Last night I had an unusual experience with a sound I heard from the bowels of a swale I was overlooking. On two separate occasions, I heard something I don't ever remember hearing in my 40+ year of deer hunting. At first I thought it was a wild pig or something like it that had let out a single blast of air thatin some form ofpig bark or grunt. It was very deep pitched, loud, and guttural. It wasn't a typical deer grunt, even from a mature buck. It occurred about 30-45 minutes before dark. I sat there wondering what the heck it was. I knew it wasn't a coon that sometimes get pissed off and l lets out a loud growl. It certainly wasn't a dog. We don't have wild pigs here...or we're not supposed to although somehave gotten loose from canned hunting landbut are supposedly way over in the western portion of the county. I have never seen a pig track here. So what the heck was it I kept thinking???

Well, last night I have one of the hunting shows on watching what I wish I could have seen last night (monster bucks getting arrowed..hahah). One of Mark Drury's shows was on and on this show was some crazy video of several different buck vocalizing the "growl" as they call it. Sounds more like a buck bark to me, but growl is what they call it. In these cases the bucks were in the peak of the rut and it was a sound the dominant buck made in aggression to let other bucks know they should keep away or else!

What a coincidence! I realized this is what I had heard although it was not a series of gowls...or barks. It was a single blast of guttural air much deeper than a grunt, and I would call it a bark. I heard it two times about 20 minutes apart from each other and each time it was just a single bark or growl. If you would like to hear what I am talking about, go to this site http://www.obsessionarchery.com/buck-growl-mad-calls-p-830.htmland watch the video clip. About 5 minutes into the video a dominant buck lets off a series of 5 "growls" as it chases another buck off a hot doe. This is what I heard, except he only made the sound once each time I heard it.The videostarts with Drury giving a few blasts on his new growl call he is promoting. I'll tell you all one thing, this is a pretty poor representation of the sound they are trying to mimic. The pitch is WAY too high and no where near guttural as it should be, unless they are trying to replicate a gay dominant buck...haha. However,there is some great footage of a sound I don't recall ever having heard. Or maybe I have...I just never associated it with a buck. Maybe this will help you all too. If not, it's still pretty entertaining!