Rattling question

[strum]

I have never been one to use scents(much) or blow grunts or rattle.
so this morn I was thinking about trying to rattle a little.
I took out my rattle bag and hit it a time or two ..waited 30 mins then hit it some more ..didn't see anything. but I don't attribute that to the rattling.
I need some advise in this if yal will
question..i have some real ones I think I should use right? i mean are the rattle bags worthwhile?
question..when is the best times to rattle such as : just after daylight
then every 15-30 mins..when is it too much?
what factors say don't rattle?
thanks guys..
they are saying 16degrees in the morn.

[Masboy]

For me it,s some quiet sparring with real horns every so often with much time spent with eyes an ears after rattling. an if I see a buck at long distance I try to get his attention someway. if I see them headed my way i be quiet because they will spot the source quick. My son is a wild man an grunts,bleats , hammers the bag or horns about every 20 minutes all the time from pre rut on an has many more big bucks come in an on his wall than I. but two days ago he was going at it an had two smaller bucks an a nice buck coming that he did not see an when he did the big one was looking up at him . I don,t know what,s right or wrong an depends on the deer,mood but it does work at times. but like calling it gives your location away an sometimes that,s bad . good luck!

[cevans]

I have rqattled with a set of large 8pt horns for quite a few years,,and went to a rattling bag couple of years ago just cause its easier to carry. I also use a grunt tube..as about any grunt tube will work as no 2 deer have the same voice like us. Early morning,,late evening best times to rattle. If I am going to rattle,,I will rattle for a minute or 2,,then grunt couple of short grunts,,then wait 15-20 min. before trying again,,and I only try a couple of times then quit. I have found,,in my country,,hill country with cut over timber,,,if I rattle too much,,one deer will eventually find me out. Another down side is,,if your going to rattle,,does won't come in very often as they have a tendancy to get away from fighting bucks. Now that I am seeing monster bucks starting to rut..all the toys are now put away, and steath in the stand and on the ground,,,is my tactic. I know guys that play the horns and tubes constantly and they do eventually kill a decient buck,,but..they also hunt out of a dozen or more stands too constantly changing stands.

[Cossack]

Rattling tends to work best where there is a high buck to doe ratio. Once a buck locks on a doe in estrus, he's not likely to go from her to rattling. But do learn the tending grunt, grunts that bucks make when tending a doe, that has the ones that are not locked in eager to come test the lucky one.

[steve rodo]

I rattle by tickling the tip's of the tine's of real antler's ,With good success.It's more of a curiosity sound then fighting.If i get aggressive ill use the whole antler to shake rattle and roll.I haven't use full aggressive in a few season's.I like just right at dawn and dusk to softly rattle ,cause in most case's there is no wind .The sound carry's all through the wood's on quiet windless morning & eve hunt's .

What i do also is rope my antler's down to the ground and shake a little too right on the flat ground too.

Everyone is gonna have their own way .This is just what i do that produce's buck's .mostly young buck's .once in a while a bruiser come's along during the rut and investigate the situation.I've only kilt 3 buck's rattling .

Now in texas rattling is da bomb to hunt with .

[Riflemanz]

I use a rattle bag and rattle for 30sec then wait about 1/2hr.One time i had a doe come flying in to the rattle to see what was going on!

[Ont_Excal]

I rattle very little these days even though I have had it work many times.
My buck to doe ratio is pooched so I rattle very little. Mostly just light sparring to see if I can locate a deer.
Grunt tube is my go to tool in my pack.
I carry two with one set as a doe bleat or ball and the other as a buck grunt.
With the grunt, try not to sound too big of an animal or lesser bucks and does will not be curious at all.

Best use of a grunt tube is to make a few calls after I reach my stand. While still too dark to hunt. two or three soft grunts will calm down the woods.

[strum]

from all yall told me and a little googling..I decided to leave the rattling to the texans

[JPjunkie]

from all yall told me and a little googling..I decided to leave the rattling to the texans

It works good on TV and on the young dumb ones Lures and rattlin work about 2 percent of the time Time on the stand is the best thing

[Lake shooter]

Making blanket judgements on anything whitetail is fraught with peril! Any type of calling works sometimes in just about any location. In the last couple of seasons I've started snort wheezing with my mouth every thirty minutes or so along with grunting. Called 5 legal bucks in last season, 4 within less than 20 yards. This is on hard hunted public land where they certainly hear all types and "quality" of calls. If one's goal is to take any legal buck, snort wheezing may not be the wisest thing because you may scare away most of those "lower on the totem pole"!

As I posted yesterday, I rattled in a buck and shot him yesterday on the same public ground. This area does NOT have the supposedly needed, fairly even buck:doe ratio.

Bottom line for me is that sitting still and waiting for luck to bring a deer within eyesight, let alone range, is boring and way too often fruitless. Being proactive does net results but sometimes it takes time, and lots of perseverance. One thing that I believe way too many folks are guilty of is not getting or being serious about scent control. Nobody, and I mean nobody knows for sure where a deer is gonna come from. Likewise, not all of them snort or otherwise let you know they were ever there, so just because you never see anything or don't here something snorting at you, that doesn't even come close to meaning that your calling did not or IS not working!