RE: I rattled in a bachelorette party tonight...
I've seen early season rattling work quite a few times. My buddy buzz-boy did some real hard blind rattling in mid-september a few years back and rattled in a 6 point. This deer came stomping across a huge open area, probably from 300 yds or more. he was grunting w/ every step. he shot that deer. i've also ratteled in quite a few in september. they don't normally come flying in but in september you gotta do whatever you can to get them moving.
what really really ticks me off is i cut out the back straps before dropping the deer off at the butcher and forgot them in my car while i went to work. ughhhhhhhh!!!!!