A few years ago, my good friend Jim Zumbo and I were deer hunting in South Texas. One evening we got bored and decided to watch a video that was lying around the camphouse. The video was produced by someone attempting to sell a bleat call that mimicked the sound of a whitetail doe that is in estrus.Through the years, I have had the opportunity to observe whitetails on an almost daily basis and have raised quite a few on a bottle. The sound that the “hot” doe was making was one that neither Jim and I had ever heard for she was “honking” like a goose. Since that day, I have not heard a doe make a sound like a goose and it concerns me that someone will do anything to sell a call.
A rare sound to hear a deer make is a “snort wheeze”. Last weekend, I had a chance to observe two mature whitetails that were aggressive posturing at each other (trying to bluff the other out of an area). Most hunters have heard deer snort and grunt but I do not recall observing and listening to two bucks “snort wheeze” as much as these two old boys. They stomped, walked stiff-legged, snorted and wheezed for over ten minutes. Finally the four year old yielded turf to the older buck and moved to a friendlier neighborhood.
If you are ever in the woods and hear something that sounds like a steam engine and there is no rail nearby, get ready for a mature buck may be in your neighborhood.
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