The Call Sequence That's Brought In Hundreds of Deer

I've only heard a buck make this sound naturally twice in twenty-four years of hunting. The first time, I watched one of the biggest deer I've ever seen perform it right before breeding a doe on a farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore — and I've been replicating it with a call ever since.

He was dogging her, tending grunting with every footstep, a grunt matched to each step she took. Then she stopped, and he made a sound I'd never heard before: a rhythmic clicking, tick, tick, tick, held for what felt like ten or twelve seconds straight. I didn't think he had any air left. Then he pushed out one final low, guttural exhale and bred her immediately after. Three other deer came in just from hearing the commotion.

Why I Built a Call Around It

My theory is simple: if a mature buck does this right before breeding a doe, it's probably something a lot of bucks do in that moment. So when another buck hears a doe giving an estrous call, followed by that tending sequence, he assumes there's a hot doe nearby and another buck who's already found her. That triggers competition. He doesn't want to miss his shot at breeding her, so he comes looking — both for the doe and to challenge whoever got there first.

The Sequence

The full call is the estrous bleat done two to three times, immediately followed by the tending grunt, moving the sound left to right like a buck actively chasing a doe around. As soon as those grunts finish, roll straight into the clicking sound — tick-a, tick-a, tick-a — held for roughly eight to ten seconds. Then, with whatever air is left in your diaphragm, push out one final low, guttural grunt to finish it.

I've used it constantly, blind and with deer in sight, and I have never once had it send a deer running. I can't say that about rattling or the snort-wheeze.

Why It Beats a Lone Doe Call

This sequence doesn't just signal that a doe is in estrus — it signals that another buck has already found her and is actively breeding her. That's a far stronger trigger than a lone doe call by itself, because it turns the response from simple interest into direct competition. Over twenty years, the tending grunt and estrous bleat sequence has never cost me a deer. The snort-wheeze and rattling have, more than once.

Sequencing Matters As Much As the Calls Themselves

One of the most common mistakes I see is poor sequencing — running the tending grunt before the estrous bleat instead of after. It breaks the natural flow a deer expects to hear, and it can tip them off that something's not right. The order isn't a suggestion. It's the whole illusion.

This Is One Piece of a Bigger System

This sequence is the anchor of my calling approach, but it's just one tool in a full seasonal system — early season soft grunts, snort-wheeze timing during peak rut, and the calling mistakes that cost hunters mature bucks every fall. That's the full breakdown in Calling Whitetails, Book One of The Buckman Method series.