light sparring

[fisher2]

will opening day be too early to start with the rattle bag light fighting?

[First-light]

Last year I had a bachelor group of three bucks by my stand. The two smaller ones sparred with each other. Not a huge fight, just horsing around. This was Columbus day weekend.

[G-Man]

nope, bachlor groups just breaking up..

[wooly]

One of my favorite and most exciting tactics throughout the season.

My most productive sets have come from trying to rattle bucks from one covers edge to another covers edge down wind, with a small open area between them.

Bucks will tend to emerge from the far cover and scan the opening to look for the fighting bucks. When they don't see them in the clear, sometimes that's enough to peak their curiosity enough to pull them across the clearing to your edge when they think the two fighters have already made their way into the next thicket.

 

Rattling works really well here early in archery season, but your results may vary depending on the structure of the deer heard in your area.

Edited September 18, 2014 by wooly

[dbHunterNY]

....Rattling works really well here early in archery season, but your results may vary depending on the structure of the deer heard in your area.

Yea it doesn't work well where I am because there are so many does compared to bucks. Light sparing is always common place but rarely so you see any all out battles.

[518BowSlayer]

sparring already here in rensselaer county

[landtracdeerhunter]

 Heard antlers last evening in the thick of it, while viewing 15 doe in the open

[NFA-ADK]

Great way to start the season.  I usually do very light tickle then pause for at least 15 min using a doe call to start it off followed by a grunt a few minutes later then the rattle sequence.  Good luck, hope you get some action.

[Chef]

Saw two bucks fighting on the side of the saw mill parkway in westchester the other day

[gfdeputy2]

I always understood it is as soon as they come out of velvet they will start light sparring so I would say you can light rattle as early as opening day

 

[Jmythngdmb]

I did some tine tickling last oct 9th and it brought in a curious doe with a spike behind her. I subsequently ate her. I'm certainly gonna try it again. This happened on public land in 9H.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited September 22, 2014 by Jmythngdmb

[njg0621]

Since they started the October 1st opener I see bachelor groups every year. No real sparring around me yet.... maybe just starting a bit