WARNING – Before considering use of the following hunting products consult your states hunting proclamation/rules. The use of this product is some states may not be allowed during hunting season.
Hunters have long known that scent and scent control are very important during your hunting efforts. We work hard to cover our human scent in the field. Game animals have very sophisticated smellers and the slightest hint of something human in the air will send them bolting out of the country. Hot Trails has taken this concept one step further, offering a complete line-up of scent candles that can be used to turn one of your quarry’s best defenses into an offensive strategy.
Hot Trails makes a number of different scents for different game including:
- Doe-n-Heat
- Dominant Buck
- Deer Corn
- Deer Apple
- White Oak Acorn
- Persimmon
- Earth Scent
- Curiosity
- Coyote/Fox
- Honey
- Anise
- Cinnamon
- Bacon
In New Mexico we are not allowed to hunt over baits or scents. However, the rules do not say anything about having a little fun and seeing what will get the critters attention. We received a set of the bear scents from Hot Trails (Honey, Anise, Bacon) and decided to put them to the test and see how well they would work.
We had a location we had been scouting for our fall elk hunt that had a significant amount of bear sign in it. We set up a couple of trails cameras, placed a scented candle in the lantern, lit it and placed it on a stump about 5 feet off of the ground. It was time to go do some elk scouting and let the candles work. Hot Trails advertises a 500 yard penetration range for their products.
We placed the candles near the head of a canyon that had a slight breeze rolling down through it. Obviously, a little breeze is needed to carry the scent. 500 yards of penetration range would carry the scent down through over half of this deep canyon, past two water holes and the area where we had seen all of the bear sign. If the candle really worked we should have some pics on the cameras when we returned.
The next day we made our way back into the test location to see what we had. We used an Anise candle the first day, and here is what we saw on the camera. Not only had the bear came into the scented candle, the smell of the “food” source in the air had him hungry enough to work on eating the camera on the stump as well.
One test, one bear for sure. We still had a couple more days of elk scouting to go so we decided to try it one more time. We knew the Anise would work so we decided to give one of the Honey scented candles a try. Well, it had similar results as seen below in the picture of the bear trying to rip the camera off of the stump.
By this point we were convinced that the candles worked very well and decided not to attempt a Bacon scented candle. I figured all that would do would lead to my camera getting eaten!
Overall, we would recommend the Hot Trails Scented Candles and Lantern to anyone who can legally use them to hunt or, if you want to get some really cool photos and can’t use them for hunting purposes, as you can see, they will work for that too. This is a great product from Bill Moore!
For more go to: Hot Trails Scented Candles
