My journey started back in 1989, when I was hunting on the Farias Ranch in South Texas. For years, I had been using the most commonly-known liquid scent on the market at the time, “Doe in Heat.” I never saw any signs of success using the scent as directed, but I still bought and used it. I would save my 35mm film canisters, insert cotton balls inside to pour the liquid scent onto, and tape string to the sides to be able to hang it. Then I would walk out in all directions, hanging them on the brush.
One day, after going through this process, I finally saw a buck walking down one of the trails where I had placed my scent canister. He walked right by it and never even glanced over at it. I was bummed for sure. After the hunt, I went around gathering all of my canisters, and when I got to the one where the buck walked by, I held it up to my nose and took a big whiff – man, it didn’t smell at all like the liquid scent that I poured out of the bottle.
I started to ponder this situation. The scent had been in the sun and wind, and the cotton ball had started to dry out. I realized that evaporation is a process over time. Now, I’m not a scientist, but started thinking that different chemicals must have different evaporation rates, and the chemicals making up the deer urine scent were evaporating at different speeds. So that must be the reason the smell is changing as it evaporates. The light just came on!
At the time, I was working for my younger brother who had a very successful fragrance company making wax potpourri. We were making small wax chips in 78 different scents. One day, I thought, if this can be done with 78 different scents and they burn for hours, why not a “doe in heat” scented candle?
That was the beginning of HOT TRAILS® SCENTED HUNTING CANDLES.
It took a lot of trial and error to develop the candles, but eventually I created something that when burning, really lasted a long time and worked as I had envisioned. Immediately, I had all of my hunting lease members using them to give me feedback. Hunting season and the rut just don’t last long enough for one person to get enough intel. Here are some stories that I’ve gathered from my customers and my own experience over the years:
1. Hot Trails® works great as a cover scent. By placing the candle downwind of your location by 3 feet, your human scent is being absorbed by a much stronger smell. To illustrate, I used to hunt from an elevated stand on my truck. My eyesight was about 11 feet off the ground. I would hang one of my mini lanterns with a candle from my hitch and another over the side of the stand 11 feet up. It was an open-top stand. Often, I would rattle up bucks. Once I had 5 bucks on all sides of my truck, so close I had to lean over and look down to see them. They all hung around for about 10 minutes. They never smelled me. Note: Don’t ever light the candle and leave it inside of the blind with you in it.
2. I’ve carried the candle with me while walking and had deer stand up 15 feet from me with my gully suit and head net on, and the deer just walked away, because they couldn’t smell me.
3. Once I was sitting on the ground on the side of a gravel road with the candle burning near me, and a young buck came walking down the road, smelling the candle. As he got closer to me, he stopped, kept looking around, then finally put his nose down on top of the heat shield on the mini lantern and burnt his nose. It was so funny, as he actually did a backflip, landed on his feet, then ran about 20 yards and stopped. He never knew I was sitting there watching him, never smelled me.
4. An archery dealer in New Jersey told me a story about his hunt with Hot Trails®. A buck walked toward him, stopped, smelled, and walked up to the candle. He put a great shot on him, and the buck wheeled around and ran off. He then stopped, put his nose in the air, smelled the candle and started walking back to the candle, where he dropped dead.
5. A hunter in Pennsylvania said he was walking in the woods and started smelling Doe-N-Heat. The hair stood up on the back of his neck, as he knew he was in deer country. After following the scent for a couple of hundred yards, he came upon a hunter who was burning a Doe-N-Heat candle. He was immediately disappointed, but figured that if he could smell the scent 200 yards away, how far could a deer smell it?
6. A customer in Alabama called to thank me for making such a great product. He was hunting in a swampy area and there were small islands surrounded by water. He had planted a small food plot at the edge of the swamp. He had seen big deer tracks in his plot but never the actual deer making them. He bought some Hot Trails® candles, walked out into the middle of his plot and lit the Doe-N-Heat candle. He returned to his blind and had just sat down, when he looked up and saw a monster buck coming through the water towards the plot. The buck never made it, as my customer successfully shot it. That buck was the second-largest deer taken in Alabama that year. He won a contest and state recognition for his trophy.
7. One year earlier, another Alabama hunter killed the biggest buck in the state using Hot Trails® Doe-N-Heat candles.
After 30 years of making and selling our candles, I could go on with so many stories like this. If you’ve never heard of Hot Trails® before, it’s probably because most hunters don’t tell what they’re doing to be successful. That’s why Hot Trails® Scented Hunting Candles are “the best kept secret amongst successful hunters.”
I’m excited to share my experiences with you. Staying scent-free just isn’t enough. Attractants have been used by successful hunters since time began. You need whatever it takes to help bring the game to YOU, and I believe Hot Trails® is the best product on the market today.
Place your order today, and GOOD HUNTING! We’d love to hear your success stories and see your pics.
Written by Bill Moore, Founder of Hot Trails® Scented Hunting Candles