I had the electric call on, and this showed up!

Bigwood · 2026-11-12T19:58:54-0600

I was out looking for coyotes in the desert yesterday, about 3 pm, I had the faun distress call on and this big boy walked right up to my speaker. Is this unusual? I am a newbie…. ( the call is on the ground next to the steel fence post)

BrianID · 2026-11-12T20:12:38-0600

I call in deer at least once or twice per year. I'm a mule deer junky and often hunt mule deer in 2, 3 or sometimes more states per year. I have never used fawn distress as a strategy to hunt for mule deer and I don't ever plan on using it. I know it could work but it could also scare the deer off.

hunt0168 · 2026-11-12T20:25:42-0600

East coast guy. No Muleys here, but I have seen a ton of predator hunting videos where Muley Doe will charge an ecaller playing fawn distress. Here on the east coast, whitetail does commonly approach my ecaller when running rabbit distress. I don't play much fawn distress, but given the doe's reaction to the rabbit sounds, I would guess fawn would trigger a response. I don't think I would expect the same from bucks, but you never know, I guess?

KeithS · 2026-11-12T20:30:27-0600

That's cool! What state were you calling in?

Bigwood · 2026-11-12T20:32:27-0600

KeithS said:
That's cool! What state were you calling in?

Southern Idaho

crapshoot · 2026-11-12T20:50:51-0600

I'd say more common to call doe but no, not unusual to call deer, even bucks.

hm1996 · 2026-11-12T21:23:12-0600

I've had a number of whitetail does respond (mostly to rabbit distress) and lots of various exotics on the ranches I hunted. Had several does try (ufortunately, successfully) to intersept a coyote attempting to get to my call from a neighboring ranch one morning. I had set up in heavy brush on our side of an outer fenceline. Neighboring pasture was grass land w/scattered brush motts. Every time the coyote would attempt to circle around the does double teamed him until he finally gave up and left.
Here's a couple of critters that came in and inspected my call over the years:
Call and decoy were between me and this bull nilgai. He watched decoy for a couple of minutes, then bolts.