In the mornings when I feel it's the right time of the season I will rattle as soon as I'm able to have shooting light and during a PM hunt I will wait until I've been in stand for about an hour. I will usually wait about 20 - 30 minutes between sessions.

Last year in November, I was hunting in south central Illinois on a friends dads farm.

First morning was about 8:30 getting into a ladder stand in a bottom where three ridges all dropped off.

I got my gear all set up, grabbed my rattleing horns and started imitating a fight while grunting with my Primos Rubber Neck call.

I would do about a 2 minute sequence then quit for about 15 minutes. After the third sequence, I heard a squirrell bark up on top of a ridge, then a minute or two later I heard a blue jay scolding something, half way down the ridge.

Five minutes later a nice eight point walked to within 13 yards of me, saw my cameraman move the camera and he turned broadside to me to try and see what my cameraman was.

My cameraman was laying on the side of ridge behind me wearing a ghillie suit.

Deer never did figure out what he was. He stared into the camera for 5 minutes! Then went back the way he came.

I let him walk as he was not outside the ears and the landowner required that every buck be outside the ears.........it was close....really close........but this year he will be much bigger!

Same trip, different day............

made an evening hunt on a foodplot next to a corn field.

Soon as I got in the stand I started rattleing and grunting.

Has a very young spike/3point come in on top of us, we got him on camera.

Had four other bucks show up from six to eight point in the next few hours but cameraman could not see them for the foilage. All were nice but not outside the ears.

Ratteling works at the right time of the season!

Early pre rut..........I will use my antlers to imitate light sparring of bucks.

Rajun says: Ratteling works at the right time of the season!

Early pre rut..........I will use my antlers to imitate light sparring of bucks.

Nothing but the truth
If you try rattling and it doesn't work keep trying, sooner or later you're going to catch them in the right mood.

Thanks for the advice.

I've had some success rattling, but it always feels unnatural to me to alert every creature in the area to your presence.

I intend to stick with my rattle bag this fall, hopefully with a nice story to tell later...

Which bag you using Dave?