Supposedly, a long, long time ago, an ancient hunter invented what he believed would be a great innovation in the pursuit of game.

He tied a rock to a string so that when he was in a tree hunting game on the ground, he could pull it back up for repeated attempts to hit an animal on the ground.

The weapon never really caught on but was eventually modified and became a child’s toy, better known as the yo-yo.

In modern day Chilton County, Odis Sherrill and his brother Bobby are hoping they can take what was once considered a child’s toy and turn it into a hunting product. They hope they have invented a product to revolutionize how deer hunters use scents.

“It’s called a Deer Egg,” said Odis. “It’s a new scent dispenser.”

The Deer Egg looks just like the plastic Easter eggs that parents have hidden in yards for years but could mean big business for the Sherrills, who live in Union Grove, as well as the hunters who use it if it catches on.

Odis Sherrill said the idea for the product came from years of trying to make hunting supplies last as long as possible.

“We used to do it as teenagers,” he said. “We never had much money, and we were trying to make it stretch out as much as we could. We found a way to come up with a 300-foot scent trail out of a 2-ounce bottle.”

The way the Deer Egg works is relatively simple: Pop off the top half of the egg and pour in the deer scent of your choice. Shake the egg well, pull the string from the top of the egg, and tie it to a nearby bush. The string will be drawn from the egg for up to 300 feet, where a hunter can place the Deer Egg nearby.

Sherrill looks at the invention with a slight sense of humor.

“It’s so simple; it’s hard to believe no one’s done it before,” he said with a chuckle. “I’d like to think that maybe the Good Lord [led us to it].”

Sherrill said he planned to take the Deer Egg to the upcoming Birmingham Deer and Turkey Expo July 16 in hopes that it could catch on.

“I’ve got over 1,500 eggs,” he said. “We’ll try the Deer Expo as an experiment. There’s a good market in scents. At the Expo, the Deer Eggs will be $10 with a ball of string, and string refills will be $4. We’ll even have a few T-shirts.”

Sherrill also said that if the eggs can catch on, he and his brother hope to open a company and open up some new jobs in Chilton County.

“I’ll have six ball-whirling machines for string,” he said. “I’m hoping to have four to five jobs because of it.”

For more information on the Deer Egg, contact Sherrill at 205-389-1324.