Conditions were perfect. It was time, and seemingly on cue, legs moved out of the sun toward me along the lower trail. I set myself in a good shooting position with my bow pointed in the direction where I anticipated a shooting opportunity. But as so often happens, the buck left the trail, moving uphill at an angle that would not bring him within shooting range. My chin dropped to my chest as I resigned myself to defeat. Then I remembered the grunt tube that was stuffed in my jacket pocket. As I had been instructed, I softly blew two monotone grunts without really expecting anything to happen.

The buck, a modest 8-point, lifted its head erect, and looked in my direction with both ears focused. After a brief pause, he trotted to within 12 yards, turned broadside, and froze. The rest was anticlimactic. My arrow passed through both lungs, the buck made a couple of bounds, then walked another 50 yards before lying down.

Now, nearly 20 years after my first real hunting experience with a grunt tube, I feel foolish for having doubted. Grunt tubes have put bucks into shooting position for me time and time again. Now, in fact, when I know a buck can hear my grunt call, I expect it to come to me.

Bombarded as we are with television programs and videos about deer hunting, many demonstrating a variety of grunt calls, we could easily get the impression that you need a degree in deer biology to use grunt tubes. Nothing could be more misleading. Deer do not have a language. They merely make noises that interest other deer. You can get by very well using just one or two grunt calls with just one grunt tube. This does not dispute the effectiveness of other grunt calls, nor does it imply that another type of grunt sound might not be more effective in a specific situation. My only message is that this simple system has been consistently successful, and that it is based on sounds I have heard both wild and captive bucks make.

I was fortunate that my first grunt tube had a relatively high pitched tone. This, I have learned, is one key to consistent success. I believe, although I have not heard enough wild deer grunt to call this a scientific observation, that older bucks make a deeper-pitched grunt which attracts only bucks large enough to challenge another older buck. The higher-pitched grunt does not intimidate any buck.

The two grunt sounds I have heard most often are two monotone grunts of about one second duration each, separated by a pause of about one second, and a long series of short grunts. In both cases, a hot doe is usually very close, which indicates the reason bucks respond so favorably.

Bucks usually come to the two-grunt call even well before and after the peak of the rut. If this sounds contradictory to what you might have heard or read about rutting activity, it is probably because you have fallen for a great deal of misleading information. The peak of rut is often described as the period around the Hunters' Moon. While this may be true in many cases, the rut is not confined to this period. Individual does may be in heat for just a short period of time, and more might come into heat around that full moon than at other times, but all does do not come into heat at the same time. If they are not bred, they come into heat again a month later.

Actual mating occurs over a much longer time frame, perhaps as long as four months. A simple grunt call can be effective throughout this period, and maybe even at other times.

I suggest that you master the two-grunt call- rrrrrrrrr..........rrrrrrrrrr. Stay with it until it works. Try a few different grunt tubes if necessary, but stick with this call until you get good results. As with any game calling, moving ahead before mastering the basics only causes more problems in the long run.

When I have observed the longer series of short grunts it was made by bucks in the process of following hot does. Since it's made by a moving buck, duplicating this series of sounds is difficult. If you want to try it, swivel your neck while you call to give the impression of movement. Make the grunts shorter, about as short as you can, and count, not too slowly, 'one...two', between grunts.

Once you gain confidence in grunt tubes, then, by all means, experiment with other calls. Mastering longer and more complex grunts takes time, though, and they can be done wrong. They can scare deer. Wait until you have learned how to manipulate a grunt tube.

Give grunt tubes the time they deserve and you will carry one every time you hunt deer. And yes, I even mean while you hunt doe. Sometimes a couple of grunts will bring a doe running.

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