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When a buck hears a broken grunt and cackle moving around a tree, he's likely to believe that another excited buck in his area is chasing an estrous doe. The buck then may seek out the estrous doe himself. If a dominant buck hears the call, he'll come in quickly not only to breed but also to defend his harem and run the perceived intruder out of his territory. Even a subordinate buck will respond to this call in hopes that the buck he hears running the doe may be subordinate to him.
Carlton does not claim to be the originator of the cackling-to-bucks concept. He has merely combined the strategies of several other hunters who have used this call effectively for years. Two such experienced cacklers are Rob Keck and Carl Brown, both executives with the National Wild Turkey Federation who have been employing the call successfully for more than 10 years.
"Both the wild turkey and the whitetail become extremely active during the breeding season. They become very territorially minded," Keck says. "During the rut, calling excites deer more than at any other time of the year. If you use the cackling call prior to, during and just after the rut when the buck is most easily excited, then your chances of calling in [deer] increase dramatically. Most of the time, the bucks that come to the cackle call are the older, bigger bucks."
By observing deer in clear-cuts and big-timber forests, Keck learned that bucks often moved through the area where he was calling in less than two minutes. Keck realized, |
the way they call. |
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TOUGH TALKING CALLS |
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1) EZ-GRUNT-ER "PLUS" from Knight & Hale Game Calls. The call creates differently pitched cackling grunts as you inhale and exhale into the mouthpiece. This calling method works well for attracting solitary deer during the rut.
2) OLD BUCKSTER from Quaker Boy.This call makes the deeper-throated grunt of a dominant buck. It's an excellent call when used for cackling during the rut, when bucks are in full pursuit of does.
3) PHANTOM BUCK from Quaker Boy. A versatile call with two interchangeable tubes, the Phantom Buck replicates the full range of grunts from both young and old bucks. Use this call throughout the deer season.
4) SUPER SLAM QUAD GRUNTER from Hunter's Specialties. Featuring an adjustable 0-ring, this call reproduces a variety of sounds, from a mature buck grunt to a fawn bleat. With the 0-ring fixed on the mature buck setting, it creates an excellent cackle grunt.
5) WHITETAIL BUCK AND DOE GRUNT from Carlton 's Calls. A loud, aggressive call, the Whitetail Grunt is a natural for cackling grunts. Extend and collapse the tube to imitate a buck running a doe.
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| as Carlton did, that by pausing for 15 minutes between grunts many bucks would pass within hearing distance during the intervals when he wasn't calling. That meant missed opportunities. "The only way a call can be productive is for the deer to hear it, which means you need to call more," he instructs.
Carl Brown finds the cackle call useful in combination with other strategies. "By experimenting with deer calling, I learned |
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by combining the cackling grunt call with rattling antlers that I greatly increased the number of bucks I was seeing," Brown explains. "I found that many of the types of calls I used for turkeys could be incorporated into my deer calling.
"However, one of the differences between calling turkeys and calling deer is that when you make an excited call to a gobbler, he usually will answer you with a call. But bucks won't call back to you. |
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