I will be honest about 2 things here. This past season I pulled a pretty nice 9 pt. off of a hot doe that he was chasing with my Buck Roar and put him in the freezer and on the wall. I mean he left her and came ready to fight. So it did work for me this year.
Now #2, I remember when the Buck Growl first came out and Drury's did a piece on Wildlife Obsession about it. Right after the show I called my buddy and I said " Remember about 5 years ago when Brutas ( a buck we were both after for 2 seasons that was definitely a 180 class buck, that ended up being hit by a semi) made that real loud, deep then higher pitcheddrawn out grunt that I told you about? Well I just heard it on Drury's and they made it into a call."
Honestly, I had heard it this one time, and only once before. Brutas was an amazing buck. He was with a really hot doe, chasing her around right behind my stand right at dark one night. All of a sudden I heard him make a sound that I had never ever heard before, or anything close to it. Right after that 2 other bucks came running in from different directions. I could have shot either of the other 2, but Brutas followed the doe and the closest he got was about 70 yards away. I called my buddy that night and tried to describe what I heard. I never heard anything close to it again until I saw it that night on the show, and it was dejavu' . If I would have never heard it before I would have been really skeptical and figured that it was a marketing ploy. I know a few other long time hunters who also say that they had heard it in the past and recognized it when the call came out.
Do I believe that it is the magic bullet, golden ticket to killing monsters? Nope, not at all. But to me it is like any other technique or tool,( be it calls, rattling, stalking etc.) when used on the right buck at the right time with alot of luck thrown in, it can make one happy bowhunter and put a nice mount on the wall!