How to Interpret and use a Deer Grunt, Snort, or Wheeze

Bill Kinney Photography

Have you ever wondered what those different deer noises meant?  You will often hear a deer before you see him if you pick up on his vocalizations.  There are a variety of hunting calls meant to imitate deer sounds and, when used in the correct manner, can be very successful.  These sounds are extremely useful hunting tools and need to be understood in order to have a successful hunt.

Why do deer make such vocalizations?
Like any wild animal, deer use sounds as a form of communication.  Deer are a quiet animal, moving in and out of an area sometimes without a sound so as to avoid unwanted attention.  Because of this many of their sounds are just as suttle and often not recognized by the average hunter.  This is why it is important to train your ears and learn how to correctly use these calls.

Types of Deer Noises
The most commonly known is the grunt.  It is used by hunters during the rut and can be quite successful, but understanding their other sounds is important as well when trying to understand  what is going on in your environment.

The snort
Deer snorting is very common and sounds almost like a sneeze.   However, if you hear a deer snort, proceed with caution.  It may not specifically be you, but a deer snorting is a deer sending out a word of caution.  It is telling the other deer that somethings not right.  If you can see it and it is looking in your direction, do not move.  The deer will flee if it notices any further danger.  Know that once a deer has snorted, even if it dismissed whatever danger it thought was there, it is still on the alert and you must be extremely stealthy.  A skittish deer does not take second chances.  If you ever see someone trying to sell a deer snort as a hunting call, recognize it as a probable scam, it will do nothing more than scare away every deer in the area.

The grunt
One of the most commonly used calls by the hunter is the deer grunt.  The grunt is used by the buck during the rut and is their mating call.  It is used once in a while throughout the year, but the rut is when it is most recognized and put to use.  The buck will repeatedly grunt throughout the mating season to the does either expressing that he is a buck and out looking for does or meaning that he is the biggest, baddest buck around.  One of the most common mistakes of a hunter when using the deer grunt is that they use it too frequently.  A short quick grunt placed about five to ten minutes apart will alert any does in the area that he is out looking for them, and alert the bucks that they have a rival that needs to be taken care of.  Many hunters will also mistakenly try and utilize the doe grunt.  A doe will grunt, but during fawning season.  She uses a soft grunt as communication with her fawn.  During hunting season stick to using buck grunting calls as your model for calling in deer.  Trying to imitate a doe grunt will not get you far.

In the case that two rival bucks do meet they will face off.  In such a circumstance there are two possibilities.  The bucks will completely avoid eye contact, basically ignoring one another as eye contact or staring one down represents dominance.  However, if they do make eye contact one buck will either back down, or they will have a face off.  The face off is often settled without a fight unless it is two bucks of roughly the same size.  Between deer it is not necessarily antler size that matters.  Body size and attitude are most important when winning a dominance battle.  You will often see a giant eight point be boss over a much larger racked deer.  They will begin by getting defensive and making themselves look larger by puffing out their neck and back hair and standing tall trying to intimidate the rival.  If one still refuses to stand down you will come across the next vocalization: the wheeze.

Bill Kinney Photography

The wheeze
In the face off they will bring the ears back, hair on end, and begin walking stiff legged around one another sizing the other up and start to wheeze.  The wheeze is almost a last warning to the other buck that they mean business, it sounds almost like when you suck air through your teeth..  A wheeze, if you can correctly do it, may attract other bucks who think there is about to be a fight going on and they want in.  If neither backs down they will finally cross antlers.  The whole face off is usually over as quickly as it started and dominance is settled.

Rattling
Rattling is also a common tool for hunters.  During the rut the bucks are very aggressive and if they hear a fight in their area they may be very willing to run over and get in on the action, if not just see what is happening.  Rattling can be a very successful tool if done correctly.  Do not use an electronic rattle if you can help it, they often sound metallic or phony.  If you really want to use rattling while hunting acquire a pair of antlers.  They don't have to be anything special or large, you will be carrying them with you to the stand so you want a lighter pair.  Your arms can also get sore rattling a heavy rack for an extended period of time.  Rattling is not like the grunt and can be used frequently, however, if you see a deer or hear one be careful about making any further noises as it may pinpoint you. To get in some rattling practice, watch videos of bucks fighting to understand how the antlers should be used.  Simply knocking them against each other is not very realistic.

What about you?  What have you found to be the most reliable call?