Trapping

[spiderman]

hey searcin for those who trap, maybe answer some questions a simple little Who traps, Where do you trap, any advice to the new trapees.

 

[miss_thenorth]

I don't trap, but kno alot of ppl up north who do. hen we lived up north, e had a guy trap beaver on our river. he would set his traps where it as obvious the beaver came up on land.

We also noticed other traps for other animals on our land, but we discouraged those. Beaver caused alot of damage, so we didn't mind them being trappped,but personally I liked the thought of having lynx, fox, etc on our land.

 

[FarmerChick]

not into trapping
only things we trap is skunks, coons, etc. near the chickens. ugh. pain.
then we "take care of them"

 

[roosmom]

Spiderman, Hubby traps.......Mink, Muskrat, Beaver.....Trying to get a coyote or fox...would love to get a bobcat. He uses different size conibears and some leg hold traps.
He just built a trap for coyote..He was looking on the net for different ways to trap them, saw a "set" and decided he could build that. With a little welding he built what amounts to a tube with a trap on one end. You put the tube into the ground (like a hole), spread scent around down the hole. Coyote digs to get to the bottome of the hole and WALA......trap is sprung.
He uses floating sets for muskrat. The floats are make of cedar saplings. He cuts them to make a V , he then sets bait above and below the V. The trap is on the platform that is on top of the V. The food is behind the trap, Usually an apple.
Rubber boots and gloves should be worn to mask your scent. HMMM, I cant think of anything else right now. Hope this helps.....Maybe you knew this already

 

[John Porter]

Trapper here. Been trapping for over 30 years. I don't subscribe to the old wives tales of fox and coyotes being smart. No animal is smarter then man, they know only one thing--survival. Scent, use to believe you had to be scent free but after catching thousands of k-9s with bare hands on traps, I threw that idea out the window. If anyone wants to talk trapping--I am game.
John

 

[jacktheknife]

A Dead Cow


Gentlemen,

4-5 years ago I was running out my line at the first of the season,
and found a 'dead cow' right N. E of my N. E. set.
A great big one and fresh!
I was interested and kept tabs on the old cow.
I would be working out in my knife shop at night,
and when I would hear 'a big howling'
it was as often as not right there at the dead cow.
Every day out on the trapline I would check out the cow,
just walk past, and look...

I never saw a cow ate up so fast!
In three days the head was ate!
In three weeks he was gone, bones left to chew on in the hard winter,
but that was all.

Yup Coyote love a big bait!
Bait pile, dead hog, cow, goat you name it!
A big dead bait is the:
'Party place of the winter'
for old Yote.
Blind trail sets! trap or snare!
for half a mile around the 'bait site'.
Coyote will come,


Luck
J. Winters Von Knife
http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/

 

[jacktheknife]

Putting up ones fur



Gentlemen,

I never knew how to flesh fur till last year.
It was J.C. from 'Swamp Talk Forum' who 'taught me how'
http://www.swamptalkforum.com/
and that was confirmed by the old retired fur buyer Al Barton
down in Maypearl Texas.

It is so simple.
Hides are best fleshed when skinned.
{Or as soooon as possible after!}
I never knew that.
In fact, the guy who got me into trapping in 1959,
old Randy Gibson, still maintains fur has to be dried before being fleshed.
Even though Randy never fleshed a coon in his life.

In school we would hang furs unfleshed on our bedroom walls
till the hair all fell out,
and that was the best we could do.
We never knew where to sell fur.

Then when my hounds were all alive
and before I got disabled I would sell to the country fur buyer.
It felt good to be able to sell the fur to someone who could make it useful,
ie. flesh it and send it to the Hudson Bay co.
and see to it that it wasn't wasted as fur is beautiful.
I could spend my yearly profits at the beer store on the way home
but at least the fur wasn't wasted.

I have fur I tanned 25 years ago and it is beautiful.
But the work involved was monumental.
I am talking fleshing Coyotes after the season is over
and hopefully before it gets too hot.
Talk about a lot of work.

Then I get murdered and everything changed.
I wake up in the hospital after a coma of 5 weeks
and realize what is important in life
and that is being out on the trail with my hounds
and on the trap line alone again.

I had a vision from God and I ain't kidding.
I heard God say "Jack, you are pretty bad,
yes, you are pretty bad...
but you are not quite dead, so you are going back to the world."
"But first there is somebody here you might want to see.
They want to see you real bad and their right here..."
{It was my old hound Cotton Joe who had been poisoned
by the same white trash who killed me.}
Joe said telepathically:
I can't believe you are still grieving for us after all these years.
{12 years}
When we died we really suffered, me most of all
but we're alright now, I've been 3-4 dogs since then.
You are the only one still suffering and it hurts me.
You are missing your life!
We would all be there with you if we could but we can't!
Get you some hounds and go hunting!
And I woke up in Baylor hospital.

The fur buyer retired and all of a sudden
I have all this time on my hands,
like the garden, the poultry, the knife shop,
the former pantry brewery...
I will learn to handle my own fur!

Putting up my own fur is another thing I can do which ...
its not the profit...
I can find another fur buyer...
Its not spending everything on overhead, gas and taxes.
It's efficiency in life style.
Another part of living on my land
and making the best use of what I have.
To be able to make something out of nothing.
It's about not wasting anything.
About being ones own boss.

I remember seeing 500 coon on wire stretchers
each hide side as white as snow,
down at the fur buyers 25 years ago.
I just stood there and looked at them.
It was a beautiful and an inspiring sight.
I guess it was inspiring as I would rather put up my own fur
for less money than 'sack groceries at the grocery store' for more.
I consider sacking groceries to be 'low paying humiliating work'.
Whereas fleshing coon is not.

That's what it is about.
Doing a good job and finishing my own fur.
People don't do that anymore.
People have 'jobs',
which, after being self employed for 33 years,
any 'job' working for somebody else,
seems low paying and humiliating.
I always worked for myself and I'll work for myself now,
hell with a job.
I used to drive 30,000 miles a year and now drive 2,000.
That makes fleshing coon look good.
Stay home and flesh coon
or sit in traffic all day?

I don't make much off the coon or do I?
I sat in my truck all day and thought I was making money
but gas, restaurant food, truck repairs and advertising got most of the money.
After working all year and paying off all my costs...
I was breaking even,
nothing left.
I can break even now very well
at home here on my land
doing what I love to do.
In fact I am doing it now.

Fleshing and putting up my own fur is important to me.
An important and 'missing part' of my life.
Last year I tanned 3 coon but I waited just a few weeks before fleshing and I understand now!
The fur buyer said when I asked him when to flesh coon and he looked right at me and said:
As sooooon as possible!


J. Winters von Knife
and Sandymay
and Archdukedog von Knife too

http://jacksknifeshop.blogspot.com/

 

[jacktheknife]

Trapped!


Randy and I were getting to where we had out grown
the little patch of wood around our houses
and were wanting to spread out to some new territory.
It was about 1959-60, we had my dad take us to Cedar hill
which back then was uninhabited.
There were no houses and miles of wooded and steep hills.
Lake Joe Pool was built and when I take my old boat out to the lake,
I go right by this old place where we used to get dropped off,
right where one turns left to go to the boat ramp.
I caught my first fox there and it was to us,
a wild and unbroken wilderness!

One Saturday Randy and I were headed out to check our traps,
hunt, and extend our trap lines.
We walked way back from the road along a fence line
that crossed ridge after ridge.
It went forever and I never did know how far it went,
miles!
We had traps set all along this old fence line and did the usual
although I dont remember much about this particular day
till we got to one brush pile.
It was a big pile of old trees and brush,
I climbed into the center of it and started clearing out a place
to set a trap. The weather was cold!
There was snow on the ground and it had been there for days.
It was not so cold if we kept our hands in our pockets
and kept walking.
I cleared out a place for a big #4 long spring I had
as this was a place where I imagined I could catch something big!
And as it turned out I did!
I wired the trap to a limb,
smeared mud all over the chain and limb,
and was setting the trap
when it backed up and closed on my thumbs!
It did not hurt because it did not snap,
as I was opening it the old trap,
which was a little big for me to be using at eleven years old,
just would not open 100%.
I was not quite strong enough to open it all the way.
It backed up and closed on my two thumbs.
I was not alarmed as Randy was there and came over to try
and get it off of me. However Randy was not heavy enough
or strong enough to open the muddy old #4.
We tried this and that,
I had both thumbs in it and I was basically helpless.
We couldnt find the wire to unwire it from the old dead limb
that I had it wired to, as I had covered with mud and it was invisible!
There wasnt much room to work either.
I was in the middle of a big brush pile,
and I was caught!

We kept trying everything we could think of and we began
to see it was useless!
Randy was not heavy enough to depress the springs,
and I couldnt break it over as my thumbs were in it
and was wired into a big log in the bottom of the giant brush pile!
And we couldnt find the wire that held the trap in there
because I had hidden it so good and covered with mud.
We tried and tried,
and the harder we tried the muddier our hands got,
and now it was beginning to really snow.
It was cold now that I was not walking
or being able to keep my hands in my pockets,
my hands were getting numb and I saw Randy
with his hands in his pockets and this worried look,
and he was cold too!
I panicked!
And began to fight the trap!
And pull like a coyote or a coon would!
I was not thinking, I just wanted out!
and I couldnt get out!
I saw no way to do it!
I couldnt wait till Randy went back to where my dad was due
to pick us up later in the day as it was getting cold
and we were miles from the road!
I started flopping around just like I was
well I was
a trapped and caught critter!
I was looking just like it,
thrashing around,
yelling and that was doing no good.
I was not being reasonable I was scared
and just thrashing around in my death throws.
We eventually got me out I know!
Because I am home writing this 42 years later!
But honestly I dont remember how we did it.
Boys never wire your trap solid till it is set and ready.
Or at least carry a pair of pliers,
or wire cutters to cut your trap wire if your trap gets you!
Sure would have been a long night if old Randy
had not gotten me out.
The big old #4 long spring had me,
and it is a good trap,
I can attest to that!


J. Winters von Knife
and Sandymay
and Archdukedog von Knife too

http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/