Calling deer

[vadeer]

I've been working on calling deer for years. To date, I neverturneda buck around. Stopped a few does in their tracks but they continuedwalking away.I am beginning to wonder if I am scaring them away. :&gt

Any advice on better calling?

[BuckMan8]

Same here. I have been calling for a few years now and have never successfully called any deer in. I have stopped a few wondering doe but that is about it. Any suggestions.

[Maryland_Whitetail]

When I call, they sometime circle around to get in the wind to smell for danger before coming in. Never had one come running right at me though.

[Bob H in NH]

I have called in several deer and the only time I have scared them off (that I know of) is one or two occassions:

1) I call to loud to make sure they heard it (they did)
2) they had already come in and decided they need to leave for one reason or another, in other words they were to close.

The most visible one I called in was with "the can", he was passing by around 75 yards out (bowhunting). Everytime I flipped the can over, he changed direction to come to me. When he changed it to go away, I flipped it again and he came more towards me. Shot him at 10 yards.

Call soft, they can hear it!

Most often when I can see the deer and call, they either just look over or show no reaction. For it to work you need a deer who actually wants to be called to. Others will just ignore it.

[Champlain Islander]

I have successfully rattled them in but not had much luck with any calls or grunts for some reason.

[IAhuntr]

The closer to the actual rut it is, the better calling works. Too early, during lock-down, and often during the chase phase, calling may not be as effective. You have to find a buck between does.

[thomasbolton]

I have better luck without calls somtimes . I see more deer by just sitten there.

[r33h]

When I bow hunt or rifle hunt, I use a true-talker grunt tube...works awesome! I have had several deer come running across open fields to within shooting range. I accidentily spooked a deer one time and the deer took off running into this open wheat field for about 150 yards. I gave a soft grunt and the deer stopped...looked back my direction...and I gave one more really soft grunt...and the same deer came back to within 30 yards of me.

Make sure you are calling very softly. The deer will be able to hear it. If you are grunting "blindly" (you don't know if a deer is around or not), then make sure you don't grunt too much. I only grunt once every thirty minutes or so. Also try different pitches. I have found that medium range tones work best for me and where I hunt. I don't have a lot of "record" bucks where I hunt. If you use a really deep grunt, then you may cause a smaller buck to become intimidated, leaving the area because a more mature "buck" is in the area. The HS True Talker grunt tube is great because you can make all sorts of different tone pitched grunts.

As far as the can goes...I haven't got much experince with it. I have one, but I seem to stick with my grunt tube because that is what has worked great in the past. Why change what has been working.

[Bucky10]

I think it is pretty much the luck of the draw. You 50% of the time you will turn the buck around 50% of the time they will probably pay no attention to you. But on all the hunting videos the calls work everytime

[BuckMan8]

I no right. Every single hunting video you watch they use calls and they work great but I can never get them to work that well or at all. I have a "can" and when I see a buck that is to far a away to shoot or is walking away I flip that "can" over but all the bucks do is turn there head around. However, this year I have found something that works well. During bow season I had a nice sized 4 pt come walking in about 40 yrds from me and he was walking away. So I grabbed my "can" and flipped it over but all he did was pick his head up and look over to where I was in my stand. He didn't see me but he just walked away. So I thought to myself, Why don't I take my 3D bow target (River Bottom Buck) and take the antlers off and put it out at my treestand. So I did that and sure enough a few nights later a small 3 pt walked in not seeing my decoy (target) and I reached for my "can" and as soon as i flipped it over he looked over my way and saw that decoy there and walked in to about 15 yards from me. Now I have found that to work good for the bucks but when I put that target out there especially with some tinks the doe that come to my stand do not stay very long because they don't like my target. So there is my little secret i found this year.