you know i just bought a deer call, i thought it sounds great. i listened to the videos on youtube on how to properly make the calls, the only problem is that i dont know how often i should be making these calls. do you call every half an hour, hour, or only when you see deer. or should you know call when you see deers.
Much like fishing, I believe these things change day to day and depending on the locations, situation and the mood of the deer. I do not believe you can have a situation or call that always works, all the time. It also depends on the mood of the deer and the individual deer itself. Some bucks like confrontation, some don’t. No matter the antler size or time of year, some bucks avoid grunt calls and rattling horns all year like the plague. Call those bucks smarter/wiser or perhaps they just got the beat down from another buck that makes them leery to come charging in. I also believe some deer’s personalities might just avoid the conflict all together and perhaps are more interested in chasing/searching for the ladies. 
Typically, if I see a deer I do not call unless he starts going away from me. I let nature take it’s course and hope he strolls by, until I feel that he is going away then I will grunt, rattle or bleat to him depending on the time of year and the mood of the deer. Frequency of “blind” calling (calling with out seeing a deer) depends on time of year for me and most recent experience or observations to me. However, I definitely do more calling during the pre rut and rut.
I hope this helps a little. 
When you first get to your stand just sit there for an hour and do nothing but watch. Try to get a feel for what the woods is doing right then, is it quiet, no action all, animals aren’t moving or are the squirrels playing or searching for food, birds making noise, this tells me if the woods asleep or if its active. I think this has alot to do with how active the deer are and what they might be doing. When you start calling Id use a soft grunt and do that a few times, then wait for 15 minutes to see if anything comes in, then try again maybe this time with a doe bleet and do that a few times in a row, then sit and wait again. Like Lip says there alot of diffrent seceneraios that come into play day in and day out. Some days they will come in like freight trains and others you don’t see anything move.
Heres a good idea for a guy whos new to bowhunting and thats take any antler, prefering a bigger rack if you have or can find one, it dosen’t have to be huge, one side of a 4 or six will do. Set up where you are hidden and then rub the rack against the side of a small sapling, about 2″ to 3″ in diameter from the ground to about 3′ off the ground over and over for 10 times and then take the base of the rack and pound it on the ground hard, hard enough for a buck to hear it a couple hundred yards away then after you’ve done that just sit and wait for 10 minutes. Deer can hear along ways away from your noises so just sit and wait. It dosen’t hurt to wait 15 to 20 minutes because some deer will be walking in to check the sounds out, most just walk in and don’t run to that sound. Rubbing the rack up and down a sapling, stomping the base on the ground and grunting all at the same time works really well.
Always know which way the winds coming from and going to and try to set up your shot so you can hit the deer befor he winds you. He will come in to where he knows hes close to where the noise came from, stop and look then walk around you trying to wind the buck he heard making those noises you were making. This practice is a good way to walk and scout for any active animals.
Always use boot scent cover, I use raccoon because theres raccoons everywhere. Walk as quiet as possible and when your done testing an area and your going to walk to another area, have that picked out befor you move from where you are sitting.
Don’t over call trying to bring a buck in once every 20 minutes to a half hour is good enough. If you have a set of antlers that your going to use from a stand then grunt while useing them. Start with just a light tickle for about 5 seconds, then try the next time for a little longer, its important to don’t over do it, if they are interisted in coming to check your calls out they will come. Pre rut is when they will come to ratteling better more then later in the season when thier with a doe or have been in a few fights, the smaller ones will come to ratteling more often then the bigger ones will. Right when the does are coming into estrous is a good time to rattle and use a doe bleet. Theres lots of diffrent scenearios and they all work at diffrent times, you just have to find the right one for that day and that time of day and what stage the ruts in.
thanks for the advice, i will try to do that. when we talk about the rut, i live in minneasota, when does this take place. is the opening of archery a good time to use rattling…
Rut here in Iowa is around the beginning of Novemeber, its a little sooner up where you at. Opening day with a bow would be a good time to grunt softly at first and tickeling antlers, By this time they are pumped up because of thier hierarchy and testoserone levels, they are ready to go and are looking. When your in the woods and you hear any rattling off in the distance from other bucks sparing try to mimick those sounds yourself. By the time the first does are coming into estrous the bucks are looking hard and competeing hard. A mixture of doe bleets, grunts and ratteling will do the trick. I try to mimick a couple bucks squareing off and use a doe bleet too to tell any buck that will come in that theres a doe close by. I use the same grunt call and blow in one end and inhale through the other, this makes two diffrent tones of grunts mimicking two diffrent bucks, this works for me. If you want to mimick a wheeze just inhale and exhale on the side of your grunt tube as fast as you can, real fast, the faster the better. If you grunt through both ends and in-exhale mimicking a wheezing sound they make, this brings them in when thier searching for a hot doe. Grunt, snort, wheezing really works and it mimicks two bucks challangeing eachother for a doe.
I rarely do any calling until Halloween. After Halloween I start becoming more active with rattling, grunts, etc. Pre rut is a great time to get to experiment with your grunt call as usually the young bucks are more than willing to resond. You don’t want to overdue it. Keep in mind when you are calling, the first couple hours of the AM and the last hour before dark are the best. Sometimes the best approach however is to just sit and be quiet.
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Opening day with a bow would be a good time to……………….. By this time they are pumped up because of thier hierarchy and testoserone levels, they are ready to go and are looking.
IMHO bow opener in MN is a little early to start seeing rutting actiivity, early to mid Oct is when you will see the rut just starting to kick in depending on the weather.
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I rarely do any calling until Halloween. After Halloween I start becoming more active with rattling, grunts, etc. Pre rut is a great time to get to experiment with your grunt call as usually the young bucks are more than willing to resond. You don’t want to overdue it. Keep in mind when you are calling, the first couple hours of the AM and the last hour before dark are the best. Sometimes the best approach however is to just sit and be quiet.
When I first started using calls, I used them much like Lip is saying. I would see deer, if they started moving away, I would give a bleat/grunt to see their reaction. I learned alot about how/when to call doing this. It takes some time to figure out what works best for any situation, and I am far from knowing what I am doing 
I like to rattle horns starting early November, just lightly tickling them. When the rut is in full swing later, I will light up the woods with them. This has brought more than 1 deer into view, not neccessarily a shooter yet, but maybe this is the year 
big G 
every situation is different and only time will teach you the in’s & out’s of calling. the past few years i have found that non-confrontational calling works best when deer are not heading your direction. on the other side of things “blind calling” i tend to do louder and especially love to “snort wheeze” without a call. it’s just a matter of being confident in what you are doing. Good Luck!!
I didn’t know the season opened that soon up there, that is a little to early plus I don’t know too much about the change of fall to winter up there, listen to the guys in your neck of the woods. It opens the first of October here and they do come to ratteling and grunts, more so two weeks later through the rut. I wish I knew more about the weather up there and when the season does open.
well it opens next week, and now it is still warm…
It would be a good time to just sit and watch for the first couple weeks to see whats going on and what the woods is doing. If your going to do any grunting and ratteling do it softly and not much of it, its not time yet. Just listen to what the woods is doing and maybe you could hear a few smaller bucks spraring off, you’ll know when the big ones do. Its amazing how much a guy can learn with just a grunt tube and just watching. If you have alot of spare time after chores then Id spend every hour I could in my stand, or walking and sitting in brush piles to find out how the grunt tubs work and they do work. You know it dosen’t have to be hunting season to practice grunting, Id start now then by the time the good part of the season rolls around youd be ready to hunt. Take a camera with you if you can and you’ll find out what spooks them and how far away they were. let us know how you do.
When I lived at my old place (20 acres prime hunting country) 
I used to head out to the stand after work, and sit and read magazines. One particular evening, it must have been late august, a nice 8 point walked by, followed by an even nicer 10 pointer, then the bruiser, a 14 point, all in 5 minutes. Talk about not being able to wait until mid-sept
big G
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