Hey Guys,
I’ve been hitting the woods hard since Aug. 30th this year looking for a whitetail buck and I’m having one hell of a tough time. I’m hunting towards northern Idaho, about an hour north of Moscow. I’ve spent at least 15 days in the woods for whitetails alone so far this year between bow and rifle season, and have seen nothing but does the entire time. Whitetails are by far the spookiest animals I’ve ever tried to hunt. At least these mountain whitetails of Idaho are.
I’ve taken 9 Blacktails and 4 Mule deer in my day and have never really messed with rattling, grunting, estrus bleats etc. but the more I look into methods of hunting whitetail bucks the more I hear about these things. I’m curious about how you guys have used them in the past and in what situations?
My roommate and I were out Monday morning and we saw does in our primary spot, still without bucks. Even yesterday in our secondary spot we saw several does, all without bucks. This morning however, we hit the primary spot again, but with a fresh inch of snow this morning the animals were holed up. We didn’t so much as cut a fresh track though we covered 6-7 miles on foot, and in all different terrain; clearcuts, reprod, and timber. What we did find however, were series of fresh scrapes in two completely different areas. I have never actually seen these things in person until today, though I’ve heard about whitetails making them. I’ve heard they make them to establish their territory as the rut nears, so this has me excited. Looks like things are going to start happening in the next couple of days.
Now last year my roommate was able to take a decent little 3 point with eyeguards that was following a couple does. Just complete luck really, we were hiking on our way back to camp and happened to spot a couple does pushing out of some reprod, and low and behold there was the buck right on their heels. I haven’t had any problems finding does so I can’t imagine I’ll have any trouble bumping into one eventually, but I’d like to try using some scents, rattling, grunting, bleating etc. It would be neat to do something aside from the same old thing spotting n’ shooting.
For rattling. . . What size antlers do you guys who rattle use? I’ve heard people push a large set, and some push small sets. In what type of situations and terrain do you rattle? At what point in the rut do you use different rattling sequences? Do you do this in combination with any scents, or calls? I’ll attach a picture of my rattling antlers, a matched set I found this spring. Are they too big or can I get away with using them lightly?
For bleating/grunting. . . Same questions apply really. What situations and point in the rut do you use these? I bought “The Can” the other day at the store, but have yet to buy a grunt call. How do you like “The Can” and how do you guys like to use it? Any recommendations on a grunt call if you would recommend grunting at all?
Scents. . . I haven’t tried using estrus type scents or dominant scents for that matter. Do you guys believe in them? What sort of situations do you use them in? Where do you place them, and what do you put them on? I’ve heard of putting them on cotton balls, and even tampons so you can hang them from trees lol!
Anyhow, I appreciate any advice you guys can lend me and my roommate Jammer, who just killed a bear on Halloween by the way! He’s new to Hunting-WA and just posted his first thread. Check out his story here:
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,37743.0.html. We’re on the verge of the rut or in the pre-rut right now, and I’d really like to feel like I did something more than simply spotting my deer when it comes down to it and I take a buck. Also, I’m not terribly picky on what size buck I take, while something big would be nice, I’m willing to take anything forked.
I attached a couple pictures of the scrapes we found this morning, along with my set of rattling antlers. The scrapes were really something. There were 3 of these scrapes along an old cat road between a clearcut and a stand of timber (two of them in the frist picture). Then the one in the second picture was about a mile away, again sort of on the edge of a clearcut, just inside it about 20 yards from a patch of reprod.
