Archery Noob ?, do you take grunts, rattling bags, etc this early?

[teddy12b]

So opening day is tomorrow and all I was planning on bringing with me was my orange hat, hunting license, crossbow and a knife. I've never hunted this early in the year, and I don't think it'd be the time to break out the grunt or a set of rattling antlers, but I could be wrong. I'm going to be using a decoy, but otherwise I wasn't planning any other kind of trickery for this early in deer season. Should I be taking all the little calling things with me? If not, when do you all start that stuff? In a couple of weeks I'm guessing?

 

[deer hunter]

I would leave all the calls at home right now. You don't need the orange hat unless you just want to wear it for visibility of other hunters. It isn't required until gun season starts. Hopefully your scouting ahead of time will pay off and you will be set up close to a trail that the deer are using. Good Luck!

 

[jath08]

Im just the opposite of deer hunter. I always take my grunt/doe bleat call with me. Once I get in stand and set up I'll either do a doe bleat or a soft grunt a couple of times just to calm the nerves of any deer that may have heard me walking to my stand. After that I leave it alone. If the area where you hunt has a turkey population take a turkey call with you and use it to do the same thing.

 

[teddy12b]

I was orginally thinking of hitting the buck grunt a couple times after making the noise of getting setup. I'll be pulling the decoy out of the ground blind and setting that up within crossbow range. It's going to make some noise and I figured a buck grunt after would help cover some of that up. Then I later thought that it's just way too early to be hitting a buck grunt.

 

[whitetailbowhunter]

I would definately leave the rattleing bag at home; however, bleats and grunts work awesome before and during pre-rut. Up untill late October bleats work the best in my experience. Goodluck tomorrow!

 

[hammer24]

Fawn bleats work really well in early season too.

 

[UltraRick]

And don't forget cover scent and your Thermacell!

 

[teddy12b]

And don't forget cover scent and your Thermacell!

Hunting out behind my house they're totally used to my scent

 

[Throwsstones]

I never go out without my Away deer grunt. It's perfect for archery hunting the way the tube clips to your shoulder. I've stopped many deer right in their tracks with it. It adjusts from fawn to buck.