Post by cambygsp on Aug 13, 2006 7:54:11 GMT -5
www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060813/GPG0204/608130610
Posted August 13, 2006
You don't have to smell bad to smell good to deer
That's what the maker of synthetic deer scent says
By Jim Lee
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
WAUSAU — Better deer hunting through chemistry?
"Yes!" Rano J. Harris says emphatically.
R.J., as he is known, heads Edgefield Outdoor Products, a Spanish Ford, Ala., firm that is preparing to market synthetic deer scents.
Why would a hunter buy a laboratory version of doe-in-heat scent when the real scent — straight from an estrus doe — is available from any local sporting goods store?
Harris, 62, who started in the scientific instrument business at 19 with his dad and retired in 1985, suggests two reasons.
Manufactured scents are effective, he contends, and they will not transmit chronic wasting disease.
"Our doe-in-heat scent works better than the real thing," he said. "I went to friends in the chemical industry and said, 'Tell me what it is in deer scent that makes it work.' One of their wives was an expert in animal behavior. She already knew where to look.
"They came up with nine or 10 chemical compounds that deer respond to at certain times of the year. We found that what you smell (from a container of commercial deer scent) is there for the hunter. What actually works (to attract deer), you can't smell."
Harris said his organization spent more than a year field-testing its products.
"We had a lot of success with our doe-in-heat estrus scent," he said. "We had deer come upwind to that scent. But when you're dealing with wild deer, it's more difficult to correlate the results. They tend to be anecdotal and not very scientific."
Contrary to what most hunters believe, Harris contends curiosity is a bigger factor in attracting deer than sexual scents.
"A large amount of the attractiveness of scents is due to a deer's curiosity," he said. "To be effective, all a scent has to do is attract a deer and not scare it."
Hunters who use Harris' synthetics quickly will recognize an olfactory difference. Artificial scent doesn't stink as acridly as real deer urine.
"It doesn't have to smell bad to deer or humans to attract deer," Harris says. "With real deer urine, most of the time, you're smelling odors of biological decay ... a fecal odor. We had those odors in our product at one point but found deer didn't really respond differently without it.
"We are not trying to do an identical clone of deer urine. We're trying to provide the compounds in deer urine that deer respond to. There are lots of things that don't need to be there to attract deer."
When it comes to combating chronic wasting disease, a contagious, deadly, nerve-infecting disease that has struck deer herds in a number of Western and Midwest states, including Wisconsin, Harris contends artificial deer scents are a logical step in efforts to ensure the disease is not spread inadvertently.
While the interstate shipment of live deer has ground to a halt in states where the disease has been found, there have been few restrictions on the distribution of bottled deer urine.Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources has discussed the possibility of prohibiting the sale of deer urine, but — lacking scientific evidence that the prions associated with the transmission of chronic wasting disease are contained in urine — has not pushed for such a ban.
Live deer urine is frequently obtained from deer held in small enclosures, where the urine runs into a collection basin beneath the floor.
Harris contends it is nearly impossible to ensure bottled urine from a live deer does not contain fecal matter. He terms commercial deer urine "basically raw sewage in a bottle."
As for his synthetic product, Harris said, "It works. It's consistent from bottle to bottle. It has a long shelf life and it doesn't cause disease. That's all good.
"We're going to try and make some waves in the scent industry."
Deer hunters are known to utilize the latest technology to improve their odds of taking a trophy buck ... provided the new product proves to be more effective than their current methods.
Whether synthetic scents ultimately become popular in the commercial market will be determined less by advertising campaigns and manufacturers promises than by how successful they actually operate in the vicinity of a deer stand.
Jim Lee is an outdoor writer for Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers. E-mail him at jlee77@charter.net
Posted August 13, 2006
You don't have to smell bad to smell good to deer
That's what the maker of synthetic deer scent says
By Jim Lee
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
WAUSAU — Better deer hunting through chemistry?
"Yes!" Rano J. Harris says emphatically.
R.J., as he is known, heads Edgefield Outdoor Products, a Spanish Ford, Ala., firm that is preparing to market synthetic deer scents.
Why would a hunter buy a laboratory version of doe-in-heat scent when the real scent — straight from an estrus doe — is available from any local sporting goods store?
Harris, 62, who started in the scientific instrument business at 19 with his dad and retired in 1985, suggests two reasons.
Manufactured scents are effective, he contends, and they will not transmit chronic wasting disease.
"Our doe-in-heat scent works better than the real thing," he said. "I went to friends in the chemical industry and said, 'Tell me what it is in deer scent that makes it work.' One of their wives was an expert in animal behavior. She already knew where to look.
"They came up with nine or 10 chemical compounds that deer respond to at certain times of the year. We found that what you smell (from a container of commercial deer scent) is there for the hunter. What actually works (to attract deer), you can't smell."
Harris said his organization spent more than a year field-testing its products.
"We had a lot of success with our doe-in-heat estrus scent," he said. "We had deer come upwind to that scent. But when you're dealing with wild deer, it's more difficult to correlate the results. They tend to be anecdotal and not very scientific."
Contrary to what most hunters believe, Harris contends curiosity is a bigger factor in attracting deer than sexual scents.
"A large amount of the attractiveness of scents is due to a deer's curiosity," he said. "To be effective, all a scent has to do is attract a deer and not scare it."
Hunters who use Harris' synthetics quickly will recognize an olfactory difference. Artificial scent doesn't stink as acridly as real deer urine.
"It doesn't have to smell bad to deer or humans to attract deer," Harris says. "With real deer urine, most of the time, you're smelling odors of biological decay ... a fecal odor. We had those odors in our product at one point but found deer didn't really respond differently without it.
"We are not trying to do an identical clone of deer urine. We're trying to provide the compounds in deer urine that deer respond to. There are lots of things that don't need to be there to attract deer."
When it comes to combating chronic wasting disease, a contagious, deadly, nerve-infecting disease that has struck deer herds in a number of Western and Midwest states, including Wisconsin, Harris contends artificial deer scents are a logical step in efforts to ensure the disease is not spread inadvertently.
While the interstate shipment of live deer has ground to a halt in states where the disease has been found, there have been few restrictions on the distribution of bottled deer urine.Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources has discussed the possibility of prohibiting the sale of deer urine, but — lacking scientific evidence that the prions associated with the transmission of chronic wasting disease are contained in urine — has not pushed for such a ban.
Live deer urine is frequently obtained from deer held in small enclosures, where the urine runs into a collection basin beneath the floor.
Harris contends it is nearly impossible to ensure bottled urine from a live deer does not contain fecal matter. He terms commercial deer urine "basically raw sewage in a bottle."
As for his synthetic product, Harris said, "It works. It's consistent from bottle to bottle. It has a long shelf life and it doesn't cause disease. That's all good.
"We're going to try and make some waves in the scent industry."
Deer hunters are known to utilize the latest technology to improve their odds of taking a trophy buck ... provided the new product proves to be more effective than their current methods.
Whether synthetic scents ultimately become popular in the commercial market will be determined less by advertising campaigns and manufacturers promises than by how successful they actually operate in the vicinity of a deer stand.
Jim Lee is an outdoor writer for Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers. E-mail him at jlee77@charter.net
