I have never used any of the deer calls that are on the market. I have been quite successful in bagging my deer without the aid of such a call and I would have to be convinced of their effectiveness before I would buy one. Perhaps I have been missing an aid to hunting enjoyment by not trying them. I know that most animals can be attracted by some sort of a noise, and the fact that I have never called a deer is not proof that they cannot be called. I know that the cry of a fawn will call a doe during the summer months, yet I have never heard this call in the hunting season. The fawns are large enough to be on their own at this time and the doe has other things on her mind, I have halted running deer by imitating the cry of a fawn, but I have also stopped them by making other sounds. I have found that if a deer hears any sound that it cannot immediately locate and identify, it will stop and make sure that it is not heading into danger.



I have never heard an uninjured deer make any vocal sound during the hunting season except the sound made by startled deer. This sound (more nasal than vocal) seems to be more of a warning to other deer than a challenge to combat. Perhaps I am wrong in thinking this way, but until I hear another deer answer, and accept this call as a challenge, I will continue to believe as I do at the present time.

One evening I was traveling a trail that was located near the foot of a beech ridge that was the feeding ground of at least a hundred deer. Across the trail from this ridge was the daytime bedding ground for these same deer. I traveled this trail for about two miles at a time when the deer were moving from the bedding grounds to the feeding area, and in this distance I was challenged no less than eight times by bucks which wanted to cross the trail. None of their calls were answered by other bucks even though there must have been dozens of them within hearing distance. If this sound is a call to combat, this experience should have provided some evidence of the fact. I heard no calls made by any deer other than the ones which were alarmed by my presence.

Many people think that when two bucks fight, the fight is over the possession of one particular doe. My observations show that this is not the rule. On one occasion I saw two bucks fighting and there was a doe present as an apparently disinterested spectator. At the scene of a few other encounters, I have seen tracks that showed that there might have been a doe present, but most of the fights which I have checked seem to have been the result of casual meetings and were fought without spectators. The rut is the cause of the fighting, but the object seems to be the driving of the weaker male out of an area rather than a desire for any one female.

I have never used any of the commercial scents to attract deer, but any scent that is based on sexual attraction should be effective if properly prepared and used. The use of deodorizers to remove or disguise the man scent can do no harm, unless the substance used is something that is repulsive to deer.

In this article we've learned that some bucks do not always respond to the call of the other to challenge. But it is better to be safe by being known what kind of sounds do the deer makes and for what.