in, don't start making deep, guttural grunts, because they might scare him off. Some calls also sound more realistic than others. Larger, especially soft tubes tend to make the most realistic grunts. But most calls can get it done if you know the tune. Watch hunting videos and replay scenes that air buck grunts. If you get to hear a real buck grunt, take note of its age and what it was doing when it made those sounds. Just like people can say "thank you" and mean very different things based on their tone, so can a buck's grunt.
6.) Call to Traveling Bucks One of the largest bucks ever killed in the Midwest with a bow fell to Roy Allison's arrow in southern Iowa in 1995. It was the biggest buck killed in North America that year. Roy saw the buck chasing some does in a small, isolated soybean field in mid-November. As the group began moving away, Roy got aggressive. He grunted, rattled and finally smashed and scraped a big branch against the tree. Nothing would draw that buck away from the does. However, two hours later, right at sunset, Mr. Big came sneaking back to investigate the ruckus-all 1935/8 net typical inches of him.
The buck didn't respond initially to the calls he heard until he finally grew tired of the does' continual rebuffs. That is when he came back to investigate. Roy shot the buck at 20 yards as it slipped past his tree.
I once shot a buck a full hour after I called to him. I saw him go past in the distance following a doe, but he merely stopped and looked my way before continuing. Eventually he found himself alone and came back for a look. I shot him at 25 yards as he stood staring into the cover near my stand.
The moral of these two stories is simple: Call to every buck that goes past out of range, even when they are so preoccupied that you know they won't respond immediately. And then stay alert because you never know what will happen.
7.) Keep It Simple Fancy calling is fun, but I have had my best luck with simple calls-three-note grunts. I use the first grunt to get the buck's attention and then give him two more, spaced apart about five seconds, to home in on. There are probably times when a long run of hyperventilation grunts, sounding like a dog panting, will pay off. A buck makes this sound when he is chasing a doe. He grunts with every lunge. Yet, just as 90 percent of the gobblers will come in to the simplest of hen yelps, 90 percent of the bucks will come in to a simple three-grunt series.
There is also no reason to make rattling any harder than it needs to be. I've watched several buck fights-one right under my treestand. They try to kill each other. It is the most uninhibited violence in creation. Snot, flesh, sticks and hair fly in all directions. There is no way you can physically duplicate this horrible life-and-death battle merely with a set of antlers in your hands sitting 20 feet up in a tree. So anything you do will pale by comparison. However, you can duplicate the sparring and the first engagement of two bucks when they square off.
There is really no right or wrong way to rattle. Clash the antlers and grind them as loudly as you can for about 30 seconds and then hang them immediately and get ready. If nothing appears within a few minutes, repeat for another 30 seconds and then hang the antlers for an hour.
8.) Should You Call Blind? I don't like to educate deer. When the season starts, I have one overriding mission: to hunt every day until the end without educating a single deer. When you call to a deer, it comes in looking for the source of the sound. Don't forget that the source is you. When you are calling to deer you have seen passing out of range, you have the luxury of being able to track their approach. There are no surprises. But when you call blindly to any deer within earshot, you never know when they will sneak in or from what direction.
The odds are much higher that they will hang back in the brush and watch long enough to see you moving around in the tree before you ever see them. Deer are amazingly good at pinpointing the exact location from which a sound emanated. They will have your tree pegged right down to its roots. When they get close, they will go on red alert, hypersensitive to any sound or movement. It is tough to keep from being detected under these conditions.
The main reason I don't call blindly is because I am a fidgety person. I can't sit still for very long. I keep my head moving and keep scanning around my stand, but I also change positions often. I can get by with it because I am usually hunting relaxed deer that are moving naturally. They aren't sneaking around looking for me. I don't like my odds if they are hunting me.
If you are good at sitting still, then blind calling is a good way to up your odds. If you are fidgety, then blind calling will likely result in some dramatic encounters where the biggest buck snorts and blows out just before you can grab your bow or gun. You'll never see him from that stand again.
9.) Wandering Bucks are Easiest When bucks are wandering aimlessly through the woods, they will usually stop and consider your call. Half will take at least a few steps your way and about half of those will come close enough to cause an adrenaline rush. There is no doubt that bucks moving without a destination are easiest to call. It makes sense to work especially hard on these bucks because they present the highest odds.
If they don't respond to your first attempt, such as a simple grunt, you should try other calls such as bleats, rattling and even a snort-wheeze. Do everything possible to exploit aimless bucks. This is especially effective in the search phases of the rut, before and after the peak. Bucks at this time are cruising hard, looking for an estrous doe under every bush, and so should respond to a grunt presented the right way.
10.) Best Time to Call Without question, the rut is the best time to call. Every study I have read concludes that the week leading up to peak breeding and the week after peak breeding produce the highest response rate. Most of my success with calling has occurred during the rut as well. However, rattling and grunting are effective much earlier in the season. Bucks begin sparring to establish dominance and to test their new and bigger headgear as soon as they lose their velvet. You can interest them with the sounds of sparring.
Bucks are curious during the early season and they like to show other bucks they are the boss even if the encounters lack the vicious intent they will so prominently feature a month later. Soft rattling will attract bucks in the early season.
There are certainly a few gimmicks in the hunting world, but calling is not one of them. Grunting and rattling are tried-and-true methods that have the power to increase your success rate dramatically. Keep it simple, but more importantly, keep doing it.
By Bill Winke