Mistaken Beliefs Concerning Traps

[Mattemma]

I love trapping too. I can't wait to try snares for the squirrels and cottontails.

 

[bigoledude]

cmp19 I also will put some fur or even a feather near my "dirt hole" set. Just to make them investigate. In my DP traps I put a mixture of ground-up fish and jelly in them. Whenever you and your husband get a place, just go to my signature and pick some breeds you like. I'll send y'all some.

Matt Google-up "squirrel pole". Those suckers work! They will get a tree rat population under control quick. A squirrel will always use the pole that allows them to climb using the "lesser angle" rather than having to climb straight up vertical. Lean it against a tree or structure that they regularly climb into.

 

[7L Farm]

I use to trap a lot back when coon hides were around fifteen bucks & I could sell the meat for five bucks. I used number 4's foot traps. I had some coons that would chew their foot off & get away. I hated that but it did happen here & there. Here's the first bobcat I caught. I used sardines to catch coons & tinks doe in heat to catch bobcats. never used bait to catch bobcats only lure


& would catch them around mating season.
I could hear them screaming to locate one & another it was something most have never heard. I've never used the trap you mentioned but think I will. I don't relocate animals I trap & I do protect my livestock. I have too its all I got.

 

[Ole and Lena]

Very well said. Many trappers organizations say we should keep quiet and not engage in debate. I feel we've been silent too long.

Done properly trapping is an efficient and humane way to harvest a valuable, abundant, renewable natural resource we are blessed with in North America.

Also funny to see how many grown up city kids come around here shopping for firearm or trapping advice once they move out to rural America and have a flock of birds to protect. I'm more than happy to give it to them... so long as they don't get too into it and start snapping up my trapping spots!

As for animals chewing off the leg, this myth has 2 origins. One is poor trapping technique of not checking foothold traps often enough. The other is with muskrats. If the wire snags up and they fail to drown, they will frequently twist out of a foothold trap leaving a front foot. For that reason I've switched to almost all bodygrips in feeder hut sets after freezeup. If I have to set a foothold I set deep aiming for a hind foot catch and use thin fencing wire on rat specific sets. They will pull this down the hole and drown effectively. Their bones are very brittle and may be broken by any coilspring trap or longsprings stronger than #1 making this far more likely. Twist off is Common on solid staked bank hole sets for mink and coon with stronger traps when muskrats blunder into them. Never had a fox, coyote, mink, fisher, marten or raccoon chew off a foot or even try. I've trapped thousands.

 

[cmb19]

bigoledude, that's really amazing of you to offer me some birds, but I wouldn't ask anyone to send me anything like that. When I FINALLY move out of town, I'll probably order more birds than I'll ever need.

About the worst thing I've ever seen in a trap is the remains of a squirrel or rabbit. I would bet my life savings they aren't in a trap very long until the bears/coyotes/foxes get to them. Basically I mean I've found a rabbit foot in a trap because the rest of the animal was eaten. Circle of life, no big deal.

Have I mentioned before (I'm sure I have) that my dad catches several bears each year? They were all 100lbs or less, but all in fox or coyote sets. I know one other person that has caught a bear, have any of you caught any? I know dad has a couple different types of traps, but for the most part he uses Sleepy Creek 1 3/4 off set coilsprings...which is what he catches bears in. They are his favorite traps, he has the most luck with them.

He has a few Victor and Duke traps, but doesn't really use them.

 

[bigoledude]

I checked with every young and old trapper I knew before making that statement about animals NOT chewing their feet off. Then, I sent some PMs to several websites where I asked several very experienced trappers for their opinions on the subject. One thing every one of them stated was that an animal WILL NOT chew it's foot off if it has feeling in that foot. So, blood flow being cut off to the foot, by a trap, is caused by several factors.

The most common causes were; If you use a trap larger than a #2 that is not "offset", it may squeeze the animal's foot so hard that the blood flow is cut off, it loses feeling, and will allow the animal to chew it's foot off without feeling it.

They also talked about "tuning" or "adjusting" a trap correctly. I don't know what that means. Sorry.

The colder the weather, the quicker an animal will lose feeling in an extremity that is caught in a trap. Checking your trap every day should help greatly in that regard.

7L Farm I have not trapped nearly as much as you have. My knowledge of trapping is far inferior to yours. My total numbers of trapped predators will never approach the numbers you have compiled. Your participation in this thread is very much appreciated and welcomed. I am trying to portray trapping in a different light than most people might consider. Thanks for your input.

Just like differing opinions on incubation humidity, poultry nutrition, feeder and waterer types, do your research and come up with a game plan that will keep your stock safe from those predators that kill them. This is intended to assist you guys in making a more educated decision.

 

[7L Farm]

I think most people here on BYC trap using live traps. Thats cool but its best to not practice catch & release with fishing thats the way to go. I've mainly only trapped with foot hold traps. Some say its cruel & it kinda is. But I was a kid trying to make a buck. I had a 1000 acres to trap on. Foot hold traps are far easier to trap with when your making over 20 sets. I usually used two traps for every set. Making a set is very time consuming & must be done with great care if you want to be sucessful. I spent many days trapping & learned as I went along. I caught toes of bob cats & other animals I don't want to mention. I loved being amongst nature & facing its elements. Fooling animals to step in one particular spot is not easy. Animals have a keen sense of smell & humans stink. Sorry but they do animals can detect where humans have been. I normally wore rubberboots & seasoned my traps . I also wore gloves.
Another thing my father taught me was if you take something from nature you should return something to nature. Which I did. I started this adventure by building & erecting wood duck nest boxes. I loved watching the birds flying through the woods at great speeds, whistleing,& their sure beauty. The duck has like 32 different colors in their feathers purely beautiful. The birds almost went extinct at one time so what I was doing was providing a safe place for the birds to lay their clutch & brood their hatch. I monitored the boxes &cleaned them out every year for around twenty years. I was a true wood duck freak. I even started banding the birds. The birds would get very docile when sitting on their eggs.I could open the boxs & grab them & put a band on their leg. My band had my phone # & my handle which was Woodies Bud. I thought the name was appropriate because at the time I worked for Budweiser.
Well, the bulldoziers showed up & that was that.
My nexts adventure in life is where I am now. I moved to the family farm yes 7L. I wanted to live with nature so here I am. I found an old vintage chicken coop that was in the woods. I had never raised birds in captivity but I decided I'd give it a whirl. I moved the coop. The coop was my Grandfathers caretakers. Anyway, I had to remodel the coop. I used the same design but I guess back in the day they didn't build runs. But I wanted a run. So, I built one about the time I finished the coop & run I found BYC & discovered I built the run wrong yup I used the dreaded chicken wire. I had chickens already in it & was terribly worried about a predator getting them. Needless to say I re did a lot of it & have hot wire around it the whole nine yards. Well, I gotta let the chickens out & will tell the rest later. I didn't spell check are re-read but here it is.I'm terrible at writing any who.