Called in my first deer...

[josephmrtn]

No i didnt shoot it for two reasons, 1 it was to dark 2 it was to far away... it happened thus: it was a little past 7pm this eve and i was sitting in my stand feeling VERY discouraged... i decided i was just gonna give a blow on my grunt tube just for the heck of it... i blew it 3 or 4 times softly and settled back to wait, it wasnt a min and a half and a doe comes trotting out into the field and looks around she walked around for a few min sniffing and ate an apple or two and then walked back into the woods... i was like WOW i shoulda blown on that 15 min earlier!!!!!!!! looks like a have a new thing to try when nothing is going right

[sampotter]

Just keep it to a light toot or two, leave a fair amount of time between sessions, and never ever do it if a deer is alert and looking in your general direction. Fun, isn't it?

[nyantler]

I have been using a call since the early 80's when they first became popular... I never go in the woods without one... I have called in more bucks than I can count ... All my bow kills were bucks that I called in... I even called in a buck for a friend... it was his first bow kill... they don't always work.. in fact many times deer completely ignore them... but lots of times it has made the difference between seeing a deer and not seeing one... it definitely should be part of every hunters' arsenal.

 

My favorite story is a buck I killed in Maine... another hunter saw him walk into a dark, dank, swampy area riddled with blown down and dead trees in the early morning... I decided I'd go after him... I waited until about 11am to go in to give him time to settle in and bed down... my plan was to creep slowly through the swamp.. stopping to make a call every so often... it took some time to get to the huge  swamp which was a long way down the side of a steep hillside...20 minutes into my walk I stopped and mad a low grunt... the nice 8-point stood up from his bed about 70 yards away... one shot and it was over... I was so far in it took me 5 hours to get the buck out by myself just after dark... I had to carry the buck out... the ground was to much of a mess and made it impossible to drag him... I don't think I could have taken the buck without a call.