Americana Outdoors E-Magazine - October 2020

THE NUANCES OF RATTLING MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE! BY WADE MIDDLETON

Deer are most active during the rut. In some cases, the deer that you’ve seen regularly in areas during the season have suddenly vanished as they make their rounds in search of does and territory to claim. Rattling is a fun and engaging way to attract those big territorial bucks. When it comes to rattling, there are varied nuances that I believe can pay off . For example, if someone is high up in a tree rattling, the sounds that they would make (the aggressive sounds, the length of it, how loud it might be) would be different, in my opinion, than how somebody might rattle on the ground in a place like deep South Texas where there are a lot more deer in that fighting mode. When I’m rattling up in a tree stand, I tend to be a little more subdued and don’t tend to rattle quite as loud. As I’m trying to attract deer, I’ll make

sounds to bring them in but not bang on the trees as much. In addition, I’m not moving my body as much, and I’m lightly rattling a lot of times to create a moderate, medium sound. However, when I’m down on the ground, and I think that massive fights are going on, the deer are rutting, and they’re coming to the antlers, I’m far more aggressive. I’m moving the angles of my antlers around, up high, down low to change the sound, which is what happens in a real deer fight. Deer don’t just stand and fight head to head and stay in one spot; their heads are going up and down, their bodies are moving, they’re spinning around, rocks are moved around, and the brush is being kicked. Therefore, I like to simulate that in a fight and if I’m hunting in a place that has big deer, I rattle really, really loud!