Hopefully I will have time to type several of my thoughts on this subject for you.

I will tackle what I quoted from you first. What if I realize that I hunt two farms that practically surround their place in Illinois? And have hunted them for years.

I am honestly more than a little bit surprised at your findings concerning rattling for whitetails. Between you and your dad, and two brothers, you guys have some serious time in the woods. I don`t have an answer as to why you have not seen more fighting action than you have.

I do hunt in some really good areas in the midwest, and western states, but I also hunt quite a bit in PA, and W. Va too. I have seen with my own eyes many, many bucks sparing. And probably around a dozen serious, drawing blood, foaming at the mouth buck fights. By far the worst one I ever saw happened in PA. One dead deer, the other found dead the next day, maybe three hundred yards away. BIG bucks that could be heard from over 2 hundred yards away!

Granted, most fights I have seen were nothing more than a little pushing and shoving. That is why you don`t rattle the same in every situation, nor do you rattle as loud in the early season as you would in the immediate pre rut time, or during the rut.

If buck fights are very rare, how do all those tines get broken off? How do bucks get their faces tore up? Maybe they are just real clumsy!

Rattling does not work all the time, but it certainly works enough for me to continue the practice. I have shot several good bucks with a bow that have come in at a run to the horns.

If you don`t believe in rattling, that is good. Just leaves more for me![8D]

BTW, since we are talking about dumb things hunters believe work, how do ya feel about mock scrapes?

When I am rattling, I don`t have enough hands to do that, hold a bow, and video. When I am sitting over one of my mock scrapes, I got enough hands to video that!