huntinginga

Guys,

The stand location, wind direction and timing are all a lot more important than calling.

However I will call with either my grunt or my bleat can every 10 minutes or so starting about November 1st. Prior to that I will use a very light bleat at about the same intervals.

I have seen the bleat can run does off during the rut, but have never seen either run off a buck. Although deer do not respond to it most of the time.

This year I was sitting on a cut over. at 5 till 9AM I hit my bleat 3 times and changed to a tending type grunt immediatly after. All of a sudden here he comes. a medium sized 8pt came running straight at me from about 100 yards awy in the cut. He slowed up at about 75 and started acting kinda nervous and I shot him. W/O the calls I doubt I would have ever seen him. But w/o me being there and the wind being in my face and being there when he was within hearing range, I KNOW I would not have seen him

Jim

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Antler Eater

Very interesting post....I guess perhaps I take it for granted that during the rut hearing a buck grunt around here isn't all that usual. I would have to agree that I hear does and fawns bleat much more often than bucks but again around here I would call it common. I will say that I have only heard one snort wheeze in all my years of bow hunting and that was this fall. Needless to say I was ecstatic!

I do think there is something to hunting pressure being a factor in how vocal a buck is. On some of the public ground if you hit it on the right day and in the right spot it sounds like a kazoo convention. Over time I believe the bucks catch on. They certainly aren't any dumber than an elk. Those of you who hunt elk know how they can become call shy in a lot of areas from unpleasant experiences after coming to the call.

On the other hand nothing works 100 percent of the time. At times I have had them undoubtedly come to the call and/or horns. On the other hand I have udoubtedly ran some off. I would agree that calling has become over rated. But I find myself thinking like the guy on 'Dumb and Dumber' who asked the pretty girl what the chances were that she would go out with him. If you recall her reply was &quot;one in a million&quot;. My reaction (and the reason I always carry and use a call) is the same one he gave to her disappointing repy, &quot;So your telling me there's a chance&quot;..... <img src=icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle>

BOWFANATIC

If I go a season without hearing a buck grunt , I'm doing something wrong!

>>>---Doug--->

rangerstud620

Thanks for the replies. I'm surprised that so few of you hear grunts during the season. The grunts I heard were actually rather loud. I'm guessing the deer were 70-100 yds from me, and I could hear them fine. But what puzzles me is why I only hear them from December on. I'm guessing its a social grunt, and that's why they respond to me and more join in when I start grunting. It is awesome when they do grunt back though. It always get my heart going when I hear them grunting around me.

hc4runner

Interesting topic, I have often thought about posting a topic about how many hunters have actually been successful grunting a buck in. Well I can tell ya that I have heard alot of bucks grunting, and every time, they were always chasing does during the peak of the rut. Its always those short repeated grunts, and never those long drawn out grunts that you hear those guys on the videos doing.
I have more different grunt tubes than I care to mention. I have grunted at lone bucks, bucks with does, bucks with other bucks, and used ever tone imaginable to try to get them into shooting range without success.
I have also heard fawn bleats, but never a doe bleat in heat. I heard something this past year that I think was whats called a grunt, snort, wheeze and it was a very strange sound, a sound that you would never expect a deer to make.
Like I said, Ive never had any success calling one in, but I am gonna to keep trying.

hc4runner
MO. bowhunter

Rob/PA Bowyer

I've been calling whitetails for 20 plus years now and I find our animals to be very vocal or at least respondant to vocalization. Every fall I can gaurantee some grunting, especially during the rut. I have on many occassions sat in the stand and heard the buck long before I saw him. Deer talk year around, I do notice more vocalizations during the peak days of the rut. I also have on video many scenes of bucks, does and fawns being very vocal and two seasons ago for the first time after calling in a decent eight point, I challenged him enough to see and hear my first snort/wheeze.

<font color=blue>Good Luck and Good Shooting</font id=blue>

<font color=red>Rob</font id=red>

wolfen68

I have had much success with grunt and bleat calls. Every year I have hunted I have heard bucks grunt...some more than others and most often during the rut. The buck I killed last year grunted all the way in for more than a hundred yards. I did not call him in with a grunt call however, I called the doe in that he was trailing with a bleat call and he followed her right in. This has worked for me on a couple other bucks as well. I have heard the different types of grunts from bucks also. The tending grunt call which is just short quick grunts to a challenging type of grunt which is awesome to hear...bwaaaaaaaaaaa...gets my blood pumping just typing this. Of all the grunts I've heard from bucks, I have NEVER heard a doe bleat.

huntinginga

Wolfen,

I have only heard on Estrus Bleat, and a buck was on her hard. Hwoever during bow season (mid-September-Mid October) does are very vocal, especially to their young. Again they are very quiet though.

Jim

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basserman

Wow! I can't believe some of the posts here. I hear grunts ALOT! Must be mute deer in some areas. <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle> Grunts have worked very well for me for many, many years. Grunts have worked for me by themselves and sometimes coupled with a doe bleat (can call now) Calling them in can be a crap shoot though. If they are on a doe or hot track they usually will not come in.

&quot;Semper Fi&quot;

Big Country

I guess some areas are different than others. Every year I hear at least 1 or 2 bucks grunt in PA. When I spend two to three weeks straight in illinois during the rut, I hear and see an easy ten bucks grunting during this time. Some of them grunt so freaking loud I am waiting to see them chuck something up!<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

NRA,UBP,BASS Member
New Stanton,PA