Western Hunting Journal, Premiere Issue whj001_premiere | Page 86

TECHNIQUE
These slopes have a tendency
to have a lot of buck brush on
them, and the animals seem to
love bedding in this cover. This
can be a great place to set up
and glass. In fact, some locals
specialize in this type of hunting
where they can set up and glass
200 to 500 yards away and sim-
ply shoot from their perch. This
can be super effective in the last
couple weeks of the season, as
the bucks begin cruising much
more often looking for receptive
does.
Rattling
Rattling is another often-em-
ployed tactic that can be su-
per effective. I touched on this
earlier, but I’ll add a few com-
ments here.
First, rattling in the morning
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WESTERN HUNTING JOURNAL
and evening when the deer are
moving is much more effective
than rattling in the middle of
the day. Originally, I had always
used rattling as my mid-day
technique, trying to draw deer
to me that were already bedded.
I had some success doing this,
but never quite as much as I
thought I should. Hunting with
Kaboth, I learned he primari-
ly uses this technique during
times when deer movements
were highest, and his success
rates have been considerably
better than my own. By rattling
mornings and evenings, you’re
taking advantage of times when
the deer are already up and
moving, and you have a much
higher chance a coaxing a buck
into your set.
Rattling in close cover makes
much more sense than rattling
open areas. Deer are secretive
animals by definition, prefer-
ring to move through country
that’s harder to see. They love
using funnels and all sorts of
screening cover to get where
they are going. Bucks have an
even higher likelihood of us-
ing cover in this manner than
does. Rattling in big openings
is less effective because mature
bucks are less likely to come
out in the ope