Grunt Calls, are they worth using?

Robert WellerFriends of ELO, Hunting Stories & Adventures, Hunting Tips & Techniques

If I had to pick just one item to carry to my deer stand besides my bow or my gun, it would be my grunt call. Like many of you, I’ve watched my share of monster buck videos. One thing you’ll notice in just about every video, the hunter is using a grunt call. Folks, let me tell you, it’s not just for show and it’s not just to sell products. Those things really work! It was the year 2000 and I had just gotten permission to hunt a small section of property across the street from my in-law’s house. I didn’t own a tree stand yet and I had only been bow hunting for a couple of years at that time. I had taken a doe each year for the previous two years with a bow and now I was hoping to finally get my first buck. I had recently visited a sporting goods store and had seen one of those fancy grunt calls hanging on a display rack. I remember thinking “what the heck, if nothing else, I guess it can’t hurt anything”.

So, one Sunday afternoon, I walked across the road from my in-laws and headed to the field behind the neighbor’s house. I walked to the back edge of the bean field and found a 5-gallon bucket setting under a big oak tree. There were acorns everywhere and I figured if there was a bucket there, obviously someone had hunted this location before. So, I cleared out an area under and around the bucket so my feet wouldn’t make any noise if I moved around a little bit. I sat down on the bucket and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. I was seated about 10 yards from the bank of the creek that divided the land into two halves. On the half I was on, was the house and a bean field. On the other half was about twenty or thirty yards deep of thick brush and crabapple trees that ran the entire width of the property. On the other side of the brush there was another field full of beans. West of me were the neighbors’ woods and East of me more fields and one with standing corn in it. It was a perfect funnel for deer. I wasn’t there very long before I decided to give my new fancy grunt call a try. I pulled it from my pocket and did my best to imitate the sounds all those guys were making in the hunting videos I had seen. Only a few seconds after my last grunt, I heard splashing in the creek. Ker sploosh, Ker sploosh, Ker sploosh, it was coming closer. I didn’t know what to do so I just sat there as still as could be listening to the sound of something that was moving in the creek below me and it was getting closer with every splash. The weeds were tall, and I was sitting on a bucket so I couldn’t see the approaching animal. Then, all the sudden, I saw it. It was a Buck! He was five yards away!  I was frozen like a statue wondering how on earth I was going to manage to get in position to shoot a deer that close to me. He wasn’t just close, but he was on my right side, and I am right-handed which meant I had to turn my body 90 degrees to make the shot. The buck lowered his head to eat some of those wonderful acorns and I made my move. I quickly drew my bow as I dropped off the bucket onto one knee. Then I pivoted my body to the right, lined up for the shot and let my arrow fly. There was no question as to whether I hit him. As he bolted away, I could see a red mist spray in the air with every breath he exhaled. I got up and retrieved my arrow which had passed completely through the buck and was stuck in the bank on the other side of the creek. I walked back to my father in-laws house to put my bow in the truck, and he met me in the driveway. He asked if I had forgotten something, and I replied that I had gotten a deer. Shocked, he said “You got one? You’ve only been gone 20 minutes.” I laughed and said “well, I guess that’s all it takes sometimes.” We retrieved my little half racked two-point buck with the help of the farmer across the road and his tractor. The buck was certainly no trophy, but it was my first antlered deer and I had taken it with a bow and from the ground.

author with his first buck.

There are many accomplished archery hunters that have never done that. I’ve forgotten the story of many of the deer I have taken over the years, but I’ll never forget that one.  Over the next twenty plus years, I became an avid bowhunter. I was never able to obtain permission to hunt any larger parcels of land. In fact, the largest piece of property I had permission to hunt was about 33 acres of pasture that was overgrown and no longer in use for cattle. It was a great place to deer hunt, but it had very few trees that were good for hanging a tree stand in. That meant I needed to somehow get the deer to come close enough to me to get a shot. I used my grunt call on every single hunt. Sometimes I was calling blindly and just watching for a deer to emerge from the brush somewhere, other times I could see deer that were well out of bow range. Sometimes the deer would not have anything to do with me and my grunt call, but other times it was like reeling in a fish on a line. Several other properties I have hunted over the years have presented a similar challenge. Whether that meant there were no good tree stand locations or it was just a small piece of land that had deer on an adjacent property that held the deer, meaning I had to get the deer to cross the property line. Several times I’ve been able to turn a buck from 200 yards away and get him close enough for a shot.

Now there are certain times of the season that grunts are more effective than others and it’s taken me many years of practice to figure out how and when to grunt. I have learned that you can overdo it. My favorite set up is to be near a thick area of brush or cover of some kind that the deer cannot see into. I have found that to be the best scenario because it forces those bucks to come in and have a look. When you are in the open, you can throw a grunt or two to get a buck’s attention, but he will quickly realize something is wrong if you keep grunting at him, because he can see there are no deer in the direction the sounds are coming from. I’ve also learned over the years that a grunt can scare off a buck that has met his match a time or two. I have watched many subordinate bucks tuck their ears and lower their head as they turn and walk in a different direction. I find using a grunt to be more of an active participant in the hunt rather than just sitting there waiting for something to happen. Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t want to sit out there grunting every minute or two just to make noise but if you do see a buck that doesn’t appear to be heading your way, it will certainly increase your chances of getting a shot or at least getting a closer look at him if you give him a grunt or two. There is no doubt in my mind. A grunt call is certainly one tool that has helped make me a very successful hunter.

I’ve owned a few of them over the years and like to carry two of them. Quite often, I will
set one up with a deep grunt and the other to sound more like a doe bleat. Sometimes, you can make a buck think that you are another buck with a doe. Again, that scenario works at certain times of the season better than others.  There’s a lot to learn when using a grunt call, but there’s no better time to start learning than now. Deer season will be here before you know it. So, if you don’t have a grunt call, go pick one up and start practicing. Pull up some you tube videos or throw in your favorite monster bucks’ video, then watch, listen and learn. Learn to speak their language and maybe just maybe, you’ll get a nice old buck to come say hello.

As always, happy hunting, be safe and God Bless.

Robert Weller
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