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Editor’s Note: CVA Pro hunter Tony Smotherman discusses the value of using deer calls when hunting with your CVA muzzleloader rifle.

Question: Tony, let’s talk about deer calls. Do you use them or not?

Smotherman: I use deer calls quite frequently, but my experience has been that they only call in deer about 30 percent of the time.

Question: Tony, what’s your favorite deer call to use?

Smotherman: By using a deer call, you have a 30-percent-better chance of calling-in a buck than you have if you don’t use a deer call. If I was playing the lottery I’d be really excited if I had a 30-percent chance to win. But that 30-percent increase only applies if you’re using a grunt call. I believe that using the snort/wheeze is far-more effective then the grunt call. I’ll always have a snort/wheeze call in my pocket when I’m hunting. I consider the snort/wheeze a challenge call that says, “I am the toughest guy in the neighborhood. If you think you’re tougher than me, come over here, and prove it.” When a buck hears a snort/wheeze, he assumes that the buck that’s made that call will run him off, if he doesn’t leave. But if you use that call, and there’s a buck in the area that thinks he’s the dominant buck, then he’ll to come to that snort/wheeze call. To put it simply, Ibelieve that the snort/wheeze call works on any greedy buck that doesn’t mind banging his antlers on another buck. Therefore I think that the snort/wheeze call is more effective in the Midwest and West, where the buck-to-doe ratio is closer to 1:1, than it is in much of the East. Too, the bucks in the Midwest seem to enjoy fighting more then the bucks in the Southeast do.

For some reason, the bucks in the Midwest just seem to be tougher, perhaps due to age and size. In the Midwest, a 4-1/2-year-old buck will weigh around 250 pounds. Any deer that lives that long and gets that big will think he is dominant and tough enough to whip any deer that intrudes into his area. Remember that in a lot of instances, bucks are often like hunters. Some bucks are just a little-bit greedier than the other ones are. I took a buck in western Kentucky last year that was 3-1/2-years-old. He didn’t have terribly-big antlers – 120 range on the Boone and Crockett scale. But I have video-camera pictures of this buck pushing 4-1/2-and 5-1/2-year-old bucks out of the food plot that he thought belonged to him. This buck was fighting and whipping bucks that had 150- and 160-class antlers. This younger buck was just bad to the bone and more dominant than the older, bigger bucks he was running-off. I’ve learned that the snort/wheeze works on an aggressive buck, regardless of his age or the size of his antlers.

Question: Tony, tell us about a buck that you found with your trail-camera surveys in June and then took when muzzleloader season arrived.

Smotherman: I found a deer in Illinois that we called the Big Seven before bow season with our trail cameras. We lost him during bow season and didn’t see him for several weeks. Later, we found him again. He was coming to our food plots during the second muzzleloader season, probably to meet his does, because these same does stayed in this food plot for most of the year. We took that buck during that second muzzleloader season. Now don’t get me wrong. I will shoot a doe as quickly as anyone, since I love to eat venison, and does produce some of the best-tasting and tender venison. However, when I’m going to take does, I prefer to take them during the early season. As the time gets closer to the rut, I don’t take any does, because I want those does to attract the bucks I do want to take. If your area has only a short doe season, and you have to take those does over green fields, stop taking does at least 2 weeks before the rut begins. I’ll also take does at the end of the season, if the landowner wants more does removed off his property. The place I’m hunting and the management system of the landowner usually dictates when and if I take does.

Question: What tips can you give our readers that will help them take a buck this season?

Smotherman: You need to:

• · Be extremely gentle with your hunting in the early season, and don’t put a lot of hunting pressure on the big bucks you want to take.
• · Try to get as close as possible, even though you can make a shot out to 100 to 200 yards. Be extremely quiet and cautious as you move-in and set-up to take that buck. Never go into the area where you have your tree stand set-up, if the wind’s not right to hunt that region. If that big buck you’re hoping to take ever smells you, he may move to a new zip code.
• · Get to know your blackpowder rifle and how far you accurately can shoot before you go hunting. I feel confident to take a deer up to 200-yards plus away with my CVA Apex. You also need to know how your gun performs out to 100, 150 or even 200 yards, because deer don’t always appear where you think they will. If your tree stand is set-up to take a deer over a green field at 40 to 50 yards, that buck comes-out at 150 yards, and you decide, “I think I can make that shot,” then more then likely you’ll miss your buck. However, if you’ve been shooting your CVA rifle and know for certain where that bullet will impact the deer, then you can honestly say to yourself, “I’ve made that 150-yard shot before, and I know where to aim. I can take that buck.” You’ll have a much-better chance of taking instead of spooking the buck you’ve been photographing with your trail camera since June.

With my CVA Apex, I know for certain I can put three PowerBelt bullets inside the bottom of a coke can at 200 yards. I spend time on the rifle range with my gun, testing different types of bullets and setting-up the mill dots inside my Nikon scope to make that shot. Putting-in the time out on the range is what will tell you whether or not to take those shots. The reason Charlie Daniels is a far-better fiddle player then I am is because he’s spent a much-more time playing his fiddle then I have mine. The person who spends the most time on the range getting to know what his or her CVA rifle will do at different distances will be able to shoot far-more accurately at longer ranges than the hunter who goes to a rifle range the week before the season and shoots three rounds at 50 yards and says, “I’m ready to go hunting.”

Editor’s Note: Russell Lynch of South Carolina, owns M.A.X. (Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts, LLC), which produces videos and customizes muzzleloader rifles to determine the best primer, shot and load for each individual muzzleloader rifle he’s asked to evaluate and to improve shooting accuracy. A former sniper in the U.S. Marine Corps and shooter in matches and trainer of personnel in shooting for the Armed Services, Lynch learned to shoot accurately from 300 yards out to 1,000 yards.

No one bullet is best for all muzzleloader rifles. A muzzleloader hunter wants to pick the bullet that not only gives him the most accuracy in that rifle but that’s designed to be the most efficient for the game you’re hunting. Now, some people will want to argue about my theories, but here are some principles I’ve been successful with, and what I’ve learned. The number-one thing I look for in choosing a bullet for a muzzleloader rifle, regardless of whether I’m shooting at 100 or 250 yards, is the bullet’s ability to maintain its integrity after impact (I want the bullet to stay together after it hits the animal and goes all the way through the animal). Physics helps me determine a bullet’s integrity. At Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts (M.A.X.), we test all the muzzleloader bullets on the market for their integrity (ability to stay together after impact) by shooting them into ballistic gel. Our company went to the FBI, and the FBI told us where to buy the gel, how to mix it, cool it and make the gel, so it’s consistent all the time. To test different bullets’ integrity fairly, you have to make sure you shoot them all through the same medium (in this case, gel) that’s formulated and created the same way. We shoot blackpowder bullets into ballistic gel, so we can compare three-different components of the bullet’s integrity.

First, we want to see if the bullet’s designed to be an expanding bullet. If it’s designed to be an expanding bullet, we want to determine how long or how far it will go through that gel before it begins to expand. Second, we’re looking for the wound channel (displacement of material – how much tissue or gel the bullet destroys as it goes through the ballistic gel). There are two ways a bullet downs an animal by:  soft-tissue tearing, which is generally determined by the diameter of the bullet when it goes in the medium or animal and how much the bullet expands as it passes through the medium (ballistic gel); or by soft-tissue displacement, which is explained by the amount of kinetic energy the bullet produces as it goes through the animal to move tissue. If the bullet passes above, below or to one or the other side of the heart but doesn’t actually hit the animal’s heart, we want to know how far the kinetic energy that bullet delivers as it passes through the animal will move the heart, even if it doesn’t tear the heart. For instance, if you push my heart 5 or 6 inches from where it’s been sitting in my body for 52 years, I’ll have a problem. An artery can twist, fold or possibly erupt. So, a bullet can do a lot of damage with kinetic energy, even if it doesn’t touch the soft tissue around the organ.

From all the good bullets we’ve tested, we’ve learned that when the bullet goes into an animal, if it’s a ballistic-tipped bullet, the bullet will lose that ballistic tip, which is the solid piece ofplastic on the end of the bullet, within the first 2 inches of the entry point. An expansion usually starts within that first 2 inches from the entry point. As the bullet hits resistance, the bullet starts to slow down. So, the wound channel starts out at bore diameter and then suddenly increases to 6 to 7 inches at its maximum. Then, when the bullet expends all its energy, it will begin to slow down and stop. I look for a bullet that will go at least 6-inches deep into a block of ballistic gel before it stops. As the bullet begins to slow down, it moves down (the wound channel tapers-down). The energy reaches its maximum point and then begins to slow and stop.

Third, we look for how far the bullet travels after it hits the animal and releases the maximum amount of energy it can deliver. This information tells us what the potential total penetration of that bullet should be on a game animal. We measure from the front of the gel to where the bullet stops to determine total penetration. The penetration we feel is most important in a bullet is 16 inches or more of penetration into that gel. In most big-game animals, if a bullet penetrates 16 inches, more than likely the bullet has passed all the way though the animal or has the ability to penetrate all the way through the animal. Now, that’s the type of penetration a hunter needs, based on the type of animal he’ll hunt and the range from which he’ll shoot. Most of the bullets we test are 240 to 260 grains. We use this information when we’re developing load data. We recommend at least 900-foot pounds of kinetic energy when the bullet hits the animal. Most of this is based on velocity. We want 900-foot pounds of energy left when the bullet impacts the target. In other words, we want that bullet to carry 900-foot pounds of energy into the target. We can formulate loads that can deliver 900-foot pounds of energy out to 200 yards. We also create some loads that will deliver that same foot pounds of energy out to 250 yards and, in some cases, up to as far as 250 yards, but that’s as far as we’ve formulated loads with our data. It takes a really-good shooter to get the bullet on target at 200 yards and to get the bullet on target at 250 yards with a muzzleloader.

Having 900-foot pounds of energy when the bullet hits the target for most big-game animals at whatever range you’re shooting is essential. I’ve developed some loads that only deliver 850-foot pounds of energy at 150 yards, which is one of the loads I recommend for white-tailed deer hunting. If you have a bullet in the 240- to 260-grain bullet, and you think you have a shot at 200 yards, the bullet needs to come out of the barrel at 1,850- to 1,950-feet per second. To get that speed, you’ll probably be loading 100 to 110 grains of either Hodgdon Triple Se7en or Blackhorn 209 powder.

I’m often asked why I don’t want a larger powder charge. The answer to this question relates to accuracy. There’s a point of diminishing return in the amount of powder you use. If you shoot 150 grains of powder, you’ll take some punishment. You don’t improve your accuracy by taking that beating (recoil). We’ve formulated plenty of 140-grain powder loads that deliver accuracy, but after 120 grains of powder, you start blowing your shot groups out (increasing the distance between each shot in the group). You can push a bullet too much and too fast to consistently produce accuracy. When you push a bullet faster than it’s designed to go, you’ll decrease your accuracy and, more importantly, your consistent accuracy. The best load for when you’re hunting deer is around 120 grains or less and more often between 100 and 110 grains of powder with a 240- to a 260-grain bullet. Now, if you’ll be hunting elk and have a fairly-close shot, you can increase your bullet to 300 grains and still use 100 to 110 grains of powder. Out to 100 to 125 yards, you’ll knock those elk off their feet. If you want to reach out to 200 yards to take an elk, consider using a 250- to a 270-grain bullet. You’ll have to work-up some loads using from 110 to 120 grains of powder, but you’ll still be shooting less than 150 grains of powder.

There are some exceptions to these rules, just like there are to any other rules. For instance, if you’ll be shooting a black bear or a hog or a big feral hog at close range (100 yards or less), you can use a 300-grain bullet and 160 grains of powder, not loose powder, or pellets on game like that at that range and knock that bear or that hog off its feet. Now, when you’re shooting a big animal like that, you’ll only be able to shoot about a 3-inch group. But on big animals, like a big boar hog or a big black bear, that degree of accuracy should still be enough to get the bullet into the vitals. So, pick your bullet and your powder charge based on the game you’ll be hunting and the distance you expect to shoot.

Puzzled by why a big buck would come to a scent he’d never smelled before, CVA interviewed deer researcher Dr. Karl Miller, professor of wildlife management at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Dr. Miller explained, “A deer will come-in to check-out any strange smell he finds. He wants to know what that new odor is, and what’s causing it.”

Many hunters are aware that deer will respond to strange smells. Some hunters use:

* shaving lotion;

* the smell of fresh paint;

* the smell of fresh earth;

* fox urine;

* doe urine;

* buck urine;

* tarsal gland and

* a wide variety of other scents and lures to bring deer to within bow or gun range at various times of deer season. Sometimes when you find a buck in a place you can’t reach, such as a clear-cut or a thicket or across a property line, you often can use deer lure to bring that buck to you.

Not all deer lures work equally well, and you’ll find some more effective than others. Dr. Larry Marchinton, retired professor of wildlife biology at the University of Georgia and longtime deer researcher, says, “Lures will work sometimes. Often I think deer react to a lure more out of curiosity than anything else. They may be responding to a strange scent in their environment.” Michael Cartwright, former wildlife biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, mentions that, “During the breeding season, the communication between the bucks and does is very strong. That’s why the behavior pattern of a buck changes, and he begins to make scrape lines and deposit scent through urine over his tarsal glands on his hind legs. The urine mixes with the scent on the tarsal gland, leaves a very-strong smell and communicates information to other deer in the area – both does and bucks. The bucks can tell by the scent a doe leaves whether or not she’s receptive to breeding during the breeding season. Scent communication is much-more developed in deer than in humans.” Lee Christianson of Wisconsin, an avid deer hunter, explains that, “Basically lures are a sex lure that initiates a breeding response, a food lure that calls deer to eat or a curiosity lure that stimulates a deer to come and investigate. You’ve heard the old saying that curiosity kills the cat. I believe curiosity has killed more deer than it has cats. Deer are gregarious herd animals and very social. Because they want to meet and greet new individuals in their herd, they’ll investigate the smells of what they perceive to be other deer.”

Too, for scents to pay buck dividends, you must match those scents to the amount of hunting pressure in an area. As one hunter explained to me, “At the beginning of bow season, deer are in full-rut mode hardly anywhere in the country. So, you may not want to use a sex scent at this time of the year. You may prefer to choose a different type of scent. If you’re hunting in a high-pressure region on opening day of deer season, and everybody hunting is putting-out some type of deer lure, then any deer lure probably will be counterproductive because of the large amount of lure being put-out by hunters.” Many hunters consider the words, buck lure, a misnomer. A buck lure probably contains hormones a doe will give-off when she’s ready or getting ready to mate. These hormones attract the buck because of his natural mating instincts.

Dr. Marchinton believes that, “Many things are labeled buck lures. If the tarsal scents are made from tarsal glands, and if that scent is representative of the actual smell of a deer, then we think this lure can communicate the individuality of the animal. That scent may be able to communicate the sex of the animal that has produced the scent. We strongly suspect that the scent probably even communicates the social position or rank of that deer in the herd. This theory is not proven and is not scientific fact. Biologists only have some circumstantial evidence to support this idea.”

For many years, muzzleloader enthusiasts were limited to the effective ranges of their muzzleloader rifles. However, in the rapid succession of shooting flint locks to sidelocks, to inline rifles and from round balls to conical bullets, to the most-modern PowerBelt bullets, the muzzleloading industry has extended the range of the muzzleloader hunter up to 200 yards or more. For the western hunter, this extended range is often a real advantage. But for the eastern hunter, I wonder if the extended range has caused us to forget how to be effective deer hunters.

I’m the classic example. For much of my early life as a hunter, I hunted with a 12 gauge 2-3/4-inch shotgun using buckshot in the 00 and 1 sizes. The president of our hunting club said, “We won’t have any of those high-powered rifles with the telescopic sights on them, because taking a deer like that just isn’t sporting. You can take a buck 1/4-mile away, and he doesn’t even know you’re there. But put dogs on him, and that buck realizes there could be a hunter behind every tree. He’ll be running through the woods, ducking and dodging. There’s a good chance he may get away. No, sir, we’re not going to have those high-powered rifles at this hunting club.”

When we weren’t hunting with dogs, we used our shotguns to still hunt and stalk hunt deer. Then, a few years later, our club finally approved the use of rifles and scopes for hunting deer. “If I had one of those high-powered rifles with the telescopic scope I could shoot any deer I see,” I said to myself. However, that hunting season, I missed five bucks. My bullets never cut a hair. I knew I had to learn to hunt with my rifle. So, before the season started the next year, I made the decision that served me well the rest of my life. “I’m going to play like this deer rifle is a shotgun shooting 00 buckshot. I’m going to scout intensively and attempt getting within 50 yards or less of the buck I’m trying to take. If I can’t get within that range, I’ll hunt that same buck on a different day when I can get in close.” That season I filled-up my freezer and all of my neighbors’ freezers with venison. Back then in my home state of Alabama, you could take a buck and a doe a day.

I think we’re going through this same phase with muzzleloader rifles. With many muzzleloader rifles, if you spend enough time at a rifle range fine-tuning your rifle, you can learn to shoot well-enough to take a deer from 200-yards away. But remember, big bucks rarely travel in open spaces during daylight hours. They got to be big bucks by hiding in thick cover and rarely crossing openings. In much of the East where I generally hunt, rarely will you ever see a deer at 100 yards, unless you are hunting above a green field. The more you hunt over that green field, the less likely you are to see that buck. Therefore, just because you can shoot your blackpowder rifle out to 200 yards doesn’t mean that you should hunt in a place where you expect to take a shot at that range. My high-powered deer rifle easily can take deer out to 300-yards plus. However, most of the older-class bucks I’ve taken, I’ve downed at less than 100 yards. Yes, today’s modern inline rifles can extend your range. However, in many sections of the country, especially in the Southeast and the Northeast, more than likely you’ll take most of your deer at less than 100 yards.