I first heard a growl last fall while rattling a nice buck in. He came in growling and died growling. I was like did I just shoot a sick deer. Its a very earie sound to hear, still sends chills up my spine. But something tells me what you may have heard wasnt quite a buck growl. It was something else. MAD Calls did a fine job of replicating the sound in my book. I own a buck growl call and when used properly it sounds just like a growl, not to mention the grunts you make with the call are excellent.