Hi, I am an avid hunter, I devote my life to it once a year. I have tried rattling but never had any luck. I was wondering anyone have luck with it? I use some plastic antlers that sound realistc to me. I bought them to rattle with. I use a doe estrus grunt with it occaisionally. I live in western ky, and rut is in swing.
any ideas will be great.
Thank you.
Jeremiah

ps. Anyone know about the steady ready from knight and hale? I was hoping someone has one and can tell me about it too.

Never rattled much but the times i have it has been somewhat productive, never had much of a rythm, if your on the ground pawing leaves helps give a more realistic fighting sound.

Your success really has a lot to do with the population make up of the deer in your area. If there are way more doe (10:1 or higher) than bucks in your area don't expect a lot of results from rattling. In the areas of VA where I hunt I get more does running in than bucks (in fact I've ONLY gotten does to respond) so I don't use it too often. I've seen bucks fighting and I try to recreate that sequence in my head. I would suggest finding a video that has some buck fights in it and practice watching that. Short of that I would start out by just tickling the tips together for a few seconds and then bang the antlers together and then do a lot of racking back and forth. Remember, they aren't rams so they don't do a lot of headbutting. It's mostly the two racks twisting together or just barely touching each other.

Here's an interesting article I read the other day in Outdoor Life (about rattling). Check it out.


http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/h...735696,00.html