David,
Are you saying that all calls are just like using scents. That if a deer comes in its because of chance?

If it is, then I highly disagree.

It is much easier to duplicate the sound a deer makes and fool them than it is to store pee in a bottle and fool their nose. I have too much respect for a deers nose an will very rarely use scents. But calls on the other hand have their place and time. I can name at least 12 different bucks that I knowlingly called in this year. Mainly using "the can". But also with rattling and grunting.

I use scent while trapping alot.It works better on some animals and not so good on others.The main thing now-a-days with scent,is that you have to get it fom a real lure maker.Someone who knows what they are doing,and someone who uses fresh glands-urine-etc.There are synthetics all over the place.The market is there and cheep substitutes make it affoardable,and less effective.I dont use them for deer.Mabe i will when i get my first batch to work the way i want it to.....
Another 2 things to think about if you do have scent that works is
1. are there deer in the area?Calls and scents are what they are.Just because it says it attracts deer,doesnt mean they will move a mile to get to it.You have to be in the general vacinity with any animal,the stuff isnt magic.
2.Time of year matters too.They smell each other all year but only take an intrest in each other for a short period.
Its all got to come together-calls-scent-decoys-camo-location,and the lack of human odor.Even with all of that,Those deer may have fallen for that trick before.

I kind of view it like this:

- the deer may ignore it
- the may come, but was he coming anyway?

With the roar/growl calls, they may work cause they are new sounds that haven't been coming from hunters before. The deer always used/heard them, but never associated them with hunters. the "can" was the same way, I had GREAT success with it at first, then as more and more were sold, I get less and less reaction to it. Same will happen with this call.

My son got one for Christmas and it is different sounding than a grunt, I can't make the sound with my grunt call. His MAD call is a great sounding grunt tube that also makes the roar/growl.

Will it work?? Beats me, but I call when I hunt as much to break up boredom and as anything, and I believe I called in 3 deer this year, at least they showed up within minutes of me calling.

I bought the primos one, can't remember whether it is the roar or the growl. Up until the day I used it in the woods, I had seen deer everyday. That day I saw none, and have seen a lot fewer since. Probably just a coincidence, but hey, it is an observation.
I've never heard this call in the woods either, but I'm in VA, which is a land full of hunters who seem to like killing young bucks. This leaves us in a situation where there are too many doe and the bucks don't get all that aggressive with each other, since there isn't much of a reason to. I'm glad I bought the call, for informational reasons only. It is now a toy that my kids play with at home. I also agree that it is a marketing thing, same with 99% of all the other stuff that's for sale.
I've seen a lot of bucks following doe and grunting their butts off. The true talker seems to be able to mimic these sounds, but with out the aggression in the mix as mentioned above, it too is relatively useless.
I am able to use the true talker as well as "the can" to bring in doe pretty often, so in my opinion having a buck follow the doe that I'm calling is really the only way for me to call with any success in my area.

Rob,
I almost forgot my reason for posting. I have also noticed this "thing" for lack of a better term, where hunters don't seem to be able to admit that there may be some things going on that they have not seen. So, after they find out that deer could be doing some stuff in the woods that they haven't been able to witness, they all of the sudden know all about it. It is like the "Emperors Gown" (not sure that is the proper name). This is the story of two men who trick the Emperor into believing that only those with royal blood can see the gown they are making for him. But there really isn't a gown at all. They pretend to manufacture this new fine gown for him and he is unwilling to admit that he cannot see it, since this would mean he has no royalty in his blood. He then parades this new gown down the streets and all the towns people pretend that they too can see it. No one can admit that they do not see the gown. But ultimately he's just walking naked down the street. I think we have a little of that going on here...

Remember, this is a thread on the roar/growl calls. Feel free to start a scent thread.

Why, for asking a relative and good question? You said yourself, your article on contained all of the vocalizations of the whitetail which you were not "smart" enough to call it a roar/growl? It's because it isn't necessarily that, like you said, it's an aggressive grunt sequence so when the Drury's named it the "growl" and the Primos's named it the "roar", it's all marketing. They would sell a call that simply was named "aggressive grunting" call. We can all do that with existing calls.

I didn't say that only 4 of us with 100 years of experience, hell davidmil has 50 years himself, I said us veterans of more than 25 years experience and 100' of years of treestand time...that could be as many as 20 members or more. My point is and still is, everyone who is saying they have had success with the growl/roar has had it using grunting action. This makes these two calls a great marketing angle. I've been calling deer for over 20 years now, I bought my first wood doe bleat when I was in my early teens. I've called countless whitetails into bow range, both buck and doe and neither ever "roared/growled". The only deer I've ever heard do this was the one we ran down and bleed out. He couldn't get up but stood on his front legs, swung toward us and bellowed..../roared/growled....no deer within mile would have come to that and I believe any deer that heard it, exited the area. So I ask:

How many Roar/Growl owners here actually Roared/Growled a buck into bow range?

Where is the Roar/Growl within these vocalizations? : http://www.bowsite.com/bowsite/features/practical_bowhunter/deergrunting/deergrunt.html

Is it at the end of the Rage'n grunts or the Buck Bawl?

Is the growl/roar a brand new phenomenon or a great marketing ploy?

From my experience, the deep 'roar' grunt I heard was none of those vocalizations. The closest one would be to take the last grunt from the breeding bellows clip, make it deeper and intensify it 100X and you get about what I heard. Picture a deer so agitated he's trying to kill the other deer, and turn that into a deep,loud, intense grunt.
While I too have heard the groans a spined deer can make, and they are gutteral, to me they are different than the buck 'roar' noise.

Anyone here hunted elk? you take a run of the mill bugle and note how it sounds. Then you take a really ticked off herd bull bugling to (what he thinks) is his cows and note the emotion and deep gutteral sounds that begin that bugle. Worlds apart.

I believe the 'roar' grunt is a very seldom heard noise. I think you need the right mix of an aggressive buck being pushed to his limits.

I also think that capitalizing on the 'roar/growl' is beatiful marketing. I heard the thing and really doubt I'd buy the call. It's just not common enough for me.

rybo, your one of the view that gets what I'm saying, thanks for that. I wonder how many are actually mistaken on what they think they hear or what they think it a roar/growl and only heard aggressive grunting as well.

The time I heard it this year was when 2 bucks were chasing a doe and the larger of the two "growled" and then proceded to about kill the smaller one.

The only time I would use this type of call is before rattling. I believe the two combined work well. But, like I posted earlier, I think the two new calls sound terrible and I make the sounds with my Tru Talker.

I am just calling it a "growl" for the sake of what others are calling it now. I believe that agressive grunting is the same as "growling."

Yes, I also believe that the new calls are a product of tremendous marketing.