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Temps Going Down, Setups Heating Up Late Season Success on HODAG Systems As things begin to slow down in the midwest with snow on the ground and temps below freezing, one thing has continued to heat up. With cell cameras using the last of their battery life, we are continuing to have pictures come in daily of deer still using HODAG setups. With each product we sell we make analogies to describe what our products accomplish, one I like to use is a golf course. Every green is complete with a flag for us to aim at and keep us moving in the right direction. Some might go there straight away, and others might take a longer route there, even if not by our own volition. Regardless of skill everyone looks to the flag for where they should be aiming next, without it we would simply be swinging without direction. Every HODAG setup is a like the flag on the golf course, a location for deer to aim towards as they make their way through food plots, and travel corridors. This is even more evident when looking at what were green plots turn into baron, snow covered stretches of nothingness. Some deer might head straight away to a setup and others might take a longer route (theirs not predicated on handicap). That is why our products make your trail cameras and scouting more effective. Rather than set your camera up and rely on luck to get deer to wander past it, each one of our products guide deer to a spot we choose to inventory, pattern, or hunt. Observing the deer interaction on our products throughout the year, it is evident that with snow on the ground and hormone levels back to normal, there are even less distractions in the woods allowing them to focus on heading towards the "flag". That is the reason for the uptick in activity when things should be getting more stagnant. Whether it be a HempScent Rope on a field edge, a Licking Stick in a food plot, or a Licking Branch on a travel corridor, each leverage a deer's natural behavior to head towards a spot rather than wand aimlessly.

Christmas Gifts for Hunters With Christmas right around the corner, we all know buying gifts for a hunter or outdoorsman can be difficult. Usually I end of up getting gift cards to the local sporting good shop which ends up being spent on everyday essentials. However, our products can offer a perfect alternative to the boring gift cards when shopping for the hunter in your life. We are a small business made up of outdoorsman that make a line of unique whitetail hunting products. Our products can be gifted to both beginner and experienced hunters and will likely be something they haven't used before. What makes our products the perfect gift for any hunter is that they can be used year-round and for years to come. If the hunter in your life has trail cameras, our products can be the perfect tool for them to put in front of them. We have customers around the country finding success using our products, just check the reviews. So if you're looking for a Christmas gift for a hunter look no further. Whether it be our Licking Stick, HempScent Rope, Licking Branch, or our Happy HODAG Bundle they wont be dissapointed. Give the hunter in your life a unique gift from a small company made by  fellow outdoorsman right here in the USA. Skip the gift cards this season and give them something that will be used for years to come.

3 tips to get the most out of Your HODAG products Being the small company that we are, every customer's question makes its way through our warehouse.  We are all hunters, with different philosophies and ideas on answering those questions. Throughout the year we see and hear customer comments and questions asking, "what is the best way to use our products".  We also see a few common mistakes made so we've decided to share our recommendations to fix those mistakes, hopefully before they happen to you.  1.) Don't set up near a bait or feeder.  One of our first questions to a customer comment about lack of deer using their HODAG system is..."Is your setup located next to bait?". The answer to that question is often "yes". The goal of our products is to start natural communication in an area that we choose, ultimately getting us more and better pictures or even a shot opportunity. The problem in putting a setup next to bait is that the deer are in that spot for a reason...to eat your bait, not necessarily to communicate.  If you are using a setup on top of a bait pile or next to a feeder, reevaluate what your goals are with our products. Your bait is already putting deer in front of your camera.   2.) Have faith and patience.   All good things take time, and our products are no different. You are trying to create a scent communication hub that will be used for years to come, so don't be defeated if deer aren't using it in the first few days. It can take time for the deer to find the setup and in reality, it can take time for the woods to go back to normal after it gets disrupted while making a setup. We have the customers who see results the first day but also have customers find success after a week or two. I don't care what the score of the game is in the first quarter, it's the end of the game that matters.  Don't sweat it if your setup isn't a deer magnet right away, our real goal is creating a communication station that will become an integral part of the deer's routine on your property for years and generations to come.  There are so many variables in the woods over the course of a year that effect and change a deer's home range, travel routes and daily patterns. More often than not, the hunter who is patient wins.    3.) Get Creative I know I just told you to be patient but there will be times when the setup just isn't in the right spot, or the species of tree you're using isn't the kind the deer want to use. After putting out thousands of setups we usually have a pretty good idea of where systems should be placed, and we are still finding new ways to make setups even more effective on our personal properties. I put out a Licking Stick this summer and decided to try out a spruce branch for the first time. Well, I can honestly say it has been one of the best Licking Stick setups I have put out to date and spruce (when available) may be at the top of the list for me to use in future systems. That's the thing, we want to give our customers the chance to tailor their setups to the property their hunting. Every property is different, and every setup should be different as well. There isn't a one size fits all approach to anything in hunting and why should creating a scent hub be any different. Don't be afraid to change the location, tree type, height, etc, and try something different. There are so many ways to make a setup unique to your property, experiment and see what results you get.  Overall, we want every customer to find success using our products and we are always here to help our customers who want some advice or direction. Using these 3 tips will hopefully help you alleviate issues before they occur, and every customer will have a more successful approach to using our line of scent communication products.

Don't be SCARED to Experiment After putting up thousands of HODAG setups, I can say one thing for certain...there is no perfect way to do this. No one size fits all approach exists for getting your setup to work. Sure, there is a general direction that we have found great success with, but the greatest thing about hunting is that everyone's property is different, so why wouldn't our setups be different as well.   Some setups can see instant success in a couple hours' time, others can take a week, and sometimes it might take a change of location to get your setup working. Deer are an animal that no one has completely figured out yet and as most hunters know, you will be blue in the face trying to understand them. That is why we leave so much creativity up to the hunter with our products. Deer use every property in a slightly different way, so we like to leave it up to you to decide how to make your setup work the best for your deer. A Licking Stick or Licking Branch on one property might work best when using oak, while the property next door might find the most success using cedar. A HempScent Rope Setup in Wisconsin might work best on deer trails and travel corridors and in the Kansas, success might be found on field edges and food plots. Every setup is different for every customer, and sometimes thinking outside of the box might reward you with better results and a setup that is tailored to your property. We have seen multiple setups explode with interaction after a simple change of tree species or a change of location. An effective setup will become engrained in a deer's routine while on your property so we must try our best as woodsman to replicate to the finest detail what deer are doing naturally within your lot lines. So, the overarching theme to this is that you shouldn't be scared to experiment. The worst thing that could happen is a slow trail camera, but what can be gained is an intimate knowledge about what makes the deer tick on your property and how to achieve the best results using that knowledge with our line of deer scent communication products.

The Right End of a Short Rope This year we released the HODAG HempScent Rope, another product in our line of deer scent communication systems. With this system we decided to leave a lot of creativity to the customer as they decide where and how to hang them, and also how many setups they can achieve with a 6-foot section of rope. However, through experimentation we figured out how little is actually needed to create an effective setup. This summer the staff at HODAG went to our respective properties to setup some of our new product and we decided to try different ways to utilize the ropes. We generally hung two-to-six-foot sections, but we put a couple setups out with spare cuttings from the shop about one foot in length. We were unsure about such a short section after watching bucks run larger sections of rope through their antlers and even chew on it. What we found was that as long as there is enough rope to hold scent the deer will use it one way or another. We got big bucks on small rope, which like all our products emphasizes that bigger isn't always better. This is why we encourage our customers to get creative with our products. There is no "one size fits all" approach to hunting or the products that go with it, so experiment and make your setup fit your property and you'll be surprised with what your find. Shop Now: HODAG Products More Journals: HODAG Blog

Shining a Light on Scrapes Scrapes are an integral part of the whitetail breeding season and can get you some of the best trail cam pictures of the year. However, frustration accumulates for many hunters as the bucks make their way to scrapes every night and never when you're on stand. The truth is that a majority of scrapes are made, and scent marked under the cover of darkness. I remember when first starting to hunt thinking that finding a scrape meant a sure-fire chance at a buck, only to walk out of the wood's hours later, finding out on the next card pull that they were there after the sunset.Good news is that scrapes can still provide valuable information that with the right mindset can be utilized to harvest that "nightwalker". A trail camera picture can give hints about where a buck's travel route is, where he's bedding, and what his routine is during particular conditions. After finding enough of this information a hunter can ascertain that in order to get a chance at a particular buck, a stand should be hung on way to the scrape, not on top of it. As most know not everything written in an outdoor article is gospel, and hunting can be a cruel and rewarding cat and mouse game. However, with the right mindset and plan, scrapes and mock scrapes may be the missing piece to your hunting strategy. So next time you get a picture of a buck on a scrape, rack blurred by branches and darkness, think about more than just the time stamp on the picture. For the ultimate mock scrape tools: HODAG Products For more articles: HODAG Blogs

The Season of the Mock Scrapes As the mercury begins to drop, and the hormones of bucks begins to rise, hunters can feel the approach of the greatest part of a deer hunters' year. The rut is on the horizon for many properties across the country and with that, the boosted potential to take advantage of bucks driven by the thought of breeding rather than survival. Most hunters think about the rut as arrowing a giant buck chasing a hot doe, but there are many other ways that we can leverage a buck's natural behavior. Scrapes and licking branches are a part of a buck's daily life year-round, being used as an email inbox of sorts for them send and receive messages about other deer in the area using scent. The activity on these "communication stations" intensifies as the rut approaches and bucks become territorial over their area of dominance. I won't elaborate any further as most reading this know what a scrape, and more importantly, a mock scrape are. Mock scrapes can be a deadly tool in a hunter's arsenal if used correctly and placed in the right location. In combination with a trail camera, a hunter can see a deer's patterns during the rut; what time he checks the scrape, what direction he comes from, and what direction he's going. When factoring in wind direction and barometric pressure a hunter can almost get scientific about where a buck is bedding and where he is heading during certain conditions. Like mentioned above though, the mock scrape has to be setup correctly in the right spot to truly take advantage of this natural behavior. A lighthouse built away from the sea has no benefit to the sailor, and the same ideology can be used for mock scrapes. Our HempScent Rope and Licking Branch Systems can help any hunter tailor a mock scrape to whatever property they are placed. Whether hanging a HODAG HempScent Rope over a heavily trafficked trail or placing a HODAG Licking Branch in an area scarce of low hanging opportunity, both products give customization to the hunter using them. Every property is different and every hunter knows their property better than the guy writing this article. That's why we made versatile products that hinge on a hunters woodsmanship and knowledge of the deer on their property to create a unique setup that fits their land, not ours. Start creating scent hubs: HODAG Products More articles: HODAG Blogs

Eliminating Competition for the Ultimate Mock Scrape Setup Every product in our line of deer scent communication products is designed to replicate something that is done naturally in the wild. From natural licking sticks, licking branches and overhanging vines used for scrapes, it is unfathomable the amount of "scent communication stations" deer have in the woods that go unseen by us hunters. Most deer hunters have experienced walking down the edge of field or food plot seeing scrape lines running along the entire thing. We witnessed this during our trip to the crew at Deer Society's property, seeing a food plot surrounded by low hanging branches for deer to scrape under. However, all of those branches are an opportunity for deer to take roll call of the woods and establish a territory. Unfortunately, most of these scrapes aren't in range of a stand, aren't in front of your trail camera, and are impossible to predict which one will be used that particular day. The main objective of our products is to "tee-up" a perfect spot for scent communication where we choose, but if you setup a mock scrape on a field edge covered in real scrapes, there is nothing drawing to the deer to communicate at the one you want. That is where eliminating competition comes in. If you trim any low hanging branches on that field edge the deer could use and make your setup the standalone location for scent communication. Immediately your setup becomes the only spot for them to scent mark, acting like a lighthouse to a fisherman. With just a little extra work you can make your setups more effective and truly put deer where you want. Best mock scrape tool: HODAG Licking Branch

.Deer Society & HODAG Collab! Last January at the annual ATA Tradeshow, we were placed next to the Deer Society and Illusion booth. Through the weekend conversations ensued, big buck stories were exchanged, and a mutual respect two businesses in the same world was established. Fast forward to the summer of 2022 and after phone calls working through tight business schedules, a collaboration of sorts was planned between the crew at Deer Society and our crew here at HODAG. We planned on heading out to Minnesota, making some HODAG Setups on their land and joining their podcast for a more in-depth explanation of our products. After planting food plots at our farm in Buffalo County we made the drive across the Mississippi River to head to the Whitetails from Scratch Property and see how our products could be utilized there. We setup a Licking Stick, Licking Branch, and HempScent Rope explaining how they can be utilized in a variety of situations to take advantage of a deers natural behavior for scouting and hunting. Through these setups we explained the small tweaks to make each setup more effective and also the common mistakes we see our customers make. The trip ended in the Deer Society podcast studio where we took a deep dive into the scenting behavior of deer that our products take advantage of. Through this collaboration we got to step in the shoes of a new customer wondering where to put a setup on a new property, and we hope that they gained a valuable tool in their already deadly arsenal to better INVENTORY, PATTERN, HUNT their target bucks for the year.  You won't want to miss this podcast episode!