Grunt call lessons

[countrygirl]

On morning last month...Tom and I along with Rick Johnson were hunting the Big Woods...up at our Aunt's farm.  Tom was in the Meat Locker section...Rick was in the far West end and I was sitting high and pretty up in the tall ladder stand.  Hunting was differnt this year...sort of unpredicable....  First an Uncle had decided to run a bull dozer through pretty much the center of the woods.........(I guess I really disappointed him by not shooting anything with my bow at the farm  in 2006).............

The bulldozer took down a couple medium size trees...but mainly it opened up the buck brush and other undergrown so ya could see what was coming toward you sooner.  It caused the deer to move entirely different then I had seem them do previously.  I can't say I really liked it...I did see a lot of bucks...Most of them came up directly behind me...straight up out of a deep steep ditch....usually where I had walked in about an hour before.  It took awhile but I learned to sit still and not to look back when I heard or sensed something.      

Anyway...on the particular morning I was talking about...a fog had rolled in.  We got to the stands before light it was pretty quiet...all you could hear was the big fat ...splats of the fog dripping..................

Then I heard it....grunt

Just a short grunt...it sounded like it came from the bottom of the ditch.......to foggy to see a thing!

Then..........another grunt to the left.......one in front and one to the right.....a whole chorus of grunts..this went on for about 15 minutes....I thought the guys were messing with me.......playing a trick...........

Turns out the guys thought I was doing it.  Basically I learned that morning...when I do grunt...it has been way to long....I need to make shorter grunts..because what I heard that morning is nothing like I hear the guys on television do.

I stood at the ready with my Black Widow PTF waiting for 45 minutes...but the bucks disappeared with the fog.

[jacobsladder]

yep...short grunts and not too loud.....i think most guys over do it...i grunted two bucks in a few years back...shot one....both took off..and i grunted the other back to within range...just short quiet grunts.....i think youll get some of the longer more guttaral grunts from the mature bucks that are trailing a receptive doe....ive seen this also, but still not real loud... ive also watched young bucks in the chase phase with just short grunts chasing.... im no expert but i hope this helps..

[rg176bnc]

A long grunt is very antagonistic to other deer.  It pretty much means stay away I mean business.  Ive only heard this twice in 18 years of bowhunting.

[Smilingg]

I grunted a 6 pointer in from 250 yards away this season and from my tree stand I was able to watch him every step of the way, which was really helpful.

 He was making his way across a cutover and I was on the edge of a treeline. He ignored the first few grunts either because he didn't hear them or wasn't interested. I grunted again and he stopped as though he had hit a brick wall and zeroed right in on my position and stared hard for 30 seconds or so, during which I didn't even breathe.

Then he lost interest and resumed his travel. I hit him again with the grunt and he did the laser-beam-trained-on-me bit again for another 30 seconds before moving on off again.

He got right to the edge of the cutover and was about to disappear into the far woods when another grunt made him hesitate. He wasn't angry at the presence of another buck nor was he overwhelmed by lust. His curiosity just got the better of him, and he started casually re-tracing his steps and making a big half-circle back towards me. One more grunt at about 150 yards was all it took.

If I hadn't been able to see him and gauge the effects of the grunts on him, I bet I'd have grunted too much or not enough or too loud or soft, or in heavy cover I'd have brought him in right under my stand looking up at me before turning inside out.

[woodchucker]

I scared away 3 bucks this year using a grunt call  

I think I should throw mine in the garbage.....

[Dale Hajas]

I use short grunts also. One important note here: You may not have scared the deer away. Deer will circle downwind, even at 100 yards to try and smell whatever is making the grunt. If those deer were actually scared off it may have been something ekse, like a scent trail or even a scant glimpse of movement. Short grunts have always worked in SW PA. Good Luck!!

[countrygirl]

Thanks for all the responses.  I also have grunted a deer in...it was my first year hunting about 5 or 6 years ago.  On the first day of the hunt...my husband put me in a tree and as he walked away he said...don't let anything pass by you...about 30 minutes later 2 button bucks came by...I thought they were does...so I shot one and it ran past him....and he looked at me to give me a thumbs up....right as I was drawing on the second deer...which I also hit.  About 4 days later we had moved to another area and I decided to stay up all day...so I packed some crackers and raisens and extra water for lunch.  After awhile I got bored...I guess it was around 3 o'clock...so I got out my $3.00 Walmart grunt call and tried it...and to my right...from the west end...a huge 10 pt with the most beautiful rack I had ever seen comes over the top of the hill (he looked like the deer on the Hartford Insurance ads) and stops and is looking all over for whatever was grunting.......I was on a ladder stand that backed up to a tree and had a tree right to my right that I could lean on and peak past.  The deer was not looking up in the trees he was looking across the woods...my hearts was beating really fast.......and I had no one to seek advise from........so I grunted again...and he came toward me....and stopped and I grunted again and he came and stood directly under my tree.......and I then I missed when I shot...I had never practiced a shot at that close of range.  The grunts I used then were longer...because that is what I had seen/heard on tv and they worked that day...why I dunno......since then I have not had any real luck with grunting.  I have more luck with bleat cans.  

For those that don't know me........which is most of ya'll........I am a junkie for calls....like to buy them and play around with them.  I have a snort wheeze call...that I sound terrible with.......but our friend Rick has his figured out and has has some luck with it.

My husband Tom has seen/heard a buck chasing two does at Paradise Hunt Club and the sound they made sounded more like a crane.  He said it was something he had never heard before.......

Anyway..........I am not an authority on deer grunts...I guess deer act different and sound different at ....well different times.  

I just wanted to share with you what a small part of my hunting trip to Missouri was like this year...and since it was the first time I actually heard deer grunt ...how surprised I was at how it sounded and how short the grunts were.

I guess...I am missing hunting season...and the season is almost over......we are still hoping to get up to Paridise before the 15th of Jan.  

Tom's surgeon and cardiologist have released him with no restrictions...so he has been trying some bows out and attaching quivers getting ready for one last hunt and the coming 3d season.  He is having no trouble coming to full draw with my Morrison ACS that is 47 @ 28...so I think he will shoot it some tomorrow or New Years day till he works back up to his heavier bows.