you gonna catch em' all!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow! let me ask you this.... are most trappers as successful as you?? i mean by the pics and number of them i'm thinking i might wanna give it a try!! with that being said i'm pretty sure it would take me some yrs to get "it" down, but shoot it sure looks fun!
Okay your officially the master. You are absolutely making the fire burn real bad to learn how to do this. I have always wanted but now it is something I am going to do. For Yotes and Fox what is the easiest trap set to do? Bridger, Duke, I was watching some vids on You Tube and there was a variety. Congrats Greg that is very cool! I will run up to fleet farm and get some traps once you tell me what you would recommend for a newbie. Just the style and number trap. I will try and research everything else as I know your busy and besides I don't want to take up your time because I can't wait for your next pics. lol
Nice work Greg! To those who are interested in trying to do some trapping, if you have never trapped before, I cannot urge you strongly enough to take your state's trappers education course. In most states, it is required before purchasing a trapping license. Just buying some cheap traps and setting them without really knowing what you are doing is worse than the the guy that buys a bow the day before deer season. Please ask questions, learn as much as you can and then try it. Tribal, I know you said you were going to research this, you're on the right track. That's good. I'm worried about the guys that won't do their homework before stringing some steel. Off my soapbox now. Minnesota's trapping association: http://www.mntrappers.org/education.html
Are you guys going to do any beaver trapping? Our season comes in after the new year and man its fun.
isiah... it's hard for me to compare myself to others success-wise; I'll let others speak to that. I can tell you this sport is right in my wheelhouse.... I LOVE the attention to detail it mandates, the intricacies of studying location, sign, being careful with scent control (if you think a whitetail has a good nose, you haven't seen NOTHING yet. English language purposefully slaughtered... LOL). For those that love the subtlieties of bowhunting for the reasons many of us do, this is a great complimentary pursuit when we're becoming weary of climbing into a treestand for the 117th time that season... If you've got kids, it's a FANTASTIC sport... it's like rabbit hunting: they can walk along and talk all they want as you check your line, and we trappers have an old saying: it's like Christmas every morning! I had to run my line early this morning (notice how dark the background is in these pics) and I asked my boy if he wanted me to go on ahead without him last night or let him sleep in... I quote: "Dad... I don't EVER want you to go out without me when you run your line if I'm home!" I love it... I daresay my boy has got closer to more predators and been able to study and appreciate them more than 99.9% of kids his age.... he REALLY appreciates their beauty and their place in the wild. Tribal.. I'll be willing to help you out as much as possible, buddy! I answered a PM yesterday with some of the info you're asking about, and I don't think the requestor would mind me posting it up for others to see as it contains nothing personal, just information back to him. "Heck, Josh... I'll tell you anything and everything I know... don't want to keep any secrets, LOL! On the advice of my trapping mentor who let me run some early lines with him last year, I ended up ordering a dozen Bridger # 2s from Minnesota Trapline Products (a quick Google of their name will pull up their site). I went all-out on the traps, as I figured it was a one-time investment and I wanted to do it right. I had the traps base-plated (this is an extra bottom plate welded to the underside of the trap) for structural rigidity and strength to handle a yote -- with a center-D ring so any animal that pulls on a trap will be pulling on the exact center and can't "leverage" it off to the side. I also had them 4-coiled, which makes them fire quicker but more importantly gives them double the holding power, and I had full jaw laminations put on as well. That's pretty much "the works" on a coilspring trap that you can get. # 2 traps are a good compromise for about anything; they'll handle a yote, but also won't tear up a fox or smaller catches. If you were PURELY yote trapping, you could go bigger though. I primarily build two kinds of sets for yotes and/or red fox... a dirt-hole set and a flat set. For both, I either use Sterling Silver, which is a gray fox gland lure, applied to a cotton ball and stuffed down a hole... or Steppenwolfe, which is a coyote gland lure. Both can be bought at trapper's supply websites. If you decide to get into it and take the plunge, I'll be glad to give you specifics of how I construct sets and I'll also refer you to www.trapperman.com where I spend most of my time after bowhunting... those guys have forgotten more about trapping than I'll ever KNOW about bowhunting. " Ask any follow-up questions you want... and check out trapperman. There's an AMAZING collection of knowledge represented there. You're just seeing the tip of the iceberg with me... I'm sort of a "teaser" for the real deal, LOL! Be sure to go to the land trapping archives... you'll find TONS of good information there and save yourself from asking a lot of questions of those guys , though they're awfully nice and patient with newbies just as we try to be in the bowhunting community. Again... feel free to ask me anything you want.
Jim, probably not.... though I do LOVE beaver pelts; talk about luxurious!! Reason why is I do this while working full-time and fit it in before heading out the door... I don't have any waterways close enough to do it during the middle of the week and have time to get back in time. Maybe sometime down the road in a few years while on vacation or something...
Greg I make sets on Friday afternoon ans Saturday mornings then when I check them Sunday evening I just move the traps to deep water out of sight and put the locks on the conibears and lay them flat on the bottom then the next Friday a few quick bait sticks and some lure and I'm good to go. Its faster than you might think, and quit enjoy able. Your will remember your first mink like your first buck. And another thing I do is a lot of nuisance beaver trapping, and you will find the land owner wants to tag along. Thats great cause he can check your traps for you through out the week. Its a win ,win. Good Luck, Jim
I'm starting to look forward to seeing your catch every day ... almost like the anticipation I felt running my own line.
I love looking at these pics Im thinking about taking out some beaver. They are all over my new lease. Awesome Greg!
christine, will do! deff will do my research greg, thanks soooooooooo much for sharing i think you got me hooked and i havent even started!
