Snort Your Way to Bigger Bucks

Many years ago I was hunting a large whitetail buck in the big hardwood forests of the Ozark foothills in S.E. Missouri. The fall was dry and walking on the leaves was like stepping on nitro-covered eggshells. Still-hunting was virtually impossible.

Because of the noisy conditions, I positioned myself in a stand overlooking a well-used creek crossing. The buck was scraping trails on both sides of the creek, so I thought this would be a good spot. From studying the buck's track, I determined he was crossing to my side of the creek in the evening. This would be a noon-to-dark stand.

Just before 4 p.m. on the third day I saw him coming. He was about 120 yards out and coming straight for the crossing. I was so intent on watching the buck that I all but ignored the noise on the ground beneath my stand. Probably a couple of squirrels, I thought. When the deer was at 75 yards he passed behind a cedar tree. I quickly raised my bow and the ground around me began to erupt with black and brown feathers and the cackling of wild turkeys.

A Gorgeous Rack

The deer froze. Nothing was visible, but his head and a gorgeous 8-point rack. He was bigger than I originally thought. Then something happened that made my heart sink. He snorted. And then he snorted again. I checked the wind. There was no way that he could smell me. I moved when he was behind the cedar, so there was also no way he could have seen me. He stepped back behind the cedar never to be seen by me again. What happened?

This is the most common story deer hunters tell.

The deer smelled me, gave an alarm snort and I never saw it again. Tradition tells us that when a deer snorts, it is an alarm, warning other deer of danger. Logic and some good woodsmanship can show us the real story.

As a member of the Lohman Game Calls Pro Staff, I have the advantage of not only using the finest deer calls on the market, but also hunting with some of the best deer hunters in the country. Adding all of that data with my own experience and expertise has allowed me to deduce the following information about the whitetail buck and the snort.

First, if a mature whitetail buck gets a scent that he is absolutely sure is a man, the last thing his instinct would allow him to do is make the loudest sound he can make and give away his position. If he smells a man he will either freeze until the danger passes or he will simply slip away. Snorting and revealing his location has not kept him alive this long, but keeping totally silent and motionless has.

Why They Snort

Next, think about why a deer would snort. When a deer snorts, it forces air out of its nostrils very fast. This not only creates the sound that we hear, but it also blows out any scent particles that were already there. This allows the deer, as it inhales, to gather new scent information from the air. The deer may make this attempt to get new scent several times, until they are instinctively confident that no danger is present. They trust their nose above all else.

A deer does not have the ability to think and reason as we do. Therefore these actions and reactions are, as stated, instinctive. The deer does not try to distinguish between a dangerous human and a safe human. They do not have the capacity for such a determination. All their instinct can tell them is if the stimuli they are experiencing are positive or negative. If it is positive, they will relax. If it is negative, they will disappear.

Many hunters have told me that I am wrong. They say that a deer will snort two or three times and then leave the county on a dead run. Again, using some common sense, if a young deer's snorting mechanism works and their nose tells them they are in danger, they are gone. It's plain and simple. How many times have you seen a doe stand and snort and stomp for several minutes? I will bet you have never seen a big buck do that.

Try a Snort Call

Now, where could a snort call be used, and why? When a deer snorts he is telling you that he is not sure. If he was sure it was you, he would not make a sound. We have already established that point. If the first thing he heard after he snorts is another snort, he may relax, as his instinct tells him he has found another deer. Often this is all it takes to have him come right in. Deer are herd animals and they regularly seek-out companionship. The snort tells the buck that more deer are present. This is positive stimuli. Usually this will satisfy his anxiety and pique his natural curiosity all at the same time.

By combining the snort with other deer calls, you can actually speak to deer in their own language. Let's say you are moving through the woods and you jump a big buck out of his bed. He does not know what spooked him so he moves up to higher ground and snorts. In the past we would figure that deer is spooked and we will never see him again.

If you snort back at him, he realizes that another deer scared him. Then you move quickly and quietly right into his bedding area. With a grunt call you challenge the buck to come back and defend his territory. And chances are, he will so be ready.

By knowing how deer react to certain stimuli you can become a much more consistent hunter. Lohman Game Calls provides us not only with the Snort Call, but with a line of premier grunt calls, as well. Knowing this, you should be able to snort your way to bigger bucks.