My "Paw-Paw" was a trapper. He made all of his trap cover scents and attractants from natural scents ... using the critters he trapped. Scent glands, scent oils and critter urine that he collected from the beaver, muskrat, mink, fox, coon, etc. that he caught in his traps. He showed me how to do this before he passed .... so when I first started taking white tail hunting seriously, I looked to the commercial scents. I bought into all of the hype .... one I recall with not s find a memory is "skunk" scent as a cover ... Lord only knows what i was thinking !! And I tried a bunch of stuff. None of which I can attest to that made one iota of a difference as far as I could tell. At the end of the season, season after season, I would have seen and killed about what I did during the previous years of not using this stiff. I had foregone what Paw-Paw had taught me ... go "natural".
Somewhere in the early 1970's I started doing what Paw-Paw did. I started collecting deer urine from the bladders of deer I killed ... and removing "oily" tarsal glands. I freeze what I do not need. I use this stuff to make drag-rags, sweeten existing scrapes and "mark" territory.
I can attest that this technique has worked. Every time ? No. Some times ? For sure ... yes. I have had both does and bucks follow my drag-rag trail right up to the base of the tree where I was sitting 15'-20' off the ground. I have dropped I'd guess 10-12 good bucks when the stopped to sniff where I had rubbed several saplings with a tarsal gland or poured a table spoon or so of deer urine in an existing scrape. When I started doing this, I found that at the end of the season I had seen a few more and taken a few more nice bucks than during previous years.
I have to say that I am not saying that this is not a "sure thing". What is other than a small area, high fence inside which bucks are strictly managed for trophy?
I have had deer walk right over a drag rag trail and not pay any attention to it. And have had bucks come into the area down wind from a soaking wet, fresh tarsal I had hung nearby and never check up. But as for me, I think that this works well and I am going to stay with it. If for no other reason than a tribute to my "paw-paw".