Anybody trap anymore?

[kenny thomas]

I never trapped but we called foxes in the late 70's. I was making around $2 an hour at work so less than $20 a day. Could call in and kill 3-5 foxes a week at $30 to $40 each.

 

[chaded]

Nobody I knew did it when I was growing up so nobody to learn from. I started a couple years ago with foot holds and haven't really enjoyed it enough to do it a lot. I've caught a couple opossums, a fox, a coyote, and a couple stray dogs.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

The way I remember it I pulled really hard. I know I lost skin even though I was wearing mitts. But it seems to me I should have been able to get my feet on those stubby little springs…. Mostly I just remember feeling both stupid and a lot of pain at the same time, as well as the irony of being a few miles from home caught in my own trap nailed to a tree…..

Would have been scary as heck and I can't imagine how bad it would have hurt. There is not much spring to get your feet on with
those jump traps and with both thumbs in the trap it would have been really hard to put much weight on them.
A #4 is a pretty good sized trap. #3 Long Spring was the biggest I could set after someone showed me how to
break it over my knee. Was never comfortable setting the 330 Conibear, but could set the 280 Conibear. #2 Coil Spring
was the largest of that type I was comfortable with.
Maybe the #1 thing to instill in young trappers is "do not anchor the trap before setting".

 

[Dave]

It can happen. When I was a kid I was on my line setting a #4 jump trap with teeth. My feet slipped off those short springs just before I got the pan set. Caught both my thumbs. And I had just nailed the trap to the tree.

One time I was trapping beavers on a river using a boat to float down stream. The river had risen. I was searching around with my toe trying to find the drowned wire. I hit the trap. It clamped on to my toes. It was a #4 double long spring with teeth. So now I am standing on one foot on a slippery clay bank that drops off into about 8 feet of water.The trap attached to my toe is on a drowned line with about 30 pounds at the other end. It was an interesting few minutes. But I managed to find the stake, pull it, and inch my way up the bank. If worse had come to worse I was wearing those good old black Lacrosse hip boots. I could have quickly got my leg out of those boots.

 

[greybeard]

I never tried it but had heard that if you could use your free hand to pull one of your bootlaces out, and if you could tie a knot with one hand, you could use the bootlace to get a conibear open off your hand or wrist. Not sure how well it would work...one arm pulling against the other.



The 330 snaps shut pretty strong. I pulled a drowning line set one day from the bottom of the pond dam and threw the trap itself up on top of the dam, still set. When it hit, snapped shut and broke one of the springs. I eventually welded it back but never really trusted it afterwards.

Easiest way I found to make the drowning line was with a Gripple. It would slide down but couldn't come back up.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

I never tried it but had heard that if you could use your free hand to pull one of your bootlaces out, and if you could tie a knot with one hand, you could use the bootlace to get a conibear open off your hand or wrist. Not sure how well it would work...one arm pulling against the other.

View attachment 35327

The 330 snaps shut pretty strong. I pulled a drowning line set one day from the bottom of the pond dam and threw the trap itself up on top of the dam, still set. When it hit, snapped shut and broke one of the springs. I eventually welded it back but never really trusted it afterwards.

Easiest way I found to make the drowning line was with a Gripple. It would slide down but couldn't come back up.

I had been told a rope could be used to set Conibears, but until I saw this picture I had not known how.

 

[Dave]

I never tried it but had heard that if you could use your free hand to pull one of your bootlaces out, and if you could tie a knot with one hand, you could use the bootlace to get a conibear open off your hand or wrist. Not sure how well it would work...one arm pulling against the other.

View attachment 35327

The 330 snaps shut pretty strong. I pulled a drowning line set one day from the bottom of the pond dam and threw the trap itself up on top of the dam, still set. When it hit, snapped shut and broke one of the springs. I eventually welded it back but never really trusted it afterwards.

Easiest way I found to make the drowning line was with a Gripple. It would slide down but couldn't come back up.

A light rope with a loop on one end. Run the rope back and forth trough the ends of one spring. Put the loop on one foot and pull the end of the rope. Set the hook and repeat with the other spring. If I am trapping beavers I would have my hip boots on, not something with boot laces.

 

[snakegap1]

What does a river otter do to you to make you want to kill them in such a horrible, inhumane, despicable manner? They don't bother livestock as far as I have ever heard. I guess you haven't noticed that people have taken over all the land, streams, lakes and everything else?

They will eat every fish in your stocked ponds. They are willing to travel overland to get to them.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

More recently there have been incidents where Otter have attacked people pretty viciously. Like any other
wild animal, they can be aggressive when protecting their young. The can be territorial, and they definitely are
going to have the advantage if you are swimming or canoeing.
Would avoid swimming or engaging in other water activities if Otter are present.

Check on YouTube for Otter attacks, and you can see what they are capable of doing.

 

[tex452]

Back when my kids were little I ran a little trap line between 50-100 sets. Raccoons were my main target.
The bottom has been out of the fur market for years. I enjoyed it, but $4 coons don't pay for the gas let alone my time.
Coon hunting and trapping used to be part of winter around here. Everybody knew someone who did it.
I was getting my hunting license the other day and kinda got the itch to maybe make a few sets this fall so I went ahead and got my trappings license too.
Anybody else going to try and catch some masked bandits this fall?

When I was in high school that was the only way we could make a little money, back then we could get 25-$30 for a good one, now it's practically nothing.
I still trap coons from time to time for population control, and coyotes and bobcats for predator control, our fawn survival is very low, maybe 10% this year.

 

[tex452]

Genesis 1:25 - The Sixth Day

God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

biblehub.com

Kept telling myself that i shouldnt bait the troll but can't leave it alone.
Otters have ruined most small stream fishing, many ponds and a lot of the river here. They didnt come here naturally, Game Resources released them in TN and within weeks we had them raiding ponds. An adult otter can get as big as 35-40 lb and eat 1/4 their body wt per day. If you have a varmit destroying something you eliminate the varmit. 7 otters in 1 pond last summer. Thats a lot of fish.

Over the last several years otter populations have exploded, cleaning out pond's.

 

[SBMF 2015]

When I was in high school that was the only way we could make a little money, back then we could get 25-$30 for a good one, now it's practically nothing.
I still trap coons from time to time for population control, and coyotes and bobcats for predator control, our fawn survival is very low, maybe 10% this year.

I have friends that grew up die hard coon hunters. They would run dogs every night all winter. The last hound they bought has never been turned out. The bottom fell out of the fur market and they quit hunting.

We are just the opposite on the deer population. We're probably 180%. Most does I see grazing in my hayfields have two fawns with them.

 

[greybeard]

Deer population is crazy big here, rural, in town and out on Ft Hood. Small, but lots of em.

 

[tex452]

Deer population is crazy big here, rural, in town and out on Ft Hood. Small, but lots of em.

I use to hunt near kempner, good population out there.