Timing and preparation are critical to success, and there is no better time to implement your strategy than during this time.

Story and photography by Bob Zaiglin

It was a cloudy, late December morning as I eased along a long sendero that had been roller chopped on both sides in late August.  Pausing occasionally, I scanned what I refer to as a linear food plot because the regrowth was extremely attractive to deer, thus it took a while to reach the grain field I planned on hunting over.

Although I prefer hunting over grain fields in the evening, I was hoping to see the buck I saw on a particular oat patch the evening before.  It was not just another buck, as it had a substantial amount of space between its heavy beams, but I had little time to critique its rack before it disappeared.  All I knew was that I had to get another look at the animal.

Exiting my pickup, rain drops smacked the brim of my hat, and by the time I entered the elevated blind on the field’s northern boundary, a deluge occurred.  Once inside, I wiped my rifle down and relaxed — enjoying the therapeutic sound of rain drops pelting the roof.

As the red sandy loam soil darkened in color from absorbing the rain, I scanned the grass-laden openings outside the patch for deer, but nothing was moving.  An hour or so later, the rain ceased, and it became real quiet, with only an occasional droplet dangling precariously from the ceiling, hitting the floor of the blind.

It was an ideal morning for rattling as sound would travel deep into the brush.  I picked up my rattling antlers, extended my arms outside the blind, and initiated a rattling sequence.

I gently rubbed and tickled the tines together for close to a minute.  Afterwards, I scanned the various openings in the brush outside the grain field but failed to see a deer.  A few minutes later, I extended the antlers outside the blind once again, but this time I clashed them firmly together while intermittently employing my grunt call.

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