Sitting in my stand all morning not hearing or seeing anything, so I grunted a few times and hit my rattle bag, instantly had at least two does start blowing like crazy as they ran off through the woods. I know that couldn't see me and don't believe they smelled me. I am still new to hunting so any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Did I do something wrong ?
Any type of blind calling is risky. The deer were probably looking in that direction and could tell that there was obviously no deer over there, so it spooked them. Make sure to survey the area VERY well before blind calling, sometimes you just can't know though. Also, do not ever call if I deer is close range and looking in your direction. They will pin point you very easily.
I will second what Daryl said and I can attest to your frustrations. I hunt the panhandle of Florida and honestly Florida's buck to doe ratio is no where close to where it should be to successfully rattle in a buck. What I have noticed with hunting in a place where the buck to doe ratio is very far to being even, is I have had the best of luck with the estrous bleats and grunt calls. I have killed numerous bucks down here on public land coming searching for a fight or searching for a doe by just using those calls. I have spooked numerous deer down here with rattling and also using a snort and wheeze. So I hung those up a long time ago. What part of Florida are you hunting? The reason I ask is because South Florida's peak rut dates is the beginning of July while NW Florida, where I am, the peak rut days are the beginning of February. So you could also be trying rutting tactics when the rut isn't even being conducted.
Doe bleats are my favorite means of calling. I've watched many times when rattling has made deer bolt out of an area when they hadn't seen or smelled the hunter.
I am a North Florida Hunter as well. As Brandon_SPC said above the doe to buck ratio is way off. There is no reason for a buck to have to fight for a doe. I have found that when using calls in FL I usually just scare the deer away. Where I am at in zone C our season is over before I even see rutting activity.
