Pennsylvania Game News - September 2015 - 59

bucks with antler rattling, and can count
the times it worked on the fingers of one
hand with quite a few still remaining.
Grunting has been a much more effective
strategy for me.
The problematic tradeoff with grunting
is that it puts the buck on red alert as he approaches, eyes scanning for his supposed
challenger, ears pricked to pick up even
the slightest sound.
If the bowhunter has assumed an appropriate level of invisibility in an elevated
stand with full-body camouflage, and
makes slow, prudent movements, Mr.
Buck is unlikely to detect him or her. It's
far more likely that he'll hear you or, more
accurately, he'll hear the sounds your bow
makes.
Draw a bow with a creaky, squeaky
limb and you could spook that buck into
the next county. And what if you're so
nervous or pumped up that your arrow
slips from the rest and clatters onto the
riser? Goodbye venison!
You can prevent the possibility by
lining the riser area beneath the rest with
leather or cloth to dampen any sound such
a wayward arrow might make.
But the most potentially perilous sound
your bow will emit is the twang of the
string as the arrow is launched, particularly if the buck is heatedly responding to
a grunt call.
A deer "jumping the string" can result
in a miss or a bad hit and may be an unfortunate recurring theme for the average
bowhunter.
This is far less likely if the buck is
feeding peacefully or is distracted by an
estrus doe accompanying him, but sound
that grunt call and he'll be all ears, muscles
coiled and at the ready, set to react to the
slightest acoustical provocation.

I've always believed that a quiet bow is
significantly preferable to a fast one.
The solution here is to dampen any
string sound as much as possible, usually
by the generous addition of rubber silencers to the offending bowstring.
This might slightly reduce arrow
speed, but the trade-off for a more-silent
bow is well worth it. It's astounding how
instantaneously an alerted buck can react
to the twang of the bow when answering
a grunt call.
A few years back, a big 10-point responded to my grunting efforts and came
in spoiling for a fight. He passed broadside
within 15 yards of my stand offering me
the most perfect shot imaginable. At full
draw I had the sight pin resting just behind
his shoulder, an aiming point that would
assure the ideal double-lung shot, or so I
thought.
When the buck stopped to eyeball
the woodlot in search of his challenger,
I launched the arrow. The buck reacted
instantly, turned away at a 90-degree angle,
and bounded off at high speed before suddenly piling up after a 60-yard sprint.
I naturally assumed he had succumbed
to a classic double-lung hit, but what I
found when I recovered the buck was startling evidence of how quickly an alerted
deer can react to the sound of a bowstring
twang.
Instead of the anticipated broadside
double-lung penetration, the arrow had
struck the deer on the top of its back, just
forward of the hips, and angled down into
the vitals from there.
In the time it took for that arrow to travel
a mere 15 yards at a speed of about 320
feet per second, the buck was able to turn
completely away at a right angle and beat
a hasty retreat.

An alerted deer can react quickly to the sound of the bowstring.
SEPTEMBER 2015	

59
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - September 2015
