I've never called without seeing the deer first, and even then it was only once calling a buck in with a doe bleat. Do you call without seeing a deer first? If so, what do you do? A series of buck grunts? Can you describe your technique?
A few years ago I got in my stand and rattled with a knigh and hale rattle with out seeing anything and a big 9 pointer came up over the hill right into my shooting range. I have tried it since and no luck so I dont know if it works or it was just my lucky day.
I'm not big on blind calling, as I've never had much luck with it. Generally speaking, the only times I call are when I see a buck I want to shoot and he's headed in a direction that isn't towards me. Even in those cases I try to wait until the last possible minute and make 100% sure he's not coming before calling. I also will not call to a deer that is down wind of me. With that said, I usually do some rattling during this last week of October and the first few days of November if the conditions and weather are right. A lot of the areas I hunt get a lot of pressure and the buck to doe ratio is so far out of whack that rattling and grunting blindly never yields many results. Like I said, I'll try it on occasion but usually I'm more reliant on catching deer on their natural movement patterns than luring them to come in.
I think its important to send a call out to get the buck's attention but not be able to pinpoint your location. The purpose is to get that buck to be curious and want to come over to you. If you have a lot of background or trees around where your calling from will help cause the deer will want to come to get a visual. If your in an open area more then likely the deer has no visual and will keep on going. A decoy can always help but I think only in a open area or off an edge of a field. The key also call loud enough to get his attention but not too loud. Don't overdue it! If you try two to three times and no luck forget it. I think as a last resort a snort wheeze is the way to go esp if its a really nice buck. I see more big bucks called in with the wheeze more than anything on these hunting shows on TV.
i blind call frequently during the two weeks of full rut. ive used just about every method talked about on here whether its bleats, grunts, rattling, or wheezing. I have blind called a number of bucks in by using a bleat with a tending grunt combo.. i do this by making three short bleats (not too long because a long bleat is also a distress signal) then i use 3-5 low short grunts after it as if a buck were dogging a doe. Ive actually called two bucks this year in using this method already. Besides that a few grunt sequences never hurt either. goodluck!
Last year during bow season..Me and my son-in-law tried a set up witch i put him 80 yards down wind of me..Before i tried some rattling grunting and fighting like 2ea. 200 lbs bucks....Stomping the ground throwing myself in to the brush...lol its kinda fun doing that for about a full min or two...Then stopping and hiding and waiting...Hoping something would circle down wind of me for my son-in-law to get a shot...Well 20 mins past nothing...So i motion to him with hand signals to come to me...LOL as soon as he came about 10 yards towards me...One of the biggest bucks i even seen was up wind of me blew about 4 or 5 times busted, I never seen him come in..Wow I'll be trying that again this year... Also on blind calling....Thats a big yes...Doe can bleat...Two flips of that can, after entering the wood at sun rise...20 min. walk 2 flips of the can and a 9 point 24" inside-spread W/8" spiral drop tine grossed 159"...came right in,in less then a 2 mins. Now he's on my wall...I'll never go in the woods w/out my doe can bleat..
Last year hunting early muzzleloader in Iowa during mid October I blindly rattled a couple times towards the evening. First time I've ever tried it. Over the hill came a doe and a buck chasing it. I was watching those two deer when a buck grunted behind me. He was staring right at me. Looked really ticked off. I got my gun on him, but decided not to shoot as it was first day and I took the entire week off to hunt. The next day I shot the same buck I was watching with Doe. The buck that grunted was much bigger body and rack, but I felt like I was getting too greedy passing up shots. The buck I shot scored 133. I don't believe I rattled in buck and doe, but it worked well for that one. This year I've tried it a few times real softly to get some deer to come towards me, but haven't had any luck yet.
Today I used my Primos Buck Roar grunt call coupled with my Black Rack antlers and tried blind calling on and off for about 3 hours with no success. I have tried blind calling with zero success so I'm getting tempted to just stop and wait until I see one then utilize my techniques.
I think you're looking at this all wrong. The deer have to be able to hear you in order to come into the call. I blind call a lot and have had great success with it. Success doesn't always equal killing the buck but calling him into range where a shot was possible. The M.A.D. buck growl and Primos Buck Roar are good calls for throwing out loud, throaty grunts. The Primos call is superior IMO because I've went thru two M.A.D. calls b/c they turned into duck calls. The Primos call hasn't let me down. So, when the time is right (usually around Halloween in VA), I begin calling aggressively. I'll grunt 7-10 times every 10-15 minutes. I believe that if a buck is interested when he hears the call, then you should see him within that ten minutes. If no buck presents himself, I believe he didn't hear the call. Stay optimistic. I'm not saying calling works all the time because I can't see the bucks that hear my calls. I have seen bucks that heard my call and chose to ignore them. I've also seen bucks that were just about out of sight and needed 20 grunts or so for them to finally hear my calls and respond. I also try to set up in ambush type setups where the buck has to come into range to investigate the calls. Open woods are harder (but extremely possible) to call a buck into range. They come to investigate and see no buck and lose interest. Setting up on a bench or a thicket makes them come into your lap. I'm no expert but it works for me. Still working on killing a bruiser using these tactics.
i blind call all of the time. we hunt a cat tail swamp and the deer could be anywhere and you could not see them so blind calling is sometimes a must to get them close to you. 90% of the big bucks i have shot have been blind called. i will say i only do it during rut otherwise its if i see a deer
This is the first yeAr I've tried blind calling and it's worked sometimes and sometimes it hasn't I called in two great 8 point bucks blind calling but had no shots. The only way I found it worked was when u hear a deer but don't know where it is. When I called in them nice 8's I accidentally hit the doe grunt twice before I hit the buck grunt about 3-5 times. They both came out to investigate before a much deeper grunt in the woods scared them off. Still waiting to see that big grunt buck
Today I called in an 8 pt while blindly calling but i didnt get a shot at him. I first did a series of doe estrus bleats followed by about 3 grunts. If your not seeing deer, go ahead and call. The deer are always curious to see whats going on.
The last few buck I've shot,including the one in my avatar were called in by blind calling.The one in the avatar was actually the smallest of 4 bucks that came in together.I was about 35ft up a white oak over looking a trail that leads to my food plot.They came in looking for the buck they thought was there,and they were looking for a fight.
