At this time in the season i find that an aggressive rattle is the ticket. I would follow with a few grunts after a good hard 5 min session of rattling. This morning we heard several diffrent bucks grunt back to our rattling. They didn't show thier faces though. I wouldnt over call u have to make it sound realistic. I would stay away from any artificial sents like tinks and so on. At this stage in the game the bucks call tell the diffrence because they have smelt the does in full esterous. Also this late in the season i find it hard to pattern deer in the am hunts. I would try pm hunts. We just got back from the bush and i had a huge 12 pointer 30 yards away but didnt present me with a shot. He came into the rattling. He was in front of me for 15 min in the same spot gave me a lot of time to count the points. I feel your pain, thats the second big buck to hang up in range of me with no shot offering. I hear ya on the long drag. All the deer we arrowed this year we had to drag for 2kms. Make sure u spent some time in the stand in the pm I have a feeling u might get rewarded.