The Best Time to Call
As with everything in deer hunting, the answer changes based on the scenario, but here are some general quick tips.
#1: Avoid calling to deer that are already heading your direction.
#2: Avoid calling too loud. It’s best to start off soft and increase the volume on each sound until the deer hears you.
#3: Pay attention to the wind. Often, bucks will hear your calling and attempt to come in downwind. If he’s already downwind, his first instinct will be to try and smell the source of the sound (which is you 😉 ).
#4: Practice. You need to practice sounding as realistic as possible. Below is a video of real deer making vocalizations. Replicating them will add realism to your calling and increase success.
Identify Good Calling Setups
Now let's get into some scenarios and talk about setups - why they worked or didn’t work 😝, and how to apply them to your situations.
QUICK TIPS:
#1: Try to pick spots where it’ll be hard for approaching deer to get downwind. The edge of a river for example. If your wind is blowing out across the river, any bucks you call to on your side will have a difficult time getting downwind.
#2: Thick cover around your setup combined with a vantage point capable of spotting bucks from a distance is ideal. This allows you to cover more country with your eyes and call to bucks that are well out of range. At the same time, the thick cover in your immediate area at ground level forces the bucks to come all the way in to see the source of the sound. If it’s wide open, bucks will often hang up because they can see the spot where the sound is coming from. Set the trap. Make him come looking for you.
#3: Be patient. Zach and Aaron called to a mature buck with a doe once and had to wait 20 minutes before he committed. It was windy and the buck was about 200 yards away. We blew the grunt call very loudly several times to get his attention but once his head snapped over, we stopped calling. He stared in our direction for 5 minutes and eventually started rubbing some saplings nearby. Instead of calling more, we decided to wait and see how it played out. Eventually he marched straight in, saw the decoy and that was it.
