The Straight Scoop on Deer Calling

Everyone that knows anything about hunting deer has heard of rattling antlers, grunt calls, bleats, etc. but from my experience this seldom draws much more than a pause from most deer. The most common method of attempting to call a deer is the grunt call and is mostly what I wanted to discuss here.

We have all seen the videos. Practically every hunt goes down the same way, a hunter is perched high in his stand, he gives 3 grunts on his call and the camera cuts to a big buck that is on his way to the stand! Well, in case you have not realized it, it just don't work that way. If you pay close attention you will notice the vast majority of those deer show no visible reaction and seem to be already moving in the hunters direction. Rarely do you see the deer moving away from the hunter, hear the hunter call, see the deer react and change direction and proceed to come in. This is not to say it does not happen but it seldom happens as seen on film.

As a matter of fact, If you are blind calling you could be scaring off more deer than you call in. I have seen this happen many times when hunting our lease in Illinois. A 130 class buck comes strolling along and looks like he is not going to come into bow range, I grunt and he turns inside out and vacates the area! You will not spook many deer by grunting but we have some big deer on this property and he was not one of them.

You never know how a deer is going to react but if you have a well balanced deer herd on your property grunting to 2.5 & some 3.5 yr. old deer could get you some negative reactions or you will get the most typical reaction, a pause and look your way, only for the deer to continue on his path.

The deer that are most likely to respond to grunting are small 1.5 yr old and whatever age class makes up the mature class on your particular property. On our lease most of our big bucks are 3.5-4.5 yrs. old. These deer are the ones that can be effectively called. The key is calling to a dominate buck. That's a deer you can call!

My advice to you is not to call to a 125-130 class deer you want to take if you know you have 150's in the area. As a matter of fact never call to an animal that is already coming your way. Your best chance is always to wait silently for your shot as long as your quarry is advancing your way. In calling, you risk giving away your position and causing the animal to hunt you. You also risk educating the animal. On the other hand if the deer is not going to come into shooting range, you may not have a lot to loose in trying to call to him.

Of course, you have to call from the right spot. You cannot call from a tree in the middle of a field. If your a turkey hunter you know what I'm talking about but that's a subject for another day.

One of the best reactions I have ever seen from a buck occurred last year on a hunt in Illinois. I had seen a wide & heavy 11pt several times over the previous 4 days of hunting. This particular morning I had seen him trailing through a spot I had seen some does pass earlier in the morning. He had disappeared into the thick on the hill and had been gone some 45 minutes or so. Next thing I know he appears a 47 yds and is moving along the fence away from me. I quickly decide to grunt at him with my mouth. The first 2 grunts stopped him, the 3 rd. closed the deal! He immediately jumped the fence and by the time I got my bow up he was 15 yards and closing. I shot him when he came out from under the stand at 4 yds. he dropped in his tracks from a muzzy to the spine and scored 151" gross.

To be effective at calling you have to know what kind of deer you are calling to. Is he a sub deer or a dominate deer. Also, you have to call from the right spot and decide if you are willing to risk pushing away a lesser deer.

Good Hunting! Larry