Hey all My plan this week was to put up estrus and doe wicks up when I’m hunting but to also use grunts and rattles. Does anyone else do this or would you recommend doing one or the other? Thanks all! Mario
Well you might as well do something rather than just sit there, blind call loudly and put as much old pee out as possible, then text on your phone it will draw the bucks in.
He's being a SmartAss! Rattleing/ calling should be good now if in a norhern state. Don't bother with the piss Sota,why do you have to be such a eff' n dink??
Am I ? Does anyone suggest blind calling and we all know that the doe P you buy in stores is ineffective. Perhaps if I said it in a nicer way but that takes more effort and really does no good.
Actually, the buck I killed Saturday came into blind calling. I had just rattled and he came cruising in. Half of the bucks on my wall are a result of blind calling. Do I know they were a result of calling? Yes, when they come running into the base of your tree with the hair standing up on their back and grunting and pawing the ground, they are most certainly looking for the source of the calls. And, I have had countless deer follow a drag line into my stand. Everything from good old fashioned Tinks 69 to the really expensive "fresh" stuff. I guess you could say that I strongly suggest blind calling AND using scents. Mainly because it works.
Well Fletch I can't argue with your results, different results than I have seen myself I have had my best luck since I just sat in a tree quiet with no scent out.
I personally don't use scents, have never had luck with them other than smelling like doe piss all day while in the stand. I am a big believer in calling, even blind calling, especially right at first shooting light and the last hour of hunting light. Early archery season, I generally stick to subtle calls, nothing agressive. Deer are vocal year around and sometimes subtle grunts will draw deer in. What a subtle grunt imitates is a buck or doe moving into a area letting other deer know its presence (a locator grunt), I have called several deer in this way early archery season before any rut activity kicks in and even late season archery(post rut). The key to making this grunt is to keep it short and to the point, don't draw it out too long. Once pre rut starts to kick in and the buck start to figure out the pecking order, I will get out my small set of rattling antlers. I will then start doing soft quiet rattling sequences, basically trying to mimick two smaller buck sparring, just think of two 100 inch deer just touching their antlers together, posturing, quiet subtle grunts then touching their antlers together again. I have caught the attention of several mature buck using this method. Once the rut really kicks in and I've physically seen buck chasing doe I will start to get more aggressive with my calling. I will then start using a whole arsenal of different calls. 2 buck fighting over a doe, tending grunts, snort weeze and dominant buck grunts which are louder and more pronounced, along with longer more drawn out bleets. The main thing with calling is recognizing what stages the deer are in and what type of vocals they're using during that stage of the seasons. Sent from my XT1585 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I have had the most success with doe in estrus scents but I get them from a local guy (Whitcombs) anytime after November 3rd is when I put out a couple scent wicks. I personally believe it’s about the area in which you hunt and if there is a lot of exposure to different scents from other hunters and also the volume of does in your area. Good luck!
If you want to see only half of the deer that you might otherwise. During pre-rut and rut, calling kills bucks. Over and over again. I would not leave the house without a grunt tube.
