Pennsylvania Game News - January 2010 - 55

shops carry deer calls of every imaginable make and model. Yet the basic grunt call remains the mainstay of this cottage industry — and the most essential tool in any bowhunter’s deer-calling arsenal. GRUNT CALLS: Without getting into specific brands or manufacturers, grunt calls all work on the same principle: they mimic the primary vocalization of a rutting buck. These calls have become popular in the Keystone State, particularly since the season was extended deep into the rut. Most commonly the hunter blows or sucks air through a plastic tube and diaphragm to create the hoarse, burping sound of a buck in search of romance. Bucks are attracted to grunt sounds for a number of reasons: simple curiosity, a territorial challenge to a possible rival, or the chance to sneak in and whisk another buck’s lady away. I’ve had pretty fair luck with grunt calls over the years, none more dramatic than one early November morning in 1992. As soon as shooting light seeped into the woods, I pressed my call to my lips and emitted a series of three or four grunts. Because I had only an hour before I had to leave for work, I was pressed for time. I waited an impatient ten minutes and repeated the grunting sequence. A moment later, a thick tangle of vines and honeysuckle shook and shuddered 20 yards away, I figured it was an unseen squirrel leaping through the brush. Ten minutes passed by before I grunted again. The honeysuckle tangle responded instantly, shaking violently. A moment later a swollen-necked 9-point stepped out from behind it, looking for trouble. He was about to find it. He had approached unseen at the sound of my call, angrily raking the brush in response. Now he sauntered within five yards of my tree, his eyes scanning the underbrush for his upstart challenger. By then I was at full draw, and an instant later, buried my arrow into the buck’s broad back. Heart-shot, the buck dropped within a hundred yards. On that morning my grunt call worked exactly as advertised, luring the agitated buck to battle with a presumed challenger in what was essentially a textbook calling clinic. Although all grunt tubes work on the same principle, there are many variations. One of the most common is the adjustable call, where the tone of the grunt can be altered (usually with valves, buttons, or a sliding O-ring) to imitate everything from a bleating fawn or a hot doe to a juvenile buck or the most alpha master of the forest. Manufacturers have also introduced hands-off calls and calls with lengthy extensions for treestand hunters that lower the actual call to ground level. My inventory of such calls could fill a backpack. Of course grunt calls don’t always work the kind of deadly magic described above. I’ve grunted bucks in throughout FOR generations, hunters have relied on “calls of the wild” to mimick everything from duck quacks and goose honks to turkey yelps, predator yaps, elk bugles and buck grunts. JANUARY 2010

Pennsylvania Game News - January 2010

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