By Will Primos

Like many deer hunters, I dreamed about a deer vocalization that I would hear and see a deer using, that would allow me to call in bucks whenever I wanted. I didn't know if it really existed, but I kept my eyes and ears open, always looking forward to my favorite time for calling deer those few magic days right before the rut really gets going. That's my favorite time to call because it's when bucks are the most aggressive, looking and searching for that first doe that might be ready for the annual breeding season. Bucks have their ears keyed in to the sounds that tell them it might be happening. They listen for another buck trailing a doe, constantly grunting as he walks (Some people call this the tending grunt). It's the sound of a buck chasing a doe - sticks cracking, leaves crunching, maybe a doe snorting her disapproval of the buck or bucks who won't leave her alone, and of course that continuous grunting by a buck.

December 1986, was one of those special times. Thanksgiving holidays were over, everything seemed to be going smoothly at work, another cool front had just come through, and I had some free time to spend in the woods. I also had the opportunity to hunt a piece of land that was owned by a gentleman who had set up some wonderful self-imposed management practices, allowing bucks to reach maturity. There was not just one buck that called this land home, but several, so there was good competition. This creates a more likely situation for calling and rattling because of the competition between mature bucks.

I had found the sign that I wanted. There were lots of scrapes, rubs, contours in the land, and a small quarter-acre pond or watering hole that cattle used to use years ago. The cattle had been gone for many years, because the trees were as big as my waist and there was a good variety of hardwood and pine growing in what used to be a cattle pasture. I was bowhunting, so exactly which tree should I climb? I didn't just want to climb a tree and hope a buck would come close enough. I wanted more than that. If a buck wasn't going to come within my self-imposed 30-yard shooting distance, then I wanted to be able to call him to me. Ideally, I wanted to see him out about 75-100 yards and call to him, making him curious, making him hunt for me.

You see, I believe you can't hunt a buck where he is. You can only hunt him where he is going to be. I believe you have to move in undetected, quietly, and be there before the buck gets there. Whitetails are just mighty hard to sneak up on.

When I saw it. It was the perfect place. One of those places where I could climb, have some cover, and the area around the base of my tree had exactly what I was looking for. There was a big treetop that had fallen down on one side. On the other side, an expanding switch cain thicket grew almost to the base of the hackberry tree that I was going to climb. Behind the switch cain thicket, some 25 yards away, the land rose forming a fairly steep hill. This hill rose approximately 50 feet before it leveled out. At this point, the land was covered by 15-year-old planted pines.

As I sat in the tree that day, I knew that this was a great set up. After many years of calling deer, my experiences have burned into my mind the fact that I had to make the buck hunt me. If I called and the buck could see exactly where I was calling from, there would be no reason for the buck to approach and that's when it dawned on me that was the secret deer call I had always dreamed of discovering!

My secret deer call is made of:

1. You guessed it, a Primos Grunt Call.
2. Timing -- the time of year is ever so important
3. Location
4. I guess I'd have to say that again location, location, location.

I had climbed the Hackberry at 2:30. It was starting to get on up in the afternoon and I hadn't seen a thing except for a couple of squirrels, one gray fox, a bunch of blue jays who were upset with the squirrel, a ruby crested kinglet, which is a bird I rarely get to see that was on it's annual migration path going further south, and a "possum" who looked like he had just left Joe's bar down the road and had one too many. It just seems that "possums" walk that way, stumbling along like they're never really going to catch their balance. They're not looking for anything, just ambling along like they really don't know where they are going.

It was right after I saw the opossum that I thought I heard it. It was out in front of me, slightly to the left and ever so soft. I believed it to be a grunt. If it was headed my way, I didn't want the deer to get close before I called. I quickly slipped my original Hardwood Grunter out of my Bowhunter's Vest and gave a soft grunt while cupping my hands around the end of the grunt tube. That's all it took. He knew I was there. I reached up and grabbed a small handful of slightly dead hackberry leaves that hadn't fallen yet and crunched them in my hand. I wanted to add that one more sound that all deer know other deer make when they move through the woods, the sound of deer walking on the leaves. The hill that rose behind me allowed me to get away with that.

He came looking. The hair on his back was bristled, but not standing straight up. His tail was almost sticking straight out. He had a little bit of that stiff-legged walk. As he got closer to the hackberry where I was perched, poised with the bottom wheel of my bow resting neatly in my bow holder so my left arm wouldn't get fatigued, I could see him barely looking left and right. He was trying to be sure that the buck he thought he was approaching would not be able to surprise him from one side or the other. That magic deer call was working.

He got to 20 yards and was just about perfectly broadside to me, I waited for the moment to draw. He finally turned his head to look back from where he had come from and that's when I made my move.

The shot was good. As he ran, I had to squat in my treestand^o so I could look under some limbs to keep track of him. I saw him fall.

I can't tell you how much those type moments mean to me. It's a moment that I feel I can relate to some of what our ancestors felt when they hunted for food, when they had put all the pieces together and now they could feed themselves and their families.

I can truly say that at the moment when I knew it was starting to happen, there was nothing else going on in my mind. I can't say that about the rest of my waking hours. Somebody asked me one time, "What are you thinking right now?" I asked back, "You mean right now, or when you asked me that?" That's how fast my mind seems to move sometimes as I know it does for many people. When I am enjoying the fall and hunting whitetails, I know for once I can cleanse my mind and hopefully find that moment when my mind will be thinking of only one thing . . . Making the shot count.

So remember, that "Secret Deer Call" is made of three things:

1. A great grunt call
2. Timing
3. Location
4. Location, Location, Location

Good Hunting!