Deer Call help

I know I saw a post on here recently on grunt calls but I can not locate it. My question is what is the best type of deer call to use. I was up to the deer woods putting the final touches on some new leased land this last weekend. I did not locate much buck activity ( Scrapes, rubs ) I did find a few scrapes but not as many as I was expecting with some of the post I have been reading. I really don’t believe that this new land has a very high deer population. It is a Potlatch lease in central Minnesota. There is not much for food sources in the area ( I hope to correct this next season) I have had a limited amount of success with grunt calls in the past but I’m not sure if this is the best place to be using one. Although I would love to take a monster buck I’m mostly a meat hunter and would be happy to get a younger buck or a mature doe in my sights just as well. Is there any chance of scareing away younger bucks or doe’s with a grunt call. I have never used any of the can type or other bleat tpes of calls and was questioning if I would be better off using one of those instead of the grunt call. I would appreciate all of your thoughts on this question. Thanks in advance for all of your responses. Best of luck to all of you this season. Be Safe!!!!!

Most of the time I use my grunt call younger bucks come in to a certain point , but I also use a decoy while grunting and rattleing, and the younger bucks usually arnt to comfy around a decoy. Not all the time but most for me the decoy scares him not the grunting. Deer are very curious when they hear diff. sounds in the woods. As for the type of call to use, they are all fine if you can use it properly. Cup your hand over the end and play around with it, youll find a sound that you know is the right one.

I have used a grunt call on does and they seem to spook. Obviously b/c there is only one reason bucks relate to does…to mount em I use Primos hunting calls. I may be ignorant but unlike other calls, you are able to adjust the grunt settings from estrous bleat, doe bleat, doe grunt, young deer grunt, mature buck and trophy buck grunt. I always keep my grunt call on mature buck setting, but have the tube compressed all the way. This way, i feel more confident in not spooking younger deer and still being deep enough to bring in a mature buck.
As far as calling goes, there is a time and a place. Early season to pre rut if i do any calling at all, i do contact grunts. Soft, non aggressive “rrrpp’s” letting deer know there is something there and if they are curious enough, they may come in depending on the set up
I have had great luck w/ The Can early season and during the rut! Does are curious and may come to the call early season, but during late October-late November i think they would shy away from it. They know that if there is a doe in estrous near by, a buck is probably going to be checking everyone of the does in the area to find out which one it is Again, there is a time and a place and The Can is great during the rut!!! If i had one call during the rut, that would be it

BW, Don’t let the lack of scrapes get you down. In my 25 years of bowhunting I cannot remember a year when I have seen so little scrape activity yet I’ve never seen so many different bucks than this year. I also hunt central MN. Not sure what is going on??????

Coppertop interesting observation. uring all of my grouse hunting this fall I had only noticed 3 scrapes and zero rubs! Very odd for this time of year. Saturday i did notice a fresh scrape line along a trail all complete with broken licking branches. I ran into a friend from H.S. on the next property and they commented on lack of sign until last weekend and now it’s all over the place! Seems like it’s a couple weeks late this year???

Back to the main post, I have NEVER (in 5 yrs)had a grunt call lure in a buck during gun season while blind calling.

The Can has blindly called in curious young deer of either sex. I do experiment while watching deer react to the can or grunt. If you can see deer and use either call it seems to me they always stop immediately and look for the sound.

I did grunt at a small 6 pointer coming towards me and he turned ninja, did a 180 and left quickly. It was amazing how much noise he made walking in and was silent on his retreat! He must not have wanted his butt kicked!

Good luck,

Ferny