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Post by 1shotwade on Aug 19, 2019 21:36:32 GMT
Want more trapping talk? There is this guy that paid his way through college by trapping every year. He got some 4-year degree all about animals, worked in the state park system for 30 plus years and has retired 3-4 years ago.
He has one area that he traps that has a woods full of old hollow beech trees. In late winter when the mating season starts he "gang sets" that woods. It is unbelievable the number of coons he can take out of the woods! I know he took 31 coons in 2 nights gang setting around a den tree that had a hot female denned up in it!
He also does deprivation trapping. Someone will call with a problem with coon so he will go back away from where the problem is and set up a deer feeder so they will find that before they get to the problem area. he waits a couple weeks using a game camera on the feeder. When the time is right he will gang set around the feeder and catch 90% of what is hitting the feeder! In his younger days he would market 400-500 coon a year!
There are lots more like him out there somewhere. Back in '79 two of my brothers and I trapped for 3 weeks. We worked 20 plus hours a day but we made market with 281 rats, 60 some coon 23 grey fox 9 red fox 31 mink and 14 beaver. We had a good payday but that is burning it at both ends! (back then you had to get it done before the waters froze up. Not like that anymore!) Wade
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Post by feather on Aug 23, 2019 19:27:20 GMT
1shotwade, absolutely, yes. I'll get DH (trapper) to sit down with this thread yet. DS chased off the fawns again the other day. One chipmunk down. DH was calling to the little pale red fox, and got him to come within 20 feet of him and the camera.
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Post by oxankle2 on Aug 23, 2019 22:37:15 GMT
Wade; Thanks for the comments; Sow coon in a conibear this AM, possum in one of the DP's. triggers will always point up henceforth.
I've heard of your precursors to the DP before. An old man told me that when he was a boy he used a short piece of hollow log, plank across the ends, a hole drilled in the log with bait inside. "Coon will not turn loose once he has the bait".
Never heard of the glass jug thing, but I have some jugs.
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Post by feather on Aug 25, 2019 14:00:33 GMT
Good morning. Another raccoon, I think it might be number 11, I haven't gone back and recounted.
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Post by feather on Aug 26, 2019 16:19:39 GMT
The fawns visited the apple piles near the apple trees today. They've put on a good 20 lbs since we've started watching them visit. As long as they stay out of the gardens we don't run them off. We're getting rain today so no watering or planting lettuce. It looks like the clouds will clear tomorrow afternoon. Beautiful temperatures 60's 70's.
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Post by oxankle2 on Aug 27, 2019 14:09:05 GMT
Now I have some small varmint messing with me. Set dog proof and box and kill trap last evening. Camera shows a disturbance but I cannot make out the intruder. Kill trap sprung, bait intact, no catch. Impossible for anything larger than a rat. (Ever hear of squirrels hunting at night?)
I suppose I will add a rat trap to the inventory. I poisoned out a pack rat colony when I first came here. Do not need rats around here now.
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Post by Tim Horton on Sept 7, 2019 4:41:26 GMT
Next setting is the BIG trap, large enough for coyote. >>>>>>>>>> I have a trap that big also.. All of 6'long, and big enough to trap a 250 lb critter.... First problem is.. Is it mother lurking about near by ?? Then what do you do with the critter in the trap ?? And I'm not talking about naming it Yogi Bear..
Don't ask me how I learned these lessons.....
>>>>>> Seriously.. If that is what it takes to control a "situation" .. do what you have to. Livestock producers here usually implement rule #30-06 of the triple "S" predator management system. Or so the rumor goes.......
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Post by feather on Sept 7, 2019 12:08:43 GMT
Tim Horton, I've heard this rumor too. Two more chippies bit the dust. We had a few days with no fawns and we thought perhaps they were off to some new lands but they came back yesterday for some apples. We ran them off when they stepped in the garden near the orchard. DH is off today to the trapper's convention up north with his son. It's going to be a quiet day for me.
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Post by oxankle2 on Sept 14, 2019 19:37:46 GMT
Wade: Now that I have a reader for my new camera I find that the varmint stealing bait is a very trap-wise fox. Any of you fellows out there got a sure-fire fox killer? Trapping advice needed.
The bait-stealing sucker got two slices of bread, a bun, a collection of chicken bones, a can of cat food and some dry cat food pellets in the past four days. I got a picture the first night but could not read it until I got a card reader for my camera---The *)P&)P* salesman did not tell me the camera did not show its pics. Got it home and found it useless to me until this AM at Walmart where I bought the reader.
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Post by feather on Sept 16, 2019 2:33:36 GMT
Now I have some small varmint messing with me. Set dog proof and box and kill trap last evening. Camera shows a disturbance but I cannot make out the intruder. Kill trap sprung, bait intact, no catch. Impossible for anything larger than a rat. (Ever hear of squirrels hunting at night?) I suppose I will add a rat trap to the inventory. I poisoned out a pack rat colony when I first came here. Do not need rats around here now. Ox, You say you have a dog proof, a box trap and a kill trap. What type trap are these. A dog proof is a deep trigger reach in tube trap. Basically targets raccoon as they have dexterity while dogs don't. Is the box trap a cage trap and if it is how big is it? A kill trap are considered either snares or connibear's. This does make a difference for trapping fox. If I was looking to catch a fox I would use either snares or a coil foothold trap. With the foothold I use scent post or dirt hole sets. My experience is over 60 years as a trapper and thousands of critters. Mr. Feather
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Post by feather on Sept 16, 2019 15:45:45 GMT
While I was canning and throwing out tomato waste, and cooking and throwing out veg waste, and making brown sauce and throwing out milling waste products I grew a nice flock of fruit flies. I killed the whole flock yesterday with water/a c vinegar/dish soap in a glass.
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Post by oxankle2 on Sept 22, 2019 0:18:24 GMT
Mr Feather: Thanks!!! Good neighbor has coil footholds and I have a few snares.
This morning I found that the fox had dislodged a conibear from its bucket, stolen the bait. Did not even try for the bait before dislodging the trap from its slot in the bucket. I will have to get smarter.
Varmints continue to thin the neighbor's flocks. Last week it was guineas missing, now ducks.
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Post by feather on Sept 22, 2019 0:31:31 GMT
oxankle2, I'm glad you tried the kill trap for the fox. I'll set mr. feather down to read your reply when he gets home from his hs reunion. mogal, dh did get coyote urine from the trapper's convention last month. Dh was kind enough to not bring that stuff in the house and left it out in the garage. Thank God. Put it out around the back kale, and the beans. And we did get some beans. Yay. We kept the box traps and the 'rat traps' all loaded and baited. We took out some chipmunks again. I saw a woodchuck tonight, running through the yards. The deer come by every few days but we run them off because they are eating the kale. There is a website, called nextdoor.com and if you register (by address), it brings you to local people, things they sell and houses for sale and loose and wild animals. There were pictures of the fox with a cat, hanging out, 3 miles from here. It sure looked like the fox we had here.
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Post by feather on Sept 23, 2019 23:39:13 GMT
DH got a call to pick hickory nuts from the craigslist guy, Jim. And someone came by to see me. Somebunny did.
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Post by feather on Oct 25, 2019 19:21:56 GMT
Probably the last time we'll mow the lawn. Oddly, a big dead rabbit was on the lawn? My guys don't know what that's all about.
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