What do you really know about trapping

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

Imagine a series of traps that work while you sleep , quiet , hidden , silent dispatch , no ammo needed (a good idea to carry just in case)

It could be a very good prep , even if you don't actively trap much more than a week or two a year around your own place the knowledge available is very interesting. My son and I are taking the Wisconsin course. I have learned a lot , and i figured i had a good handle on things as a hunter and fisher of many years.

there is a hole smorgasbords of nocturnal or human weary mammals just waiting to be on your dinner table the next day

unlike deer that have 1-2 fawn a year and take 2 year to full grown some fur bearers like muskrat breed up to 5 times a year with litters of up to 11 and are up to weight in a few months.

many people have no idea they are even there

as well as being able to selectively capture the night raiders of your feed , gardens and coops


the Wisconsin manual is available to down load from the dnr website , and while it can't contain everything it does a decent job of covering many things

http://dnr.wi.gov/education/OutdoorS...ents/Unit1.pdf

http://dnr.wi.gov/education/OutdoorS...ents/Unit2.pdf

[farmerDale]

Been running a trapline for most of my years. Taught by my dad, and by experience. Know how to catch, and have caught:

Fox, coyote, beaver, muskrat, mink, squirrel, ermine.

Know how to but have not caught, due to regulations and legalities:

Moose, deer, elk, bear, waterfowl...

I agree, knowing how to trap is very important indeed.

Knowing the way of the snare is stealthy, selective, and humane if done properly. In a SHTF situation, the ability to snare a moose elk or deer, could in the absence of ammunition be life saving indeed.

I do not appreciate the taste of muskrat: Some peole can stomach it, but if I wanted to eat swamp water in meat format, I would be a happy man: we have thousand of them on our land.

[Danaus29]

Ds ran across an interesting snare trap idea for squirrel. We're waiting until the season opens to try it.

I wonder if the one in the link will work on those blasted groundhogs.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I have ammunition , but most of it makes a lot of noise and draws unwanted attention

how did the manual put it , blunt force trauma to the back of the head is considered a humane dispatch method by the American veterinary college for non game fur bearers.

snares are not legal here in anything but a water set , but I can see where they could easily be used

we can use cable restraints for k9s on land

[lemonthyme7]

All 3 of my brothers trapped growing up and I have some basic knowledge and experience doing it. I have no experience with snares just with leg hold traps. one brother still traps and he has echoed farmerDales's sentiments that muskrat usually has a swampy taste but I do know his family eats beaver sometimes.
As far as the dispatch my brother usually uses a .22 so, yes, that would make noise - however on his fox he didn't like to get any blood on the fur. With fox he gave them a sharp rap on the end of the muzzle with his trapping trowel which knocked them out and than he put his heel on their heart to kill them. Just make sure you do the heel on heart long enough because you don't want them reviving in your trapping basket on the way back to the truck! HaHa!

[Maura]

My neighbor as put out foot traps for varmints. I never have, just the cage to catch and get rid of raccoons and scare cats from getting into my garbage. Once trapped and released, the cats never come back.

Anyway, there was a kid's book written decades ago, I think it was My Side of the Mountain or, The Other Side of the Mountain. One is about a woman who becomes paralyzed from a ski accident. But, the other is about a boy who is 12 or 13, leaves home, and fends for himself. He fishes and uses traps I beleive.

I think you are right, it would be a very useful skill. You won't run out of ammo, unless you live trap and then shoot to kill. If you don't shoot, other people may never know you are there.

[TnAndy]

For small game, I really like Conibear type traps. Pic below is a raccoon inside my chicken pen headed for a 220 size trap in a bucket set. A minute or two later, he is a dead raccoon.

[Wolfy-hound]

I vaguely remember that book. I think the boy was slightly squeamish at first about the trapped animals?

I can snare, I know how to set leghold traps and I can make a few other traps. I think that if you can hunt without using ammo(arrows OR bullets) in a survival situation that would be far more ideal than using up arrows that may get broken or lost, or using bullets making loud noises to attract attention. Also, trapping frees you up to do other essential things, so it's energy efficient hunting.

If you've ever seen the rabbit hunting with ferrets, they use drawstring net bags over the rabbits' bolt holes and then send ferrets into the burrows to flush out the rabbits. It struck me as a very efficient way to catch a lot of rabbits on the QT. They do it in the UK and Australia where rabbits are pests.

[Oldcountryboy]

Although my most trapping experience is in the chicken pen too, I probably read just about every trapping article in the F-F-G magazines I get. So I have a basic ideal of how to do it with most animals in my neck of the woods.

Plus, when I was a young teen just getting into hunting big time, one of my Uncles gave me a small booklet that has hundreds of of ways to build traps for just about every animal, bird, or fish out there. It has always been a very interesting book. From deadfall traps to snare traps to leghold traps to box traps, and even a booby trap or two using shotguns, spears, or a bow & arrow.

When I was a younger man I did experiment with building a few of the traps listed in the book. But, I never really tried using them to actually trap animals out in the wilderness. But I have built one or two and use them to try to trap whatever was after my chickens.

I've also bought a few survival trapping books when I was a teenager back in the 70's. After watching the movie "Jerimiah Johnson" when I was a young man, I dreamed of being a mountain man and doind a lot of trapping. And one of my trapping/survival books is actually endorsed by Robert Redford hisself.

But with all the trapping books and magazines I have, I've never really done a lot of trapping.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I saw a clever device the other day , they had taken and welded sort of a wall of spikes that fit through a cage style live trap just behind the door then you could open the door with the animal trapped behind the wall o spikes , then they placed a 220 body grip with a wooden holder right in front of the trap , when the wall o spikes was removed the animal would go to run free just to be snapped by a 220 or 330 depending on the size of the trap

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

as to the book my side of the mountain , didn't he do much of his hunting wtht a falcon , or maybe that was just the movie version

I can remember seeing the movie in school , we read the book first , that was the only way we saw movies in school but can't recall anything about his hunting with traps i do recall a falcon , the part i remember the most from the book is when he gets snowed in completely and has to put out his fire because he is running low on oxygen , i kept thinking why couldn't he get air back down the chimney , but i think panic had set in

i didn't think the movie captured his panic as well as the book

[farmerDale]

The book is a work of fiction. Just so everyone knows...

[edcopp]

I grew up trapping from my early teens on. This is a great skill to have and teach to others. A lot of food is around here and there that none of us
think about very often.

A small stash of equipment can be easily stored, or hidden in the woods for later use. One "catch" means a meal or many meals, this has starvation beat all to pieces.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

what is of particular interest as far as charts and graphs go is that in areas with a studied populations of fur bearers the count in the spring was the same as it was with or without trapping.

the adjusted numbers of fall and winter trapping from the summer population left an area with statistically the same number as would otherwise have survived till spring so in trapping if you stop as soon as the daily catch drops off , basicaly when it stopps being profitable to check traps every day , then your only harvesting what would have starved off in the winter any way.

[Pops2]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

The book is a work of fiction. Just so everyone knows...

And falconry isn't going to feed you every day either, so what! Still an interesting book to get a person thinking.

[Danaus29]

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It's a wonderful story but sadly is fiction, although most of the info would be very useful in a survival situation. I loved it, my kids loved it.

I'll have to check the legality of trapping squirrel with snares. But the little monsters are such a nuisance!!!! Anything to reduce their population is helpful.

[Pops2]

Victor rat traps hung on a nail work pretty well for trapping squirrels.

[hotzcatz]

Lots of folks around here have pig traps. Much easier than chasing them through brush and thickets and you get a much better carcass for the freezer when it hasn't been run for several hours before dispatch. The pigs are live in the traps though and usually dispatched when the folks show up to process them, no traps that kill.

[FreeRanger]

Pete,
I have a serious problem with fox right now. I will PM you my email and phone #. Need to get this under control as my turkeys can't free range right now nor the hens. Been loosing too many in broad daylight. The young roosters are causing a ruckus with the pullets. Just moved all the young cocks down to the barn, away from the coop. Turkeys are down to six jakes and one jen which is also a lot of noise calling in the foxes. I can trace the feathers back to where they are approaching from the neighbors house out front of mine. No good spot to shoot from up there. Too heavy tree/bush cover and houses on each side.

They were cute this Spring when the mama carried the five kits across the backyard. Now they are an expensive pest. One got hit by a car the other night, yet the next day we got attacked again.

It's to the point now where I sit outside with the 22 waiting for them to come around. I don't have time for that.

What ever solution I come up with, it must take into account I have four expensive "working" cats and two medium dogs.

Hope you have some suggestions or maybe can stop by and show me how to trap them? maybe you and your son want to trap them?

[watcher]

I know a lot about trapping even though I haven't done it in years. I also know a lot of traps which are quite effective but are illegal yet in a survival situation I wouldn't hesitate to use them.