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.
Congrats on being able to hunt such wonderful property. I am jealous. Like I said 99% of hunters don' t have the good fortune to be in your shoes.
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 think I will start a new thread asking how many guys have seen bucks fighting. Might be interesting.
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!
I have hunted in PA more then a few times in Elk county and will be going to W VA this year. I also hunted in Iowa for 4 years while in college........no fights....lots of deer. You have hunted in a few states and have access to premium land as I understand your post...........and you have only seen 1 battle that was really loud and fierce??.....Do you think this justifies guys all over the country rattling like maniacs every 15 minutes as if a deer battle royal is occurring each and every day of the season?? I don' t.
Granted, most fights I have seen were nothing more than a little pushing and shoving.
See above
If buck fights are very rare, how do all those tines get broken off?
I would say that many tines get busted while rubbing and scratching the velvet off their racks. I am sure a bunch get broken tangling with other bucks too but I doubt in fierce battles over breeding rights (in the woods I described earlier at least)
How do bucks get their faces tore up? Maybe they are just real clumsy!
Don' t mistake what I am saying to mean I think bucks NEVER get into scuffles......a good friend of my dad' s shot a couple bucks for 2 years straight that had deep puncture wounds in their hind quarters. The next year his son took a big buck with a 5pt rack on one side and a 10" long spike on the other. Obviously he didn' t play nice. Like I said already......people use rattling like they are throwing a lure for a bass. Hunting ain' t fishing and most deer that hear rattle after rattle every 15 minutes for 6 hours are gonna regard that as a foreign noise because knock down drag out battles like that do not take place in doe infested zero breeding stress woods.
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.
Do you think those deer would not have come in to a can or grunt........and could you have got them with more scouting and better stand placement with no horns to click??
If you don`t believe in rattling, that is good. Just leaves more for me!
Sorry man.......I still fill my tags......and my freezer. My antlers only rattle when the wall gets too full
BTW, since we are talking about dumb things hunters believe work, how do ya feel about mock scrapes?
I like mock scrapes. As far as scent applied to them I think I saw an article that studied deer reaction to different scents applied to scrapes to see which was best........the winner was........New car scent [
] LOL Once again backing up my theory that deer are just plain curious creatures. Seeing a scrape that wasn' t there before will raise an eyebrow on a bucks normal rub line.......but as far as putting different scents in them at different times of the year or day......LOL Take a wizz in it yourself if you want to.........the key is getting his attention with the scrape and knowing when he will likely come by........then be ready. Save your money on the scrape juice and buy your hunting buddy a cup of coffee instead.....if he doesn' t finish the cup, dump that in the scrape before you climb up
A good friend of mine carries a pee bottle full of his wizz day after day out to the truck so not to leave his scent behind.......HA HA HA. The buck I shot last year with my bow was standing on wet leaves I just wizzed on 10 minutes before.