Rattling????

[Cowtown guy]

Anyone had a response yet? Its got to be getting close now, no?

[AlbertaWhitetail]

rattling for WT? works best mid-end November, never rattled in October before because i only hunt in November

[H380]

Muleys should be close , try tomorrow .

[Tuxie]

You can rattle as early as you want, early October they will be just touching antlers, not really even sparring, but it will still make some noise. So some softer noises are in order, might not carry far but still one more tool in the bag. By mid October, now, they are definitely sparing, maybe not fighting so much but testing each other, middle range volume and duration. We just pulled some Trailcam pics from the 12th of our resident "bromance" bucks that have hung out together all season doing some light sparing (from what we can tell from the pics), and the big dominate buck come in and beat the crap out of them (that part is more apparent in the pics). By late October it is peak rattling time, as there is a dominance game in effect, ensure your making those initial "crack" noises and loud rattling for times ranging from 15 secs up to 45 and I've even heard guys say a minute, wait 15-30 minutes, repeat, maybe shorter duration following initial rattling sequence. By mid November the effectiveness might trail off a bit as the bucks are focused more and tail then dominance, but I don't think you would change your rattling sequence from late October. This is my take on rattling whitetail, my knowledge of mulies is incomplete, but from what i've been told is that mulies rut a smidge later then whitetails. If someone could confirm or deny that I would be grateful.

[bobalong]

It is has been a few years since I bow hunted but I rattled both mule and white tail in October, all on the small side, but they came in.

[buckman]

The Mule deer rut is later generally.

[Cowtown guy]

Originally Posted by Tuxie

You can rattle as early as you want, early October they will be just touching antlers, not really even sparring, but it will still make some noise. So some softer noises are in order, might not carry far but still one more tool in the bag. By mid October, now, they are definitely sparing, maybe not fighting so much but testing each other, middle range volume and duration. We just pulled some Trailcam pics from the 12th of our resident "bromance" bucks that have hung out together all season doing some light sparing (from what we can tell from the pics), and the big dominate buck come in and beat the crap out of them (that part is more apparent in the pics). By late October it is peak rattling time, as there is a dominance game in effect, ensure your making those initial "crack" noises and loud rattling for times ranging from 15 secs up to 45 and I've even heard guys say a minute, wait 15-30 minutes, repeat, maybe shorter duration following initial rattling sequence. By mid November the effectiveness might trail off a bit as the bucks are focused more and tail then dominance, but I don't think you would change your rattling sequence from late October. This is my take on rattling whitetail, my knowledge of mulies is incomplete, but from what i've been told is that mulies rut a smidge later then whitetails. If someone could confirm or deny that I would be grateful.

Thank you for the help. It is much appreciated.

[colour86]

i had 2 small whitetail bucks on my trail cam butting heads a bit already. got a video of it. looked like just a bit of playing around though.