Center Feature:

Don't Just Sit There; Make A Call
Taking advantage of the deer's need to communicate

By C.D. Denmon

Calling for deer has been done for centuries. Native Americans were among the first to successfully use this tactic. They learned the different vocalizations the deer used and mimicked them when the time was right to do so. For some reason calling tactics for deer were lost and not very commonly used. In more recent times, calling for deer has become popular among serious deer hunters.

Fear is one of the biggest reasons for these tactics’ on a larger role in the deer hunting community. This comes from hunters being afraid of scaring approaching game by making noise. It’s been drilled into hunters to sit, be patient, be quiet and good things will come. Deer hunters need to become more aggressive with the use of calls and scents because without those aids they really are not fully capitalizing on the deer’s natural instinct to breed, socialize with other deer, or take advantage of their own natural curiosity.

Many times when a hunter is afield he doesn’t want to take the chance of spooking a deer by making sounds from a grunt tube in hopes that maybe a deer is already on its way. While it is possible to spook a deer by using the wrong vocalization, wrong sequence or too much volume, it is more likely that you can lure in more than you could have ever imagined if you put in a little practice and learn a little bit about deer biology. Over the years I have called in several hundred deer using various vocalizations, antler rattling and antler rubbing sequences in several states, but most were in my home state of Pennsylvania, which is considered one of the worst states for deer-calling due to its buck-to-doe ratios.

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