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For nearly a year Jonathan Kalasinski urged the Pennsylvania Game Commission to legalize the product produced by the company he founded.
On Monday, the PGC board listened as they voted to approve a handful of electronic devices for hunting. The list includes electronic waterfowl and dove decoys, electronic devices that distribute ozone gas for scent control purposes and electronically heated scent or lure dispensers.
Kalasinski, of Clarks Summit, is particularly happy with the last item. His company, Heated Hunts, makes heated lure dispensers. The devices are battery-powered and a heating element inside a wick heats lure, such as deer urine, allowing it to dispense into the air.
Founded in 2014, Kalasinski’s company is based in Clarks Summit and has been selling its heated lure dispensers for hunters in other states to utilize. But in Pennsylvania the dispensers were prohibited for hunting purposes because they are considered an electronic device and weren’t on an approved list.
Kalasinski, 32, set out to change that in the beginning of 2017 when he spoke at a PGC board meeting and explained his product.
“I wanted to know what the process was to get it on the list,” he said. “The law says any product not on the approved list — which there were eight or 10 items — is illegal. It’s an outdated law.”
Kalasinski mentioned range finders and lighted arrow nocks as two items that weren’t on the list but had been in use by hunters for years. Range finders were approved 18 months ago, he said, and lighted arrow nocks were added last year.
“Why would these things be illegal? My product heats scent. Hunters have been using things like candles and an open butane flame to heat scent because things like this weren’t legal,” Kalasinski said. “This does it in a safer, more efficient manner.”
Kalasinski could sell his heated scent dispensers in the state but they couldn’t be used by hunters until the recent approval by the PGC board. Now that they are legal, offering the dispensers to Pennsylvania hunters opens up a large market for Kalasinski right in his own backyard.
“It means a lot. I spoke with a lot of hunters here who were waiting to see if this passed before they purchase one,” he said.
The device is comprised of parts manufactured in other states but everything is assembled in Clarks Summit by Kalasinski and two part-time employees. Most of his sales last year were direct-to-consumer, through his website or Facebook page, and now that the dispensers are legal in Pennsylvania Kalasinski will focus on getting them in stores.
The device heats the lure inside between 105 and 110 degrees, and it saturates an exposed wick. Kalasinski said the temperature replicates the body temperature of a deer and wind carries the scent.
“It’s like a candle. If you light a scented candle the aroma travels farther. With heat, the scent distribution is better, the smell is stronger and the lure isn’t going on the ground but directly into the air,” he said.
Despite the approval by the PGC board, Kalasinksi’s wait to get his device into the woods for hunting season will continue. It will take six to eight weeks for the changes to become official as it must be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin first. Game Commission spokesman Travis Lau said that likely will mean hunters won’t be able to use the Heated Hunts device until after archery season, but there is a chance the law could be published in the latter stages of the fall archery season in early November.
