Grunting too early??
 

Are you guys using any scents or call? Is it too early for a little light grunting. I thought it was but spoke to a guy today that said its not.

In my experience, both grunting and rattling works better EARLY...Once the rut is in full swing, the bucks are too busy dogging does to pay much attention to calling..

This may not be the case in other places with different buck/doe ratios, but in upstate NY it holds true...

Calling is worth trying ANYTIME during the season, but I have had much better luck doing it the first couple of weeks of bow season...

bucks grunt year round..rattling on the other hand is a rut and pre rut thing only..

Grunt and rattle....
 

I,ve been seeing 2 young bucks sparrring or playing almost every morning a few hundred yards down a field where I hunt .
1 looks like a 4 pointer ant the other a spike ,
They lock heads and play around for a good half hour or so , then they will eat a little then do it again..
Seams to be mostly in the morning ..
I tried a little gunting and I believe it spooked them , Both bucks and a bunch of does trotted off abought the third grunt later..
I,ve tried a little ratttling with a rattle bag , but no luck ,
I no that grunting works Not ALL the time but around and during the rut it WORKS ..
A couple years ago I had 2 bigger bucks after the same doe ..
Grunted all three right by my stand,, The big 9 pointer is on my wall ..
Next morning had a freind sit in another stand close by , used a little tinks 69 and a few grunts right after day light and guess who showed up . The other 7 pointer,, :busted:

i tried grunting at a mature 8 possibly 10 pointer yesterday, about 150 yrds away from me. he was feeding a fresh cut corn field. the grunts only perked his attention but didnt bring him any closer, frankly he could give a crap!!!

i was able to grunt at a fork to get him interested but he was spooked by something and took off.


then again i was never able to grunt anything into range. i may be doing it wrong. lol

I saw 2 bucks on sat and 2 on sun. All were just over 30 yds, no real shot, tried grunting, no effect. It almost looks like the bucks have someplace to go, period. It's like "I don't care if your there or not, I'm going !" There heads kept bobbing up and down as they walked. Then, I tried a little bleating, no effect, except for one buck who had only 1 tall antler. I guess he'd take anything he could get that walked by. He came down, looked around sniffing back and forth, and when he found nothing, walked off.
We saw a huge 6 and an 8 pointer walking together as we were clearing out some firing lines at our gun club on sunday morning. We were running a gas powered expandable tree saw, and they walked with 40 yards of us, kept on a decent walking pace, and acted like we weren't even there. (Please, oh, please come back on opening day of rifle!!!)