Time to rattle?

[SlabSlayKid]

i know the best time to start rattling is a week or two before the rut gets hot and heavy, but with temps differing every year its hard to say when the ruts going to be. when would any of you begin rattling?

[96trigger]

You could try it now, but only in the AM and I would say it should be at least freezing or colder. I prefer very cold, crisp mornings. I wouldn't go all gang busters on the rattliing, but light sparring would be OK. Shouldn't hurt you, by the end of October, you can probably go all out. But that is still quite a ways away yet..

[ac777]

The rut isn't affected by temps, only by decreasing daylight. What is affected by temps is the amount of deer/bucks you see during the day. Yo will see more deer moving on the colder days. Minnesota rut starts in early November, but it probably wouldn't hurt to try rattling earlier, you never know.

[brassman]

judging by my sit sunday night and the lack of sign, I personally would wait 2 weeks before trying any rattling, however I am very tentative when it comes to rattling.

[delmuts]

Rattling can work this time of year, but make it sound like two, year and a half old bucks just playing around. Expect any buck to sneak in. You can get more serious towards the end of the month and starting in November.

[LoonASea]

I read it some where a few years ago that rattling works best when the bucks are activly making/tending ground scrapes,,,I have seen smaller bucks sparing in early oct but cant say the comotion attracted any bigger bucks,,,I dont rattle or grunt unless Im seeing ground scrapes ,,,but thats just me

LAS

[Code-Man]

On friday a buddy sent me a text at 4:30 pm saying he couldn't get to his stand because three bucks were in front of it and he couldn't sneak in and he had to watch two at a time lightly sparing. Middle of a CRP field on the edge of the woods but couldn't get back to his stand. So they are starting to do pecking order it sounds like.

[WaitForIt]

I always rattle when I go out. This time of year, very sparingly and just 'tinking' the tips together (or equivalent w/ rattle bag). If you observe real deer sparring now, they are just playing around within their own bachelor groups. I've had a little luck getting some curious bucks to come in and see whats going on.

Later in the year when an outside buck in search of does comes into contact with the local bucks is when it gets nasty. Bucks from the same group do not fight to the death - the purpose of early season sparring is to establish the pecking order so they do not need to waste time during mating season fighting each other.