Patent Application
20200029572
This invention relates to a composition and method for effectively attracting game animals while minimizing or eliminating unwanted scent contamination by a hunter.
When participating in hunting and other related activities, it is desirable to increase one's odds of achieving success by the acquisition of the targeted game. Due to the keen abilities of game animals to see, hear and smell hunters long before they are detected, the use of scent attractants as ‘lures’ to attract animals such as deer is often advantageous. Current methods for scent dispersal involve application of the scent to felt wicks, cotton strips, scent bubbler followed by placement of these scent dispensers at the target locations.
Particularly in the game animal mating season, male deer will often seek out female deer scents to track and locate a mating partner. However, the presence of human scents in the proximity of targeted deer scents can be detected by deer and may result in their flight from the human-scent contaminated area. Therefore there is a need in the art to develop a scent composition and dispersal system which accomplishes three critical objectives; a composition which permits the slow and steady release of scent, does not involve heating or chemical modification of the scent substance which could result in the scent molecules being compromised, and permits the delivery of that composition without contaminating the area where the scent is placed.
The present invention provides a scent infused microporous sphere comprised of a biodegradable polymer infused with natural or synthetic liquid scent. This can include animal urine, aqueous extracts or secretions from scent glands of a game animal, other significant scent producing compounds of natural origin, or synthetically formulated chemical compounds used to attract game animals. In a preferred embodiment, the polymer is synthesized from acrylamide monomers such as methacrylamide, bis-acrylamide or acrylamide. Careful selection of the ratio of monomers in the polymerization process creates the reptacean microporous channels into which the aqueous scent solution is absorbed and dispersed through capillary action. Once the scent molecules are absorbed, exposure to open air permits their free diffusion.
The scent-filled polymer spheres are mechanically robust enough to withstand being propelled by a variety of manual as well as automated means. Dispersal of these scent-filled polymer spheres can be accomplished by a hunter from his hunting location/position by simply throwing/lobbing the spheres in the direction the scent needs to be deployed, such as targeted shooting points, strategic open areas in the line of sight of a hunter, etc. To one who is skilled in the art, it will be obvious that the current invention allows for highly efficient scent absorption and dispersal into a mechanically robust porous sphere followed by its physical deployment into a target area without the need for a hunter to contaminate the target area with human scent. To one who is skilled in the art, it will be obvious that the present invention accomplishes all three critical objectives; various changes in form and details may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.
