Mike Handley posted on October 18, 2010 07:54
By Mike Handley
Richard Gates, New York |
With the flick of a wrist back in 2000, Mike Beatty made a well-known company’s little-known product a household word among deer geeks. The Ohio hunter credits Will Primos’ doe-in-a-can with luring the world record (286 4/8-inch) Irregular within bow range.
Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed not to find The Can or some other company’s knockoff inside a deer hunter’s gear bag. Still, whether it’s a doe-bleat canister or a standard grunt call, a hunter isn’t apt to use it unless he or she has confidence in it.
Therein lies the problem.
If you’ve ever experienced success while using a deer call, chances are you’ll be as hooked on it as your teenaged daughter is on the “Twilight” movies. But if you haven’t seen the contraptions work, you’re not likely to keep blowing or flipping them. Am I right?
Human nature.
But remember: You can’t hit a home run if you never pick up the bat. And you won’t be successful grunting or bleating if you don’t ... well ... grunt or bleat.
Lest you think I'm on the payroll of a callmaker, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s yet another deer hunter who relies on the reed when he wants to close the deal on a piece of wall art.
Bowhunter Richard Gates doesn’t hunt in a traditional big buck state. He hangs his stands or sets up his blinds in New York’s Suffolk County – Long Island farm country. I don’t know how many whitetails he’s taken, but I do know he’s collected a couple of dandies in our record book.
Both were felled with the help of deer calls.
The first time was back in 2002. A big buck chased a doe out of the woods at the far end of a field Richard was watching. His grunting stopped the deer, which abandoned the doe and traveled the full length of the field to give the hunter an 18-yard shot.
History repeated itself four years later. In addition to blowing the tube-style grunt call, Richard flipped a bleat canister as well, and a 22-point, drop-tined monster strolled across the field to within 25 yards of his ground blind. Its BTR composite score is 208 5/8.
Just looking at Richard’s sweet bucks is enough to give ya diabetes!
