I've had some of my most memorable hunts by rattling in whitetails those special few days every year and thought I'd share my strategy in hopes you will give it a try. My favorite time of the hunting season My favorite time to be in the deer woods is generally the week before to the week after the scrapes have leafed over. This is the transition of the pre rut to the rut. This fortunately coincides with the timing most of us take our vacations to bow hunt. The week before the scrapes leaf over you've got a pretty good chance of rattling in a mature buck if you play your cards right. You'll know the time to rattle is right when your seeing bucks cruising everywhere and harassing doe to no end. Take note harassing doe and breeding/tending are two completely different things. A buck that corners off a doe and runs her around an area for a while and scent checks and moves off is not tending the doe his is just scent checking her to see if she is receptive to his advances. This is an excellent time to rattle in a mature whitetail. They have not locked themselves down on a doe yet. I hunt in the mountainous terrain of Southern W.Va. The buck doe ratio is almost 1:1 in my area. That makes calling in mature/older deer so much easier. I'm going to recommend something that is going to pull many out of their comfort zone. I'm going to recommend rattling in buck from the ground using the team work of a few hunting buddies or solo with the increased risk of you not seeing the buck that was called in. I like to rattle on those early November mornings when there is a heavy frost and it is dead quiet. I have the group walk and stop occasionally mimicking the sound of browsing deer. I generally find an end of a point where the sound of my rattling sequence can be heard for a long ways off. I have at least one guy go down wind about 80 yards and hide in a likely looking spot. I find a spot to hide where my calling can be heard the best. If I have another hunter with me, I'll set them upwind of me a ways in the event a buck comes in that direction. That pretty well eliminates my own personal chance at success but it's fun to watch. Once everyone is tucked away nice, I start my call sequence with the sound of two different buck grunts (HS Scents--True Talker). I then do some light tree scraping with the antlers simulating the sound of antlers rubbing a tree. I then do some light antlers to the ground to paint the auditory illusion of walking mixed in with an occasional buck grunt and then throw in a doe bleat/fawn bleat with “The Can". I then proceed to start the rattling sequence. I usually start with a clash of the tines followed by some grinding and then back to some clashing of the tines mixed in with some grunts and brush breaking. I end with a furious pounding of the antlers to the ground/breaking of brush simulating a fleeing buck followed up by a dominate buck grunt. This is all topped off with a soft roll of “The can” or a doe bleat. Always be prepared to shoot quickly. I usually set up in the middle of a laurel bush and have several limbs broken off for shooting lanes. I hang my bow on one of these broken off limbs stubs with an arrow knocked and pointing in the direction I anticipate the buck coming from. I always range several landmarks to use as references when I need to shoot. I always set my sliding adjustable site to 30 yards and aim low in the vitals if he is extremely close and in the middle if he farther out. If it is a long shot I always use my laser and adjust my slider accordingly. I always have my laser hanging nearby so I can get to it quickly. I usually call and then wait 30 minutes or so until I move on to the next point. I have had most of my pre rut rattling success before 11:00am. I then usually regroup for the day and plan an evening watch of a food source or a travel corridor between known doe bedding groups, or down wind of doe bedding areas. I've got some really cool stories about rattling that I can share when I get the time including taking my all time favorite buck and calling in a hunter that looked like he came straight out of the movie deliverance.
Last post for the day, entertainment only I first heard of the buck the fall of 1998 by a delivery truck driver. He said he saw a enormous antlered buck cross the road in front of him that had a rack 30" wide. I take reports like this with a grain of salt but the following summer the same guy told me he saw the deer again. I was up in the area scouting another buck I was after and stopped by a convenience store and the clerk was telling me about seeing a giant buck from what sounded like was the same area the delivery truck guy had said. My curiosity was up now. I had two separate individuals that didn't know each other tell me about seeing a giant buck in one specific spot on the road. I immediately drove down there and dropped off the side of the mountain and picked up some impressive rubs on some big trees I didn't get the chance to hunt that buck until later that fall. I had taken a nicer 140 class buck in Southern WV and called my good hunting buddy to tell him. He was happy for me but reported that he had been to his property and had found some giant rubs and scrapes. He asked me if I had some time to go down and check it out. I didn't even put two and two together but his property was about 1/2 mile from where I found the rubs earlier in the story. I got out of my truck got dressed and took my rattling antlers and grunt tube. I walked about 100-150 yards and saw the first scrape and rub. I walked over to check it out. The scrape was in the middle of an overgrown logging road. I bent down to feel the scrape and it was still warm from where the buck had just urinated in it. I looked up the logging road and could clearly make out several more scrapes and rubs going up a ravine and then circling to the left and up on the hill. I immediately found a laurel bush and snapped off some limbs and stepped back inside the bush and hung up my bow with an arrow knocked. I took the broken off limbs and stuck them in the ground in front of me to further breakup my outline. I started my calling and rattling sequence and had just finished when I saw the sight of my life. The giant was up on the hill with his hair all hackled up on his back, his ears laid flat and walking sideways toward my position grunting with about every step. I laid down all of the calls and grabbed the bow and waited. He continued on a course that would have him pass my position at 35 yards before he would go into a laurel thicket and out of my life. The only shooting lane was 35 yards away. I carefully aimed and threaded a perfect arrow through the brush that found his vitals. I'll never forget that buck and he is my all time favorite buck and solo hunt. His picture is below and I refer to him as “Way to Wide “. Way too wide is on the left and the 140 class Southern WV buck is on the right.
Funny story about rattling I was set up on the end of a long point the first week of November several years back. The bucks were actively cruising for doe. I knew this because I know of a nearby sanctuary where no deer hunting is allowed. I went there in the middle of the day the day before my planned hunt to observe deer behavior. I had set for a rattling sequence up on this beautiful point with multiple hillsides directly across from which I was sure there were several P&Y class would be within earshot. I did my normal thing by setting up in the middle of a laurel bush and went through my rattling sequence. I could hear a deer come down off the mountain in front of me and into the valley below. To bad I didn't have a partner or he surely would have gotten a shot. I heard a stick break behind me. Low and behold here comes this hillbilly, deliverance looking guy that appeared to come straight out of the literature from the Hatfield McCoy feud. He had a long black coat/beard/hair and was packing a double barreled shotgun that was split down between the barrels. He had one finger on the trigger and was high stepping it looking intently into my hiding spot. I yelled out " whoa buddy, there's a human in here, don’t shoot ". He sat back down on his heals and said " wharrrr you at? “ I said I'm in this bush right in front of you and don't shoot. I walked over to him and he said he was looking for a haaaawg!!!!!!!! I said I didn't think there was any wild boar in this area. He said " Naaaaah, there's lots of Haaaaawgs in here. I kilt one haaar last year. I think I came pretty close to getting shot or having a broke back mountain performed on me there. The hunt wasn't an entire bust. The following day I was back at the same spot and spotted a doe with her tail tucked tight moving like she was going somewhere. She disappeared into the ravine below and I spotted MR Big coming around the hill following. I dropped down low and hid between two laurel bushes. Before I could get the grunt tube out he disappeared below me. I thought real hard and decided to try a doe bleat since he had lost track of her. I softly hit the doe bleat and waited. About 30 seconds passed and I spotted his head coming up over the bank right at me. I drew the bow and picked a hole through the laurel bush. He stepped right in that little hole and I harpooned him through the lungs. He tore off up over the bank and down the mountainside. I found him later piled up in a dried up streambed. He was a nice buck and one I won’t soon forget.
As far as hunting strategies go rattling is by far the most exciting hunting technique I use. I use it for entertainment purposes for my hunting buddies and enjoy seeing the look on thier face when a buck comes crashing through the woods looking for a fight.Just be advised that it works best during the cruising stage of the prerut on all bucks including dominate buck. During the actual rut it will work on subordinate buck and occassionally on dominate buck that is not already locked down on a doe.
Prior to last year (2010) rattling has been a very productive tactic for me to use. Last year I rattled numerous times and only once did I turn a head of a very nice buck. In that hunt I couldn't rattle anymore being I had 3 does 30 yards north of me all of a sudden who would've caught me In the tree If I would've kept rattling. I really believe I would've turned this buck around If It wasn't for those does to my north. It was October 27th or the 28th I believe.
interesting stories and very nice bucks. sounds like you have your rattling game down pretty good. thanks for sharing!
You probably missed the primary rut which was late October Early November. I witnessed a strong secondary rut the last of nov/1st of December and also for the first time ever a noticeable third rut!
