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Excessive Rattling

5K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  buckhunter5 
#1 ·
I was in my stand last week and had a guy within 100 yards of me rattle for 3-4 min straight every 30 min for 3-4 hours. His next sequence was predictable. He was way over aggressive for this time of year. When he started this fiasco I was observing a deer about 80 yards from me and it blasted out of there as fast as you can imagine. I think it was a spikehorn. I wanted to rattle this guys cage but hunters need to cope with other hunters. I did not approach this hunter nor did he know I was there. I did not want to educate this guy to the wherabouts of my ladder stand.

In my honest opinion, where I hunt in Southern New Hampshire rattling does not work. This is one of several rattling incidents I have observed in the past 25 years that cause me to think this way. Where I hunt the doe to buck ratio is high so the bucks do not have to compete as much as in other areas of the country. This guy is applying South Texas style hunting to NH. Most likely watching too many hunting shows.

Has anyone else had similiar experiences? I assume that this guy was a newbie. If I meet up with him I will let him now what happened so he can learn from his mistakes.
 
#3 ·
I see it more with grunt calls and scents. I guess the advertisments and hunting shows are doing their job coz everyone has them and uses them like it's a sure thing everytime. I have begun to think you have a better chance if you don't use that stuff in areas of higher hunter pressure.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Other than trying to use the other hunter to your advantage, I think I would do just like you don't let him know you are there. He may decide the area doesn't have any bucks and will leave. I do use real antlers during the rut along with doe in heat scents. I believe they work at least 25 % of the time which may give me an advantage for that moment. I don't over use the horns but if I see a nice buck not turning my way I'll give him a short sequence and a couple of grunts from a call, hopefully thats the ticket.
 
#9 ·
Like I've said in the past, rattling and scents have their place. They are simply tools and one needs to understand their use. Just this past week in PA we had young bucks respond to rattling (lightly) and scent use. The rut is just now starting in PA so all bets are off. It's all a chess game and each of us gets to play as we wish too.
 
#10 ·
I agree HM I also think how well it works depends on the Buck to doe ratio my area we seem to have a lot more does then bucks yes they will "fight" but not like other areas where there are a lot more bucks
Not to say it won't work here because it does but to me the amount of times here it won't work far out ways the times it does I will try light rattling during the rut
 
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