Can anyone give me any tips on doing this?
Thanks
Frankie

I like to pulverize the gum until it's about the consistency of coarse sand. It tinctures quicker and more fully for me.

Alcohol suggestion

I use 100 proof vodka.

Good to know. . . but what do you tincture the gum in?

I use 100 proof vodka.

One last question if you don't mind, what kind of ratio do you use asafoetida powder/100 proof vodka?

Depends on how strong you want it. Write down your experiments so when you find what you want, you can duplicate it.

I also make an asafetida tincture using diethyl phthalate.

In his bacon based bait recipe, Lazarus says one can use asafoetida (or whatever floats your boat!). I understand it’s value is to help push the odor out of the bait you put in the hole. Question: can you add too much to a bait to the point it overpowers and repels?

If asafoetida isn’t available, is garlic a good substitute? The current literature says asafoetida has a garlic like flavor.

There's something to asafetida has that garlic doesn't. Asafetida has psychoactive properties...

Asafetida is an attractant all by itself. Coyotes and skunks both like it. When you add it be careful. It tends to not smell when you first mix it in with whatever you are adding too. Takes a few days to reach its potential. That smell grows stronger. Its real easy to add too much. Thats why its important to be consistent with your tincture. So can reproduce whatever you use it in. If you buy it, buy from somebody doing the tincturing. You never know when a dealer will change suppliers.
Asafetida is a natural product of a plant. A gum or resin. So it is not exactly the same when you get a new batch. Nothing that is 100% animal or plant will be exactly the same plant to plant or animal to animal. With asafetida, when I use a new batch of tincture, I like to add in about 80% of what I was using in the last batch so I can add some gradually to get the results I want. I am aware its not scientific but I use my own nose and that works for me.

So what would be a safe starting point in a gallon of bobcat with a pint of beaver tail oil as a base?

that depends on how tainted the bobcat is, as well as how strong the BTO odor is after mixing with the bobcat

To add to thumper’s question, are we talking in terms of 1/2 an ounce, 4 ounces, or somewhere in between?

When building a formula or a loaded bait for the first time everything is trial and error. Once the base is established and prepped to your liking each ingredient is added and blended to suit your desires. It can take weeks and months to work up a formula if you are doing it for the purpose of reproducing it again to near the same odor and result. Then once you get it right the next time should be faster and easier to duplicate.

It depends on the strength of the tincture. If one pound of asafetida was used in one gallon of tincturing agent, it would be quite a bit stronger than if 1/2 pound was used. It's best to tincture the stuff yourself so you know what the strength is and you can rely on it being nearly the same every time.

In my baits, I use 2 ounces of my asafetida tincture to 8 gallons of bait.

I've got a gallon of beaver and a gallon of bobcat, that I am going to add a pint of BTO, 8 ounces of red fox urine, a couple ounces of ambrette spiked muskrat glands and and I was thinking of a tablespoon of asafoetida tincture to each gallon of meat.(3 ounces of powdered gum to 5 ounces of 100 proof vodka)