Jsasker,

I am sure there are going to be many opinions on this. My rule of thumb is try to rattle in a fashion that is relative to the stage of the rut. So in pre-rut I will tickle antlers together in order to mimic a sparring session. During the scraping phase of the rut, I begin picking up the pace and rubbing trees while rattling more aggressively. During the Breeding phase I try and mimic bucks fighting over a doe. In the post rut I go back to sparring or once in a while if I think or know a late doe is in estrus and in my area I will mimic a battle. Rattling is often over-used and scares some bucks away in my opinion. Not all bucks want to fight. I have heard two bucks fights over the years and in 1998 I killed a nice buck right after he had fought with another buck near a scrapeline. I use shed antlers of which I find two same side sheds from different bucks. I cut the browtines off so they fit very nicely together. That makes it easy for packing them between your fanny pack and beltline. I use medium sized antlers for my area. I also like to use a social grunt call, especially during the scraping and breeding phase of the rut. Since 1996 I have harvested 4 bucks via rattling and grunting and my brother 3,which averages about one every other year and I have passed on many younger bucks. My most mature buck from rattling being a 136 inch 5x5. Also when rattling play your wind and be as scent free as possible. Having a buck come to antlers is just flat out awesome in my book. Be careful not to over rattle. I have had to learn the hard way many times.

IHW,
Shed