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Our Story

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The Story Behind The HODAG Systems

 

An Accident Turned Experiment

As is true with so many things, the idea behind our HODAG products started in a very similar way, accidentally. From what appeared to be just one tough sapling that somehow survived the clearing, tilling and disking of a new secluded foodplot came the concept of tapping into the whitetails overwhelming sense of curiosity as well as conditioning individual deer to use and re-use a specific location as a communal scenting post.

The Sapling That Refused To Give Up

As mentioned before, the first real Licking Stick happened to be a persistent sapling that just refused to be disked under in a freshly cleared 1/8 acre hunting plot. After prepping and seeding the area the plot began to come in lush and full, except for an approximately 3 foot diameter area around that little tree. After looking closely at that little tree we noticed the number of tracks showing in the bare ground that just wouldn’t seem to grow. Curiosity got the better of us and we had to find out why these deer were so interested in that spot.

After a few days, the trail cam pictures told us the whole story. The deer using that food plot were making regular visits to that specific sapling, in fact it seemed that most of the deer using that hunting plot were not only visiting the sapling but they seemed to be using the sapling similar to the way a buck would use a licking branch while rutting. The interesting thing was that the activity wasn’t limited to bucks, instead it involved mature bucks, young bucks, does, and fawns and the traditional rutting time period was still months away.

Taking Full Advantage Of A Whitetail’s Visual Curiosity

From this discovery came the concept of our Licking Stick and Licking Branch Systems - products that allow hunters to take advantage of the whitetails tendencies of visual curiosity and the natural use of glandular secretions and scent marking. HODAG products allow hunters to place an initial visual marker in the selected location whether it be a food plot, field edge, or logging trail. They provide the visual attraction, and AllSeason™ Scent starts the natural process of whitetails distributing chemical signals or pheromones conveying information of social significance.