davidmil

I'm sorry, but this call crap is really getting out of hand. "THE CLICKING" craze was a marketing term Knight and Hale came up with about 4 years ago to sell a new call. This year "THE NEW CALL" is the "GROWLER". Folks, step back... shut up and listen to yourselves. Listen to the woods. I have watched THOUSANDS OF DEER. I've killed more deer with a bow than most people could possibly hope to. I gave up gun counts long ago. Anyway, in all my years in the woods and with all my kills and my friends kills etc etc etc... I've had deer grunt, click, growl, chirp, giggle, ROTFLTASO about a total of 3 or 4 times. Hunting is becoming a lost art. People are traveling to the woods with more damn calls and sounds than a circus. Scout, Walk in, put the wind right, climb up and SHUT UP! I will use a grunt or maybe rattle box once in a while when it's obvious a deer is going to pass out of range. It's worked a handful of times. Most times you get absolutely NO response. SO, do I need a "CLICKER"... I think not and neither do you. Learn to hunt. You'll have more fun and be much more successful. It's all so much bull crap. The "cLICKER" is not going to have any magical effect. In fact, I'd be willing to bet it has an equal amount of bad effects. Like I say, most of the deer people say came to the call or lure or stink were coming that way anyway. Those people just chose to believe the commercials and that's all they are.

Sliverflicker

Back around early to mid 1980s I was at a United Bowhunters of Kentucky Rendezvous, Dr Dave Samuel had a tape were a collage student had done his thesis on whitetail deer vocalizations. Dr Samuel played it for me, John "Maggie" McGee, and Bob McGuire. Live deer sounds, documented as to what was going on when the sounds were made! Grunts, Snorts, Wheeze, Bleats, Clicking, and several others. Bob McGuire did some further research on the subject and come out with his own Deer Vocalization tape months later. So this pre dates the Knight & Hale theory, by at least 17 years. Now as far asspent moore,seen more, killed more's, only having herd 3 or 4 grunts in all thattime, I spent a weekhunting near Berlin, Maryland last Nov with my youngest son Zeb, walking back to the truck one evening we watched 2 bucks chasing doe's in a combined beenfield grunting every other step, that put's us at 50% of old Killed More's record in his own state. Dose this mean any thing? NOPE!Now killed more,may have killed more (Maybe),deer than me.I hunt mature bucks, and if it wernt for my wife I would have been deer meatless last year! Now bear with me, If Killed more has only herd 4 deer grunting MAX! dose that make him a grunting expert? If Killed more has never herd a deer clicking, should he of posted negitave remarks, and discourged someone who waslooking foran answer to the questionwhich is what this post is all about? I think not! Now I dont want to be writeing all night about calling and lureing in Big bucks so get your hands on the May/June 97issue of National Bowhunter Magazine page 12 Grunt calls dont leave home without one! It covers 3 differnt Bucks I grunted back in, 2 bucks in differnt states I ran into going to my tree stands called back after eye contact! Another 150 class called back after going 120 yards accross field called back! Evean something in there on CLICKING! Are grunt calls Magic NO! Fred Bear once told me, Some men can spend a lifetime in the woods and learn nothing, While others can spend half the time and gain a welth of knowledge. Just because someone has one post, does not mean thay only spent one day in the woods!

davidmil

So with your third post, tell me, which call company do you work for. And NO, "Old Killed More" didn't say he was a grunting expert. He stated that deer don't grunt and click and wheeze all over the woods as "Call experts" would have us believe. At least they haven't in the 50 years I've been hunting them.

Sliverflicker

Don't get mad at me over the nick name, Killed More now, you bought it up, I just capitalzed on it ! And no I'm not on anyones bowhunting staff, (anymore). I just went over your prior posts and agree with you on most things, paying attenchion to wind direction, scent control, stand location, and shot placement (the lost art of hunting I think you called it),and hunters grunting to much! The problem I have with your post is were you bash the calls, then go on to tell how you use them, then say thay only worked a few times! Also the part were you think it was only the imagination of hunters thinking thay called in a deer because of T V commercials. Now if I have read this wrong please let me know, and if not please answer me these two questions. Seeing how you probly have a 4 wheel dr, worth 5,000.00 on up, 1,200.00 in bowhuntingequipment, and probably another 500.00 in hunting cloths and boots! Out of the couple of times the grunt call worked, was it worth the lousy12 or 15.00 bucks you paid for it?And out of the thousands of hunters that have called in deer, what % of themdo you think imagined it up? For you only hearing 4 deer grunt in 50 years I will explane this the best I can without going into great detail. Hear in nothern Michigan were the buck to doe % is low and there is a bowhunter behind every tree blowing yanke doodle dandy on a grunt call, I also have only herd a hand full of bucks grunting (my wife did have a 7 pt grunt, wheeze under her stand last year) but in other states I have lived in, like Kentucky, Kansas or even, in differnt parts of Michigan,I have herd Grunts, snorts, wheeze, clicks, sneeze, cough, and yes even fart! And respond to the call much better than here! This is about as good as I can explan it without writeing a book on the subject. Are Deer calls Magic? NO! Do thay work? You better belive it!! For hunters like me who have been grunting with our mouths and nose befor Grunt call come out, it is the best thing to come out for bowhunters in the last 20 or more years!The biggest problem with callsis not having a tape or CD in the package with the call, on deer vocalizations and how and when to use the calls!

RDHunter

I had thought that clicking sound was a varieyation of the tending gunt in a rabid sucession

tsoc

I have only heard clicking a couple of times,and no I havn't bought a call to mimic the vocalization.I am not entirely sure that I understand it's application biologically.I do hear deer vocalizations all the time.After only two days of hunting this year I have heard doe's grunting to one another and I have heard one buck grunt.This is in a way out of balance,hard hunted herd.Deer vocalize all the time.I don't understand how someone can bow hunt often and not hear how vocal the deer are.
I am not a particulary active caller.I will grunt at a buck to turn them or to bring them in to range.I have shot quite a number of deer that I have grunted in.It is a great tool that used wisely can increase one's success.

livbucks

I believe it depends on herd dynamics: BD ratio, age structure, etc. I have had years where the deer seemed to speak english as a second language, and years where they made no vocalities of any kind. I carry a grunt tube and "can" call only once the seeking phase begins. I think it is a waste of weight in early seasons. I will use the grunt tube and "can" if I have been on stand for half a day during rut conditions and have seen no activity. If the deer are moving I keep silent. I have used the grunt tube in attempts to turn bucks that are leaving me, and have had no success. They flick their ears, but do nothing else. I used the "can" once to bring a buck to me when he would not come any closer than 60 yards. He grunted so loud it sounded like a loud bark and scared the crap out of me, but he didn't come. The only thing that has attracted bucks to me is when I clash my arrow shaft between my bow limb and quiver. It sounds like two young bucks sparring and does bring me some luck. I also use that only if I've been in stand for a long time and am seeing no activity. I've had bucks come right in searching for the two young "interlopers".
My Dad used the grunt tube once and had a buck immediately come crashing in, looking like a wild rabid bull. The buck then started ripping every tree to shreds. Dad stuck him to the ground. I think it boils down to timing, individual deer and herd dynamics. I recommend that one only use calls on a very occasional basis if activity is non-existant. If deer are moving, shut up and wait. I have only heard does do that clicking sound.
I have heard bucks grunt many, many times, but only during a very narrow window of the season. I will say that if you can see the deer, and make a call, they will pick you out in the tree immediately and spook. They have an uncanny ability to pick out the precise location and altitude of origin of any sound.

SteveO KanevO

I hardly ever see or hear deer making a vocalization at all. I have heard them fart, like said before. I know that deer grunt calls work sometimes and sometimes they dont. I think it all depends on how you use them and when its the right time to use them. In my area where there are 120 does to every buck its not going to be very productive for me to sit around and blast on a call all day long. You just have to know when and where to use calls. Oh and I have never heard a deer click. But I cant hear as good as I'd like to so if it is a very low sound then I probably wouldnt be able to hear it.