As we’re nearing the end of the 2022-2023 hunting season, I’m being asked the following question by our loyal customers for now and in the future.
What is the best way to use Hot Trails® candles?
Maybe you’re asking the same question? Not to be long-winded (so say my daughters), but I want my audience to fully understand my answers. As a fellow hunter, there are many things to consider before you get to pull the trigger or let an arrow fly. The same is true for using airborne scents.
· Have you scouted your hunting area and found out how and where the deer are traveling to and from their bedding areas and feeding grounds?
o Let’s say you’ve found 4 game trails leaving bedding areas headed out to feeding grounds. Now, when I say feeding grounds, I’m really talking about trails that have deer-preferred foods along them.
· Have you ever noticed how deer eat?
o Livestock belly up to the feed, stand in basically one spot, and eat until full or the food is all gone. Again, I hunt in Texas, and we can feed and hunt for deer. So, I’ve spent endless hours sitting high above the ground, watching stand-alone feeders or where I’ve released feed on my ATV. It seems like deer have to keep moving while eating. Maybe it makes flight from danger easier if you’re moving to start with. I don’t know this for sure, but I’ve seen this every time I hunt in a stand over an area where there’s feed. Deer are grazers, even around feeders they keep moving around. So, if you know the trails they travel, you would want to put your stand upwind of those trails. For example, you have 4 trails going basically east and west and parallel with each other by, say 15 yards between them. You set yourself upwind, say north of the trails, and you have a 5-mph wind at your back. When you set your lit Hot Trails® candle in our lantern downwind of your location, 2 things happen – 1) the candle is emitting its scent alongside your human scent, thereby covering your scent, and 2) you now have Hot Trails® scent releasing and blowing across all 4 trails. Now, you’re hunting trails you can’t even see. The deer traveling those trails will smell Hot Trails® and under the right conditions, will follow the smell right to you.
· When to use Hot Trails®?
o You want to use Doe-N-Heat candles during the rut and food scented candles late in the season (after winter has killed most food plants). This is when deer, especially bucks are looking for food because they’ve been running hard during the rut and haven’t taken the time to eat. Bucks lose a large percentage of their body fat rutting and “WINTER IS COMING.” They need to fatten up fast to survive until the spring. We start feeding protein immediately after the season and all spring and summer to keep our deer from dying off.
Four years ago, we lost 90% of our deer herd to anthrax. We haven’t killed a single whitetail deer in 4 years on our 5,000 acres. We’ve shot some axis deer, but that’s it. We’re hoping to selectively take a few deer this year. Whether this is a familiar situation for you, or you’re struggling with other hunting challenges, it’s even more important to understand how to use Hot Trails® to try and maximize your hunting experience. And I hope this article is helpful in providing my insights on the subject.
Happy Hunting!
By Bill Moore, Founder of Hot Trails® Scented Hunting Candles
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® LANTERN, OR IN SOME OTHER TYPE OF METAL BURNING CONTAINER. THE LANTERNS CAN BECOME VERY HOT, SO ONLY HANDLE USING GLOVES OR BY THE HANGING LOOP. CLEAR LEAVES AND OTHER COMBUSTIBLES 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. HOT TRAILS® ONLY USES SYNTHETIC SCENTS.
