Synthetic Deer (urine) Scent

The substance of this document was taken from an email I had received in Nov 2004.  I have edited the original document with the intent of withholding the names of the author and others who were identified in the original email.  Place names have also been deleted. 

I want to preface this with a couple of comments.  First, I don’t know what kind of patents are involved with these scents, and I certainly do not recommend trying to make stuff to sell, or subverting legal protection of a product in any way.  Secondly, my background is as a Synthetic Organic chemist (BS Chemistry, XXXXXX University, 1996.  MS Organic Chemistry, XXXXXX University, 1998).  I have spent the last 6 years employed as a synthetic chemist with a pharmaceutical company.  When the “synthetic deer lure” first hit the market I was interested in what was going on, and still being in graduate school, had access to instrumentation that I could use as I wanted.  Name withheld (one of the three best whitetail hunters I’ve ever met) and I had been friends for a while, and he provided me with some of the lure (purchased).  He had been having some reaction to the stuff by deer and wondered if I could figure out what it was.  The true meaning of the word “synthetic” as applied to the production (synthesis) of organic molecules from simpler starting materials to make “deer lure” seemed a bit far fetched.  If one was going to pursue the manufacture of, say, a pheromone or “essence of estrus” it would entail some very high-tech (and REAL expensive) processes.  It would also include the research capabilities of some highly trained personnel.  True synthesis of molecules is not something people do in a bathtub in the garage.  To analyze the lure, here are the experiments I carried out, and the results obtained: I weighed the solution and concentrated it to remove water.  I obtained from the original brown solution a crystalline solid and dried the material in a vacuum oven.  I weighed the dried solid to determine how much water had been removed.  I took samples of the crystals and subjected them to the following experiments:

• NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance):  this is like MRI on a molecular scale. This instrument gives data to allow chemists to probe structure on an atomic/molecular scale;

• MS (Mass Spectrometry): the instrument gives information about the exact molecular mass of a molecule;

• HPLC (High-pressure Liquid Chromatography): this is a technique to determine purity of a component in a mixture; and

• pH analysis of the original solution: this is a probe that tells the acidity level of a solution in water.

All of these techniques are routine analyses for chemists. Nothing spectacular here. The results were as follows:

• The HPLC analysis showed a >95% purity of a single component in the mixture. This says we are dealing with a simple solution-one molecule, not a mixture;

• MS gave the correct mass for UREA; and

• NMR spectrum correlated to that of UREA.

pH and gravimetric analysis showed that there was some ammonia present in the original solution, this could be corroborated by “nasal chromatography”: i.e. sniffing the solution. My conclusions were that to make your own mixture that would approximate well the sample I was given, you would do the following:

• Buy a bag of urea at the farm store (a few bucks for a 50 lb bag);

• Fill a 5 gallon bucket half way full with urea;

• Top off with water and stir around, let stand overnight;

• Take the solution off the top, leaving the excess solids in the bucket; and

• Add a couple ounces of household ammonia per gallon of lure.

The brown color is just that, color.  Urea slowly breaks down to ammonia over time (hence why farmers put it on the fields to “put nitrogen in the soil”).  This would give off a urine like odor for quite a while.  I have buried solid urea under the dirt in a scrape and had deer fool around with the scrape on top.  Use the information above as you want.  I take no responsibility for legality either for hunting or as regards any present lure manufacturers.  My personal take on this (really the use of scents in general) is this:  the bucks I am hunting-mature animals-aren’t going to be fooled by scents.  In fact, in my experience, doctoring real scrapes with scents, whether “synthetic” or “real” does more harm than good AS FAR AS HUNTING MATURE BUCKS goes.  Younger deer may readily fall for it, I don’t know, and really I don’t care.  Something to think about: how many thousands of gallons of “doe in estrous” scents are sold by the big suppliers:  Wal-Mart, Cabela’s, Bass Pro etc., not to mention the smaller scent producers?  How many whitetail does would it take to generate that much pee considering they are in heat for like 32 hours maybe twice a year (assuming you can capture the urine during that time period)?  I would bet the house there are no where near enough deer in captivity in the whole country to produce that much lure.  Where does the rest come from?  I don’t want to dump real deer pee from a bottle in an area I’m hunting a big deer; I certainly don’t want to dump sheep pee there! XXXX (authors name withheld)