I am a hard sell on aggressive whitetail tactics to say the least and value objective reports from "real" people. I have used aggresive tactics on occasion with some success but usually let things happen naturally.

Lately there have been a ton of posts on calls and scents with a wide array of responses. I would love to have an objective discussion about these methods.

For instance, Scrape Juice's Bowhunter's Set-Up has been discussed out the wazoo. I would like to hear an objective discussion about it - What state were you hunting in(seems a lot of the positive plugs come from alot of the same areas); what were the weather conditions; was the deer clearly attracted to the scent or was it coming in anyway because you had good stand placement; did other deer have the same reaction or did some spook; etc, etc.

This is the format I would like to see on all scents and calls. To truly benefit from others experiences we need to leave emotions out of it and concentrate on substantiated facts.

I'll start out by giving two examples that may be of some help to others:

1) Two years ago I was hunting the last day of Pennsylvania's bow season. I saw a small buck approximately 50 yards down the mountain from me. I wasn't planning on shooting him so I decided to play a little. I blew semi hard on my grunt tube - nothing. To me it seemed he should have easily been able to hear it from that distance. I tried a couple more times but he just kept browsing out the side of the mountain. Well, i had nothing to lose so I blew rediculously hard on the call, taking it to its limits. Immediately, the bucks hair stood straight out all over his body and a grunt followed mine by only a second. He walked stiff legged right to my area.It was a cool calm afternoon.The moral of the story - if he is just gonna walk out of your life anyway, let him have a oud one!

2)On several occasions I have had bucks follow a drag line that I had put down using Excite estrus scent. The conditions varied but it was always during the 1st or 2nd week of November. I have not seen any deer completely spook on Excite but one small Ohio buck juked a bit when he stuck his nose in it and then acted a bit nervous.

Now it is your turn....

Jon E. Silks



Hunt hard and be safe!
Jon E. Silks