by Karl Triple
(Ilion, New York)
While hunting in the Adirondacks this weekend I had a very strange thing happen.
I tracked a large buck for over a mile when I came upon an area of thick cover.
I thought the deer was close and the cover was so thick that I decided to try to coax the deer out.
I did a few grunts and rattles but to my surprise I got not one but several whistle back.
Now mind you I am 3 miles from the nearest road.
At first I thought I had stumbled into another hunter.
After a half hour wait I went in to the cover to investigate. To my surprise the only tracks there were from the deer I had been tracking.
I have heard some old timers talk about deer whistling.
Has anyone out there heard of this or actually heard a deer whistle.
Click here for a guide to deer sounds and what they mean.
I stopped my car one early evening when I spotted an adult deer near the road. It was whistling, to my amazement, since I had no idea that deer could whistle. Then within maybe 30 seconds, two fawns came running to the deer and began suckling: Clearly this was their mother.
I was just sitting at my campsite when I heard a strange sound like air exhausting and looked behind me to see a doe walking in the woods. Then she did it again and this time I saw her do it! She sounded like a whistle coming out of her behind. It almost looked like it was vibrating. I’ve never seen anything like that and I see deer all the time.
Culpepper Co, VA. Hunting on a friends property in mid-December, getting close to end of legal shooting hours. Saw a fawn, then 2 does not far behind. Heard one of the does whistle repeatedly, believe the previous posts about calling the young Whitetail were on point.
2009 hunting in the swamps of Louisiana with my younger cousin . We got separated and not wanting to whoop or yell his name I called him on his cell told him I would whistle and have him whistle back to locate where he was . So he is on the phone I say are you ready he replies yes so I whistle shew we weet . I asked him in the phone did you hear me? He says no so I do it louder and hear him whistle back . I ask him to whistle again so I can locate him and he said he never heard it . So I tell him I will whistle again let me know if you hear me so I do it and get a whistle reply back again . So I tell him he isn’t far away on the phone and he said he never heard me whistle . Back and forth I keep whistling getting a reply back every time getting closer. thinking it was him fooling around or another hunter . I whistle for the last time and hear water splash behind me . I quickly turn around and have a three point charging me . I shoot and the deer drops at my feet scared the crap out of me . We meet back up after he hears the shot an came to the conclusion the deer was whistling back at me thinking I was another deer in his territory he was communicating with.