QUESTION: What happens when a subordinate, or a young deer, attacks the decoy?
ANSWER: When you're using decoys, often the young bucks may come in silent, stiff-legged, with their hair blown-up, their ears tilted back and the whites of their eyes showing. Sometimes they will snort, sniff and wheeze. And if they do that, you do it right back to the buck if he isn't too close. Many times, I'll cover up the ends of the grunt call to tone it down and make it really quiet. Then the buck doesn't know exactly where you are.

QUESTION: What happens when the deer attacks the decoy?
ANSWER: Basically, when a buck is in his mode where he's walking stiff-legged and sideways up to the decoy, suddenly he'll just slam the decoy. Every time I've done this, for instance on my recent Kansas hunt, the buck would hit the decoy, stomp about 15 yards, look back at the decoy and then realize that the deer's body is hard. They have this look like they're amazed. Later on in the hunt, on the next to the last day, I had a 160-B 12-pointer come in and slam the decoy before I was ready to shoot him. He was the only one of all the bucks to slam it that wouldn't stay within bow range. He ran 80 yards out in the field. All the others stayed close and within bow range, 30 yards or less.

QUESTION: Do deer drift away from a decoy?
ANSWER Usually, they'll just finally walk off. I did try to call the 12-point buck back. I did some real quiet rattling with the Hunter's Specialties' Rattling Bag and did some clicks and grunts. He actually circled around and came within 50 yards of me, but the distance was too far for me to shoot.

QUESTION: When using a decoy, do you mainly want to use it out in the middle of fields?
ANSWER: Usually yes, but I also will use it in the woods. What I want to do is set that decoy so deer can see it at a distance and will want to come in--especially when we're filming.

QUESTION: Out of 10 deer hunts, how many times will you use the decoy?
ANSWER: When I've got the wind with me, I'll use decoys 90 percent of the time.

QUESTION: When you're using decoys, when do you prefer using a buck rather than a doe decoy?
ANSWER: The thing that's on the deer's mind, other than sex, is aggression. Usually during the pre-rut, the bucks are thinking about fighting and looking for hot does. And, when I use a buck decoy, I know it will stimulate an aggressive deer, which is generally a dominant buck.

QUESTION: What size of antlers are on your buck decoy?
ANSWER: My decoy is a small 8 point.

QUESTION: So, is using little antlers better on a decoy?
ANSWER: That's right. Then my decoy won't intimidate any deer.

QUESTION: When do you change from utilizing a buck decoy to using a doe decoy?
ANSWER: During the hunt I just went on in Kansas, after that 12-pointer hit the buck decoy and ran off, I decided to put out the doe decoy. Then if a deer came back through, maybe the decoy would draw in the deer. Later I learned that I had the doe decoy's ears pointed too far forward like she was looking in the other direction and her tail was half erect, which would make other deer nervous, but still some does came in to the decoy.

QUESTION: So, putting out the doe decoy after the buck decoy has been attacked is a fallback plan?
ANSWER: Yes, it's a Plan B. These bucks catch on pretty quick. If something isn't right, they aren't going to hang around.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thirty-seven-year-old Alex Rutledge of Birchtree, Missouri, a small town located in the hills of the Ozarks in southern Missouri, has hunted deer for about 26 years. Rutledge, a Hunter's Specialties' Pro Hunt Team member, enjoys hunting whitetails anywhere, anytime.