Do deer urine lures actually work?
State wildlife biologists are lobbying for a ban on the use of deer urine-based scents by hunters.The prohibition is necessary to protect us from the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.
It was on the front page of the newspaper, so it must have been important.
Many hunters are worried.Some sportsmen who claim to have the right to use deer urine as an attractant scent are willing to pay multiple dollars per ounce for it.They pay double figure tariffs for a bottle of pee.The scent industry is very lucrative.
The whole thing is smoke and mirrors.Deer like the smell of urine.In the fall, you can get urine from other mammals as well.According to biologists, mammal urine is not distinguishable among species or even gender.
If you don't believe me, pee near your treestand and watch how deer react to it.I guarantee that will not happen like the experts say it will.You don't need a pee jug in your deer stand.Right from the tree, let 'er loose.
It is possible for a buck to tell if a doe is receptive by the smell of her urine on her rear legs.
Deer attractants used to advertise that they contained sexual identity markers.The biologists pointed out that the deer's pheromones dissipated in less than an hour.They could not be bottled.That ended the advertising.
Many deer-scent manufacturers did not own any deer.Some people bought deer urine, but others used goat and sheep urine.
This column will draw the ire of scent manufacturers, all of whom will deny that they do anything untoward, and that their scent is totally natural, etc., avoiding some other aspects of the argument.
One scent company representative that I hunted with told me that his company demanded that urine deliverers sign affidavits stating that the pee they delivered came from does in estrous.
Major manufacturers use deer farms to avoid bad publicity.The basis of their product is not necessarily from a doe in heat.
Think about it.A deer comes into heat in the fall.She will come back into heat if she is not bred in that span.Wait another 28 days if she is not bred at that point.
It doesn't make sense to think that the millions of gallons of deer urine used to make scents come from just does in heat.How would the gatherers know that a doe was ripe?There aren't any visible signs.Only deer are aware of it.
A guy with a herd of goats who cages his ewes when they are in estrus can't keep his deer away from the wire in October and November.The smell is what matters to the bucks.
A few years ago, when the scent industry was under attack for its questionable business and advertising tactics, Charles Alsheimer of Bath, a field editor for Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine, described in print the use of "White Lightning."
One of the top 50 figures in American deer hunting in the 20th Century was a friend of Charlie's.
On October 7, the Wilson F. Moore Memorial chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will sponsor a pheasant hunt at Salt Springs State Park.