Calling All Bucks
by Bob Lott | January 10, 2012
When I began bowhunting whitetails I was on such an incredible learning curve that each day in the field was like an avalanche of failures. Luckily, I'm definitely a glass-half-full kind of guy, so no matter how badly I failed, I'd just chalk it up as another day of learning. And did I learn a lot, especially about my favorite way to hunt mature whitetails: calling them in. Below I'll share the best tips and tricks I've learned in my over 30 years of hunting.
Growing up in the state of Ohio, I believe I was lucky to learn from some of the most pressured deer in the Midwest. These are deer that were, and still are, hunted by over 400,000 hunters in a state less than half the size of the state of Wyoming. Ohio deer can be very nocturnal for much of the season, and because of this, I learned pretty quickly to concentrate on the places they sleep. Bedding areas are the one place I could actually see mature deer on their feet, no matter what time of the season, or the weather condition. Mature deer have chosen their bedding areas, not because they're comfy, thick with brush, or even convenient. Those elements are a given. Older, more mature deer have chosen them because they're safe! In other words, there might be many different very thick, comfy places that are convenient, but in most cases, one will stand out as being the safest.
To find these safety zones, my homework during the post season was to find these bedding areas. I did this by scouting all of the ground that I had access to very thoroughly. My goal? To find the right sign that told me a mature deer was living there. I will look for multiple big rubs, scrapes, big tracks, lots of buck droppings, and of course shed antlers which told me the deer not only lived there, but survived the previous season! My last step in the process of assuring me a chance at one of these big bucks was to find a good stand location. These locations need to be favorable for the wind, in a place that I could sneak into without bumping deer, but more important, a location that had great visibility that would allow me to see as much of the bedding area as possible. For me, seeing the deer first then calling makes a huge difference in my success.
My many scouting trips also taught me another important lesson. The majority of the big deers' beds I found were usually located on the outer edges of the piece of property I was hunting. My conclusions were that when a mature deer gets up out of his bed, he likes to walk with the wind in his favor, and likes to put something like a road, an old farm house, or a body of water at his back. He does this, not because he's afraid of being shot, but because he's learned through trial and error that it's the easiest way to find his first doe in heat. Let me explain; when the wind is in his favor, meaning just about any direction except blowing at his back, all he has to do is get up, feed in the same general direction each night, and let his nose decide if he needs to chase a doe or conserve his energy. Mature deer have learned this the hard way. As a young buck, he would try to find a doe that was ready for company, by running all over the county. This kind of carelessness puts a lot of young deer in jeopardy of getting shot at an early age, expending much of his much needed winter fat reserves, or worse still, become road kill. If he survives those first 3-4 years, then he will take up residence in one of these outer edge bedding areas that have become my favorite places to hunt.
Because of limited time to hunt, I learned really quickly that if I wanted to raise my odds of shooting mature animals I needed to go hunting in late October into mid-November. I'm not saying it's the best time for everyone, but it's my favorite. My hunts always begin with a wind report and my favorite time of day is the morning. Hunting mornings have allowed me to slip in undetected, and to see deer that I wouldn't see in the evening while hunting over food sources. Pressured deer will most likely enter feeding areas after shooting light has faded, or in many instances, after dark. Several times I've watched mature deer, while hunting mornings, slip into their bedding areas right at daylight, meaning they had left their feeding areas well before daylight. In most instances these deer would relax, and begin feeding again before laying down for the day. I once had a 160 inch 8 point walk in at daylight, bed down 60 yards from me, and after calling to him softly for almost three hours, he finally got up, walked to within ten yards, where I made a perfect shot. Big deer feel safe and can seem almost like a different animal while walking around in their bedding areas.
The bedding areas I prefer are CRP or an overgrown weedy briar field that once was an agriculture or pasture field. This type of cover gives deer a false sense of security by giving them the idea that if they can't see danger, then danger can't see them. This type of cover is, by far, the best calling set up because it forces a deer to come to the source of the sound due to not being able to see in the tall cover. If I'm hunting big stands of hardwoods, with bedding areas consisting of clear-cuts, or heavy thickets that are impenetrable, then I'd set up in the open hardwoods but within 30 yards of the thicket. Once I had the right wind, I'd climb in and try blind calling the deer out to the edges of the thicket. In most cases, if they hear your calling, they will come at least to the edge to have a look. I killed my biggest deer to date with blind calling, but I still had to know how to read the deer activity I was seeing that morning to make it work. Other good blind calling set ups that I've had success with can include setting up anywhere a deer cannot see beyond your location. This can be anything from thick fence rows, ridge tops, or any place that deer have to walk at least to your location to see where the sounds are coming from. If you call to a deer that can see past your stand location, and he doesn't see a deer, then chances are he won't come.
Blind calling, or calling without seeing your target animal, can work, but your success goes way up when you can actually see the deer's reaction to your calls. For example, I've heard time and time again from other hunters how they blind called and got no response from anything. In most of these cases, I'm willing to bet the farm that if there were deer close enough to hear their calls, then they most likely reacted to it. The biggest problem with blind calling is having deer react only to walk down wind of their location, smelling the hunter before the hunter was able to see the deer. This conclusion was derived from past experiences, and observations of deer that I've called to while being able to see them. During these visual encounters most of the deer I've called to have usually headed down wind of my location. I believe a buck will go for your wind for two reasons. First, to find the deer that is making the sounds. Second, to make sure he's not walking into a fight he can't win. I do not believe a deer is trying to figure out if it's a human or deer making those sounds. If deer were actually walking around thinking that humans are out there making deer sounds, they'd never be called in. I'm a strong believer that deer do not reason; they act only on instinct and experience. The difference with seeing the deer first was I was able to continue to coax the deer in with soft calls before he was able to get to my wind.
Another misinterpretation that a lot of hunters make about unsuccessful calling is thinking that they called to a deer and the deer totally ignored their calls. In these instances it's my opinion that the deer probably didn't even hear their calls. Even when a deer is nose to the ground on a hot doe, and seems completely oblivious to anything, he will still at least give you an ear, or look your way when he hears your calls. Don't be afraid to get loud with your calling! Start out soft and wait for a reaction, if none, then get louder. Put yourself in the same situation as the deer you're calling to. If he's walking through crunchy leaves, then pretend it's you, and ask yourself if I was walking through the loud crunchy leaves, and someone was blowing softly on a grunt call, would I hear it? Imagine a deer eating acorns, and ask yourself, could I hear anything if I was the one doing the crunching? Don't be afraid to raise the volume to get his attention. I've had plenty of deer that couldn't hear me blowing on my grunt call like a trumpet, but when I picked up my horns and rattled, he stopped in his tracks, and gave me his attention. Once he's listening, start over with just a few soft grunts, or doe bleats. Once you have his attention, wait, and I mean wait, till he gives some indication of what he wants to do next. Will he start my way, or will he ignore me? If his body language is telling you he's going to ignore you and continue down the trail he's walking, and then hit him again with more short soft grunts. This may be the deal closer, plus it doesn't hurt to try. Then there's what I call the "I'll come back to you later" scenario. Several times, I've had deer look my way, contemplate coming to me, walk away as if to ignore me, only to show up 20 minutes later from a different direction. In all cases the deer just really needed to satisfy his own curiosities, whether it is check a doe that he can see or his favorite scrape before deciding to investigate the origin of my calls. Always be ready just in case!
You may be wondering what the best calls are. I have a few favorites. The best call in my arsenal is hands down the Grunt call. It works really well just about any time of the season. I normally start off with soft calls to a relaxed feeding buck, but I'm not afraid to try a snort wheeze followed up by a crazy sounding growl to get a walking buck to hear me. Again, once he stops I go back to soft calls. My second favorite call is rattling antlers. I use real antlers to give it that authentic sound, and I'll use this call in the same manner as my Grunt call. Start out with some sparing, and if need be, hammer them like two bucks are fighting to the death. If you don't try it, it can't work!
The last, and one of the most important calling tips I can share is to always have a good pair of binoculars with you. Many of the deer I've killed over the years were first spotted with a pair of binoculars long before I'd have seen them with my naked eye. Remember, the sooner you can spot them the better chance you will have to call them to your location. I killed a buck this year in Missouri that I worked on for an hour after spotting him over 300 yards away. I nearly gave up, only seeing him three times in that 300 yards. But as luck would have it, he walked to within 10 yards of my tree where I took both lungs out with a very well placed Rage Broad-head. It truly doesn't get any better than that!
There are so many different scenarios when calling deer, that you will have no choice but to learn the hard way. As you succeed more, you will learn more tricks and improve your calling technique. The more time you take to really observe deer's movements and reactions, the better you will be at guessing what that big buck is going to do before he does it. Many of my successful hunts have started off the same way, by first seeing the target animal, calling to him, getting a response, waiting to see if he will react. If he does, stop calling and wait. If he doesn't, call again till he starts to come your way. They don't always come running. You have to really be on your toes, and try to understand why he's doing what he's doing. Once you fine tune your ability to read deer movement, and reactions, you will be even more successful. Once that buck has committed, in most cases he will pinpoint your exact location even from hundreds of yards away, and have no problem walking directly to your tree. I've called in hundreds of deer aging from just a year old to more than six years old; it really is all about timing. No matter how pressured they are or educated they've become, deer of any age can, and will continue to be called in. Good luck!
