Any idea's , ground or chunk -- fresh or tained. Let me know if you have used it , any help at all.

I like ground fresh preserved.... then pureed...

If you can get your hands on some QUALITY fish oil, try frying a few slices in it. Don't over cook. Then freeze. Thaw it out as you need it.

I chunk it and let it age in the back of my truck using it as I need it.

There are many ways for using liver. Hard to go wrong with it. It is very susceptible to mold however.

I like to put deer liver in a glass jug, drain off the juice that bleeds out of it and continue aging until the putrid odor turns into a mellow musky odor. Then I will add a quantity of beaver castor, some ground oil sacks that were preserved in salt and a good dose of civet musk. A dash of a mint (spearmint) OR catnip OR anise added until barely detectable makes a nice optional enhancement. This concoction gets better with aging. A good smear the size of your thumb nail is a potent application for fall trapping.

Thanks for the help, a lot of idea's

Don’t overlook cooked and then dehydrated beef liver. I’ll say no more.

I cube it up and get all the blood I can with it then add salt as a preservative and freeze proof. Put in a dirt hole with a little blood pored around mouth of hole. It works well, but I’d run it side by side with a good rebuttable paste bait. Sometimes they want fresh sometimes the paste baits seems to outperform

“Reviving” an old thread here but I like to keep my liver usage very simple. I take raw deer liver, cube it up, and freeze fresh. I will thaw jars and use a chunk as needed down a stepdown dirt hole. Absolutely deadly, even by itself. Always remember that liver has it’s own “smell” that is irresistible to most predators.

With this revived thread I need to share my 14-night experience with using cubed, raw deer liver. The one large hunt club I’ve trapped for around 15 years always gutted their deer at one location about an 1/8 mile from the club house & locker so I had all the fresh deer liver I could ever use. So after reading about how it’s suppose to be such a great canine bait I chunked up a couple of livers into about 2” sq pieces.

Since I normally make two sets at a location I decided to make one set with the deer liver for the bait but continued to use my normal call lures in the other. During those 14 nights, (14 nights is how long I normally leave sets soak before moving), I caught coyotes in my regular sets but I don’t remember ever seeing sign of a coyote coming within 10’ of the sets baited with deer liver!! I also found it nasty to use and difficult keep the liver snot from contaminating the set during application.

BTW, during the years I trapped the hunt club, I never saw sign of coyotes or cats coming to that gut dump when I was on the property trapping starting 12/1. The gut dump was tucked in along a tag alder swamp and on the edge of a large food plot, out of sight from the club house and isolated from activities there.

I've tested and worked with liver quite a bit. As a base or natural bait i find it mildly attractive in comparative testing. It positives is its pretty available and can be put up in a thick paste. And not all liver is equal and not everyone's standard of what is good is equal. One advantage to natural baits is a lot of time it's used in larger quantities and that does have advantages most of the time.

I agree with you Yes sir with the thought that the coyotes were wanting food but really, I’ve never been a true believer in food lures or baits. As with my snapshot experience with deer livers. I am a true believer in the coyotes inherent behavior for wanting to roll on stink. When I tried the liver it was still deer season and if and I say IF they were interested in “eating” deer livers there was lots available either from the club’s gutting station or in the surrounding deer woods. I gave them something that they wanted to roll on in one set and something to eat in the other and all wanted to roll I’m going to assume from watching the testing videos.

I’m not so sure that using food so that they would work a dirthole to eat would be a good choice except possibly during those few “hungry hours” during 24 hours when I believe they want to roll at any time of the 24hrs they encounter a high degree of stink!

Now if the trappers are using deer livers with the intentions of making a bait with a high stink factor like O’G’s Coyote Creek or Chad Esche’s Horse Whisperer II Plus than I would completely agree and understand.

interesting discussion!

Seldom
I agree with you. I test all my bases as is just to have a starting point and haven't found a food base that comes close to a prepared bait or finished lure. I do think in some special situations with special coyotes a simple single food bait has its uses. Generally I'm talking control work where your dealing with a especially spooky coyote.

I guess I am from a life of different experiences. Food / curiosity lures have been very productive for me over the years. They have been my work horses and my preferred lures for the large percentage of my combined sets. The rest I mix up with gland, urine and bait set ups.

I have caught fox, coyote and cat on beaver and deer livers fresh cut / and preserved just to experiment with it years ago. I find it wasn't any better then a good lure or prepared bait which is easier to handle and use.

Our bases all have had good responses in field tests in their ready to use form. Bases are the foundation and should compliment the lure and give it substance thru its life in a finished product.

Just to be clear my last post was referring to just the food base by itself no other ingredients. Most of my formulations whether it b a lure or prepared bait has a food base with other curiosity ingredients added to up the attraction. What i was saying is i haven't found a food ingredient (such as liver) by itself to have the attraction as a well formulated prepared bait with other ingredients added or a finished lure. Not saying you can't catch some coyotes with just a piece of liver or a chunk of beaver but them by themselves aren't going to have the attraction of a good prepared bait or lure. Now that is not to say some coyotes can't get wise to a prepared bait or lure with exotic ingredients in it, as they sure can, and that's were a plain junk of bait could come into play.

I still like to go by the statement I heard one time, "If your dog won't eat it, it is doubtful that a coyote will." Haha. I've found that to be true in a lot of cases...