John Deer

I was sitting in my stand yesterday evening watching the squirrels and birds when I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer walking close by. The area that I have my bow stand up in is very thick so it' s hard to spot the deer untill they' re almost on top of you. After a few minutes of burning a hole through the surrounding thick stuff trying to spot this deer something caught my eye. It was a branch moving, then the form of a deer just below it tickling it with his rack. The deer was about 35 yards out and through some thick stuff so a shot at this point was out of the question. As I watched I could see he was sporting some nice headgear (how many points I couldn' t tell) and his body was large. I could see his neck was swelled as he was facing towards me and as he rubbed his horns and deposited his scent on the overhanging branch. As I watched he began making a scrape. His rack was impressive, one of the biggest bucks I' ve seen in a long time. After a few minutes of scrape making the buck began to move off and is going to bypass my stand, but instead of getting impatient I don' t make any rash moves and decide to wait a minute or two longer to see if he comes in without any coaxing from me. He' s out of sight now but I can still hear him in the thick brush just beyond my shooting lane. Just then I hear it, ....the sound I' ve never heard before in the wild, the deer lets out a snort wheeze. Immediately I knew what it was, and it got me a little riled up. At this point I decided to give a couple of light grunts on the old grunt call to see if I could pick a fight. As I blew into the grunt call, nothing happened!!! WHAT THE lsjdfls!!!! The reed had fallen out somewhere between my stand and the truck!! Now what?? Then I hear a loud crack as if two bucks had just locked horns for a split second and then separated. Then nothing. All was silent. No deer. No sound of deer. Nothing. As I set there in my stand until dark, contemplating on what might have been had my grunt call worked, I couldn' t help but wonder if that was the big boy of the area. I' ve always heard that only the most dominant of bucks will let out a snort wheeze and I know by what little I saw of the deer that he is very large. One thing you can bet on is that I' ll be getting a new grunt call and sitting in that stand everyday that I get a chance till that old buck makes a mistake and gives me another chance.

badshotbob

Oh yeh, the ol' snort wheeze. What a sound. You are right - the buck making the sound was challenging an intruder saying, " hey bub, I' m top cat here, you best be moving on." I' ve got a call with a horn on it in addition to the grunt tube that really does a nice job of duplicating the snort wheeze. I used it last night in a mock fight sequence and drew a buck in from across the swamp. (Rest of the story isn' t pretty though - I could lie and say I hit a twig and missed a 150 class, but in actuality, I dropped my call on the stand - duhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Yep, he snuck out of there very quietly.)

HAZCON7

I have seen and heard 4 or 5 deer do the snort wheeze.
All but 1 were big bucks.

The last one was either an immature buck or a medium sized doe that philbert8 and I scared out of a bed midday. He/She got up and ran about 20 yards then stopped, turned his/her head our way and snort/wheezed, stomped the ground, then split.

That could be the exception to the rule but I' d say that any deer could do it if they were willing.

HAZCON7

I meant to add that, at the point of your call failing, you could have shaken some branches and threw your call into the leaves, then wheezed yourself by inhaling quickly through your nose. That might have brought him running!

PABowhntr

Surprisingly, I have yet to hear this phenomenon though it undoubtedly occurs during this time of the year. I would be willing to bet that had you the grunt call or a rattle bag then the buck would have come to investigate...not to rub it in or anything...

fdhunter

Im with ya. I was hunting a friends farm here in Missouri on Sunday. I heard a grunt, saw horns, then saw him make a rub about 80 yds away. He took a couple steps and snort wheezed. I made a few grunts to no avail. Then I heard him running other deer all over the hillside. When I got down I went to look at the rub and found 2 fresh scrapes about the size of car hoods. First time I witnessed a snort wheeze. Shall I say spectacular.

John Deer

I don' t think it happens very often. I' m also sure that it' s a definite sign that the rut is beginning to really pick up in my area. So I am curious how many of you have heard a buck snort wheeze while hunting? And also in your experience do you think the buck was mature that made the snort wheeze?

DaveH

I' ve hear it a couple times and every time it was made by a monster buck with a smaller one lurking nearby. Most recently, it occurred on Friday morning when a very nice 8 point I was going to take got challenged by a monster. The giant buck snort wheezed and eventually they both left. I used the rattle bag and grunt call to bring the monster back into bow range . . . and missed him after 2 minutes at full draw when my arrow deflected off an unseen branch! [:' (] He rubbed every tree near him, raked some brush and made a scrape while I was holding at full draw. I' ve been mentally kicking myself ever since and don' t know when I' ll get over it since I saw truck tracks backing up to this area when I went back there Monday morning. I saw others, but not him.

badshotbob

I' ve heard this a few times in our cedar swamp - the last time at only 15 yards. Problem is, it' s so thick, seeing 5 yards at times is impossible. Mature dominant bucks make this sound to challenge another buck or to ideally, scare the intruding deer away. Does do not make this sound. All deer certainly will blow at something and stomp there feet to make it move when they can' t pick out the danger. But only bucks make the snort-wheeze.

LENNY191

I agree that only buck will snort wheeze and it is definately when they are pi#%ed off. However, about two weeks ago I rattled in a small 1-1/2 year old and a small 2-1/2 year old buck and when they met the 2-1/2 year old snort wheezed at the other buck. I know that this was not the dominant buck in the area, because I shot the dominant buck last Tuesday. So, I believe that any buck in the right mood will snort wheeze.