Calling deer is nothing new. Native Americans used their voices to imitate the sounds deer made to lure deer within range of crude bows and arrows. But it has only been in the last 20 years that deer calling has really caught on with the modern deer hunter. While bowhunters have readily adapted to deer calling as a legitimate and effective tool, those who hunt deer with firearms have been much more reluctant to include deer calling in their bag of tricks.

This surprises me, because calling is effective at bringing deer to you regardless of what type of weapon you might have in your hands. I suspect there are two main reasons why gun hunters have not taken to deer calling.

One is that many gun hunters feel that since they can shoot long distances, that there is no need to call deer closer.

And the second reason is that because there are typically many more hunters in the woods during gun season than during the archery season, many gun hunters just assume that there is too much hunting pressure for calling to be effective.

While there is certainly some validity to each argument, in my experience, neither holds water.

See more deer

If you could actually see the deer at long distances and get a clear and unobstructed shot, I would agree, that calling would be unnecessary for firearms hunters. But anyone who has spent much time hunting knows that deer rarely meander aimlessly through wide open fields or even semi-open timber. Deer prefer thicker cover. Most of the deer shot here in southeast Minnesota this season will be taken at ranges of 50 yards or less.

I would wager that many of the bucks I have called in over the years are deer I would never have even seen, much less shot, if the buck had not heard my calls and responded.

Picture this with me: You are sitting in your stand, just below the crest of a timbered ridge. Above you, you can see to the crest of the ridge, but not the other side.

Below your stand, because the best view is almost always going to be below you, you figure you should be able to spot any deer sneaking by within 75, maybe even 100 yards.

Ahead of you a cluster of deadfalls obstruct your vision at about the 50-yard mark, while behind you is a nasty thicket of prickly ash so dense that a deer could easily be within 30 yards and still remain unseen. A typical situation in our part of the country, don't you agree?

So, to be successful from this stand, you need a deer to walk within the distances just measured. If a buck happens to be passing just over the crest of the ridge, you will never know it. If a buck is wandering along looking for a doe on the other side of those deadfalls, again, you will likely never catch sight of him.

This is precisely the kind of situation when a deer call becomes a valuable tool. If you use a deer call to make some buck grunts and/or doe bleats every half hour, there is a decent chance that a buck passing by out of sight, but within hearing, will hear your calling and head your way to investigate.

A buck may respond to calling at any time of the hunting season, but is most susceptible to calling when the rut is in progress and the rut will be going full guns when the firearms deer season opens Nov. 7.

When a buck that does not have a doe hears another buck grunting, that lonely buck assumes that the other fella has a doe.

That age-old competition between males of many species is what brings a buck to the grunt call. In the case of doe bleating, the buck probably assumes that there is a doe in desperate need of his attention. Either way, it works out good for you and I and bad for the buck.

Under ideal conditions, deer can hear a call at over 300 yards. But if the wind is blowing, the cover thick or the deer on the far side of a hill, you can cut that distance in half.

How well or easily a deer hears your call also depends to great extent on what the deer is doing. For example, a deer walking quickly through dry oak leaves, corn stalks or crusted snow, makes so much noise that they may not hear your call no matter how close they are.

But if a buck hears your calls, your odds of seeing and shooting him at close range increase dramatically. When a young buck comes to the call, he will frequently walk right up to the tree you are sitting in or leaning against.

Larger, more mature bucks are often not quite as bold and will commonly hang up out there at 50 to 60 yards.

Pressure situation

The second reason most gun hunters have not used calling is because of hunting pressure. And to be fair, there are times and places when calling is likely to attract more hunters than deer.

For example, Saturday morning in the Whitewater WMA might not be the best time or place to be grunting or bleating. But even on hard-hunted public land, it is amazing how few hunters are still in the woods at 1 p.m. on opening day.

By noon Sunday, most hunters are back home watching football. By mid-week, I have had entire valleys all to myself. Whitetail deer react quickly to this decrease in pressure and get right back to the business at hand.

At this time of the year, that means looking for an estrous doe, and anytime a buck is on the prowl for does, that buck is a real sucker for buck grunting and/or doe bleating.

Calling deer is actually pretty easy. Other critters, such as ducks, geese, fox, coyotes and elk are more difficult to call in. You don't need any musical ability to blow a grunt tube or a doe bleat call.

You can use two different calls to make either buck grunts or doe bleats, but for many years now I have made both vocalizations on a variable tone grunt call called The True-Talker.

What I like about this particular call is that it is very easy to blow, makes the most authentic-sounding buck grunts I have yet to hear from a call and switches over to doe bleats with just a little finger pressure on the enclosed reed.

Even if you are tone deaf, you will be belting out great grunts and seductive bleats in no time.

Gary Clancy has been a full-time freelance outdoor writer for 25 years. He writes for many national publications, is a long-standing columnist for the Outdoor News and has written eight books. For a list of titles, go to www.garyclancy.com.

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