After a few minutes ogling velvet bucks, Shari motioned me toward a doe/fawn group. What I heard there shocked me. Does and fawns were engaged in near-constant chatter, uttering bleats, mews and soft grunts like daycare moms bantering with their toddlers.

I was so struck by the subtlety of this exchange that I walked off 60 feet and turned my back. I could barely hear them. So I turned around and walked slowly back toward the group and almost instantly picked up their chatter again.

That experience was an epiphany for me. In the years since, as I've sat in deer stands across the country, I've trained my ears to listen for deer talk, and I hear it much more frequently than I ever did. I've also studied the head and body postures of captive deer as they vocalize, to help me recognize when wild deer are sending out messages, even if I can't hear them.

This informal study helped me adopt a much more aggressive approach to calling. Once I realized how much whitetails vocalize, I decided to throw caution to the wind and let it rip more often. I immediately began calling in more deer.

And therein lies the key to successful calling: You've got to put more sound out there. The common practice of a neophyte caller is to grunt or bleat only at the whitetails he sees. While this is certainly a high-percentage method, I'm convinced you're robbing yourself of opportunities.

What if a buck wanders past (or is bedded down) just out of sight and you're not calling? That deer will remain as blissfully unaware of you as you are of it. But if that same deer hears another "deer" nearby, there's at least a decent chance he'll slip over to make contact.

That's why I continually blind call or rattle while I'm in a stand. Every 20 to 45 minutes I'll grunt or rattle in hopes of attracting an unseen buck. While I vary the frequency and intensity of calling according to the time of year and/or conditions, I blind call/rattle on virtually every outing from early fall through January.

DEER CALL DICTIONARY
Though whitetails communicate with each other using a variety of subtle sounds, hunters need to master only a small vocabulary to be successful. Here’s the basic language, and the calls you need to produce it.
Contact Bleat	Like a turkey’s cluck-n-purr, these soft bleats are used by deer to keep tabs on each other. Good all season. Make them by shortening the reed on a standard grunt call or by tipping over a mini can-type call.
Estrous Bleat	Longer and louder than a contact bleat, these are made by a doe in heat. Most effective during pre-rut and rut. Standard or large can calls make near-perfect bleats and are simple to use. Contact Grunt. Like the contact bleat, grunts are used by bucks to communicate with other deer throughout the season. Adjustable-reed calls make the best grunts. Experiment to find one that produces good volume.
Breeding grunt	Used by bucks while they’re chasing or tending a doe, breeding grunts range in duration from short, staccato clicks, to one-note contact grunts, to drawn-out bawls. Again, adjustable-reed calls produce the most volume and versatility.
Snort-Wheeze	The ultimate challenge call, made from one buck to another to assert dominance. This three-note call sounds like the air being let out of a tire (pht-pht-phhhh) and can be made with natural voice or a specialty call made by M.A.D. Calls.
Rattling	Conventional wisdom holds that horns work only during the rut, but bucks respond to rattling any time from velvet-shed to antler-drop. Three basic options exist: rattle bags (usually wooden or plastic dowels enclosed in a bag), synthetic horns or real antlers. I appreciate the volume and realism of shed antlers, but I carry a rattle bag at all times; it stashes conveniently in a pack and is perfect for coaxing in a close-range buck.

In September I may limit the call types to softer "contact" grunts and bleats, amp up the aggressiveness and volume as the rut approaches, then back off again come post rut. But I'm calling on virtually every stand regardless of season and regardless of whether I see deer.

How loud should you call? That depends on setup and conditions. If I'm in a stand close to a buck's bedding area on a windless day, I'll vary the volume. In the cold, clear days of winter, sound carries well--and deer are a lot spookier--so I may tone it down some. But overall, I'm convinced most hunters don't call loudly enough.

If you doubt this, take a friend out in the yard with you some calm evening and have him stand at 40 yards while you run your grunt call. If he can hear you well, back off another 20, then call again. Keep repeating the procedure until your partner can no longer hear the call. When you hit that distance, you'll know the effective range of your call under ideal conditions.

You can perform the same test with your rattling antlers. In most cases, I think you'll be surprised at the limited range of each call type.

I know what you're thinking: Deer have keener ears than we do. While that's certainly true, there are many factors that can interfere with a whitetail's normally sharp hearing; deer walking (or chasing each other) through crunchy leaves or snow; background clatter such as vehicle traffic or farm machinery; dense foliage or vegetation; running water like creeks or rainfall; and high winds.