Looking to make my castor lure louder. Anyone know if a ingredient that can be added to enhance the castor?

What is youre intended use for it? Beaver, Cats, canine ect.?

Castor is quite bold and distinctive in odor by itself. It is the amount that is used that will determine the dominant odor. Don't get lost in your human perception of a materials odor strength to you.

The moisture content in a product whether lure or bait is an important factor in odor release and strength of the product. Wet castor is much more robust than dry castor. Smell the two types of castor side by side. Then get away from the odor area for a while then come back in and re analyze the two types once again. The two castor types wet and dry will have a different odor representation that is distinguishing as well.

Many I believe don't truly understand an animal's ability to smell things, even with what we would consider a negligible smell to our human sense of smell. Just thought I would share that fact with you and others following this topic.

This winter, I was on my way to sell a few dried castors to a customer, for tincture. I was walking past a pen with two tame foxes near our local Young Naturalists club. There's a school nearby so these foxes are spoilt with attention and treats and usually just ignore people who come to see them, even if they bring food, and are mostly active late in the evening. They were downwind from me, and when I was maybe 10 meters away, they jumped out of their box and started sniffing air, and when I approached them, they became extremely agitated, looking for the source of smell, yapped, whined and even fought each other. I took out a pair of castors and they just started running in circles and climbing the pen wall, following my hand, like two crazy squirrels. They kept doing it for maybe 10 minutes, without any loss of interest, and then I left

Again, it was dried castors in a ziploc bag in my backpack, and maybe -20 C outside, so not the optimal conditions for smell dispersal.

I've never seen dogs react to castor with the same interest.

Maybe thats why Beaver ponds are great places to catch predators!!?

That is why some of us call castor " Heavens Scent. "

The real tonka bean extract worked really well with castor. It’s not available any more but I have a partial pint bottle for personal use.

Make a strong t- bean tincture ratio and you will have a good element to work with.

Many years ago, Charles Dobbins had a book on lure making. He said a beaver castor tincture put on the side of a fox pen caused the fox to rub themselves raw trying to get it on their fur

Are you saying he wrote a lure making book, or he read a lure making book? Because to the best of my knowledge, he didn't write a lure making book.

I believe he is talking about your dad's book on Evaluation of Lure, Baits and Urine. I believe I read it in that book.

Im still wonderin if the original post fella ever looked at this post? Im still wonderin what critter he was formulating for.

Either way there’s some good info here… I do feel incomplete when these people dive in for advice and disappear without an update. If he does come back, I’ve heard 2 TBSP of French’s yellow mustard will strongly enhance castor. Only catch is it has to come from the factory in a glass jar, if it’s stored in plastic it’s negated

Dave Edwards said that soaking the dried castor in red wine would enhance the odor of the castor. When I supplied him with castor, I always soaked it for about 6 weeks before grinding it. I couldn't tell the difference, but he said he could.

With low castor prices this year I'll be making some experimental lures.
I'd like to try this one in particular. What type of red wine are we talking about? Thank you

Cheapest burgandy you can find.

Three buck chuck

I bet some Mad Dog 20/20 would snag all the juveniles!

Paul, was 6 weeks enough time to get a tincture on the red wine? Any use for it?

I just kept it for the next batch of castor. i still have it out in the shed.