[PSEhunter]

i have 1000 acres in west ga, none of the 6 guys on it have brought in deer by rattling, every small (under 15" spread") buck that has been seen ran or hid when a grunt was used, im guessing its because they have been getting there butts kicked by something bigger we havnt seen yet and get scared when they here a grunt, what do yall think about this?????

 

[Deer Dave]

Yes, this is true. I have seen where a smaller buck will spook when agressive rattling or grunting is used. There usually is a dominant buck in the area, and you may never see him. We hunt an area in Ny and sheds were found that resembled a GIANT Alberta type buck...no one never saw him...strictly nocturnal. :wink:

My Dad also saw a smaller buck crawl away on its belly when he was calling agressively.

Dave

 

[rudy78]

It very well could be that there are bigger deer around. Another could be your buck to doe ratio. If it is really high rattling doesn't really work. The buck will not really put up the fight he will just go find another doe. As for the grunting, maybe you have it set too deap or you are too loud with it. If a deer is within 50 yards I also start with my hand over the end of the tube at first til I know the deer has heard me. When you listen to deer in the woods when they grunt and stuff its not ussually very loud. About the only time when its loud is when bucks are chassing after the does and then you have to go back to the buck to ratio thing. Have you tried grunting at a mature buck ever? If so how did he react. I have rattled in tons of deer the last few years, and it works great in the right circumtances. Most 1.5 year old deer will not come in if they do they will be very edgy and probably not come close. I also grunt at deer, in fact it is my second most important piece of equipment right behind my bow. So many times I have been able to bring deer within range with it. It takes learning what to do though and each deer is different. Kind of like turkey hunting it is a game of cat and mouse, how far do you go and how far is too far.

 

[PSEhunter]

the larger bucks we have taken have come to grunts as if you had a doe in heat under ur stand with her feet in the air, they come runnin, some wont even hear it though, i think we need to take down more does to even out the ratio, thats a very good idea, thanks guys

 

[skin_dog1]

I'm leaning towards too many does! Odds are that the reason they aren't responding is there is no use fighting, when another doe is behind the next pine tree. Get your buck:doe ratio close to 2.5:1 or 3:1 and your bucks will start competing. Even the little guys will get in on it. I had my best responses to rattling and aggressive calling last year in KS at the very end of oct and beginning of nov. Mostly small 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 y/o bucks were responding. This is in an area that is hunted fairly heavy(public), and there are some real bruisers. But in 8 days of hunting I saw more bucks than does!!!!! I never hunted a day without seeing bucks or having bucks respond to calling.

 

[cbd10pt]

texas hillcountry

Our deer w/ any age on them know the deference between a real deer and a grunt call.I've seen alot of proof of this.

 

[Ne_Archer]

Rattling and calling works good here. Last year out of my group rattled up 2 b&c deer. I have seen were the younger bucks get more intimidate of the rattling depending on how aggresive you are. Seems like we get more bigger deer coming to our rattling then smaller. It may be caused by us using bigger set of horns as rattling horns?

 

[FIZZY]

I believe in using the bigger antlers for sure. I have had bigger bucks respond better. Once I couldn't get this big guy to come in until I did the snort wheeze and that tripped his trigger. He came in running. Wow was that fun. Problem was he didn't come all the way. As I was reaching for my bow to get ready, I looked down under my tree and there was a basket buck directly under me. When the big guy saw him, he figured he wasn't worth his time and walked away. It was snowing so hard, I couldn't get it on film.

 

[robk]

if you have a bunc of young bucks out there and heavy grunt is used your probably goingto run them off. they don't need the king of the woods on their behinds. go with a doe and small buck call and and try them that should take care of them running off. also make sure your calling like it is a looking for another deer call and keep it low and make it sound like a gathering call
rob k

 

[bowriter]

There could be several reasons for rattling scaring your bucks. I have been rattling successfully for many years and have often said, you scare more deer than you bring in and you only see one out of evey five that respond.

You may be doing something wrong.
1-Wrong type of rattling for the time of year.
2-wrong setup.
3-Too agressive to early.
4-Bad buck/doe ratio.
5-Too much pressure on deer.
6- Too much rattling.
Or a number of things. Try going from real antlers to a rattle bag and toning down your volume. Make sure you are rattling from good cover, a place where a buck will have to come close to see two other deer. Try it with two people, the shooter should be 50-75 yards downwind of the rattler and and the rattler should be on the ground. Refrain from rattling too much. Twice in a 30 minute period should be about right.

It is not at all uncommon to spook the younger bucks and not uncommon for the mature bucks to ignore you in areas of high deer concentration and poor sex ratio.

 

[PSEhunter]

what about that doe bleat that mike beaty used to kill that monster, i have not tried one, have any of you?????

 

[Team Hoyt PA]

Rudy and bowriter are on the right track and i concur with their conclustions.
I have found out the same thing they have and it has ruined a perfectly normal morning very quick a couple times.
Try a bunch of different setups and you'll see what works best for you.
I rattle ALL season and now have about a 50/50 sucess. You just have to know the right tone for for each week of the season because it changes quick.
Middle season i'll hardly do it but when i do i try to make it count. I'll start off with some tickles and go hard and back to a tickle.....throwing in some short grunts and some doe bleats. Late season i go to estrous bleats and grunts and the rattles are heavy with 5-10 second intervals between each session. Mine entire sequence lasts about 30 seconds at most.
Early season is just a tickle and doesn't last long at all.

Every area is slightly different and produces different results....just find out what works the best in your area on different days.

 

[skin_dog1]

what about that doe bleat that mike beaty used to kill that monster, i have not tried one, have any of you?????

Doe bleats will call in big bucks under the right circumstances. Last year I had a good buck trail 2 does past my setup just out of range. I tried to call him off, but everyone knows that you won't ever call a buck off a hot doe. About 45 minutes later he trailed em back by again. This time the does stop directly across the creek from my(45 yards). He continues on a little further and starts shredding a tree. In the meanwhile the does are milling around and not paying him much attention. He gets really into the rubbing of the tree and the does wander back up the creek. When they were well out of sight I had my buddy that was hunting with me hit the doe bleat 3 or 4 times. The buck stopped rubbing and started looking for his does. He immediately headed across the creek to our setup. I shot him quartering away at 35 yards. He went another 40 and liled up. My best buck to date! So the doe bleats definately work!

 

[Team Hoyt PA]

Skindog, I've had a lot of luck with doe bleats and estrous bleats around these parts. i hunt a swamp that is very thick with undergrowth and you can's see 10' in front of you on the ground and deer loose each other frequently. When I'm in a stand though i can see a lot of action at times and when i see deer walking through thickets i'll often call and they'll come in close enough for a shot. My only reasoning is that they can't see what's in front of them and curiosity gets the best of them.
So i say depending on terrain any bleat or grunt has the possibility of working.

 

[ozarkmtnhunter]

I believe hunting pressure has a lot to do with it.
When I started bowhunting in 87 The only deer grunt call you could buy around here was the woods wise
grunt and bleat. I used it with success. you could not run a deer off with it. Everyone thought I was weird for using it. Nowadays everyone owns a grunt call and a pair of horns. I used to have good success rattling also even with our buck to doe ratio way out of whack. I run more deer off with a grunt tube than I call up now. I dont ever rattle around here anymore. I went to south arkansas bowhunting last year. I tried to grunt at bucks, snort wheeze at bucks, bleat at bucks, none of it worked. They would tuck tail and run every time. The hunting pressure was more than any where I have ever been. Your best bet was to slip in like the wind and remain undetected.
I went to Kansas last year and had great success rattling and grunting, bleating , and snort wheezing.
If you put the horns together you better start looking around. I contribute this to lack of pressure during the rut. Bowhunting only during November. Man it was nice.