Black tail calls?

[roosiebull]

I've called in quite a few over the years using a bleat can, grunt call, and/or rattling antlers. In my experience, it doesn't seem to work most of the time, until all of a sudden it does. They will often try to circle down wind and in the western Oregon thickets I think this is why it often "doesn't work". They come in, smell you, and leave without you ever knowing. Calling with a partner can really help with that part. On the grunt call, I mostly try to mimic the grunts I've heard from blacktails over the years. It seems to be higher pitched then the typical whitetail grunt, at least the ones I've heard. Also, the sound a buck grunting is usually pretty soft/low volume.

agree on all accounts. grunts do seem more high pitched and soft. one call I got this year I plan on using is the ELK inc "deer stopper" it's more like the style of doe calls they use for sitka blacktail with good success... more versatile than a can, you can vary tone and volume, and add emotion to your calling.... all good things imo

one time in Nov I walked in on 2 really nice bucks fighting hard, it was in that age of reprod you could see 30yds, and if hunting, 20 would be a long shot, early morning, rainy day, very dark in the trees. I rifle hunted that year, and this was the week before late bow deer starts on the central coast (first season rifle elk) I was just in the woods looking for bucks, and elk scouting for a buddy who was hunting.

anyways, I walk in on these 2 bucks that just had a battle, both old mature heavy 3 pts (4 pts are rare in this area) and the closest one is maybe 15yds, the further one was another 5-8yds behind that one. I didn't see them until I was that close, and that closest buck was looking at me, hackles still all up (never seen that before) he stiff leg walked towards me and stopped at 10ish yds, and his demeanor had me a little concerned, haha.
he was exhaling out his nose in a long, drawn out nasally, mucous sounding loud blow (similar to the end of a snort wheeze) he did this several times staring me down, then snort wheezed at me 2 times.... reeeaaallly long snort wheezes, and very phlegmy.... it was actually intimidating, because he was doing that to me. it was eye opening to what the interaction may sound like when we walk up to a buck fight scene.

that buck was obviously the victor in that fight, because that buck behind him never advanced at all, he stayed right where I first saw him, but the first one was hostile and crazed. I snapped him out of his trance when the wind hit me on the back of my neck.... he didn't run, but his hackles went down and he slowly walked off... the other buck did too, and they did not leave together.... so i'm guessing the handshake and beer happened after I saw them.

I think there are things we can do to add realism to our calling, but we just don't get to observe blacktail doing those things normally... as you know, they live in places they are hard to see or hear, so we have to rely on things we have seen or heard, and the experience of others.... but a lot of things happen in the blacktail woods we don't know about, and we can be our own worst enemies being too timid calling, and actually doing things that will make bucks circle us rather than come in to a realistic situation, I think we are scared to overdo it, and end up hurting our chances a bit

 

[TripleJ]

agree on all accounts. grunts do seem more high pitched and soft. one call I got this year I plan on using is the ELK inc "deer stopper" it's more like the style of doe calls they use for sitka blacktail with good success... more versatile than a can, you can vary tone and volume, and add emotion to your calling.... all good things imo

one time in Nov I walked in on 2 really nice bucks fighting hard, it was in that age of reprod you could see 30yds, and if hunting, 20 would be a long shot, early morning, rainy day, very dark in the trees. I rifle hunted that year, and this was the week before late bow deer starts on the central coast (first season rifle elk) I was just in the woods looking for bucks, and elk scouting for a buddy who was hunting.

anyways, I walk in on these 2 bucks that just had a battle, both old mature heavy 3 pts (4 pts are rare in this area) and the closest one is maybe 15yds, the further one was another 5-8yds behind that one. I didn't see them until I was that close, and that closest buck was looking at me, hackles still all up (never seen that before) he stiff leg walked towards me and stopped at 10ish yds, and his demeanor had me a little concerned, haha.
he was exhaling out his nose in a long, drawn out nasally, mucous sounding loud blow (similar to the end of a snort wheeze) he did this several times staring me down, then snort wheezed at me 2 times.... reeeaaallly long snort wheezes, and very phlegmy.... it was actually intimidating, because he was doing that to me. it was eye opening to what the interaction may sound like when we walk up to a buck fight scene.

that buck was obviously the victor in that fight, because that buck behind him never advanced at all, he stayed right where I first saw him, but the first one was hostile and crazed. I snapped him out of his trance when the wind hit me on the back of my neck.... he didn't run, but his hackles went down and he slowly walked off... the other buck did too, and they did not leave together.... so i'm guessing the handshake and beer happened after I saw them.

I think there are things we can do to add realism to our calling, but we just don't get to observe blacktail doing those things normally... as you know, they live in places they are hard to see or hear, so we have to rely on things we have seen or heard, and the experience of others.... but a lot of things happen in the blacktail woods we don't know about, and we can be our own worst enemies being too timid calling, and actually doing things that will make bucks circle us rather than come in to a realistic situation, I think we are scared to overdo it, and end up hurting our chances a bit

That’s a crazy experience! The more time you spend out there with them, the more you get to hear/see and the more effectively you can mimic them. That’s what makes it so fun!