This is part two in a series of articles I want to discuss with those of you who share the love of cold wind in our faces, drizzly damp mornings, and believe that wet and muddy is in our DNA.  The love of nature, the expectations of opening morning of deer season, watching, and waiting for our opportunity to harvest food for our family and friends. For in doing so, we mimic our ancestors throughout history. We are hunters and gatherers.

It’s the middle of September, and most deer antlers are free of velvet. Buds are no longer buds, and bachelor groups have started to thin out. It’s turning into “Every Buck for Himself” time. Bucks are looking for an area they can call their own – a place that has heavily-traveled trails to and from staging areas close to winter food sources, and one with good entrance and exit points for quick getaways. And, most importantly, somewhere FREE from HUMAN scent. Then bucks start to make rubs, and then they head into creating scrapes.

A lot of hunters think it has to be cold for the rut. I talk to my customers in the South all season long who always say they’re waiting for the cold weather to get here before they start to hunt.  Let me just say this, if it takes cold weather for the rut to start, there would be no deer hunting in Texas. So let’s look at the weather in regards to the rut. I hunted and managed 12,000 acres in Webb County, 40 miles northwest of Laredo, Texas.  During the night when there was a cold front, the temperature might get into the upper 20-degrees for a little while. However, once the sun came up, it would be 75-degrees during the day. Do you see more bucks during the day during the rut? YES. If they aren’t already hooked up with a doe, they’re checking scrapes, trying to get a date. Like cruising around the drive-in on the weekend looking for a date, right? See, the rut is not too different for deer and us. In my opinion, the reason some people believe the cold weather brings on the rut, is that all animals are friskier and more active when it’s cold. Therefore, you see more deer movement, and people relate that to the rut.

Several years ago, I was hunting a buck that I had only gotten a quick glance at the year before. He was walking on a trail that weaved in and out of heavy brush and trees. He was 12-points, of good mass, with nice tine length and a spread of about 21+ inches. Definitely a mature 6 ½ year-old buck. He was using the surroundings to his maximum benefit for concealment. But I only saw him once, and that was it for that year. The next year, I had put a feeder near the area I thought he might be visiting (we are allowed to feed in Texas). That afternoon, I put out a lantern with one of my lit Hot Trails® Doe-N-Heat candles in a spot where some small, young bucks and a few does were eating around the feeder. All of a sudden, they jumped as if a gun had gone off and ran about 20 yards from the feeder. Out of the brush stepped MY BUCK. He was obviously the dominant buck in the area. I was sitting inside a blind with shades, but he knew I was there – how? I’ll never know what gave me away, but before I could grab my rifle, he was gone. However, my candle did its job. Mature deer just get smarter, therefore they don’t take chances. They’re not high up on the intelligence scale as far as animals go, but they have a great sense for what is going on around them. I used to tell my children when they were out with friends to be like the deer. Use your gut feelings, and if something doesn’t seem right, or if you’re uneasy in your surroundings, be like the deer and leave. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Trust your gut and act on it.

Using Hot Trails® Scented Hunting Candles, you’ll notice it will bring bucks to where you want them to be. If there are does in the area, the bucks will start to chase them to find out which one is in heat. But just how does our candle work? If you’ve ever burned a scented candle in your home, soon you smell that aroma all over the house. The candle has been putting out scent for hours, and it’s filled all the air space in your home. The same situation happens when you light one in the woods, but now the scent is carried by the wind. If you ever watch smoke from a large fire, you see that the smoke as well as the smell, follow the wind direction. This process makes Hot Trails® unique in the scent and lure business. Standard liquid scents evaporate over time and different chemicals have different evaporation rates. Over time, the liquid changes composition and eventually the smell dwindles, whereas Hot Trails® maintains the same smell and strength from start to finish. With Hot Trails®, you can hunt upwind from wherever you think the deer are going to be, then situate the candle so the wind will blow the scent to the area you’re targeting.

We’ve been taught to hunt with the wind in our face, so this brings us to have to change how to hunt. If you hunt looking into the wind while using scents, where is that scent going? You guessed it – behind you. Since we don’t have eyes in the back of our head, you are looking all around, and we know that movement is the key to failure. If I’m hunting in a stand, I try to setup with the wind blowing right-to-left or left-to-right. For this explanation, let’s say the wind is blowing from right-to-left. I would locate the candle at about 45-degrees to the right. This would bring the deer from the left, crossing in front of you on the way toward the candle. The closer deer get to the candle, the stronger the smell, so they tend to really focus in the direction of the candle, allowing you to make small movements to prepare your shot.

IMPORTANT: HOT TRAILS® USES A FIRE AND MUST BE TREATED WITH CAUTION. CHECK LOCAL FORESTRY REGULATIONS ON OPEN FIRES IN THE AREA YOU ARE HUNTING. HOT WAX ON BARE SKIN CAN CAUSE INJURY. DO NOT MOVE THE CANDLE WHEN WAX IS HOT OR CANDLE IS BURNING. NEVER LEAVE A BURNING CANDLE UNATTENDED. NEVER BURN A CANDLE EXCEPT IN OUR HOT TRAILS® MINI LANTERN OR IN SOME OTHER TYPE OF METAL BURNING CONTAINER. CLEAR LEAVES AND OTHER COMBUSTABLES FROM THE AREA AROUND WHERE THE CANDLE WILL BE LOCATED. JUST LIKE USING A GUN OR BOW, CAUTION AND SAFETY SHOULD BE OBSERVED AT ALL TIMES WHEN USING A PRODUCT WITH AN OPEN FLAME.

Using Hot Trails® Scented Hunting Candles is not magic. You must use your knowledge of deer and deer behavior, good scent control, hunting techniques and safety to be successful.  Hot Trails® is a TOOL in your hunting tool box.

In the next article, I’m going to provide some of my own experiences using Hot Trails® as well as others’ stories that have been shared with me over the past 30 years of using my candles.
 
Until then, order some Hot Trails® at www.hottrails.com and start making your own success stories to share!

Written by Bill Moore, Founder of Hot Trails® Scented Hunting Candles