Do you typically blind grunt or grunt only when a buck is spotted and moving in the wrong direction? I have tried both and have had not had any luck with either circumstance. I'm either doing it wrong or I just suck at it.I have tried grunting in pre-rut,rut, post rut and second rut [second wk of dec] to no avail.
I've done both with semi-success They will come in, but the shooters always seem to hang up around 40 - 50 yards out, and I wont take that shot
I'm a buck calling maniac. :D I blind call and also call when I spot a buck and have had lots of success. Actually, I think I can credit most of my buck kills to calling. IMO...calling is only as good as your setup. One of my stands is situated in a gully and I have a ridge on each side of me. When a buck hears my grunts he cannot actually see the "other deer" because of the gully. He must come closer to investigate. Once that happens he is well into bow range. When grunting in open timber; the buck can pinpoint you or get spooky because he hears a "buck" that should be within sight. My '06 bow buck was about 60 yards away and about to crest a hill out of sight until he heard one of my many grunts. I think he was hard of hearing but I finally got his attention. He turned around and came straight for me. My grunt call of choice is the M.A.D. buck growl. I don't use the call for the growl feature but mainly for the tone and volume. I usually wait until everything is quite and calm and throw out 6-8 medium-loud grunts and repeat every 10-15 minutes. Every heard a buck grunt in the woods? The ones I've heard were LOUD and repeated. I don't believe in the "grunt 3 times and shut up for 30 minutes." Here's a buck I blind called. I didn't take the shot because 1.) I needed my EAB doe and 2) I had just seen a monster the day before. The quality kinda sucks. If you will notice...he is looking around trying to figure out where the other buck is. He was 25 yards the whole time.
What Finch said almost to a T...set up is the key. If you sit in the wide open and blind call I believe you have turned the odds in favor of the deer by a million. I may run more off than I ever will know, but like will primos said...the callmaker sometimes calls too much. I don't make calls but you get the point.
The best advice (and I will use that term loosely) I can give on calling and grunting is... Let the deer tell you what to do.. THINK about the situation.. then begin calling. (ie.. time of year ETC) And what I mean is.. if you're in an area with lots of does nearby.. ACT like a doe.. or a fawn. An aggressive buck is in a field checking does.. bleat like a doe.. then throw out a few soft grunts... then repeat... you get the idea. Slow down.. give it a moment.. think what deer should be doing now.. then mimic their likely vocals.
I've had quite a bit of success grunting, but moreso when it is used in combination with say rattling. my biggest two bucks to date were grunted and rattled in.
Only when I see a buck unless I am rattling, and then I only use my mouth and real vocal cords for grunting.. Walt
I pretty much call to the ones I can see, especially if it looks like I wont get a shot. But ever now and then I will turn a few loose just to see if I can pull one out of a thicket.
I (try to) only grunt/contact call once I make a visual on a buck and ONLY if I KNOW he's not coming. At that point, you have nothing to lose. I've had tremendous success calling deer in from well out of range to 250 yards and for about 25 years now. It will not work all of the time but when it does, it's like magic. I will never go into the woods without at least one grunt tube! (I say try as every now and again I'll give a blind grunt, softly.)(Sadly, I don't like to do this but occasionally I get bored.) And, when I do see a buck and choose to call, I start very softly and take the temperature of the deer. Then like duke said, I let the deer tell me what they want to hear.
