Trapping thread

[Maugwa]

Let’s be real clear on the spot lighting and shooting from vehicles thing

I understand that you were talking about a different time, firstly...

But let’s remind folks to always check the local regulations... and understand that in many (most ? ) areas, shooting from a roadway is a violation of law....

And then let’s mention too that shooting from a vehicle onto a property that might have people or property that could be at danger can be irresponsible and dangerous, if not deadly...

We’ve had cattle killed and crippled by folks spotlighting and shooting from vehicles, I’ve had knuckleheads shoot toward me when I was in a tree stand near a country road, and I recall a somewhat recent story of a young man being killed when some looser shot from a road into his decoy set while he was goose hunting...

Let’s be clear when we talk about the good old days that we’re not recommending folks go do something irresponsible

Nope I wouldn't recommend that people do anything illegal, dangerous, or irresponsible. I haven't done any of this stuff for years either. But also keep in mind that where I grew up was in the least densely populated county in the least densely populated state in the US. My father's ranch was smaller than most of his friend's and neighbor's ranches, where we were welcome and even coaxed to come shoot coyotes. My dad only had 24,000 acres, and about the same in BLM leases. Many of our neighbors had over 100,000 acres, and 3/4s of the roads we used were private ranch roads, not county roads. Also, a good portion of our spot lighting for coons was done with portable spot lights while walking creek bottoms with a dog. And for the few coons we did see from county roads, to shoot them legally, we left the roadway to shoot. The coons you see from a road are usually in a tree, or running to a tree, and the trees are not growing in the right of way, or the barrow pit. If your dog doesn't get them before they get to the tree, the best way to shoot those is walk to the tree with a .22 that has a Mag light mounted under the barrel and knock them down with a short range shot that's hard to miss. My best stop like this was a lone tree that had 14 coons in it, it lit up like a Christmas tree, and my dog got 4 more on the ground. That was $900 in maybe 15 minutes.

This was a part of the world where if you broke down and walked to a hill a few miles down the road, you could consider yourself lucky if you could see a yard light as far as you could see in any direction. We didn't have cell phones back then, but now that we do, they still only work in maybe 25% or less of the state. I'd never recommend or teach anybody how to slide a TT500 Yamaha under barbed wire, scabbard side up, on purpose, even though I was once good at it. And I sure would never want one of my grandkids tying himself to the back of a bull either. I don't know how I got lucky enough to get old, but I learned a few things about trapping along the way, and recommended a guard dog.

Some parts I left out of that first post also were, no matter how good you get at trapping, or how far in the boonies you get, figure on catching more ferrel house cats than anything, and if you are within a few miles of any neighbors add domestic dogs and cats too. Also, territory is a life and death matter to predators, if you catch one and release it anywhere, it will either be killed for invading another's territory, or have to kill to claim it's new territory. Live traps save no lives (other than a house cat you let out, who doesn't get ran over on his way home), they just make your wives feel better about trapping.

 

[RhodeIslandRed5]

Yep! It's better to shoot a territorial animal rather than relocating it. Besides, rather help decrease the large population of the stupid things.

 

[Maugwa]

Good grief, I couldn't live anywhere that had bears! I'd be too afraid to go outside unless I had a big gun.

Haha, well there are bears, and then there are BEARS. My grandma used to chase black bears off the porch with her broom! I don't recommend that either, lol, but if they don't have cubs around, they'll probably run off. But Grizzlies are a whole nother matter. They are big and bad and mean, and even coming across their tracks gives me goose bumps. They can outrun a horse, for a ways, and fear nothing. Come to Wyoming, and you can see both. Nothing wrong with having a big gun handy, for a Griz, I'd recommend a 12 gauge pump full of slugs - save the last shot till he's at the end of the barrel. I've never needed this, but kept one handy in bear country just in case, every since an old Alaskan told me that when I was up there fishing years ago.

 

[Chiriflor]

Hi,
I live in Southern Arizona where lynx is uncommon, but still around. Bob cats are more common, but this one was definitely a lynx. It had the really big ear tufts and paws, larger than a bob cat. I have encountered mountain lions in my backyard, but this was when I lived in a different part of the country. I've had bears on my property, fishers (in a different state), coyotes, pack rats, javelina and all kinds of snakes and reptiles, but I haven't seen a raccoon since I've been here.

Where are you? i'd love to no areas where lynx live.. we have bears, bob cats, some say that this isn't true but their are mountain lions here in PA there are prints the size (bobcats and mountain lions have much different sizes) we have so many rodents like giant rats, fishers, coyotes we have, we have grey and red foxes, we have bears, raccoons, a bunch of predators, but havent ran into any issues even after forgetting to lock my ducks in a couple times.. i got pretty lucky. even considering we have a red fox living in the corn field up in our woods!

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I have black bear on my farm, but they don’t come close to the house or the chicken pens to my knowledge. I have 2 free range dogs that patrol around the house and pens and night and that seems to keep all the varmints away from the home area. I also have my largest run and coop electrified at night (its also the pen furtherest from the house).

As for trapping, Florida only allows snares and live traps. Which is too bad, as leg traps are the most efficient traps I’ve seen. Its ironic that we consider leg hold traps cruel but snares not.

I keep live traps out 24-7 whether I’m having a varmint problem at the moment or not. I do not run snares because of my free range dogs.

I have snared coyote before. It usually takes a month of trying to snare one, but once the alpha is snared the others get caught within a couple of days. I figure the reason it always takes me a month is that my scent lingers around the set and the coyote will remember my scent and the snare as a suspicious foreign object on its trail for a while, then my scent dissipates and it forgets about the snare.

I have a Tomahawk brand bobcat live trap I like a lot for catching larger varmints.

I once live-caught 2 guineas in a live trap sized for squirrel. They were packed in like sardines. I also once live-trapped a vulture in a standard possum-sized Havahart.

 

[Maugwa]

I have black bear on my farm, but they don’t come close to the house or the chicken pens to my knowledge. I have 2 free range dogs that patrol around the house and pens and night and that seems to keep all the varmints away from the home area. I also have my largest run and coop electrified at night (its also the pen furtherest from the house).

As for trapping, Florida only allows snares and live traps. Which is too bad, as leg traps are the most efficient traps I’ve seen. Its ironic that we consider leg hold traps cruel but snares not.

I keep live traps out 24-7 whether I’m having a varmint problem at the moment or not. I do not run snares because of my free range dogs.

I have snared coyote before. It usually takes a month of trying to snare one, but once the alpha is snared the others get caught within a couple of days. I figure the reason it always takes me a month is that my scent lingers around the set and the coyote will remember my scent and the snare as a suspicious foreign object on its trail for a while, then my scent dissipates and it forgets about the snare.

I have a Tomahawk brand bobcat live trap I like a lot for catching larger varmints.

I once live-caught 2 guineas in a live trap sized for squirrel. They were packed in like sardines. I also once live-trapped a vulture in a standard possum-sized Havahart.

To help cover your sent, boil your traps, or snares, and after they have cooled, take them from the water with hospitle type gloves and drop them in a plastic bag with a few apple slices. Also wash a change of clothing with no detergent and dry them outside on a clothes line. Don't put them on till just before you are ready to go set traps - try not to sweat in them. Take a bath before you get dressed too, no shampoo or soap. Don't smoke or chew, or gum. When you get to where you will begin walking to the trap setting area, drop an apple and crush it with your shoes, both feet. Do a little shuffle dance on it until it's all smashed all over the bottom of both shoes. Go alone. Put on more gloves to open the bag and take out and set traps. New gloves each set (or at least each time you have to take them off - you'll sweat inside them). I don't know where you would find it anymore, we used to buy from fur buyers (or one guy I knew once who had a 3 footed coyote bitch in captivity), but coyote urin is the magic bait. They are wary and a little interested in food, but they lose all their sense when they smell strange coyote urin, especially bitch in heat urin. We used to pay several hundred dollars a gallon for this kind of urin, but it lasts a long time. It was worth it too. A few ounces would do a lot of sets. You cut it with water and just mist a few pumps from a squirt bottle. You can also mist those apples you step on and coyotes, especially alphas, will follow your trail. I am not in contact with any fur buyers anymore, but maybe google could help. I do guarantee that if you can find some somewhere, you'll never want to trap coyotes without it again. We've all seen how dogs act around pee, or sniffing for bitches in heat - food means nothing to them when they get a whiff of that. I've often wondered, but never tried bitch dog in heat pee for coyotes, but I think it would work too.

 

[NHMountainMan]

Were dispatching it, I will not get in trouble over this

Can I ask- how do you shoot it in the trap? Just close range 22? I had trapped and released porcupines until fish and game told me just to shoot ‘me . Since, I’ve stopped trapping and just shot em whenever I see them. Those dang thing are walking vet bills for my dogs and destroy more garden plants than any other scavenger’

 

[NHMountainMan]

Where are you? i'd love to no areas where lynx live.. we have bears, bob cats, some say that this isn't true but their are mountain lions here in PA there are prints the size (bobcats and mountain lions have much different sizes) we have so many rodents like giant rats, fishers, coyotes we have, we have grey and red foxes, we have bears, raccoons, a bunch of predators, but havent ran into any issues even after forgetting to lock my ducks in a couple times.. i got pretty lucky. even considering we have a red fox living in the corn field up in our woods!

I’ve gotten to know fish and game officers pretty well and was invited to a presentation on cats in NH. We have bobcat (healthy populations) and lynx (threatened and making a comeback) Lynx are dependent on hares- and that population has been boom or bust lately. The BIG conversation was about Mt Lion. There is evidence of lions making their way back east. But so far, all dna evidence in hair traps and scat has been in solo male lions. There’s been no female and no breeding populations yet. All of the dna has traced back to know lions in Montana and the Dakotas . Most likely these are young males leaving mom, but needing new territory and avoiding other males. They’re considered migratory. Until there is a breeding population they don’t consider there to be a presence. But with improved forests and huge whitetail populations, they consider it a matter of time. The presentation was specific to NH, Vt and Maine, but they mentioned NY and Pa too. About 3 years ago a young male was killed by a car in Ct. DNA was from ND which is when they started all of the testing in New England.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Besides, rather help decrease the large population of the stupid things.

I can't help but wonder why you hate them so bad? Are they really stupid? The term sly as a fox suggests otherwise.

I value living in a bio-diverse environment that includes black bear, mountain lion, and all sorts of other predators. Take out all the top predators, watch the smaller varmints run rampant.

I understand we all need to protect what is ours and do what think is right... I don't understand a kill them all attitude.

 

[KCD]

We've had fox issues, including an attack in the afternoon while everyone was out in the yard! They can be very bold!
We have a neighbor who was a professional trapper and after our issues we started having, I talked to him about trying to trap it. He laughed and said "Good luck!" Fox have a very good sense of smell and unless you completely cover your scent, they will never go to a trap, regardless of what you bait it with. The only exception is if it's a young fox or desperate for food and willing to take the risk. He came over and walked my husband through the steps to set up the trap, but we never caught it. We are in a rural area and there is enough other prey that the risk probably wasn't worth it for this guy. However, we haven't had any loss to suspected fox attacks since, so maybe the trap was enough to make it move on.