rattling?

[Leftwinger18]

I am a newcomer to bow hunting, although I have been gun hunting for 13 years. I literally bought a bow three weeks ago. A few nights ago I sat in a tree overlooking a few fields in the evening. A 2.5 year old 9 point came out of the timber probably 200 yards across from me (and far below me in a type of valley) into a cut soybean field with a standing cornfield between us.. I hit my grunt and he looked in my general direction, but proceeded to carry on. 5-10 minutes later before he entered the corn I used my rattling antlers (sheds that i have found). BOOM! He picked his head up and started to trot right in my direction! There is a highway of a trail through the cornfield..he made his way through, barely looked on his way out, and was still on the move broadside about 30 yards from me. I fired and caught him just barely at the back of the lungs. (looking back on it, I should have grunted again to stop him)
I may chalk it up to beginner's luck, but wow, what an experience! Certainly not a trophy buck, but it is a hunt I will never forget. Obviously, I don't expect it to work like that every time, but that is my success story with rattling in my very short bow hunting career!

[pgchambers]

Hard to define success in my case. Two years ago I shot my biggest buck to date about 15 minutes after using the pack rack, but I don't really know if he came in because he heard the rattling or if it was just a coincidence. I've had other encounters within 15-20 minutes of rattling as well. I have never had it bring one in that I was watching. The same buck I shot two years ago, I rattled at when he was about 100 yards out. He turned and looked, took about two steps towards me, and changed his mind and went on the way he was originally going. Since I shot him a few days later, I would have to say the rattling didn't hurt, but I have only circumstantial eveidence that it has helped. In any case, I do still rattle during pre-rut and rut.

[charlie 01]

Generally, when one comes into a rattling cession, he comes in smelling the ground and constantly looking around, always smelling and looking. I've had some just stand there a while as if trying to determine where the fighters went. Then there has been some that run right in. Those are usually younger bucks.

[danesdad]

I mostly believed that rattling was a waste of time where I hunt but, this year, I took a set of antlers with me on one hunt figuring it couldn't hurt as I hadn't seen a deer all year. I went through a couple sequences, about one every half hour, where I'd bang and grind them together and rake some of the branches that I could reach from my treestand. I went for 15 to 20 seconds each time. The first two times, nothing happened. On the third time, I'd no sooner hung up the antlers and I could see a deer coming through the brush uphill from me. He walked DIRECTLY to the tree I was in, looking and smelling but never giving me a shot (he was facing me the whole way). Finally, when he was about ten feet from my tree, he got wind of me and snorted and ran off. At about 30 yards, he stopped to look back, and I drilled him. 8 point with a 16 inch inside spread. Not a giant but the best I've ever killed. What I learned from this:
1. If you aren't seeing anything, give it a try, it cant make things any worse.
2. When you rattle, be ready for anything from the moment you stop.
3. One moment can change a whole season...tho I suspected this already.

[charlie 01]

Sounds like you have got it down pat, danesdad. You did everything right, or at least the way I work it. Now, you can ponder about what you have missed in all the prior years. Rattling is never a waist of time, unless its a very windy day. You never know whats out of sight but within hearing.

[Deebz]

I suspect the buck I shot with my bow this season may have come in to my rattle/grunt sequence. I had spotted a giant working his way in from the field off to my right and down a long ditch/draw. He dropped into the depression at the end about 300 yards away. After not seeing him again for awhile, I did 3 sequences with a rattle bag and grunt call (each about 25-30 seconds about 5 minutes apart). I was sitting down with my eyes glued to the East looking for the buck I'd already seen when I heard a noise to my left. I glanced over and saw the 10 point standing broadside working a scrape and chewing on a licking branch... I'm thinking he was bedded down in the timber to my left and came over to see what was going on. I couldn't pass up a shot at the biggest buck I'd ever had a real opportunity at... Never did see the big guy again though.