Was out scouting today and was finding a lot of good sign. Found one area that had several rubs in a very small area. (I suppose I should tell you that I am in western Oregon scouting for blacktail). I started thinking that if I had been able to bowhunt this area, I would definately be doing some rattlin' there. Since I had my rattling antlers in the truck, I wondered how the deer would respond a couple of months before the rut. I started going through my rattling routine, and was feeling pretty stupid for even thinking this would work. So I stoppped and was just sitting watching the world go by when I noticed movement along the bottom of the draw I was looking into. Upon closer investigation with my binoculars, I discovered two bucks working thier way toward me. One was a little forked horn and the other was a small three point.
Now, to my way of thinking, if I'm just out putting meat in the freezer, I'm going to try this technique again. I would have never considered trying this during rifle season, and I still don't believe that this would have worked on a much older buck. But who knows.

The little bucks were just curious. You do that closer to the rut and the big boys will be checking it out.

Sounds like you've got a nice spot. Good luck when the season comes around.

Interesting! I cut my teeth on hunting blacktails in S. Oregon Cascades, and never, never even heard of anyone rattling in a buck! I thought my grandfather knew every trick in the book for bagging bragging size blacktails, but never heard him mention rattling them.

Interesting stuff indeed! Let us know how it works when you're actually garnering meat for the freezer.

God bless,

Marshall, I rattled and grunted for blacktail for several years before work took me away from Oregon, mostly during the late bow season. Now that I'm back I have been experimenting with it during rifle season. The above mentioned results were before the season opened. This last week end we attempted rattling again and did get a spike and small fork to come in (different areas). Neither were big enough to shoot in my mind, the fork being the only legal one. I have an elk hunt in the interstate unit this weekend, but will be working the rattling pretty heavy for the last few days of the season when I get back. We are also going to do some experimenting after the season (with cameras of course), will try and get some pictures posed of anything we call in.