In 1997 I changed up my whitetail tactics and decided to try rattling. On my first attempt I rattled in and killed a medium sized 5x5. Needless to say I was hooked! From then on I decided to focus my energy on learning how to be efficient enough to harvest a deer this way soley. I watched a ton of videos, read a bunch of articles and spent a lot of time practicing. Since then I've killed a buck I rattled in every year but one. Most bucks have been on public land. My style has evolved into moving from spot to spot hoping to see no deer until I've crashed the horns. I don't even want to see a good buck I didn't rattle in as I will pass it up. I may, however, shoot it later if I rattle it in.
At first I had a hard time passing up smaller bucks because of the excitement. Over time and rattling in a LOT of deer I've found the patience to hold out for the bigger bucks. My methods now will usually only bring in the more aggressive deer and scare the crud out of the younger ones.
Rattling works BIG TIME! I thought I'd start a thread for deer that have been rattled in. I will gladly share techniques with anyone interested in a pm. Here are a few of mine from either MT or ID starting with my first one.
