As a lifelong bowhunter, I was trained to be
stealthy, stalk undetected, or wait motionless in ambush for unsuspecting
whitetail deer. So, it goes against my grain to break the silence of the woodlands
by calling blindly or to out-of-range deer in hopes of luring them for a close
shot.
I primarily hunt whitetail deer from a tree
stand because of the added advantage of seeing more animals and facilitating
more time for field-judging and filming. When I have good confidence in the
predictability of deer movement during a particular setup with appropriate wind
direction, I will not call at all; however, if I see a mature animal or a group
of deer passing out of range, or if I’m trying to prevent them from colliding
with my downwind odor, I will call to them using different techniques
throughout the season.
During the opening week, I set tree stands based
on summer scouting and hope to intercept a mature buck still on a predictable
feeding pattern. In Illinois, this usually means extensive feeding on drying
soy beans or alfalfa. Any calling I do during this time of year consists of
soft doe or lost fawn bleats. Bucks are still curious and often search out the
added security provided by a family group of does.
While bleating at a group of fawns on the second
day of the season, I managed to entice the mothering instincts of the lead doe
enough to move the entire group fifty yards closer to my tree. Allowing them to
pass within fifteen yards resulted in my taking of a mature four-by-four with
long back tines and a seven inch “Y-fork” on the right side who was trailing
the herd a short time later.
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By the time mid-October arrives,
the mast crops of acorns, black locust pods, or wild apples begin to attract
deer. It’s also a time when there is much posturing and sparring from young
bucks who are trying to establish their pecking order. I will begin carrying a
small set of rattling antlers in my pack, using them very sparingly to arouse
curiosity of other combatants. I realize that not everyone is interested in
taking only mature bucks, so a young buck will do just fine. Light tickling of
the tines has brought in many bucks for me to enjoy and capture on film.
Tapping the tines or softly grinding the lower beams together is often all that
is required to get a buck to strut in on stiff legs, with ears laid back, and
neck hair at attention. His preoccupation with posturing often causes my broken
camouflaged form in the tree to go unnoticed.
The end of October and first of
November are a time for the initiation of the regional rut. Not only do I use
the doe bleat, but now employ a host of other techniques including tending
grunts, serial grunts, bawling grunts, rattling antlers, and the often over
looked wheeze call to try to move deer. Many of the mature bucks have not yet
hooked up with a receptive doe yet, so I will call at any large buck moving
through the area as well as increase my frequency of blind calling at periodic
intervals as needed. I typically do not call much during the first hour after
light because I prefer going undetected during this time of increased deer
movement. During the following three hours of my tree stand sit, I will call
quietly using a grunt tube or going directly to a wheeze call. I may let out
two wheezes thirty seconds apart every twenty minutes or so. This is a very
close range calling technique that I will definitely use on a big buck out of
range or about to cross my scent trail. This call is most appropriate for
mature bucks that are not in the presence of a receptive doe. I do not wheeze
at young bucks because it is a vocalized warning signal telling all other bucks
to stay away from me and “my doe.” It will often cause young bucks to flee or
at least be on red alert. Mature bucks have a different mind-set and presumed
dominance while trying to take over a receptive doe from a competitor. So the
wheeze will not incite fear, but rather a brazen attitude of machismo.
Mike's 9 pt buck - Mike used fawn bleats to move a group of
deer toward his stand; this nice nine-pointer followed the group.
This aggressiveness was clearly
demonstrated to me when I used a series of nine wheeze calls and six grunts
over a twenty minute period to call in a huge seven and a half year old buck I
was familiar with in my area. He responded to my warning calls with a wheeze of
his own while rubbing trees, breaking limbs, and scraping the ground. He got
very angry with my lack of respect of his reign. I finally enticed him to come
straight in at me through thick honeysuckle brush, but alas, my shot went just
under his heart. Even though I missed this great buck, I still cherished the
experience with doing battle with such a magnificent animal.
During windy days I tend to use
rattling antlers to increase my effective calling range, but over the years I
have learned not to rattle as much during the rut. My goal is to bring in
mature bucks and I have found that rattling may be counter productive this time
of year for this age group. Again, if a young buck is what you seek, then light
or heavy rattling will usually work well. The young bucks are actively
searching for available does throughout the day and they are acting on
instincts associated with a presumed fight for dominance. Meanwhile, there is a
good chance that older bucks may have had a negative experience from being
fooled by a hunter or an actual confrontation where he lost. They are also more
apt to circle my location in hopes of finding the scent of the doe which caused
the conflict. It is also simply a numbers game where there are generally few
mature bucks in the age structure of a herd, but they have a higher occurrence of
already finding and locking with a doe in heat, which makes them significantly
less responsive.
I grunt at bucks during the rut but
usually only after the wheeze fails to draw a desired response from a solitary
buck. Grunts can be made loud, soft, or commandingly drawn out, but like all
calling, may bring in a buck on red alert, making getting off a shot more
difficult. Grunts have an over all calming affect, but like any calling can
simply be ignored. My brother, Mark, experienced this calming once when he was
in a tree stand positioned in a thicket set so he could see out into an oak
grove. He saw a doe with a fawn feeding on acorns or fallen leaves from nearby
bushes. He did not think she was in heat any more due to the closeness of the
fawn. The fawn started running around and playing, like they do, when Mark saw a
huge 11-point buck come into where they were. Instead of wheezing or rattling
which may put the buck on the offensive, Mark grunted two times and the buck
immediately left the doe and walked straight at him. Since he was in the
thicket, he did not have a wide shooting area, only a small lane from that
direction. The buck stood straight on in his lane at sixteen yards. Mark held
his seventy-five pound longbow at ready, but could only wait for the buck to
make the next move. Shortly the fawn began running around again causing the
buck to look in its direction. As the leaves and brush rustled from the fawn’s
play, the big buck needed to get a better look, so it turned sideways, giving
Mark the broadside shot he was wishing for. He sent a Kentucky flint knapped
stone tipped birch arrow on its way and saw it pass completely through the buck
and strike something hard in the ground on the other side. After waiting a
while, Mark got down to pick up his arrow. It was then he noticed that the
shaft was broke at the notch where the flint was secured. It hit a stone so
hard after passing through the deer that it cracked the shaft end. The shaft
was blood soaked; causing excitement in Mark as he followed the trail for the
first seventy or eighty yards, but then it gave out. It took a while to find
the deer, and the big buck made over four-hundred yards before it was found
dead. The 800 grain arrow passed between the fifth rib from the diaphragm at an
angle that clipped one lung and the liver. Mark does not recommend taking
anything other than a broadside shot, and is seriously thinking about only
shooting from the ground with these type broad heads in the future. The buck
had thirteen-inch back tines and was over twenty inches wide inside spread that
resulted in a net Pope and Young score of 172. He filmed this same deer in a
previous year, but had not seen it again until this final time.
So in review, I much prefer the
wheeze call during the rut and into the late season; however, I have had great
success post primary rut using a specialized calling technique I termed “puppet
fights.” Being frustrated with traditional rattling and inability to hold a
bucks attention at close range without him spooking or circling me, I devised
directional rattling from the ground by tethering four shed antlers together on
three-foot cord leaders attached to a single haul-line fastened within reach of
me to the tree near my elevated stand position. I was then able to continue my fierce
rattling with a buck moving in, often at less than thirty yards. I like the
fact that the sound from four heavy sheds bouncing and clashing each other on
the ground comes from a more natural direction and the ruckus created is more
realistic of two fighting bucks as they break limbs, rustle leaves, and tamp
their feet on the earth. I can also swing the antlers against the tree’s trunk
creating yet another convincing sound of the battle. By pulling or the single
haul-line with one hand like a puppeteer, I can better control the tempo of the
fight. I can do so with less movement, and with my free hand holding my bow or
video camera at ready, I’m better prepared for the shot than when using
traditional rattling with dual sheds clashing together occupying both hands. I
keep my eyes on the approaching buck for the entire duration using the puppet
fights technique without having to hang them up like traditional antlers and
then reach for my bow and nock an arrow. I am simply much better equipped for
the quick action that rattling entices.
Puppet fight- Four antlers tied together to aid in
ground rattling from a tree stand.
I successfully called
in several bucks the first time I used the ground rattling technique. I
attached one end of the tote line to the tree, leaving it easily reachable at
my side while facilitating minimum movement. I left about four feet of slack in
the line as the pile of four antlers tied to the other end laid ready to dance
at the base of the tree. It was mid-December in Illinois when I first reached
for the cord and lifted the sheds a few feet off the ground, giving them a
shake and dropped them. As soon as they hit the ground, I quickly jerked them
back into the air allowing them to flip and clank against each other. I found I
could vary the intensity of my “fighting bucks” from sparring and tine tickling
to an all out fight for dominance by increasing the force at which I pulled the
line. The four large sheds sounded much more realistic to me than just a pair,
and they imitate a variety of action. Bucks came right away, one from the north
and the other from the west. Both eight-pointers, they appeared to be two and a
half years old. As one of them went behind a tree, I slowly lifted my forearm.
Taking the slack out of the line allowed the sheds to lift and group together,
then came to rest with sounds of
Puppet Fight Trophy – A mature buck taken using the Puppet
Fight technique.
bone as I let down. The massaging of the tines
was all it took to bring both bucks right on in within five yards of my tree.
With unnoticed movement, I easily brought my right hand up to the bowstring
and would have been ready to shoot had the bucks been a little older.
Assessment of this
first hunt revealed that I could continue the antler rattling when the bucks
were reasonably close, and still prepare for the shot much more quickly and
with limited movement. I was convinced that the sound of antler tines and a
slight rustling of leaves directed from ground level was the key to bringing
the bucks past me. More than anything, the rustling leaves fooled the bucks
into thinking the action was taking place a little further down the hill, so
the bucks hurried to get there.
I was very pleased
with the outcome of my first attempts, but still wasn’t sure if the technique
would increase the frequency of response by mature bucks. Bucks that have just
gone through the rut seem to respond much more readily to rattling because the
competition has increased between them, and this fight over a receptive doe may
be the only action in town. However, mature bucks are still more cautious, and
are familiar with the consequences of a fight, making them much more reluctant
to come charging in. I was hoping that the additional sounds created by the
puppet fights would provoke a sexual urge that a mature buck would have to
address, or at least spark enough curiosity to make him come to investigate the
origin.
During mid to late
December and into January, the rut has tapered off and the cold weather makes
deer more interested in food. As deer concentrate around a dwindling food
source, fights among dominant bucks becomes more prevalent and serious as
competition increases over a few remaining does coming into estrous.
Consequently, I greatly increase my use of rattling this time of year because
of its increased range and effectiveness to lure mature bucks. Again, it can be
used as a successful tool to bring in lesser bucks if you desire.
This ONe Hurts! - A series of wheeze and grunt calls
brought this 7 year-old buck close enough for a missed shot.
Between Christmas
and New Years one year, I used puppet fights to lure over forty bucks while
spending time hunting two separate properties ten miles apart. Waiting for a
special buck, I captured many of the other deer on film. Images of these bucks
can be viewed in our next video from Brothers of the Bow called “Essential
Encounters.”
On one hunt I
stayed in my tree stand during near forty-degree temperatures and rain, and the
following day endured temperatures that dropped to twelve degrees. The heavy
wind was constant, with gusts exceeding forty miles per hour. The fine snow
ice-blasted my face, and,
paired with the negative five degrees wind-chill, numbed any exposed
skin. In late afternoon, four does fed on honeysuckle toward me but eventually
veered off, passing wide of my tree. One of those does would have been very
tasty, and with this icy wind, it would have been a good time to make a kill
without disturbing the rest of the evening hunt. About thirty minutes later, I
bounced the four sheds off the ground with the haul-line and raked them through
the brush at the bottom of the tree. There was mostly grass and very few dry
leaves at the tree’s base, but the dead and dry box elder limbs cracked crisply
when the horns struck. Shortly, three bucks came toward me to investigate. A
small eight-pointer went back into the thickets to my right, while the second
buck with shed antlers and large pedicles stood around for a few minutes but
soon lost interest. The third buck was a ten-pointer that started to come
closer. He was four and a half years old and I recognized him from a shed I
found the previous spring not a hundred yards from where the buck now stood.
After staring in my direction for a while, he turned to walk away. I reached
over, grabbed the line and shook the antlers. The buck immediately turned and
trotted toward me, locking up at thirty yards. After three minutes, he again
started to turn away. He couldn’t see the origin of the fight, so I grabbed the
line and bounced the sheds one more time. He swung his head back toward me and
crept ten yards closer. Turning to his right, the buck slipped through the
honeysuckle brush until he stopped broadside in my shooting lane at twenty
yards. After a short blood trail, I found the
buck at the bottom of a ravine. He was quite a prize. With limited movement and
my bow in hand, I conned a big buck at close range. The wind may have helped
disguise my calling, but I didn’t feel the cold as I collected my reward for
staying out there all day and having faith in a peculiar calling method. I have
dedicated an entire chapter to the puppet fight technique in my new book called
“One with the Wilderness.”
Since isolated
does coming into estrous abandon their fawns, I like to capitalize on this
confusion using fawn bleats to move deer toward me. The bleat may bring in does
in a defense mode, or even bucks who associate this distress with an
opportunity to find a receptive doe. Late December and early January in my area
is the time of year that yearling does who were born early in May go into their
first estrous. These young does are very confused by the attention they are
getting from multiple bucks. There is usually a very active chase involved for
theses fawns, so a fawn bleat may bring in a nearby buck that has lost track of
her.
When used
appropriately, calling deer is very productive, but we must all pay attention
to its overuse, and undesired effects they may have in your specific hunting
area. Similar to bugling elk or calling turkeys, deer are able to adapt to
adversity they may experience at the hands and voice of hunters. There really
is no “magic bullet” to deer hunting, so neither is calling. It will work great
at times and be detrimental at others. The same can be said for using scents,
decoys and any number of gadgets marketed to hunters. But if these things give
you confidence and keep you hunting, they may bring success inadvertently by
employing the “ultimate gimmick,” time spent in the woods.
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Mike Mitten is a cancer researcher from Illinois. His life’s passion can be experienced in his new book “One with the Wilderness”
(Passions of a Solo Bowhunter), and as a co-producer of the bowhunting films
“Primal Dreams” and “Essential Encounters.” For information visit
brothersofthebow.com
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