What’s with this buck growl thing

From the Deer and Deer Hunter Forum:

The thing you have to remember is this: just because a deer makes that vocalization, it may not be the best call to make. The buck growl is just a very aggressive grunt. Somebody popularized the term “growl” a few years ago, but I knew about it when I successfully used my first grunt call back in 1989. The problem is this: a low growling grunt is the cervid equivalent of walking into a biker bar and yelling “Which one of you sissy’s wants it first!”

You may get the ultra-aggressive besotted dominant buck to respond, but there will be a bunch of bucks that aren’t on the top of the pecking order that are going to disappear right then and there. The magic of the growl it that it attracts hunters, by playing to their egos. To me, this is an invitation to eat tag soup. Sure, I want the biggest buck in the forest like the next guy, but I’ll also take his younger brother, and his sissy cousins. They all taste the same once they hit the grinder. What I’m really after his past-prime grandfather that has spent the past couple of seasons laying low.

Last season on the KY Opener, I was up in my stand watching 4 younger bucks hanging out just out of range. I kept trying to get the scope on them, but the thick cedars were getting in the way. I decided to mix it up a bit and gave three little poots on my grunt call– all four suddenly decided to leave. It was a Quaker Boy Ridge Runner that I’d just won in one of their story contests.

Now it just so happens that the Monarch of the Forest was in earshot and came in, and he’s still out at the taxidermist. However, my point is this: if your deer does not think he’s dominant over what’s making that grunt or that growl, he’s going to leave. I’ve got more details on it on my weblog and website. I killed my two best out of the same stand, Opening Day in 2003 and 2007, both with light contact grunts.

I go the other direction. I get a tunable grunt call and set it a notch or two higher than a buck– somewhere between a young buck and a doe. Then I blow a few contact grunts. Instead of trying to be Arnold Whatzisnegger, I try sound like Wally Cox or Paulie Shore. That way, the dominant bucks think I’m some wussy trying to move in on their girl, and the subdominant bucks think I’m one of their weaker buddies.

I also use it sparingly. Outside of the rut and the false-rut, I’ve found deep grunting in general to be non-productive. You need a worked-up deer. It just so happens I was chatting with Brian Warner of Heirloom Calls last night about this very subject. He’s trying out a line of new handmade wooden grunters, and I was asking him if they were tunable. He concurs with me: the big deep grunters will scare off more deer than they attract. If’n you talk to Brian, tell him the shaman says howdy.

Here’s a pic that Brian sent me:

The deer grunter is in the middle. If you want to growl, Brian’s call will growl,as well as bleat, and bawl In fact it’ll do the whole range of vocalizations, except for the two-tone ones, and the snort/wheeze. Brian and Heirloom specializes in handmade stuff, more high-end than these machine-made things that get stamped out by the thousands in plastic and sold at Walmart. The good news is he’s selling these calls for $20. I don’t think Brian would even say his grunt call sounds better than anyone elses, but they sure are better looking.

As I said, I’ve been “growling” and grunting for twenty-something years. I suspected that it made the lesser bucks skeedaddle, it wasn’t until this year I got to see it with my own eyes. That’s not to say the aggressive low grunts and growls are useless. If you’ve scouted up the Biggun, or paid to have someone scout him up for you like they do on TV, you may get him to come on in. My theory is that the really big ones are not all that concerned with showing dominance and eschew fighting, and that’s how they got to be so old and big. So that monster buck you’re trying to growl into view may be a big chicken that hears that growl and go hides in the bushes.

Your mileage may vary.

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