What's the consensus on can-calls?

I have a couple of hunting buddies that swear by them. But I haven't had any success with them.

I had some does inside 100 yards last night and they didn't react to one. A scrub buck that was walking past didn't even twitch an ear when I used a bleat can.

Thanks

I can't say that I've ever had any verifiable luck using one.

I've had deer completely ignore them and I've had deer come in on a string. My best story was I carried my climber in to a new spot in November 2016. Texted my dad a picture of the place I was watching at 3:00, settled in, pulled out my can and gave it two turnovers, send dad a picture of a big dead 7pt at 3:09. I hit the can, he grunted, I hit it again, and he popped out of the pines. Bim bam thank you ma'am headed to the house.

I turned a mature buck around that was headed down a road away from me one afternoon.He turned around and came back down the road to investigate and eventually gave me a broadside shot. Nice 10 point that I got mounted. Probably like a lot of things when dealing with crazy whitetails. Depends on what type of mood they are in. It was during the rut and he had been chasing a doe in the thick pines to my right. Guess it didn't work out with her and her was still looking for love.

*He was still looking for love

BhamFred is the ALDEER expert on can calls. Shoot him a PM.

I've had far more success with a grunt call than an estrus call, but my experience with calling to deer is somewhat limited compared to a lot of y'all I'm sure.

I cannot truly say it helps... have had deer show up within a 10 minute window of dumping the can, but I have had deer within earshot completely ignore the sound, so coincidence or curiosity -on the deer's part- who knows.
Cans and grunts are more of an amusement for me that a proven tactic to kill deer. And I have heard a lot of bucks grunt AND IT SOUNDS NOTHING like the calls we buy in a store or that the heavily edited hunting TV show pros are blowing.

Just ordering a can call now after having ppl swear by em...I’ve had a lot of success with grunt tubes as well as have made bleats with my mouth before doing a grunt sequence...all I know is this: I’ve never had a grunt tube or bleat scare away deer (if i were to scare a small buck, oh well I wasn’t gonna shoot him anyway) so you might as well run them during the rut...also, I’ve had a lot of success blind grunting every 15/20 min...you’ve gotta be committed to it because he may not come on the first sequence but it could be the 3rd or 7th etc...

I’ve called in one animal in my entire life with a can call.... and it was a coyote.

Never had any luck with a grunt call either.

I’d never had one work until last year. Buck crossed road at 75-100 yards. I turned can over twice. He came back out in the road 10 seconds later looking directly at me.

He didn’t make it

They have worked for me before

Flipped the paint off mine and never had one respond.

LOL

I bought one of the Primos can calls years ago. I had not , and still haven't, heard a doe make that noise. EVER. I was bowhunting all season that year so I got to use it on a number of good bucks that were out of range. Maybe 8-10 good bucks. A couple stopped and looked towards me then kept going. At least half of them hauled azz away from me. NOT ONE buck came towards me. I threw it in the kitchen trash and haven't used one since then. Anything the SPOOKS half of the deer I use it on goes in the trash.

I used to own one. Tried it on a spike under my stand to see his reaction. SOB bout turned himself inside out getting out of dodge.

I actually have heard estrous does make the bleating sound of the can before the can ever came out. I didn’t have clue what it was until
I actually saw her and it wasn’t long before she was getting dogged by a buck. My experience with the can is only works during the peak rut. I have called in plenty of young bucks, but only one shooter.

This past Saturday I used the can call in conjunction with a grunt call and called in a 130” nine point. My 12 year old son couldn’t get on him in time and he left when he didn’t see the deer that were making the noise he heard. That was a hard pill to swallow.

My oldest son killed one of his best bucks using one. He shot at and missed the buck and the buck went off the bench he was sitting on, he grabbed the bleat can and turned it over a couple of times and the buck popped back up on the edge of the bench . Bad mistake on his part.

I’ve had them work best on cruising bucks.