Now I am kind of famous for the chili I make, and I am pretty sure that is the only reason I was invited to hunt with the other guys.
The first year I went to the camp I made my famous chili on the night before the last day of hunting...kind of a celebration. But there really wasn’t anything to celebrate since deer hunting had been very poor that year and we had been skunked so far.
That night I made a big pot of chili and everyone enjoyed it. Now ole Sam ate more than everyone else and enjoyed it a little too much. He ended up spending the next day in the old outhouse John set off in the edge of the trees behind the cabin. Some folks seem to handle my chili better than others...Sam was an other.
However Sam spent the day right near that old john, and wouldn’t you know it, but that afternoon a huge buck walked right out of the trees and headed for the john, right at him. Sam was the only one who got a buck that year but it was a real nice one.
The next year everyone convinced me they wanted more chili and I laid in supplies to make a big batch the first night and then eat leftovers all week.
We noticed when we got to the camp that there had been some digging around the old john along with some gnawing on the wood. There were also a few large scrapes in the trees surrounding it.
I made my chili that first night and we all partook liberally of it. I must have used industrial strength spices that year since we all spent much of the next day in and around that old john in the trees.
The thing with my chili is that it is so good everyone is willing to pay the price the next day after eating it...although most of us took it a little easier on the chili that second night.
The third day dawned with a large buck standing out back of the cabin pawing the ground around the john. Trent was the first one up and since we tend to sleep in at deer camp it was after first light, so he bagged a buck off the back porch.
I think it was that morning that someone finally put two and two together and said something about how the bucks seem to be attracted to that old john.
After that it was a mad scramble to see who got to spend the day by the john. As it turned out we shouldn’t have worried since by the fourth day we had all filled our tags.
We celebrated with another pot of chili.
That next summer I got together with the guys, and we talked about how the deer seemed attracted to that john behind the cabin, and that it seemed to be the chili that was doing the trick. Someone, I don’t remember who suggested we rig up a coil and some piping on the top of that old john and see if we could collect some of this smell to see if it would work elsewhere.
So the next weekend we got some plumbing supplies, loaded them in the truck and headed to hunting camp to rig up a still-like contraption on the top of the john.
When hunting season rolled around we were excited to get up to the camp and see how our contraption had worked. We had hooked everything up to a five gallon bucket with a lid and it was about half full of smelly liquid when we checked it.
I made chili every night again and we drew straws to see who got to hunt by the john. Sam won and the rest of us divided up the smelly liquid from the bucket and took it with us to where we usually hunted.
I shot a very nice buck that day who was trotting right up wind toward me with his nose held high. I got him cleaned and dragged him back to camp. I got there about the same time as everyone else. We had all gotten our bucks that first morning.
As we sat around over chili that night we talked about how this might be something special, and we bottled up the lure we had created and took it home with us.
Later that fall one of our group went on a hunting trip to Canada and took along his bottle of deer lure. He filled all his tags in record time, and ended up selling what was left of his bottle of lure to his guide.
After he got back and told us about selling his lure while he was showing off his trophies, we decided to ramp up production of our lure, just to see if we could make some cash from it.
The rest is history. We continue to go to our hunting camp every fall, and we continue to eat my famous chili while we are there. We have all been able to retire from the commercial success of our lure.
It has become almost as famous as my chili...you have probably heard of it, it is called…
John Deer Attractor
Adapted from the Liars contest, Colorado Trappers Assoc. Rendezvous circa 1982
