Took it to another level tonight

Lifetime supply of bait base for me. Cut up a horse and best thing about it it wasn't one of my own.

When's the BBQ ? Lol looks like some good base there. That's about the only thing that I haven't tried for bait yet.

I made 5 gallons this year...and it'll last me 'til I tip over.

I'd darn sure try it if had been a day fresher. I've know people who will butcher one a year like we do beef.

Terrance I'd send you a bucket if you had some muskrat glands you wanted to trade. Got paid $100 to boot to haul it off.

Yes sir, if I could catch some muskrats I would. But I'm not much of a water trapper and have a hard time catching those little buggers.

You better get to buying a bunch of S. Benz and some MP to start if you are going to get to working up that bait. Or get yourself an empty chest freezer to hold it until you are ready for what you are going to do with it.

Now you will get first hand experience as to the costs of upgrading your hobby.:)

Yeah that thought crossed my mind today. I got about a gallon of each I'll have figure out how much exactly I'll need. I can get about two buckets of it in the freezer I got.

4 near full buckets of bait left you will need around 240 oz. volume of S B. That will change once you work it once.

Depends if you grind it all or chunk it up. You will then know the more real volume of meat you will end up with. That should give you the amount you need just for that part to be safe give or take.

The rest you will have to figure out .

Thanks for heads up on the amount Bob. I'll take all the help I can get. Will the volume go up or down if I grind it? I was happily surprised by the weight of each bucket when I loaded them. Remember Bob it would be terrible if you took all the wisdom you have learned about lure making to the grave with you, so if you wake up feeling like you should share more of it with me I'm all ears. Lol

You get better / faster penetration with ground meat in my experience. Chunk is more work but just doing it for your own use your labor is free.

Your final ground volume will help you determine your preservative amount. Best to er on caution and use more if you are not sure what you are doing. There is a lot of general info in this regard out there.

You will have fun with this and it will be a learning experience I am sure for you ratcheting up your bait making volume. Tell us all how it works out in the months to come.

Looks to be around 35 # or so weight in the avg bucket. Close?

Did you question whether it was doctored / self medicated by the owner prior to becoming bait .

I was guessing somewhere around 35 to 40 pounds a bucket.
I got a clean bill of health from the horses Dr. Other than being dead he was good to go.

don't forget the mp. horsemeat is real bad for molding

Will do Danny. Thank you for the heads up, I've never worked with horse meat before.

All meats need MP if they are to be stored for any period of time at room temps in bulk form.

If I was to use both SB and MP do I still use both at full rate or can i back off on the amounts? Do they overlap a little as preservatives? I also have some zinc valerate, when and how does this come into play as a preservative?

You should come out with a line of baits. Bet you would do well.

x2

There goes the neighborhood, where did my horse go. You have access to beef and other such hooved animals that may be a sweet opportunity for you Seth.

Thank you guys for the encouragement! That kind of brightens a guys day. I would say its wouldn't ever happen but I'd be embarrassed to even be referred to as a lure maker in the presence of alot of guys out there including you guys on here. I got to playing around because I thought I had access to some good stuff that I thought would be fun to play with and because I thought maybe some knowledge about it would be good to have to pass on to the next generation if need be. At this point I dont feel I have adequate skills or knowledge to put out there for the benefit of the trapping community. If I ever felt I could fill a need in the industry for quality lures and baits it might be a possibility. Right now there seems to be enough great lure makers to provide. Put I'm going to keep working at it in case. I cant say thanks enough to all you guy who share information for us guys that want to learn.

One other thing to remember...those 6 buckets will turn into 8, when they start tainting.

Zinc V. is a bit expensive to use in general for bulk bait and not easy to work with as a novice to get good distribution in a material due to the lower volume of use required. You must dissolve it very well first. It is a good product however.

You may want to play with different methods to see which your prefer best in your work. And the end resulting odor.
Z.V. will add a nice appealing aroma to a bait after aging and enhance a glandular formula odor tones very well.

I would reserve the Z. V. for gland or other more specific formulation use. I think you should stick with salts, SB and MP for most general bulk bait preservative work in your case for now. The chemistry gets interesting with some of the elements that we work with so you need to understand them to use them most effectively.