# Deer clicking...what do you do



## movesatlanta (Oct 22, 2013)

Ok so I decided to leave the office early. Moved the climber 25 yards off of a new scrape Line I seen over the weekend. Get settled about 430. Seen a doe about 445 50 yards out. Non eventful the rest of the evening just enjoying being in the woods. I decided I was going to hit the estrus can a few times. First set of calls about an hour before dark- nothing.. Hit the can again about 30 minutes before dark. I hear a sound I've never heard before. I read somewhere over the years that deer make a clicking sound so i associated the sound with being a deer. I here this clicking over about 10 sec window..hit the can again. This went back and forth about 7 times...The sound was getting closer every time. The last time I heard the sound it was in a thicket that I couldn't see into from the tree because of the leaves about 50 yards out. After I associated the sound with that location I didn't hit the can anymore as I was thinking the sound I made would have been in visible sight on the ground to the deer and I would give away my location. Never seen or heard anything again.... Did I play this wrong? Should I have brought another call into play earlier in this chess match? Should I have hit the can again? After getting back to the truck I started googling sounds to see if I was loosing my mind... Found this in one of my searches.. Describes the sound to a tee.

"The Tending Click is a clicking sound bucks may make when looking for or following estrus does. It sounds like someone slowly running a fingernail across the teeth of a comb. It appears to be a slow, drawn-out version of the Tending Grunt." (from -- http://www.trmichels.com/WhitetailCommunication.htm)


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## Todd E (Oct 22, 2013)

It is a buck vocalization. I had a biologist describe it to me as a ..... calm down lady friend, I'm not going to hurt ya'...... 

My dad had it happen to him last year shortly after he had canned.
Buck walked around in the thicket and would never come out. 
I'd be willing to bet that more "mature bucks"  are the ones who click.


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## movesatlanta (Oct 22, 2013)

It was a very cool experience.


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## The Fever (Oct 23, 2013)

The immature bucks tweet


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## Moose Master (Oct 23, 2013)

The Fever said:


> The immature bucks tweet



There's an app for that


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## Pneumothorax (Oct 23, 2013)

This is good stuff.  I've never heard of a buck clicking like that.  Can't say I've ever heard it in the woods.  If I have it didn't register with me.  But now it'll get my heart racing!!


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## The Fever (Oct 24, 2013)

Pneumothorax said:


> This is good stuff.  I've never heard of a buck clicking like that.  Can't say I've ever heard it in the woods.  If I have it didn't register with me.  But now it'll get my heart racing!!



I had a buddy read this and tell me he heard it all morning...I went to the stand and heard something....always sounded like it was behind me...put my head to the tree and there must have been a wood boring beetle in the trunk lol


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## godawgs735 (Oct 24, 2013)

I've seen it on TV and read about it online as well as having seen call manufacturers claim their calls can "pop" to create the tending grunts. I finally got to witness this first hand from a decent 3.5 year old tending a doe last November in central KY. I was running camera on the hunt and the buck chased a doe into the draw we were set up on and actually kept her in there till long after dark. We actually had to sneak out of the stand while the buck was standing over the bedded doe about 70yards away.


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## frog1 (Oct 24, 2013)

http://www.frogstaxidermyadventures.com/index.php?view=true&id=239
Here's a video of one clicking that I filmed in Ohio last year. I've heard it before & was lucky enough to capture it on video this time.


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## M80 (Oct 24, 2013)

frog said:


> http://www.frogstaxidermyadventures.com/index.php?view=true&id=239
> Here's a video of one clicking that I filmed in Ohio last year. I've heard it before & was lucky enough to capture it on video this time.



Cool video Frog, I can't wait to get back at them again in Ohio on Nov. 11th. I hope its in full in full swing. Good luck to you this year.


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## cemeteryhill (Oct 24, 2013)

i heard this sound as a buck tended a doe in green co, i was young, probably 12, he was my first deer ever. so when i came out claiming this buck was clicking everyone fell on the ground laughing and they didnt believe me.   this buck was standing 10 yards from me for about a min just clicking away,  i know what i heard saw i tried to make the sound, i can recreate the sound by slowly running my finger nail over the tube end of a grunt call, that sound is almost exact to the one the buck was making.  i agree with it being a tending grunt.  it would explain why he never came out for you,


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## tradhunter98 (Oct 25, 2013)

The Fever said:


> I had a buddy read this and tell me he heard it all morning...I went to the stand and heard something....always sounded like it was behind me...put my head to the tree and there must have been a wood boring beetle in the trunk lol



same with me but who knows there might have been a big ol buck in the tree with me!!


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## Bow Only (Oct 25, 2013)

Frog's video is a great example of a tending grunt.  Bucks will use that to calm down a jumpy doe.  I've only heard it once and the buck was 10 yards away.  I couldn't have heard it if he were 30 or 40 yards away.


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## hylander (Oct 26, 2013)

I was hunting this afternoon and did an estrus call and heard the clicking noise from down in a wooded dense area.  Kept going back and forth for about 10 or 15 minutes and then nothing.  It was dead silence after that.  Never did see anything but could hear it plain as day, then it abruptly stopped.


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## BASS1FUN (Oct 27, 2013)

I had a Boone and Crockett coming in that was clicking I just imitated him but never got to shoot because the game warden messed me up and spooked him


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