Rattling Bucks - First Hand Account

Author’s note: Today I am posting the text of an e-mail I received from Larry Boehm, the CEO of Brushwolf Gear, makers of the Treestand Rattl’r rattle bag. I wrote about my experiences using this product here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a blog a couple days ago. This note details some deer hunting experiences Larry and his brother had while hunting on public land in Minnesota. These rattle bags can attract deer. I’ve proven that to myself. The bucks mentioned here were taken within the past few days. See what you think after reading this account.

(Start of Larry’s note)

Ray:

Tomorrow I will e-mail you a picture of the bucks my brother and I took in northern MN this weekend. I'm heading to Montana for a hunt later tomorrow, but will try to get a photo and short write-up put together that I can send to my contacts. I'll give you a personal account.

We were hunting 1 1/2 miles back in public forest land that doesn't allow any motorized access, so needless to say we have NO other hunters bothering us. Temperatures on Saturday morning were mid 20's with 25-40mph NW winds, less than ideal for rattling, but the absolute perfect week to be rattling in our area.

I had a couple close encounters earlier in the week with my bow, but no luck, and this was the firearms opener, so I didn't need to bring one in quite as close. At 11:30 my brother rattled in and shot a really nice 2 1/2 year old 160 pound - 6pt (no brow tines).

I met up with him for lunch and after lunch he decided to take a bit of a stroll to warm up. I decided to climb into his stand, about 20 minutes later I saw a buck chasing a doe on the oak ridge across the drainage I was watching. I didn't figure I'd have much chance of luring him away, but had nothing to lose so I smashed my bag against the trunk of the tree as hard as I could to get his attention.

He stopped and looked my way so I started to work the bag on the ground. What happened next was unreal. He spotted my brother’s dead buck which was lying right between us and came on a dead run stopping 5 yards from it. I shot him in the heart at 30 yards. He's a massive 10 pt., 180 pound, 4 1/2 yrs old, 21 inch spread. I'll get you photos tomorrow. I guess I found a new method of decoying.

(End of Larry’s note.)

Remember that I said in my original blog, that this rattle bag comes equipped with a cord so that it can be worked at ground level even when you are in a treestand. Use it at the right time of year (usually mid-October through the end of November) and you might pull pre-rut and main rut phase bucks in close. You want that buck to focus on the source of the sounds – at ground level – and not up in the tree. This bag can offer you this solid advantage.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008