Using deer calls while hunting can be a tricky thing. The experiences I have had with calls has dictated the way I use and view them. To be honest there is no way someone can tell you what exactly works and doesn't because each property and especially region is different. Someone like myself who is located in Northern Wisconsin is gonna have a different view point than someone who lives in the southern part of the country. One thing is for sure however, someone attempting to learn should not rely on the professionals who have TV shows. Its not that they are doing it wrong its just they are applying methods for the area they are hunting. And most of the "professionals" are hunting an area with a heavily controlled herd with strict doe to buck ratios. Even the "free range" deer they hunt on film are still on large tracks of controlled property. So in other words the tips and methods I will convey to you are based on hunting on small plots of private property surrounded by more small properties which I have no control over.
The best success I have had calling has been since I started monitoring my herd via motion cameras set to video. A camera set to video over an active scrape can show you the aggression level of the bucks in your area. Each buck has a personality and once you find the buck you are after you can curtail your calling to him.
I always try to apply common sense to all my hunting endeavors and it is no different for calling so here it goes. Aggressive bucks tend to be dumber than less aggressive bucks during rut. So if you call aggressively you are more likely to call in an aggressive deer looking to fight. Naturally then aggressive bucks will be seen more frequently than other bucks therefore their life expectancy is lower. So it has been my experience that the bigger the bucks in an area of more hunting pressure tend to be less aggressive. So when hunting areas with more pressure one wants to consider a few things to be the most effective.
The first rule to follow. Don't watch a hunting show just before going in the woods. This rule is partly a joke but mostly serious. Those hunts are done on land with large buck to doe ratio which makes the rut more competitive. With having a low number of does to breed with, those bucks are forced to fight over them more. It is a simple form of supply and demand. If you are reading this article you are most likely hunting on a property not managed that closely therefore you need to consider the differences.
The second rule to follow, when using any call you have to put yourself in the mind of a buck. If you were a buck in an area that has an abundance of hunters all trying to call you in to them; it wouldn't take you long to figure out when a call is a fake. In other words you want to make it more believable. To accomplish this I rarely only use one call at a time if I don't have any visible deer. For example, I will not use a doe bleet call without accompanying it with a grunt call. Same goes with ratteling. If two bucks are fighting or "ratteling" in real life, there will surely be other sounds going with it. In an attempt to recreate this I will sometimes break branches, rustle leaves, or grunt. With that said I will usually overlap the two calls so I can sell the production even more. Being a horn hunter and knowing the bigger ones tend to be less aggressive, I usually am light on my calling.
Secondly, you do not want to overcall. To set up your calls in order to appeal to bigger bucks, again you want to put yourself in the mind of that weary buck. Being less aggressive on properties with a lot of pressure, big bucks generally won't go running in to the call without checking out the area first. So you want to allow them time to come in and investigate the area which most likely will be from where you can't see their approach. In return, if you stay still instead of calling again they might present themselves to you instead of them seeing you as you start your next calling sequence.
So when should a person call for deer? Again each property is different and each informed hunter is a master of his or her own area. For this question I will simply tell you things that work for me. I have had excellent luck calling bucks at two crucial times. The first time I will never miss during rut is the few minutes before you can see in the morning. This specific time allows you to pull a buck away from entering his bed to instead investigate the call. It also is perfect because they cant physically see you yet. The second time is controversial and gutsy but I will share it anyway. I like to do a bleet and grunt series the moment after I get in my tree and ready to shoot. The reason it works is the same reason why I am not concerned with why people would argue against it. It works because like I said earlier it is more realistic. If a buck can hear the call they could hear you walk in. If they can hear you and see you they are going to ignore your call anyway because they just saw you. Now if you have good entrance screening and they could hear you but not see you; they will know something was walking through and your call will tell them it was a hot doe thus triggering a response. For both of these times my go to calls are a bleet grunt series. For this I bleet once. Then after roughly 5 to 7 seconds I grunt two consecutive times. During the second grunt I start one last bleet.
Lastly, the controversial blind grunt. A blind grunt is simply using a grunt call when you don't physically see a buck to call in. Some do it and other swear against it. Applying common sense I have my own take on it. Personally I do not have a problem with blind grunting. I have never seen evidence it scared anything away. Like using any other calls it poses the risk of scaring a deer away because they can see you and you don't know they are there. On the contrary, it has been my experience that deer don't hear an audible grunt all that far away unless the tube is pointed directly at them. With that said if you point your tube at dense cover there is no reason you should be scared. Think about it this way. If a buck is within range then it isn't a blind grunt. And if there isn't a buck that can hear it anyway, what are you going to scare away?
In closing I want to stress that everyone's hunting land is different. And every area has different factors working for or against you and for these reasons different calling techniques work better accordingly. However, softer is usually better because you can't be too soft only too loud. Hope to hear your feedback good, bad, or otherwise. Please follow this blog for future posts. Thank you for reading and Happy Hunting!
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