I scraped a good bit of pure castor out of some castor sacks that I had put a few holes in (decided to use them myself instead of sending them in for sale with my well handled castors).

From reading through forums/archives, I know a lot of people recommend using alcohol for tincturing.

Bought some 100 proof vodka, but now I'm wondering how much vodka per amount of castor. I want it to be strong, but I also want to stretch the castor as much as possible.

Don't forget, these aren't castor sacks, but the pure castor.

What should be my vodka to castor ratio?

About 25% castor by volume is a good starting place. There is no standard for tincturing glands. You do want to do the same thing everytime so that when you get something that works you can duplicate it.

Ok. I would have expected it to be much lower. More like 5% castor by volume.

I guess I could start at a higher concentration like you're saying, and then add more vodka later should I decide it's too concentrated.

My plan is to use some of it for additive in lures, but I'm also looking for a squirt-able castor scent I can use on castor mounds in the future. Looking to see the difference between that and my ground castor.

I'll definitely keep notes on exact amounts so I can reproduce results easily.

Mine is about 30%. I put three inches of ground castor in a gallon pickle jar and fill with 100 proof vodka. I put a thick sheet of plastic between the lid and jar to prevent the pickle smell in the lid seal from contaminating the tinctured beaver castor.

Huh, neat trick on placing the plastic between lid and jar. I've always thought it a waste to get rid of those big pickle jars, they would be perfect for so many lure making endeavors, but couldn't come up with a way to get the pickle smell out of the lids.

Get a supply of jars then buy 50 new lids problem solved.

That is a nice trick with the plastic. I just leave mine out, exposed to the air, until I can't smell it any longer. Takes quite a while, but I just lay em out and forget about them.

Ok, so that's one recommendation of 25% and one of 30%. Sounds like there's a consensus.

I mix baking soda solution and fill lids for a week or so to kill odors.

Only two days and it's really breaking down that castor and picking up color.

Gonna revive this thread real quick....

The castor is tincturing really well. I honestly think it may be as good as it gets already.

Like I said, I was hoping to make a squirt-able castor scent to use a castor mounds from some of this.

I figured I would just put some of this and some distilled water together in a squirt bottle. I also thought maybe I could add some glycerin to thicken it up a bit and give it more staying power, especially since I would probably be using it mostly during spring season.

No big revelations or tough to answer questions here, but maybe someone has an idea or piece of wisdom I simply hadn't considered. What are y'all's thoughts on how to mix this up?

I’ve got a couple of questions if you fellas don’t mind , are you venting your jars to let the alcohol evaporate. If your not venting would a guy be better off laying a bottle or jar on its side ?

Not venting and I have a good seal on the lid. No need to lay jar on it's side.

I use a couple gallon pickle jars with a thick sheet of plastic sheeting between the lids and jars.

The alcohol (ethanol) is the tincture. It takes on the castor odor. When you use the alcohol castor tincture it blends easier into some stuff than just plain castor. It also provides some "lift" to the odors. An advantage in cold weather.

Dont be afraid to use just castor. Often a tincture is not an advantage. Your going to have to experiment some on your own.

Adding powdered castor vs. paste to a formula or any tinctured product, as a general rule, the smaller the particle form and/or fluid nature of the product typically allows for a more even and better product distribution throughout a formula. Frequent stirring/shaking of a batch gives the best blending of the ingredients as is desired for a good end result.

Thanks guys !

what did you do with the castor sack? you mentioned taking out the liquid castorium. dry the empty sack and tincture that too, should give you another 4 oz or so to experiment with,

Trappergreen.

Yeah, I figured I'd just dry and grind the leftover sacks and see if they would still be strong enough for use as a pasty lure. Thought it might be great to be able to create a good tincture and make a decent paste at the same time (can use each in different situations/different recipes).

And honestly, I can't really tell any difference between full castor sacks I've ground in the past and these "empty" sacks. I kind of feel like once you hit a certain proportional threshold of castor, more doesn't really add anything. Of course, I didn't scrape them entirely clean, but I feel like I've really been able to stretch these castors a lot more than I normally could. I've got a good few ounces of both strong castor tincture and a nice castor paste lure. But, you're right, I could have just dried the sacks and tinctured them too and could get even more of that.