Sika Hehaw calls?

Hey guys, did my first ever hunt off clements road this weekend. Cool place, lots of pressure as to be expected. I was astounded by the amount of deer sign and so few animals encountered. I bumped into a hind and yearling an hour into the hunt but was too slow to drop one. Pushing on I found a area that had stag written all over it. So out came the AJ caller and gave the hehaw call a go. After 15 seconds I had a reply about 60-70m away just out of sight. I'll be honest it got the adrenaline pumping through the body and gave me a fright as I didn't expect their call to be so loud. The wind was moving around a bit and I feared this stag would pick up on my scent so i got low and behind a tree. I decided to wait this stag out and see if he would come in. I waited 20 minutes for something to happen and then gave another call. A reply came after 10 minutes, but it sounded further away down hill maybe 80+m away. Bugger, he's on the move. So i quietly sneaked in the general direction and got to an area I thought would be close and gave another call. Silence. I then gave the single call a go and got not reply either. Moving on I couldn't find him and admitted defeat. This was my first stag reply ever. I was in 2 minds about what went wrong and had different scenarios that I wanted to share with the more experienced and get an opinion on.

1- Stag got wind of me and moved off?
2- Over enthusiastic with the calls?
3- Stag felt I was a more dominant stag (his call was louder and deeper than mine so wouldn't expect so)?
4- He just didn't give a shit?

Cheers.

He may have heard you coming in and knew something was up. Or possibly got your scent. Who knows really. At least you know where he is and you can go back and have another go.

Likely got a whiff of you or he's had a bit of experience and is just playing it super cautious, he will come back and check out your footprints after dark and will be even wiser next time, you won't fool him with that same call again as he will then associate it with your ground scent equalling danger.

The trick, chase the stags that have had less pressure or/and vary your call so they don't know who you are.

The same call over and over just educates them with every encounter.

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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

The same call over and over just educates them with every encounter.

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Maybe these sika are educated far too much with hunters and are becoming super sika? I wonder how many used the same AJ caller I used this roar...

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Originally Posted by Rusky

Maybe these sika are educated far too much with hunters and are becoming super sika? I wonder how many used the same AJ caller I used this roar...

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Yes correct, super cautious Sika

They use sound and scent to determine their safe world, often after dark on doc land

The aj callers are already becoming less effective in areas where stags have experienced humans and lived to tell the tale

Vary your call for best results, stags can detect the variations in every voice call you make and don't mind those variations.

Even though the human imitation lacks volume I have watched them 1200yrds away react positively to single calls from friends and I when on the hill in open country.

What instrument does one use to make a sika call from ones mouth?

Air?

So no horn or bottle or hose or pipe? I genuinely have no idea. Never been after the sika myself.

And they sound hard to imitate

Not hard to make the call with your mouth once you practise

sika deer calls... - YouTube

Ha ha have to watch it in the morning, in bed with the mrs and she wont appreciate it like i would:D i had my lil girl cranking some red roars the other day :D better than mine already :(

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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

sika deer calls... - YouTube

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They are beautiful little bastards, aren't they. And incredibly clever. I would have no problem believing that a sika could remember your scent from the year before. I reckon deer on the whole are underestimated on their level of smarts!

Imagine the cry from your tortured soul as you remember wifey had your credit card for the weekend, it's similar

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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Imagine the cry from your tortured soul as you remember wifey had your credit card for the weekend, it's similar

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Basically nailed it. Hahahahahaha

Or stubbing your toe on the fecking ammo tin hubby "put away" when you crawl up to bed in the dark after watching endless youtube vids on how to hunt sika, along in the lounge downstairs...

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Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Imagine the cry from your tortured soul as you remember wifey had your credit card for the weekend, it's similar

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I heard that all weekend while out fishing :O_O: :D

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Originally Posted by Dougie

They are beautiful little bastards, aren't they. And incredibly clever. I would have no problem believing that a sika could remember your scent from the year before. I reckon deer on the whole are underestimated on their level of smarts!

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They remember your scent for life.

They know where all their relatives are as they smell their hoof prints on the ground.

To help understand them imagine reducing your senses to their level, sight only goes so far in scrub, so sound and scent they work with.

They have scent glands in the eye duct for head height scent markers, back leg glands for resting/bedding scent markers and scent glands between hooves for ground based scent.

Their knowledge of sound would fill a book as would more than the over simplification of their capabilities and uses/importance of scent mentioned above, they know their whole world this way.

Can.t here my deer callling:yaeh am not durnk:

Real easy to over roar a stag this late in the roar, even a couple of roars can be too much.
I roared in a Sika spiker the weekend before last, but he was pretty hesitant when coming in and my lack of patience caused him to spook. Based on the fact its so late in the roar now he probably just wasnt interested/new something was wrong.

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Originally Posted by Rusky

Stag felt I was a more dominant stag (his call was louder and deeper than mine so wouldn't expect so)?

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Very unlikely...the volumne of the roar is not indicative of the size or age of the animal...:D