When Deer Calls Don’t Work with John E. Phillips
Day 2: David Hale and Jim Crumley Explain How White-Tailed Bucks’ Moods Impact Their Calling
Editor’s Note: Some days, a grunt or a bleat may pull a buck within bow or gun range. However, at other times calling may prove futile, or even frighten deer away. Don’t consider deer calls the magic cure-all to put the buck of a lifetime in your crosshairs anytime you use them. Sometimes deer calls don’t call deer.
I f you want a date for Saturday night, while walking through the mall, you’ll stop and talk to any girl who smiles at you and acts like she’s interested. However, if you walk through that same mall and an attractive young lady smiles at you, but you have your fiancée on your arm, more than likely you won’t introduce yourself to the lady who’s smiling.  David Hale, the co-founder of Knight and Hale Game Calls in Cadiz, Kentucky, explains, “If a buck’s chasing an estrous doe or staying with an estrous doe, and you try and call him, more than likely he won’t leave the doe he’s with to come check-out a new doe that shows an interest in him.”
Jim Crumley, of Roanoke, Virginia, the creator of Trebark, the first modern-day camouflage, says, “I’ve bowhunted deer for almost four decades, and I’ve never been able to call a buck away from a doe.” The effectiveness of deer calling depends on the mood of the deer and what’s happening in that deer’s life at the time you call to him.  According to Harold Knight of Knight and Hale Game Calls, “I think a deer has got to be in the mood to come to a deer call, and I think their moods change daily and perhaps even hourly.”
Just like humans respond to other people based on our moods and the events that have happened that day when they talk to us, often you’ll have a mood where you want to get away from people, or, perhaps you just don’t want any female company.  Have you ever gotten into a fist fight and then had the opportunity to get into another one a few hours later and decided to retreat instead of charge? If you can identify with any of these situations, then you’ll understand why sometimes deer calling doesn’t work.
Tomorrow: Calls That Have the Best Chances of Bringing In Bucks with David Hale and Gary Sefton
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