South Georgia Hunting

[Buckman55]

Hey, alright question for you guys. I have been hunting since I was 10 years old and during the rut I have never had luck with a grunt call or rattling. I have more luck just hunting over my food plots and my thicket stands but my dad's land is directly next to mine, ( our land we both hunt is side by side), can get out there and call em in left and right and we both call the same way. Not really sure what could be going on. Its nothing serious I still shot nice management bucks and have gotten three nice bucks off my property but would just like to know what could be happening.

[redkneck]

I'd have pop come rattle one up for me lol.

I've tried rattling a few times and have had no success. I think the window for doing it is narrow and your setup is critical. Tuff around here doing it in thick cover also, I'm sure deer have seen me a few times before I could see them.

Just my two cents, wish your Dad would come rattle one up for me this year lol.

[wtnhunt]

Welcome to the forums.

Not had much luck rattling here either. Got to be something different going on that you are just not noticing. Calling with the grunt call I have had pretty good results, used to work a lot better back before everyone started using them. Location may have something to do with your dad's success and your lack of. Is there a cover or terrain difference? Or possibly even a higher concentration of bucks physically in that specific area. I know a farm just up the road from us(less than 2 miles away as a crow flies), my father in law would have deer show up pretty well everytime he hit his grunt call regardless of stage of the rut, rut could be long over like late December and he would still get deer coming to his grunt call. I hunted the same farm a few times and also had great results calling there everytime I hunted it. Same timing here the calls might not be working at all, but pre rut and rut the grunt call here usually is effective. My observation was that there were more bucks using that specific area which made it easier to draw them to the calls.

Calling blind works real well when the deer have to come in to see where the call is coming from, areas where there are ridges you can set up to see over that the deer have to come around to see work out real well. Large open flat fields with little cover where they can see there is no deer, calling obviously is not going to work as well.

[Rhino]

Welcome to the forums.

Not had much luck rattling here either. Got to be something different going on that you are just not noticing. Calling with the grunt call I have had pretty good results, used to work a lot better back before everyone started using them. Location may have something to do with your dad's success and your lack of. Is there a cover or terrain difference? Or possibly even a higher concentration of bucks physically in that specific area. I know a farm just up the road from us(less than 2 miles away as a crow flies), my father in law would have deer show up pretty well everytime he hit his grunt call regardless of stage of the rut, rut could be long over like late December and he would still get deer coming to his grunt call. I hunted the same farm a few times and also had great results calling there everytime I hunted it. Same timing here the calls might not be working at all, but pre rut and rut the grunt call here usually is effective. My observation was that there were more bucks using that specific area which made it easier to draw them to the calls.

Calling blind works real well when the deer have to come in to see where the call is coming from, areas where there are ridges you can set up to see over that the deer have to come around to see work out real well. Large open flat fields with little cover where they can see there is no deer, calling obviously is not going to work as well.

Well put William!

[Buckman55]

Thanks for the advice. where I hunt at is pretty thick its more or less a huge funnel down into my big food plot. I have a few little food plots but mostly I like to hunt my climber in the thicket in the funnel going to the food plot though and I never have any luck calling. My dads land on the other hand was clear cut last year and last year he shot a 167 score 9 point and called him in. I have more luck not calling than I do calling. I will agree it is all about location though. William what kinda grunt call do you use. There are so many different ones on the market, which one has given you the most success?

[Buckman55]

Haha you and me both man. He has come and rattled a few up on my land a few times and called a few in, thats why I dont let him hunt with me to often haha

[wtnhunt]

The call I most often use is an old call, had it for about 20 years now. Honestly don't know who made the call, just a black adjustable o ring/plastic reed style call. Have used others from woods wise, primos, and knight and hale but that old one seems to work the best.

[whitetailfreak55]

I once read that rattling works once out of every ten times you do it so the deer have to be in the right frame of mind. You never really know when it'll work or not. Like what was said above make sure its thick cover. Another tip is to start soft just in case a buck is close. If you slam them together right away and a bucks close he'll probably spook. Good luck

[Buckman55]

The grunt call that I have is from primos its about 6 years old now I love the dern thing but aint had no luck. I am anticipating that I will at least call one in at least once with it. Whenever you go to bass pro or cabela's there are about 100 different calls on the market and I aint really attracted to any of them. Some are huge and some are bout an inch long. Its crazy how many there are now. Back in the 90's there weren't but about 4 or 5 calls. My dad has one about like yous its almost 20 years old. Its just nice to see how everything has evolved today from 20 years ago.