I’ve had decent luck with a rattle bag over the years. I still have an old one from Hunters Specialties. I lost the first one they came out with and it was smaller but I’ve enjoyed the larger one with a deeper tone and bigger wood dowels and blocks in it to sound like larger antlers. I’ve called in bucks of all ages but typically I don’t just rattle. I also change up my sequences and never start out with large raucous rattling. Everything is a work up like Predator calling where you start low and limited and build over the time frame. Does it always work? No! Do I typically call in deer on most sits? I would say yes. But not just from rattling. Sometimes I don’t rattle at all. Also, each areas is different depending on the age classes of the deer, buck to doe ratios and hunting pressure.
One of my most memorable call sequences was a later in the morning in early November. I had not seen anything for a few days and was getting frustrated so I just thought to myself, I always call conservatively and with limited called concerned that the deer would be call shy. Just the opposite occurred. I played out a call sequence starting out with just doe bleats, and waited about ten minutes. Then doe bleats and some tending grunts. Then doe bleats and tending grunts and a roar or long grunt then click grunts. Then grunts and a snort wheeze, then grunts, a snort wheeze one right after the other and then a “build up” rattling sequence, then a final snort wheeze. Within seconds a nice ten was walking right to me, straight legged with his ears back and walked right under me. I should have waited to draw two seconds more as he caught the movement of me drawing from above…. I mean he was like 4 yards away…. I literally saw the whites of his eyes as he panicked upon catching me draw my bow! He took off! It doesn’t happen all the time that way but if you call, envision a real scenario playing out and try to make it sound as real as possible. Sometimes, like coyotes or turkeys the sensory overload will make them “break” to the calling. Have fun!
It may sound like hyperbole to many but honestly, I call in deer a lot but shooter bucks are harder to come by!!!