I rattle out bucks each year, in fact my success has increased in the past few years. The key to rattling is location of course, I like to set up in deep transition areas close to the bedding area of bucks. I favor spots that force the deer to come out rather than get around me, ie: meadows or ridgelines... under good cover. While I do get some interest in early pre rut, I tend to rely on rattling in the later stages of pre to early post rut. I like to add grunts, tree raking, ground stomping & even some scents to my rattling sessions. My routine is usually: rattle using the above technique, wait 15 minutes grunt, then wait 15 minutes and rattle again. I start off soft and then bring up my intensity, tone and duration as time goes on. I usually start with 20-30 sec session, then move to 45 sec session, following this point I will start to tone vary and change things up a bit but still remain at that 45 sec range for each session. If you rattle in deep transition and do not have the luxury of funnelling deer out before they get around you, make sure to have a shooting lane and keep an eye on the back door. This is where estrous or rutting buck scent can provide you with some additional time. I always set up with my nose to the wind and the bedding areas upwind of my location. If using scent I place tampons soaked in scent in a half moon around my location (upwind) and vary the height I hang them from the ground (18" to 36" ). I use tampons because they swell to pick up lots of wind drift and they come complete with a hanger system. BTW, I have rattled more bucks in between 10 - 3. I only rattle mid day during late pre rut(chase phase) and Rut. The other times I may try and rattle at peak movements, but quite honeslty my best success has always been in that chase phase or full rut at mid day. Also I will only rattle for 3 hours in one spot and never rattle in the exact spot in the successive days. I think of it as a one shot deal when they are running does. I do however often rattle the same spots year after year and in some cases they have produced harvest each year. This year I rattled out 3 bucks in the spot I took my 6x5 the previous year, a buddy ended up taking a nice 4x4, the biggest of the 3. We shot both these bucks from the same tree darn near. I also rattled out my buck this year in a spot where I have always had bucks respond in the past, this was the first year I actually pulled pin on anything. So once you find a rattling hot spot as like any other honey hole, odds are you' ll be successful again, if you play your cards right.

I will caution you by saying rattling is like anything else it doesn' t work everytime and not always in the same manner. Liken it to fishing, you sometimes have to search the tacklebox to find the right lure and other times nothing seems to work. But you keep trying and just maybe next time you' ll get a bite!