RE: Rattle Bags
For those of you who say rattle bags don't sound real....
I work at a taxidermy, and so I have access to recently killed big racks all the time....if you compare your 6 month old set of rattling antlers to the sound of 2 freshly killed racks banging against eachother, you'd be caught breathless by the difference. The fact that deer even respond to old, dried out antlers proves that the sound doesn't have to be anywhere near on the spot....and forget about it if your rattling antlers are OVER 2 years old.
From this observation I've come to the conclusion that deer are not looking for the pitch and tone of the sound itself, but rather the frequency of the banging to make a connection that there may be a buck fight going on. My bet would be you could rattle in a buck with two sticks if youwere in the right area. I would try it, but I only get out about 5 times a year to hunt so I don't have time to experiment. I think the rattling bags effectiveness would be no different than antlers in the hand of THAT same person.