If you’re in the late Jan rut area, the morning hunts for the next week to 10 days should be a great time to try rattling…….

Does are gonna start going hot around the 19th…….For the next 10-12 ish days bucks are really going to be moving around and getting testy with each other……They start moving into the doe bedding areas and food plots where you have the biggest concentrations of females occurring and staking claim to the area waiting for the first ones to go hot……Historically today is the day when I always see new bucks start moving around and showing up.....This is when a lot of folks are about to lose their buck stock pile to other properties…..

This time window of the next week or two though is when you have a good chance of getting one to respond to rattling…..Just make sure you have the setup in your favor…..Get up in a treestand and let the morning thermals take your scent upwards so he doesn’t wind you…..Rattle for 20-30 seconds then put them down and be still….If he heard you and is going to respond then he’s coming….more rattling 5 minutes later is just going to get you busted.

May try it.

Do the plastic horns and bags work or do you need a set of real antlers?

Not sure.....I've always used the real ones

You want to do it somewhere close to where you have a lot of does bedding…..The bucks often tend to bed just inside the cover along the major trails leading in and out. The idea is that you’re hoping one of the dominant bucks that is laying claim to that concentration of does is in there with them and hears it and comes to you to run off the intruders…….or maybe he thinks they are fighting over that first doe going hot……Once does start going hot and he gets locked on one, you’re much less likely to have rattling work……One or two long deep grunts is also effective if he can hear you

I think a lot of folks rattle and envision that a buck is going to come running in……but what they will do more often times is walk to the edge of that cover they are bedding in and stand there watching and smelling…..looking for verification of what they just heard before they commit to going any further……This is why its really important to sit down and be still and quiet for at least 30 minutes after you put the horns down……Don’t rattle again for 35-45 minutes.

And get the largest loudest grunt call you can find. Keep roaring on it while smashing them antlers together.

That information is conflicting to the previous information.

I've got pictures of little guys squaring off and got one the other day with one of the small guys busted off on the right side. It's right around the corner for the southern part of the State.

I forgot to add the part about it only helps you to not have to clean a deer. I know this from experience. I had no idea what I was doing!! It didn’t work out to good.

Go to learn but using loud calls never ever worked for me either.

I’ll be tickling mine in the morning. Everything is setting up nicely. You fellas better be in your favorite clearcut in the morning.

Something that makes calling really hit or miss is that from this day forward until the end of the season everything is a fluid process that’s changing a little bit every day……Reshuffling of bucks over here today…..a doe going hot over there tomorrow……5 does going hot the next day…….10 more the next…..etc……Every day brings another little bit of change……In order to have rattling or grunting work you have to catch the right buck on the right day…..The less bucks you have the lower your odds of that happening……And all of that is assuming you have a good setup that doesn’t get you busted…..It can be tough but it can damn sure work if you catch the right situation on the right day

The true peak is really only about maybe 4 or 5 days……For the late January rut I’d say those would be Jan 26-30 for many folks though it probably shifts back a little the farther southwest you go……Those days represent the top of the arc on your bell curve……Somewhere around Jan 30 – Feb 2 is where you could potentially observe a “lock down” period where every buck is with a hot doe……. Except for the extreme outliers, the last does will be hot by around Feb 6..….. Feb 2-10 are prime, prime days to catch a big one slipping as the peak passes and you start having fewer and fewer hot does with each day that goes by…… These are prime days to catch one that’s making himself vulnerable and another time frame when you’re more likely to have success calling…..Again, its just a matter of catching that right one on the right day and having a good setup to do it in…..and that pretty much being cold mornings up in a tree with rising thermals from about 7:00-9:00 a.m…….Thermals stop rising the same around the 9:30 ish time frame and you start risking getting winded more.

thanks for this thread ...