MDBUCKHUNTER

Put a rubber band around it for the walk. Solved.

I prefer to carry a rattle bag because it is light weight, space saving and if a buck comes in quickly to my rattles, I can stow the bag a lot easier than a set of antlers.

Avalanche

I agree with Greenmachine, if you get a set go with plastic. I have both and found the wood sounds a little better than the plastic, but ifit rains or is heavy fog the wood will sound terrible and up here it seems it's always foggy or raining. As to a comparison between antlers and the bag I've never noticed any difference.

RiverOtter

Take this with a grain of salt because I haven't been successful rattling in any deer whatsoever, though I've been told that the area around me isn't really all that conducive to rattling as the bucks aren't nearly as competitive (they don't need to be with the doe population that we have) and don't have as much drive to fight each other. Anyway, I have a rattle bag with the wood sticks and I think it sounds MUCH closer to the sound of a real rack than the plastic does. The plastic sounds higher pitched...which I guess could carry further in the woods if it sounds close enough, but it just doesn't sound right to me. Eventually I'd like to sacrifice a rack to make a rattling set out of, but I haven't gotten any small bucks to do this with yet (only buck was a heavy 9 pointer). It's recommended to use a 1-2 year old rack as they don't have the mass and a mature buck will perceive them as a defeatable threat. One other thought I had...I would think that a coating of sealant on the wood like an oil-based stain or even just a polyurethane layer, would keep the same sound, but waterproof the wood so that it doesn't sound "soggy" if you're using them in a rain or fog. I keep them in my backpack other than when I'm using them, and I've never felt that they've had an "off" sound.