In my travels and business ventures recently I have come across about 50-70 gallons of lure in barrels sealed up for a few years. The maker is no longer with us and the recipe is unknown minus a few ingredients he always spoke of. I am looking to try and do something with this lure business wise.

What are some things that you all might suggest to be considered when dealing with someone elses product and process you really are not aware of minus a few ingredients?

In today’s fur market it will take some to sell unless you can publicly use the name of the original maker?

Id start with testing it and sending some to as many good trappers you can for testing. It would seem to me if its not something special you would be fighting an up hill battle. If you already have a lure and bait company established it wouldn't be such a struggle getting it going.

Poke a hole in the ground and lure it , and smear it on a log where you can see how they react to it. It may be something special.. I'd use the original name of the original creator also.

Id be intrested in who made it if you can say. And also what the known ingredients are.
Id test some of it its for coyotes

Being totally honest with your self when testing is a must because nobody wants to throw out something they gave good money for.
It might be magic in a bottle although
Hope it works out for ya

Sounds like it STILL needs a few ingredients.

Do you have permission from his family to use his name and profit from it?.........with or without compensating them?

Use 1 oz samples and start adding what you think/suspect HE would put in.....IF you have a bottle of his finished product from the past.

Look in the 15 page Lure Formula book RiversNorth posted back in the day for similar formulas for ideas IF you already know MOST of the ingredients.

Also, make tests with a trail cam as it is.

The monetary deal with the family is not squared away yet. I am not really at liberty to divulge too much about that. I am putting together multiple proposals to be presented to them rather soon.

From the information we know the barrels we are looking at are finished and not missing anything. They are dated and marked complete. That is literally all we know though.

In the back of my head I always hear folks say that lure only gets better as it ages if it is secured fairly well. My concern is that a bad one ounce or four ounce jar of lure isnt really a large deal but a whole barrel bad would be pretty detrimental lol. Nervousness i suppose a bit.

Since I have posted this I have found a few folks that have the lure on hand from the person prior to death and it is still in good order and they swear by it. More information will come in the next few days to a week. Sorry for the guys asking who it is I am not giving out a bunch of information. My trust levels in humanity are waining a bit right now lol.

Caution is the best policy when money is involved. I wouldn't say a thing either until the deal is complete. I dont totally buy into lure only getting better with time thing. Odors change over time and most seem to get weaker. If a lure is designed one step at time and tested along the way until the final reaction is achieved how can it still have the same results after several years and some odors have faded. Maybe it gets better maybe it gets less effective. Without good testing it's just a theory based off what we think and want to happen. If mellowing over time make it better maybe too much of certain ingredients were used at the beginning.

Keep the info close to vest. Good policy. Most people including trappers can be trusted but it only takes one.

Dude, what you are saying is, "I got this deal on a really great car......but it is missing a few parts". With lures a few parts are the engine and the transmission, and a lure like that won't get you going anywhere. Missing something like tonquin is just a few drops and it goes a long ways, but there is a big difference between a good lure and a great lure in formulating the ingredients in the correct ratio.

As you are in this to make money, it means you will be taking people's money who expect something from you, that this lure will work. If it does not, then everyone is going to remember you, and in this community, the internet is forever and so is a bad reputation.

What it sounds like is the maker, aged his base, then opened it up for the exotics to be added. In other words, aging cut the ripe off which would make animals roll in it, and would adversely affect the additives. So you have 50 gallons of base, which appears to be more of a bait attractant than a lure. A lure is predominantly the target animal parts, while a bait is eggs, meat or oils, into which glands and exotics are added to make it into a quasi lure.
Until you stick your nose into that muck and smell it, know if it is a sludge or a slurry consistency, you will not have any idea of it's potential or being weak as water. 50 gallons of coyote parts is worth something. 50 gallons of beaver or bobcat is worth less.
You can answer your own question in the end, in placing yourself in the consumer end. Paul Dobbins lures are worth something. 50 gallons of Paul Dobbins mystery meat is interesting, but it is not a lure. 50 gallons of Paul Dobbins mystery meat with someone named Dude dumping in ingredients, is that something you would chance your money on?

My understanding from reading this is that the lure is finished/ complete/ final product. What he's is saying is missing is the recipe. He said the maker had spoken about a few ingredients in it but not all. So what he has is 50 to 70 gallons of finished lure put no recipe to reproduce it.

Which may be worth quite a bit, but it is a one-off. Meaning you won't be able to make a business out of buying one lot of lure, because you can't continue to produce it. Doesn't mean it is a bad deal, but keep in mind that it isn't going to be a business for you unless you can long term continue to produce lures that work.

Like Yes sir stated above it is said to be complete and finished. The recipe is unknown minus a few of the ingredients that i have talked with folks and they said they supplied certain things to him for it. I am not really concerned with being able to reproduce it honestly. that is of course unless coyotes get bus tickets to ride up here and check it out lol. In the banter i have gotten quite a bit of information though from guys. Like make sure you test it out.

There are a few things that concern me about the deal or any deal like this for that matter. When dealing with family instead of the source you have to take information you get with a grain of salt and anything you dive into has an extra degree of risk involved. Secondly i really do want to use the likeness of the creator and the name. My name as a lure maker is not going to get me far as i dont make commercially sold lure of my own. I also dont want to claim to do or be something i am not. Without the name and attachment I am basically trying to sell a lure with nothing behind it but a start. Guys in the business spend decades perfecting their products before releasing them sometimes and i dont want to in fringe on that either. From a business standpoint it is something if done right can make me some money. But I am not interested in any false notariety for it either. It is a right place and right time deal. Honor the trapper and the family and get it out there is what i am trying to do with it.

You can always have a lab do some testing to get the baseline components. You may find that there is stearic acid instead of Trout belly fat but atleast you’ll have a formula to investigate rather than a hunch as to what was used.

It has some value. But not much without the formula or makers name. Once it is gone it is gone. I have bought pot a formulator before with his lure, but could not replicate it without the whole recipe.

Yep and depending to how old the recipes are ingredients are hard to come by or not at all (of same or less quality).
I got some ingredients that are 40+ years old , and sure dont compare to most of what we can buy today.
Don't get me wrong good stuff is still out there to be had just have to shop around for it.

Any updates? I've been waiting patiently. Lol

Update lol. The barrels were not completed versions of the lure like they were thought to be. Years old with preservatives and ingredients missing. They have moved beyond a mixed lure and were chemically seperated and not useable. It was a cool dream that never came to fruition.

does the name Pete enter into the equation