OK this is totaly about trapping, nothing else. LOL How can I tell how much taint is right. I have a real problem knowing the right time to stop the proscess. I seem to be so rapelled by the stench that I can not prosces the finer orders that come when a meat has met that perferct rot. Any idea's. I am open to anything. Any ideas

I'm certainly no expert on this, but I've always been of the opinion that for baiting purposes, the least amount of taint posible is best. When I'm making meat baits, I stop the process as soon as I begin to get a whiff of spoilage. The critter's nose is much better than mine, and I figiure if I can smell it at all, he can smell it extremely well. It's been my experience that predators like fresh meat better than spoiled, the same as we do. The only reason for tainting a bait, IMO, is because it gives it much more odor and lets the target animals find it easier.

If you're using meat as a calll type ingredient, though, more spoilage is probably a good idea. But then you get into the rolling problems associated with canines working carrion.

Man, it was hard to play this one straight! Paula, couldn't you have called it "spoilage" or "aging" or something like that?

I think the old heads who rotted tainted in the ground / under ground knew something it preserves itself better I think not sure how to describe it I just like tainting meat underground better . it kina makes it s own gravy

Well, I uh, er...Oh Nevermind!...lol.

Its not gonna be me!

If you throw up in the bucket, you let it go a little long..

Or maybe not long enough....

Tainting isn't rocket science but the age old idea of tainting meat cubes until the are grey half way through but still pink in the center is a good rule of thumb.
I have tested tainted over fresh bait on fox, coyote and bobcat and the tainted got way extra and more intensive responses. Tainting adds another calling besides food/hunger, these three animals like to rub and roll on tainted products. Fox and coyote will work a set more intensively to get the tainted bait up and out where the can get at it to rub or roll. An animal with a full stomach having just gourged themself on a fresh kill will likely take a peek at fresh bait, perhaps mark the spot and move onward. Tainted glands also get a greater response for the same reason.
With coons I could never see any difference between fresh and taint, they go for either equally. Tainting coon baits gives it more odor so perhaps tainted could be an asset in that way.
Just my opinion based on my experiences! Asa

meat with a decent taint and then preserved does not smell like it does when tainting, what you are revolted by is the odor of decomposition of the flesh, when preserved this is no longer going on and the odor is the actual meat. The best i have used slighlty tainted was by chas dobbins method, jar it loose and set in a warm sunny window inside if you can, in two or three days it will begin to turn an odd color, kinda grey, stir it up real good at that time and in 3 or 4 days it will be about right, 2 days if its real warm after the stirring, then preserve it or preserve it and add bait solution. For a real good taint i always liked old nicks method of burying it for about 6 months in a shallow trench covered with sheets of old plywood or a stock tank, there will be alot of liguid in that batch and can be used for liguid bait, both can be preserved and enhanced after being dug up. Last is rotted down and that was always my prefferred bait for coon and coyote, there are 50 ways od doing it and everyone will claim the right way, but the one i prefferred was to put in the full sun on a steel flat sheet like a cattle feeder in glass jars from about the ist of may until the ist of october, ground up ist worked the best, the consistency was like a slushy, or at times like canned cat food, preserve it and enhance it with bait solution or glands of your choice and it made a super fine bait, i always liked to mix it about 50 50 after the solution was added with cheap fresh pressed fishoil. A table spoon in the bottom of a dirthole or pasted on the side of a tree gave pretty decent results.

hehe, taint

LMAO!! if you do throw up in it, do you have to add more Sodium Benzoate to compensate for the added volume?

That was always the response I got with too heavily tainted baits, but in my experience most of them came in rolling and I'd get guard hairs from the shoulder or back in my trap. I didn't want "intensive" reactions, if that means rolling, But maybe I was just using too much bait?

With all due respect Jim I have very and I mean very seldom ever had a canine or bobcat roll on a set, it happens once a year or so. Of course anything tainted must be down a hole or concealed in some way that would require them to get it out in the open to even think about rolling on it.
I agree that your experiences could have been the result of using too much stink as my experiences are using a 1" cube of bait or a small gob of lure with a tainted base. I have seen many a trapper using large amounts of rotten fish and such and I expect just the excessive aroma in the air might likely elicit them to roll even with the rotten bait concealed. Asa

Thanks guys. I am one of those people that has an increadible since of smell. Once smelled a yote 1/2 mile away on a trap line with my husband. Just ask him. It sound like a proscess that I am going to have to go trough many times to get right. I have smelled some stuff that is just right. I mean it goes from having "OMG where is my bucket" to almost a slight bit of sweet on the end of OMG. I know that the last one is the best one as I have seen the proof in the pudding, but I just have a hard time getting that. Age our stuff in gallon jars in a cool basement and use a latex/nit glove over the opening. When the gas builds up the glove will expand then at night you can release the gas. That is my husband can release the gas. I think mainly I am not patient enough. I need to train my sense of smell better. I am not going to throw up in the bucket either. I once had my hands inside of mans abdomen to keep his guts falling out while I stood in his blood. A little taint aint going to kill me. Should I cube my meat or grind. Right now I grind, but the cube might be better to tell when its ready. Thanks

I wouldn't want to be the "gas releaser" person in your basement. That has to stink up the whole house!!

[/quote]

I have very and I mean very seldom ever had a canine or bobcat roll on a set, it happens once a year or so. Of course anything tainted must be down a hole or concealed in some way that would require them to get it out in the open to even think about rolling on it.
[/quote]

I don't doubt you a bit, Asa. Maybe it's a North/South thing, or more likely, I was using too much smell. It happened more with loud call-type lures than it did with tainted bait, now that I think if it - stuff like Gusto and Canine Call, with a heavy skunk base.

I am new to this game, but have been cutting the meat from the carcase (bobcats)letting it sit for 3 days, grinding and adding the goodies....I really like the fresher baits and the cats seem not to mind them either. I like ground meat for ease of placing where I want it. Tom

" This just taint right."

"Tender" but not rotten is the perfect taint.

Watch how long a road kill sits before it disappears.

OK what part of toss my cookies in the bucket did you not get. I can't even let the gas out and you want me to see if its tender. Why don't I shake the jar to see if it will blow off the lid then feel for the nice tender feeling just before I fill the closest 5 gal bucket with rements of my last 10 meals. OMG, please tell me you don't want me to touch that crap.......

Paula, I'd advise you to forget about bait and stick with lure...