In the inky and cold dark minutes before the opening of the 1999 muzzle loader season I was armed with cotton balls that had been generously laced with a secret potion called “Hunter’s Gold”. I had strewn five of these about waist high along the rutted deer trail that passed faintly through an East Tennessee natural funnel of hardwoods, creeks and thickets.
The secret potion had been mysteriously dispensed the night before around the campfire like it was some kind of long secret map to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine. My partner, the UTC Physics Major, who happens to uncannily appear to be the physical clone of old William Jefferson Clinton himself, looked nervously over his shoulder and into the shadows of the night like a bunch of ATF agents were skulking about looking for moon-shiners. As he carefully dropped the liquid Hunter’s Gold into my bag of cotton balls he said he had just purchased a load of the stuff at a recent Buck-A-Rama in Atlanta.
The product was almost guaranteed he assured me as he worriedly scanned the shadows for unseen claim jumpers, or Indians with big ears, or what ever else was out there in the cover of darkness.
I was a scent-user-skeptic, but I didn’t feel the need to share this with my buddy. He was treating this like he was letting me in on a winning lottery ticket, or a sure thing in the Kentucky Derby.
When it comes to an advantage over deer, I’ll try just about anything.
I had no more than settled into my tree stand when deer began to walk under my tree. No matter how quietly I tried to load the old gun the noise spooked the deer in the darkness below me.
As the first grey streaks of a November morning filtered into my little hollow, I had not yet made the connection between the little dripping cotton balls and the sounds of deer under my tree. This breakdown in my logic was about to be repaired.
With the strengthening of light, a buck magically materialized at the farthest cotton ball. I sat stunned and comatose as the buck curled his lips and licked the air as he slowly, calmly, and ever so gracefully moved from cotton ball to cotton ball until he was straining at the last lure only twenty yards from my tree
That night as the buck hung from the meat pole, my buddy asked me what I thought of his Hunter’s Gold now.
Years later I finally connected with the genius behind the Hunter’s Gold phenomenon. Hunter’s Gold owner, Blake Cox of Kernersville, North Carolina is one of those guys’s that’s takes matters in his own hands.
After using bottled deer scents and lures and coming away with the idea that he had been charmed by an old fashioned snake oil salesman, he set out in the early 90’s with an extensive knowledge of deer habits and a strong desire to invent the perfect deer attractant.
The way he tells his story is pretty good. Like most successful inventors, Blake went through the up’s and downs of four years of field testing until one eventful morning in May. Testing his latest recipe, he went to an area frequented by deer, poured out some of his latest Gold and then turned the bucket upside down and used it as a stool.
Within a matter of minutes, three separate does and two separate bucks had almost knocked him off of his bucket. IN MAY! Blake say’s that’s when he knew he had the right formula.
Since that fateful May morning in 1994 he estimates he has sold between 40,000 to 50,000 bottles of Hunter’s gold. Blake sells Hunter’s Gold at 10 to 12 hunting shows a year and on his web site. He says that most of his customers are avid repeat buyers.
He has been told by hunters that over 40 Pope and Young class trophy bucks have been taken with his product. His most successful client was a fellow from Melrose Florida the shot a monster 191 Boone and Crockett buck in Saskatchewan. The Canadian outfitter said it was the biggest buck they had ever seen taken in that part of the country. The Florida hunter left his bottle of Gold with the guide only to find out later that month that the guide had killed the biggest buck he had personally ever seen. The guy from Florida always orders a fresh supply from Blake before he returns north each fall.
Blake said that after a lifetime of hunting and watching how territorial deer are he realized that if he could make a scent that brought out the natural instinct to protect their territory then he would have the secret weapon.
The other thing that he stresses is that Hunter’s Gold is not a deer based product and it contains no deer urine. This is becoming more and more critical as biologists begin to look very closely at the connection between captive deer and elk herds and the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease. Blake predicts that it won’t be too long before deer urine based lures are taken off of the market for fear of spreading disease to uninfected deer herds.
Blake makes his living doing the thing that he enjoys. Aside from his deer lure, he holds nine patents and has a unique line of numerous other hunting and fishing products that you can see on his web site, www.Huntersgold.com, or you can catch up with him soon at the big daddy of outdoors shows in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. He expects 1 to 1.5 million people to drift by his booth during the nine days of that show.
When I asked why he has decided to market his vast array of products the way he does his answer surprised me a little. He said he gets a lot of satisfaction out of watching the light in a hunter’s eyes when they recount how one of his products brought them success and a heap of good memories. He was especially fond of the folks that come to him at these outdoors shows and thank him for allowing them to be able to see the biggest bucks that they had ever seen. Year after year.
Check out Blake’s web site or give him a call at 336-595-1101 and ask him about his latest invention in fishing lures.
We’ll probably need to get a bigger boat when these babies hit the market.