 Quote: “Loud rattling brought in three times as many bucks as soft rattling."
“I tried that rattling stuff, Dave, and I just don’t get results. I think rattling only works in Texas.” My bowhunting buddy had just returned from a hunt, and he was bemoaning the poor results he got from rattling. “Brian, check out this new study,” I responded. “I think you will rattle with new confidence once you see the results.” “Yea, but that study was done in Texas, and those deer are different than ours.” Now if you believe that, you just don’t know whitetails. Deer are deer. And based on this new research, rattling works much more than you know.
Study Observes Deer Response To Rattling Antlers
This 3-year study was conducted by Dr. Mickey Hellickson, biologist for the King Ranch. He did the research on the 7,800-acre Welder Wildlife Foundation Refuge in south Texas. This area and the study were quite unique. Because a lot of research goes on in Welder, there are a number of telephone pole observation towers scattered around. Those towers gave researchers an interesting tool to observe bucks responding to rattling. Two people worked as a pair, with one being in the tower while the other rattled on the ground. He rattled long (3 minutes at a time), short (1 minute), and loud and soft, during the pre-rut, rut and post-rut periods.
Note that the Welder habitat is rather low-shrub compared to our northern deciduous forests, so visibility of deer from the tower would be much better than from the ground. In addition, Welder has a good buck-to-doe ratio and a fair number of older bucks, making rattling results better than what you’d get in areas where there are lots of does. Finally, although there is hunting on Welder, the pressure isn’t what you find on many of your hunting locations.
Now let’s look at the results and see if they will help improve your odds when rattling. Indeed, the number of bucks seen by either the guy in the tower or the guy on the ground was much higher than those of us who rattle would ever imagine.
What The Numbers Showed
Mickey and his helpers’ rattled 171 sequences over three years, and 111 bucks responded. Whoa! That seems like a lot of bucks. Remember, though, these were the bucks seen by the man in the tower, and/or the man on the ground doing the rattling. But here is an interesting bit of data. The guy on the ground only saw 33% of the bucks that responded. Why is that?
Well, 66% of the bucks just didn’t come far enough for the guy on the ground to see them. Some circled downwind, and thus took off before they were seen. However, the high response rate indicates that bucks do respond positively to rattling. Now, how do we get all of them to come into bow or gun range? That is the big question.
Rattling Antlers Under The Right Conditions With The Right Techniques
 Hellickson has some answers. For example, he found that loud rattling brought in three times as many bucks as soft rattling. Early morning is best, peak rut is best, less wind is best, cool temperatures are best, and 75% or more cloud cover is best.
Should you rattle for short or long periods of time? The researchers found no difference. More bucks came during the first rattling sequence, but short or long didn’t seem to matter. As you might surmise, the peak rut was the best time to rattle. However, most that responded during that time were younger bucks. Loud rattling is best, except for the bigger bucks.
Big bucks came during the pre- and post-rut more than during the peak rut. But (and here is the gold nugget of data that rattlers will find important), more and bigger bucks came to soft rattling during the post rut. When you are after big bucks, rattle softly in the post rut. Tickle those antlers softly and grind the bases together, imitating two bucks pushing and shoving.
Deer That Wise Up
Next question: Do bucks learn to avoid rattling? To answer this, the researchers went to bucks that were bedded. These deer had activity collars on so the researchers could tell when the bucks moved, and in which direction they moved. Pretty neat.
They rattled 33 times to these bucks and 24 came closer. As before, only 33% were seen, but bedded bucks did respond positively to rattling. The average distance moved was one-third of a mile, but several bucks came considerably further. Also note that in some cases it was 30 minutes before the bucks came near the rattler. This study tells me that blind rattling works, but we need to be as scent-free as possible so those bucks will come in all the way.
Now to another interesting question: Do bucks learn to avoid rattling? Hellickson rattled four different times over a few weeks to eleven bucks that were 4 1/2 years old or older. You would think that these old-timers would be wise to the ways of rattling. And, indeed, some were. One 9 1/2-year-old buck never moved during any of the rattling sequences.
However, 6 of 11 came twice, and one buck came all four times. Four didn’t come the first time, but came the second. So, indeed, even these old bucks responded to rattling and some came more than once during a two-week period.
No, this study doesn’t give us all the answers. But it sure does show that bucks respond to rattling more than we thought. In fact, if you use these results in your rattling this coming season, your odds will definitely go up. There is no question. In the right situation, rattlin’ works.
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Rattlin’ Really Works!
