How to Hind Call Red Deer Stags (Step-by-Step) | Bowhunting the Rut
Venture Field Guide
Twin Elements Hunting Skills
How To Hind Call Red Deer Stags
Aiden Dooms from Twin Elements breaks down the technique, the setup and the field craft behind one of bowhunting's most rewarding skills
Calling in a red deer stag during the rut is one of the most electric experiences Australian hunting has to offer. When it works, you go from a silent hillside to having a roaring stag at ten metres, hinds milling around you and a heart rate that is somewhere well above where it should be. The difference between a hunt that produces those moments and one that does not often comes down to knowing one simple technique: the hind call.
Aiden Dooms from Twin Elements has been calling red stags in during the March and April rut for years, and he does it without any device or reed, purely using his mouth and his knowledge of how these animals communicate. This guide covers everything from what a hind call actually is and why hinds use it, to exactly how you produce the sound, how you read the wind and thermals before you move, and how you set yourself up in the field to get a stag to commit.
In This Guide
What Is a Hind Call?
A hind is the term used for the female of most deer species found in Australia. Red deer, sambar, chital and hog deer all have hinds. The exception is fallow deer, where the female is a doe. A hind call is simply the vocalisation these females make to communicate with the mob, and by learning to imitate it convincingly, you can use it as a hunting tool when the rut is on.
What makes the hind call particularly powerful is that it requires nothing except your voice. Once you have it, you can produce it instantly in any situation without reaching for a pack, fumbling with a device or making a sound you do not intend to make. There is no diaphragm call to drop, no electronic caller to forget. It is always with you.
Why Hinds Vocalize and How to Use It
Hinds are not silent animals. They communicate on a level that most hunters never get close enough to witness, and understanding the three main reasons they call helps you use the right version of the sound in the right situation.
The first is location. A mature hind might feed down one branch of a gully while the rest of the mob moves up another. She calls to locate where everyone has gone. The second is communication with a young thorn (fawn), either to reassure it she is nearby, to call it closer, or to signal danger and that it is time to move.
The third, and the one that matters most during the rut, is the estrus call. A hind that is ready to breed will vocalize to indicate her willingness to nearby stags. In thick, timbered country this call carries well and lets stags know where hinds are and what they are after. During March and April that signal is all the motivation a worked-up stag needs to start moving.
Rut timing: The red deer rut in Australia runs through March and April. This is when stags are roaring, actively seeking hinds and most responsive to calling. Outside of this window, the hind call will have far less effect as stags are simply not in the same driven mindset.
Making the Sound Step by Step
The hind call is a nasal, drawn-out sound. Aiden describes it as almost pronouncing the letters "nah", "neh" or "neh-n". The N consonant is the starting point, and getting that right gives you the foundation to build everything from.
Start by simply saying the letter N out loud. Extend it into "neh" or "nah" and you have the basic call. From there, vary it across three dimensions:
- Length. A short, sharp "ne" works well when a deer is already close in and alert. For a stag that is a long way off and you want him to hear you and respond, use a longer, more drawn-out call. Both have their place depending on distance and urgency.
- Pitch. Vary between higher and lower pitch to keep the call sounding natural. A single-note call repeated identically every time is less convincing than one that shifts slightly in tone, the way a real animal's vocalisation naturally would.
- Tone and direction. Pinching and squeezing your nose while calling adds a different nasal tone and can make the call sound as though it is coming from further away or from a different part of the gully. As Aiden puts it, this can get a stag thinking the hind is moving, which brings a sense of urgency to the situation that it might otherwise be lacking.
Your hind call will end up sounding slightly different from anyone else's because your voice and mouth shape are unique to you. That is perfectly fine. What matters is putting in the practice time at home until the sound comes naturally, then testing it on live animals and using their reactions to refine it further.
The Nose Pinch
One of the most effective variations Aiden uses is pinching the nose while calling to shift the tone and apparent direction of the sound. By squeezing and directing the call, you can make it sound further away, as though the hind is moving through the gully below rather than standing still at one spot.
That movement cue adds a layer of urgency that a static call simply cannot replicate. A stag that was content to hold his ground and roar back suddenly has a reason to move towards the sound and investigate before the hind gets any further away.
Pinching the nose shifts the tone of the call and makes it sound as though the hind is moving through the gully.
Practise tip: Do not wait until you are standing in front of a stag to try the call for the first time. Put in the repetitions at home until the sound comes naturally without thinking. The benefit of calling with your mouth over any device is that you can do it instantly, anywhere, but only if the call is already second nature before you get there.
Reading Wind and Thermals Before You Move
No calling technique overcomes bad wind. Before you take a single step into country where deer might be, you need to know exactly what the wind is doing and what it is likely to do as the morning progresses.
A consistent wind direction is your friend. On the morning in this video Aiden had an easterly, meaning the wind was blowing from the direction of the sunrise. That gave him a simple, reliable landmark: walk towards the sunrise and the wind stays consistently in his face. Any deer ahead of him would not pick up his scent.
Thermals add a layer of complexity, particularly in the early hours. In cold conditions the ground temperature is low and cool air sinks, dragging scent particles down into the gullies and creek lines below you. Good places to be during this period are down in those crevices and drainage lines, moving uphill towards your hunting area, or back off the country entirely, sitting high with your binoculars and watching until the thermals stabilise as the morning warms.
Thermal reversal: As the sun warms the ground through the morning, thermals reverse and begin to rise. If you have been hunting low in a gully on a cold morning, pay attention to this shift. Once thermals lift, your scent starts carrying uphill towards any deer above you. Adjust your position as the day warms up.
Moving In on a Roaring Stag
When a stag is already roaring, you have a beacon. You know exactly where he is, and he does not know you are coming. The approach strategy is simple: move towards the sound slowly and silently, and do not call until you are set up properly.
If no stag is roaring when you arrive in the area, Aiden will sometimes use a location roar, which is him imitating a red stag to see if something answers the challenge. But when a stag is already sounding off, stay quiet and move in. You have the edge and there is no reason to give it away early.
As you close the distance, slow your pace right down. You will not always know how far that stag actually is in thick scrub, and his hinds are going to be far more alert to movement and noise than he is. Any wallaby or kangaroo that walks through and looks directly at you can end the hunt before it starts. It is often not the stag you need to worry about but the other animals in his vicinity.
Step from rock to rock: After a long dry summer, Australian bush can be extraordinarily crunchy underfoot. Aiden avoids the dry leaf litter by stepping from rock to rock wherever the country allows it. One loud footfall at the wrong moment is enough to change the mood of the whole mob.
Setting Up the Perfect Calling Position
Where you stand when you call matters as much as how you call. A poor setup wastes the opportunity even if the stag is keen to respond. Every element of Aiden's calling position is deliberate before he makes a sound.
- Get to the same elevation. Avoid calling from below a stag. They hold the high ground and look downhill to keep challengers in view. Coming up from below puts you at a disadvantage. Get to the same level as the deer and call across at him.
- Maximise your viewing angle. Choose a position where you can see the likely approach routes clearly. If a stag is going to come looking for the source of the call, you want to see him coming early, not have him materialise at five metres with no time to react.
- Use a solid backdrop. Stand with a tree or thick vegetation directly behind you. As the stag works in to find where the call is coming from, that backdrop breaks up your outline and keeps you hidden far longer than open ground would.
- Pre-mark your ranges. Before you call, identify landmarks at 20, 30 and 40 metres in every direction a stag might approach from. Rocks, specific trees, changes in vegetation. When a stag is coming in and your heart rate is climbing, you cannot afford to be estimating distance from scratch.
- Arrow on the string. Have your arrow nocked before you call. Not when you hear him. Not when you see him. Before the first call leaves your mouth. The transition from calling to shooting has to be seamless, and fumbling an arrow onto the string with a stag at 20 metres is not where you want to be.
- Flip to multi-pin. Aiden normally runs a single pin for the clarity it gives at a known distance. When calling, he flips to all four pins so he is ready for wherever the stag stops. At 20 metres, 30, or 40, every option is already there.
Reading and Managing the Call Exchange
Once a stag responds to your call, the exchange becomes what Aiden describes as a tennis match. He calls, you call. You call, he calls. Neither one wants to break ground and move towards the other. That back-and-forth builds frustration on the stag's side, and frustration is what eventually gets him moving.
The key is to match his energy without overdoing it. When he roars, respond with the hind call. Let the exchange build naturally, as if the hind is interested but not moving closer. Over time, the stag's instinct to round up the hind before someone else does will usually override his caution and he will commit.
Keep scanning in every direction during the exchange, not just towards the stag you are targeting. In the encounter from this video, while Aiden and a large stag were trading calls, a spike slipped in to 20 metres completely undetected from a different angle. Other animals hear what is happening and respond from directions you are not watching.
When the bush comes alive: A hind that responds to your call and starts moving in can trigger a cascade. She was the lead hind. Her movement drew four or five other animals behind her, and the stag followed his mob. In the span of a few minutes, Aiden went from calling to a single stag to having a hind and thorn at less than two metres, a spike being chased by a roaring stag at ten metres, and the whole hillside alive with deer. That is what a well-executed hind call in the right country at the right time of year can produce.
Passing on young animals: During the rut, young spikes and smaller stags will respond to calling as readily as mature animals. Identify the animal's age and antler development before you commit. If you are managing the property for older-age-class deer, letting a young animal walk is the right call. If the freezer is empty, that same decision looks completely different.
Recommended Gear
The hind call itself costs nothing beyond practise time, but the gear you carry into red deer country during the rut matters. A quality bino harness keeps your optics ready for glassing between calling sequences without any noise or fumbling. A reliable broadhead on a well-tuned setup gives you the confidence to take the shot cleanly when a stag commits and comes in close.
If you are getting serious about bowhunting the red deer rut, the team at Venture Hunting and Outdoors can help you tune your bow, select the right broadheads, and make sure everything is dialled in well before opening roar in March.
Gallery
From the office demonstration to the moment the bush came alive during the rut, a closer look at Aiden's hind call technique and the country where it all unfolded.
Get Ready for the Roar
Whether you are heading into the Victorian high country or chasing reds on private country closer to home, the March and April rut is the most exciting time of year to be in the Australian bush. Head into the Venture Hunting and Outdoors Springwood Mega Store in Brisbane to talk through your bowhunting setup, or browse our archery range online.
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