Calling All Bucks

I think it’s safe to say that just about all whitetail deer hunters, especially bowhunters, consider grunt calls and/or rattling antlers to be a necessary part of their deer gear. Actually, it’s my opinion that, over the past 10 years especially, there isn’t another aspect of hunting for trophy whitetails that has garnered more attention than calling.

As I wrote in my second book, “Proven Whitetail Tactics”, it’s my opinion that all the attention calling has garnered is well-deserved. For as anyone who has had the unique opportunity can attest, there’s really nothing quite as exciting as calling-in and then harvesting a trophy whitetail. Truth is, just getting a buck–any buck–to respond positively to some rattling or grunting can be an exhilarating experience.

The biggest misconception hunters have about calling is that they should be able to walk into the woods just anywhere and expect to call in big bucks. As a result, they end up calling from spots where A) no bucks hear their calling efforts or B) no big buck in his right mind would consider approaching even if he did hear the calls.

Here’s the deal. The single most important factor for achieving positive responses to your calling efforts is to call from spots that big bucks feel safe and secure approaching. It’s really not any more complicated than that.

Even though big bucks might have hundreds or even thousands of acres on which to live, for survival reasons, they’ll almost always restrict the majority of their activities to very select parts of those many acres. They eat, bed and travel only in very select spots.

Fortunately for us, whitetail bucks have a propensity for leaving highly visual evidence of exactly where they most prefer to walk as they travel between their primary bedding and feeding areas. Now I realize this is going to sound like a very basic philosophy, but it really is this simple: The most preferred buck travel routes are going to harbor the most rub and scrape sign–period!

It should be mentioned, however, that setting up just anywhere along an active rub- or scrape-line won’t necessarily guarantee a rise in calling response rates. For most of the pre-rut period anyway, the closer you set up to bedding areas, the higher your response rates will be. Likewise, the closer it gets to the actual rut, the more time mature bucks will be on their feet in daylight.

It’s imperative hunters keep this old adage in mind when calling: “if a little bit is good, more IS NOT better”. The most common and costly mistake that whitetail hunters make is they call way too much and way too loudly. Don’t overdo it with your grunt calls either. Truth is, mature bucks seldom grunt loudly. And they seldom do what this 2 1/2 year-old buck is doing–grunt with literally every step. Yes, it does happen, but very rarely. Forty-plus years of observation have taught me that mature bucks seldom grunt loudly or frequently.

The best advice I can offer when it comes to calling is to pay close attention to how the big bucks in your hunting areas behave — how they vocalize, how they behave around other bucks their size, how much they fight — those sorts of things. Then decide what sort of a calling sequence you need to adopt.

Hey remember, hunt hard, but always hunt safe!