I am just curious as to how often you guys use your grunt and doe bleat calls during the rut. Last year I had two nice bucks come into a grunt call on two different occasions. But if you're not getting a reaction how often throughout the day do you use these calls?
I don't use the estrous bleat much, but I lick to do a few grunts every 20 minutes or so. In the middle of the rut I do my best to give a mock fight every 30-45 minutes as well which usually goes something like grunts, snort wheeze, grunts, rattle, grunts, draw aim shoot. The last third doesn't factor in often enough.
I typical every 20-30 minutes mixing grunts, bleats, and occasionally antler rattles for about five minutes at a time. Seems to work well for me.
Every 20 minutes or so. And, when I see bucks that I want to get a closer look at. I have had mornings when things are going nuts that I will call every 10 to 15 minutes. The majority of my better bucks have been killed because I called or decoyed them in. But, I don't see that working well in pressured areas.
I normally try to only grunt when I actually have a visual on a deer and it's not moving towards me. I do get bored a lot so will occasionally grunt when it's really slow. I'll also try to use it to mask my own sound if I have to open something. It's amazing how loud a candy bar wrapper or other plastic film is in the calm woods Same thing with the "can" for bleating. I know I have called in young bucks grunting, and I'm "can't confirm, can't deny" on changing the course of my biggest bow buck to date. I didn't even realize what he was when I was grunting at him, thought I was toying with a younger one
I am not much of a blind caller and prefer to see or hear the deer first. If I'm in thick timber and can't get a visual on the deer I'll grunt a few times to coax them in my direction. Otherwise, I usually just stay quiet. I will rattle during the rut as it seems to be far more effective for me than grunting alone.
