I have not killed a buck that I could attribute to the snort wheeze call. That being said I wouldn't quit using it for that reason. I use it most with a rattling sequence. It isn't something I would normally blind call with like I do a grunt call.

I wouldn't consider myself a "whitetail expert" but one's experiences can make a person think. How many snort wheezes have you observed in the woods in your lifetime? In all my years of hunting in a number of states and the countless hours I have spent in a tree either with a bow in my hand or behind the camera, I have only witnessed two that I could positively identify. That would seem to indicate to me that there isn't a lot of it going on (as compared to grunting, rubbing, scraping, etc.) for a means of communication. So I guess what I am trying to say is, I am not surprised that we don't have a long list of people attributing the killing of their buck to that snort wheeze call. I feel like it is one of those "right place right time" calls that could make a difference.

As far as it scaring off bucks I think one runs that risk anytime you make any type of sound or even move. I have experimented with the snort wheeze in the presence of little bucks that I let pass. While it obviously put them on alert, I can't recall any bounding away in terror.

Grunting, rattling, wheezing are all a kind of a gamble really. I rarely worry about scaring them away because of the noise (volume is adjusted according to the distance you are calling), I do however have concern about giving away my location. It is a trade off of sorts. You try to draw the deer to your location that are out of range and are not naturally going to pass by your stand in hopes that they don't pin point your location or circle down wind. Sometimes it works, sometimes it works against you.

The two times I saw the snort wheeze occur were educational for me. In each case it was a smallish buck that was doing the wheezing in the presence of another little buck and in neither case did it call in any other bucks that may have been cruising the area. Further, the little fellas that were the object of the intimidation did not run away in fear, but they did give the aggressor a wide berth.