The 120-class 9-point stepped within 10 yards as I gazed through the bows of a small pine tree. It was barely shooting light on the first morning of the hunt, and the mature buck had come directly to my grunt calls. It was a good buck, but could I shoot before the hunt’s first sunrise? As the deer stood upwind, I heard a wheeze —the only time I’ve heard that in the wild —and an indication that this was a dominant buck. Nonetheless, I didn’t raise my crossbow and allowed the deer to walk. What a memory!
Don’t Leave Home Without It
I carry a Hunter’s Special “True Talker” grunt tube whenever I hunt deer and especially during late October and through November, whether I’m sitting in a stand or sneaking through the woods. My “talker” is 30 years old and not in production today, but its predecessor, the OG, is available on Amazon, and I love it for its deep guttural sound. Grunting sounds don’t travel very far, whether made from a buck or a caller, due to the low pitch of the sound, so louder is usually better. If a buck is close, you can blow into the call more softly to lower the volume.
Do No Harm
The thing I love about a grunt tube is its almost universal acceptance in the deer woods. When blown in the occasional “contact grunt” form with a puff every couple of seconds, a buck will either stop and look, approach, or ignore the sound and walk away. Although rarely touted as a benefit, a grunt tube can also calm down a doe that has seen you, and I’ve had this work on several occasions. On one hunt in South Dakota, we had a day of 20-40 mph winds that howled out of the west, so bad that everyone but me stayed in camp. I believed that grunting from downwind of a thick bedding area would lure out a buck. On my second try, I heard a doe snort and began grunting aggressively. Kneeling under a batch of cedars, I soon had white antlers coming right for me.
Estous Bleat
On an Illinois rut hunt, I watched a buck follow a doe atop a ridge, just out of range. Using a Wood Wise estrous bleat call, I lured the buck away from the doe and under my stand. Unfortunately, it was a 120’s deer on a property with a 140 minimum, and I watched it walk away, wishing I was back home where I’d have been happy to launch an arrow. Primos sell the “can call,” which is the easiest bleat sound to make. Last fall, I had a buck show up under my stand by randomly using the bleat, and allowed my grandson to take his first buck with a crossbow.