SPARRING & RATTLING IN MATURE BUKCS

Fake tactics such as rattling and sparring have been used for years to lure bucks within bow range. For optimal success, however, you should consider several factors.

There is no one-size-fitsall technique for performing such tactics. From state to state and area to area, and often from section to section within a county, there are monumental discrepancies in hunting pressure, kill criteria, how people hunt, and the size and terrain features of a property.

Each of those parameters has a direct correlation to how many mature bucks inhabit an area or property, and they dictate the daytime movements of mature bucks and their responses to tactics.

In heavily pressured areas where most hunters target any legal antlered buck, deer learn quickly how to avoid hunters or get wounded or killed, and the few that reach maturity seemingly have Ph.D.s at avoiding hunters and not falling for tactics they’ve heard, seen or smelled many times while growing up.

On lightly hunted and managed properties, where folks pass up bucks until those deer reach maturity, bucks continue to respond to tactics with minimal fear, as they’ve