By Jimmy Little (as told to Tim H. Martin)
When my friend and former coworker Jimmy Little first described his favorite deer-calling tactic, I thought he was pranking me.
“I talk to deer,” he said, with a completely sincere face. “And not just deer, but any animal I’m after — bears, turkey, elk . . . even fish.”
I scratched my head and asked, “You mean, like a horse whisperer?”
“No, I don’t whisper,” he explained. “I talk to ‘em, just like me and you are talking right now.”
I tried not to laugh and said, “Okay, pretend a buck just walked by my office window and talk to it just like you would if you were in a hunting situation.”
Jimmy began speaking in a natural, non-menacing, yet authoritative tone. “Here, bucky, bucky, bucky, bucky. Come here to me now, bucky, bucky, bucky.”
I kept waiting for him to lose the straight face, point at me and yell, “Ha, ha! GOTCHA!”
About that time, Buckmasters cameraman Chris Chastain emerged from his office and said, “Tim, he’s not kidding. We have it several times on video. And, it works!”
Jimmy then explained how God’s word in Genesis 1:26 and 1:28 gave us power and dominion over all Earth’s creatures, including deer.
As a longtime believer, this made perfect sense to me, but it was a tactic I’d never tried, nor even thought of.
Jimmy said, “You have to speak with authority, and with faith. Faith is the key.”
He described event after event in which animals behaved exactly as he commanded, including the double drop-tined Montana buck Jimmy talked in and filmed for Jackie Bushman in 2010.
“Of course, you don’t always get the animal.” Jimmy explained. “It’s up to you to make the shot, time things correctly and hope everything falls into place. But if you speak to the animal with authority and faith, they will obey. Try it and see.”
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