question

[ALAN]

when deer hunting with shotgun do you need to wear camo i know in iowa u need to wear some orange..also do you call them rattle or do you juust sit and wait....

[Aviddeerhunter]

I guess if you really dont want to wear it no one is forceing you to... but you are kind of leaving your self in the open and also you are going to have to have alot of scent eliminator..... If i where you i wouldent even worry about calling if you aint going to wear camo or anything just sit in the woods......

[mountaineer]

Yes, deer hunting with a shotgun still requires orange in Iowa. The regulation can be found here:
http://www.iowadnr.com/wildlife/pdfs/04deerturk.pdf

And while its not required for you to wear camo its not exactly a bad idea...

[Dcolwill]

I have hunted over 30 years and I keep my head. When I'm shotting at a running animal I'm still thinking and paying attention to what is behind the deer. When the deer cuts in front of a farm house maybe a mile off, I stop shooting until the deer clears on the other side and again has nothing behind it.
I'm not bragging, I'm stating a VERY VERY critical hunting skill for safety.
This is possibly the hardest thing there is to learn because the excitement of having your prey finally in front of you is incredible but one accident will spoil your hunt for sure and possibly your life. You have got to learn to force yourself to stay calm. You'll shoot better and everyone in the woods will be safer.
I watch the people I'm hunting with and screw up on this one thing and even if you don't hit a house, a car, or another hunter, you won't ever find me hunting with you again.
NOW TO THE POINT ABOUT ORANGE.

Unless you are hunting a color sensitve animal where it is impossible to be successful (ducks, dove, turkey, fox, coyote, etc.) ALWAYS WEAR ORANGE AND AS MUCH AS YOU REASONABLY CAN.

When walking in the woods I can't predict when a deer will jump from it's bed and take off running in front of me. I will spot orange quickly out of the corner of my eye and I will know when the deer is coming close to crossing where a hunter will be in or near my line of fire AND I WILL STOP SHOOTING.

I pray to God above that this situation never comes up when a hunter is on a stand behind the deer in his camo because he thinks he has improved his odds of taking a color blind deer.

SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY. It is never a successful hunting unless you and all your buddies come back alive.

[Dcolwill]

In Texas I call a lot because it seems to work. I have rattled in a few big bucks. I use one grunt call just before starting off the rattling sequence.

I've never been successful with just the grunt call to bring them in but I would never be in the woods without one, because if stops them and gets them to look. When a deer is quickly crossing a firebreak or other shooting lane, the grunt will stop him for that one second to allow a standing shot.

Never had any problem having them stare right at me while approaching even though I'm in an orange jumpsuit head to toe. They pick up on movement and your outline but not color. Keep some brush or other object behind you to break up your outline and I do like the orange with the lines through it. It makes your movement appear more like branches being blown rather than the solid outline. DEER SEE MOVEMENT EVEN AT LONG DISTANCE but not color.

[Muncy-outdoors]

If you feel that you will be too noticable from wearing an all orange outfit then get one that is already camoed, or take and sew som flat dark material in a scatterd pattern to break your outline up. As for rattling one can have it work about anytime durring the season the trick is to know with what intensity you smack them together compaired to the stage of the breading cycle. If you're not sure what's going on in your woods then it can't hurt to rattle lightly for a minute every 20. I also have had luck using doe bleats, grunts, decoys, or all at the same time. To be on the safe side just do two or three young Buck grunts, it wont scare off a Buck that has had his butt whooped too many times, nor will it scare the does, but it tells the other Bucks that a young Buck is on a hot doe and no Buck will be afraid to see if it's a doe he can steal.