A certain percentage of trappers, after getting their feet under them and finding success catching furbearers, inevitably try their hand at making their own lures. I’ve done this myself, and like to compare it to fly tying. There’s just something about catching an animal with a lure you’ve formulated yourself. There is a great divergence of opinions when it comes to lure making. Some believe that amateurs have no place in lure making, and the art is an exclusive one, to be reserved for those with decades of experience or inside knowledge about all of the intricacies of compounding lures. Others believe there are no real secrets, just combinations of different ingredients, some which work and others which don’t. To further complicate things, the mystique around secret formulations and superior inside knowledge of lures is a huge driver of sales. It’s human nature to want to buy magic in a bottle. My philosophy on lure making is that it isn’t nearly as complicated as it’s made out to be, and the big secrets are often more black magic than science and chemistry. While it’s often seen as dangerous in the industry to share lure making information, Walter Arnold didn’t seem to mind doing so, at least not when he wrote this article. Here’s an introduction to several lure making ingredients with some simple, effective formulas you can try your hand at.
The How and Why of Lures
First published in Hunter-Trader-Trapper October 1938
Walter Arnold
A great variety of musks, herbs, oils and similar items are used with success in compounding of animal scents. It is my opinion that our domestic musks are superior to the imported, and the majority of professional trappers choose beaver castor, mink and muskrat musk, fox and coyote matrix glands, fish oil and other native ingredients in preference to imported essentials. However, there is one exception, tonquin musk, which is known under more aliases than a public enemy number one.
Tonquin musk is taken from the Asiatic male musk deer, Moschus Moschiferus, and is usually imported in the original pods, which in shape and size are not much unlike half a large walnut shell. It is in China where the most valuable tonquin musk originates, being known also as Chinese and Tibetan. An inferior grade comes from India and is sold as Nepal or Assam. Central and northern Asia sends us the lowest grades, known to the trade as Russian, Siberian and Karbardin. All of the above named are taken from the same species of deer, the name denoting the grade and section of the continent from which it originates.
Toko musk is simply another name for tonquin, and one of the largest importers informs me the same is true of musk-ox. Tonquin musk and tonka beans have no connection, the latter being sweet scented beans, which I believe are used a great deal in the making of imitation of vanilla.
Canton musk is a synthetic musk and I believe it contains no tonquin, though I am not sure about this. It is quite popular with coyote and fox trappers.
The genuine tonquin salve musk is very expensive, often priced as high as $25-30 per ounce. Consequently, trappers use the tincture or ground pods, which if properly made and handled have all the calling power required to attract our domestic furbearers. The tincture is used where a liquid base is desired in thinning out other items of heavy body. The ground pods are used where there is already plenty of liquid.
Tonquin is used for coyote, fox, coon, mink, bear, fisher and other furbearers. It is especially effective for fox, coyote and bear.
One of the most popular scent bases is fish oil. What is known as fish oil commercially and what the majority of trappers call fish oil are two different items. The genuine oil, which there is but little of in a gallon of rotted trout or other fish, is a heavy oil that loses the real fish odor quite readily. Furthermore, it has a tendency to deaden or kill the odor of other ingredients mixed with it. The juice of rotted fish, when thoroughly cleaned and strained, resembles water in appearance, but will stand below zero weather without congealing, and retain its natural fish odor for a long time. It may not look as pretty as the heavy oil, but nearly all professional trappers who know the difference prefer it.
There are hundreds of scent formulas in circulation which call for beaver castor as “one whole castor” or “a pair of castors”. This is very misleading, as only the original compounder would know the exact size of castors to use. Beaver castors as collected weigh anywhere from a half an ounce to three fourths of a pound per set. Although the odor of castor is not strong, it is lasting and penetrating, and too much will kill out the desirable odors of other ingredients. Unless one wishes a predominating beaver castor odor, it is wise to use this article sparingly. It is often referred to as the lure supreme for fox, coyote, bear, fisher and wildcat, and is used with marked success for nearly all other American fur-bearing animals.
Muskrat musk will attract practically all species of our furbearers. It is popular with all scent makers and omitted from but few formulas. When in ground form it mixes readily with other items and is often used clear as a lure, with excellent results.
Mink musk is used extensively in mink scents, and a few trappers have already learned its attractive qualities for various other animals. It is surprising, the different animals that will come to a lure predominating in mink musk.
Some trappers prefer a thin liquid lure, while others choose one with a heavy base. As a rule, the latter will hold its odor longer, thus requiring less attention at the sets.
By using the proper ingredients, a lure can be compounded that will attract a great variety of furbearers. Needless to say, the trapper who uses his fox scent for mink and other animals should be very careful and not do so at crudely constructed sets. A lure that will take fox, coyote, mink, fisher, coon and others is compounded as follows:
1.5 oz ground muskrat musk
0.5 oz ground beaver castor
0.5 oz ground mink musk
1 oz fish juice oil
The same formula is a nice one for fox when tincture of tonquin is substituted for the fish oil.
A formula for raccoon is:
1.5 oz ground muskrat musk
0.5 oz ground mink musk
0.25 oz ground tonquin pods
2 oz strained honey
3 drops oil of anise
A natural simple, yet effective lure for mink is made by mixing one ounce by measure, not weight, of pulverized catnip leaves with one ounce of ground mink musk. Mix well in two ounces of musked alcohol.
Wild cats are finicky about lures, and all cats are not attracted by the same odors. The following formula will often do the trick where others fail:
1.5 oz ground beaver castor
1 oz ground muskrat musk
1 oz fish juice oil
These are mixed together. Now have a bottle of ground wildcat musk sacs in wildcat urine and place a few drops of this at the set several inches from the mixed lure.
A new formula for fox which did very nice work at land sets last season is prepared in this manner:
1 oz fox urine
2 oz fish juice oil
1 oz tincture of tonquin
This is not to be used sparingly, and it does no harm to sprinkle a little pure fox urine over the covered trap where this lure is used.
In closing I wish to mention one more lure item, pure skunk musk. I have found this very effective at sets where it was necessary to call foxes or wildcats from long distance. I find that wolfers use it for the same purpose. The sets are made in the usual manner and regular lures are used. Then, four feet or more above the set, in the branches of a tree, on a post, or rock, place three or four drops of pure skunk musk. While fresh and under favorable conditions, this can reach out and attract the attention of passing furbearers a mile away.