Predator Call

In the ’90s, calling deer became very popular.  Grunt calls, bleat calls and rattling articles could be found in most outdoor publications.  While Burnham Brothers may not have been the first folks to call deer with calls, there is little doubt that they are the ones who popularized it. 

I have a copy of an OUTDOOR LIFE magazine article written by Byron Dalrymple in 1957 featuring Winston and Murry Burnham.  They were hunting mule deer in Colorado and in those days, the bag limit was three bucks per license.  They were making a bleating sound on predator calls to attract deer and it was really working.  The Burnhams limited out on mature bucks and all of them were called into close range.

Since those days, Burnham Brothers has made a deer call that is very effective for calling deer of several species.  While I have called many whitetail does and a few whitetail bucks with this call, I feel that this bleat call is most effective on mule deer.  It seems that muley bucks respond equally as well as does.

I feel the reason the bleat calls are so effective on mule deer is that they vocalize more than the whitetails that are so numerous around Menard.  I did not realize how much they communicated until I was sitting at a windmill in Brewster County many years ago.  A herd of approximately 20 muleys, small bucks, does and fawns were coming to the mill to water in a trough that was in the middle of a water lot.  In other words, there was a fence around the water which made it easier to trap or hold livestock at the water.  As the deer neared the enclosure, they became more nervous and began to bleat back and forth.  They continued to communicate until they had watered and escaped the net wire enclosure.  If this had been whitetails, one, they would not have been running in such a large group and two, they would not have vocalized nearly so much.

If you want to greatly improve your chances of finding a mule deer this hunting season, I suggest that you use a deer call.  A friend of mine told me, ”If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”.  While using bleat calls is legal in all states, it works so well that it makes me feel like I am cheating.