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On Track Pg.9
 

Topics:

Favorite Mink Set. Mink Trappers: What is your favorite set for mink? Please explain. Review This Topic

Favorite Muskrat Set. Muskrat Trappers: What is your favorite set for Muskrats? Please explain. Review This Topic

Learning to Trap. All Trappers: Where and how did you learn trapping? Review This Topic

First Traps. All Trappers: Of the first 24 traps you owned, what type or types and sizes were they? Review This Topic

Favorite Beaver Set. Beaver Trappers: What's your favorite set for beaver and how do you make it? Review This Topic

Stretching Beaver. Beaver Trappers: How do you stretch your beaver, or do you sell them in the round, or just skinned out? Review This Topic


Replies:

Favorite Mink Set. Mink Trappers: What is your favorite set for mink? Please explain.

Name: Haf2sell
Blind set, forced water situation. Close tie with tight to a culvert, bridge abutement. Similar, but different.
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Name: Jake
My favorite set is a simple pocket set lured with fish oil. put a wad of grass back in the pocket, squirt some fish oil, and guard with a number 1 or 1.5 foothold on a slide wire. Also i like to make a shelf beside it and put a foothold here as a blind set also.
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Name: Matthew L
My favorite mink set is setting up on pinch points. And my favorite is a bridge wing wall. I put the loose jaw up against the side of the wall and stake in deep water. If the water is too deep I use a cinder block to get my trap up just under water level. PINCH POINTS...
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Name: Mark
I only use blind sets when mink trapping. One of my favorites is a coilspring 1 1/2 hugged tight against a vertical wall with no more than an inch of water over the pan. I also like setting wingwalls on culverts.
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Name: dale frank
what few mink sets I make, my favorite is the inside edges of culverts. The wide irrigation ditches here these culverts to me seem like the best chance narrowing down their path.
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Name: cooder
there are so many good mink sets. My favorite way to trap mink is to set 220-size bodygrips, blind, in small trickles near the main stream. I look for places that fit the trap and offers some natural cover to hide the trap a bit. This set also catches otter, muskrat and wayward beaver. Baited cubbies guarded with 120-size BGs also produce a lot of mink for me. In my experience fish bait outproduces beaver or muskrat. I would say that my catch with cubbies has doubled since I changed to pan triggers.
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Name: Hal
My favorite mink set is a simple blind set at a force.


Favorite Muskrat Set. Muskrat Trappers: What is your favorite set for Muskrats? Please explain.

Name: Haf2sell
It's a tie, with Feedbed, and den entrance. Depends on jurisdiction. :-(
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Name: Jake
The bulk of my 'rats are taken by blind sets. I like a blind set on the waters edge on a vertical bank using a 1.5 coil or longspring staked to deep water. Also I like to put bodygrips in their den entrances or runs. Make sure you stabilize the bodygrips or they may fall over.
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Name: Matthew L
My favorite is my imatation of a feed bed. I pocket 6" deep or so at water level back into the bank next I make it high enough were a muskrat could swim into it. I have even went so far as to put two sticks over top of the hole and put dry grass accross them to make a roof. Next I put fresh green grass and roots into the pocket and set a trap in front tied to a brick in deeper water. Almost a garentee muskrat. This set works good if there is no real muskrat sign or if I want to take the access rats I might have missed. I showed my 10 year old cusin this set and He had one yeild a rat a day for 4 or 5 days strait. He caught a dozen in 5 days of trapping with me last year in just five sets. He had never trapped before and I think it made him fell good doing something to make the muskrat come to him..
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Name: Mark
I use mainly den entrance sets with 110's and feedbed sets with 1 1/2 coilsprings.
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Name: Dale Frank
Pinch points in current runs with 110 or 220 bodygrips.
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Name: Hal
My favorite muskrat set is to set a trap right in front of the den. When I can't locate dens, I like to set up toilet logs.


Learning to Trap. All Trappers: Where and how did you learn trapping?

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Name: muskey
i leanered to trap muskrat on a creek that ran through our farm. i learned by trial and error. more error then seccues. only 6yrs.old nobody around trapped or would show a kid anything. 51yrs. now
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Name: Hardy
As a young man I was fortunate to have met up with a man in New Mexico named Homer C. Pickens who taught me how to catch coyotes. After moving back to Louisiana, in the late 80's I took lessons from James Lucero up in Kansas. And have never looked anywhere else.
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Name: Wis Trapper
I got my feet wet by going with my Dad on his trapline when I was about 5 years old in south west Wisconsin creeks and fields. He is the one who really go me started and instilled in me ethical trapping. I also read ALOT of articles, books, and every topic on this forum wheather I trap for a given furbearer or not. The rest is by trial and error which is probably one of the best trapping resources there is.
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Name: Rick B
I started trapping in 1978 when I was 12 years old. My dad trapped muskrats as a kid but fell out of it and had no intentions of going back. So my education mostly came from articles in Fur-Fish-Game and a neighbor who reluctantly gave me some instruction. (he didn't want or need any more competition after all it was the fur boom )
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Name: Alec
Besides talking to a few local trappers I had to learn on my own. I did a ton of reading before I got the hang of it. I think it was most helpful when I went out on another trappers line to see how he trapped.
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Name: seaman
youth trapper camp in Havre, Montana. I went 4 consecutive years. these were the best weekends of my life.
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Name: tuff
As kids, my brothers and I started trapping when a neighbor lent us a cage trap to catch coon out of the farm buildings at home, in northern Illinois. After that we tagged along on his small water line, where we learned to catch coon and rats. Since learning the basics, I have learned from this forum, Fur-Fish-Game magazine, books and videos by Hal, Charles Dobbins, and Russ Carman, and a little bit of trial and error, so far. I am sure there is much more to be learned. *******************************************************************************
Name: tommypaul
Started trapping muskrats in high school in Ohio. We taught ourselves through trisl & error. That said, learning by trial & error, reading trapping magazines & books, later videos & dvd's has been the major source of learning. Some help from other trappers along the way. 35 years later & I'm still learning by experience.
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Name: Skipper
I started trapping the woods where I lived for coon and an ocasional Grey fox. There was no Muskrats or Mink . Mostly on my own till I bought a copy of Malcolm Locke's book THE DETAILS OF FOX TRAPPING I bought this book in 1968 and didn't catch a fox till about 1973
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Name: Hal
I started by trapping muskrats in the drainage ditches in northwestern Ohio. My dad trapped muskrats as a kid, and he got me started. From there, I had to learn on my own.


First Traps. All Trappers: Of the first 24 traps you owned, what type or types and sizes were they.

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Name: muskey
#1 vicktor long spring
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Name: Matt, AKA Haf2sell
1st purchase- #0 Victor longspring.
2nd purchase- a dozen #1 Victor longsprings.
3rd purchase (and remainer of the first 24)- a dozen #1 B&L longsprings.
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Name: Hardy
3n Victors, Newhouse #3.
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Name: dodgetrapper
Victor No. 2 square jaw, old traps and a few 1 1/2 montgumery, still love them.
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Name: Wis Trapper
My first traps consisted of 110 BG, #11 long springs, 1.5 coil springs, and 1.75 coil springs
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Name: Alec
The first ten were Duke 1-1/2's for coon and the other's were a mix of Duke #2's and Bridger #11's and #1's and Duke 220's.
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Name: tuff
My first traps were hand me downs from my father, and the neighbor kid contributed with his father's hand me downs. We started with about a dozon 110 bodygrips, 2-3 220 bodygrips, and some old victor 1 1/5s. After 2 seasons with those traps we sold enough fur to buy our own brand new traps. We went for the cheap stuff, we bought a dozen Duke 1.5, 6 Duke #2, 6 Duke 220s. We still use most the old 110s and some of the others, but our trap supply is much larger.
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Name: Skipper
My first traps were 1 doz. 1 1/2 jump traps. (There still in service)
then I bought a dozen #2 Victor Square Jaws at the prompting of a book I bought. These traps have since been moved to my Mink line.
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Name: Hal
My first traps were a few #1 longsprings that belonged to my dad. I used them on muskrats. Next I acquired a few colony traps.


Favorite Beaver Set. Beaver Trappers: What's your favorite set for beaver and how do you make it?

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Name: Flandrax
Dam Crossover. I look for where the beaver(s) are crossing over dam. I set a 330 on flooded side and on the other side of the dam. I have caught many a beaver that way. For some reason, for me,the beavers never spook this set. Maybe the beavers I have trapped are not very smart.
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Name: Dan
The underwater channel set. Find a well used channel and set a 330 or snare on the bottom right in the middle. I then float a long stick over the set to force them to dive. It is really fast and very effective. I took 10 beaver in 4 days out of one flowage and 6 of them came out of 2 channel sets.
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Name: FLSH ETR
I guess I'm a 330 man. The flowages and ponds I trap do not get deep quick enough, so I'll set a 330 bodygrip in the small sloughs they use to exit the water for food. I'll place the bodygrip on a stablizer with the entire trap under water. I'll use a cable to secure the trap to some live vegetation, first passing the cable through the stabilizer, so it doesn't get lost when the trap captures my critter. A stick from bank to bank across the water above the trap will force the beaver to dive under, right through my bodygrip. The cable, being six to eight feet long, will enable the captured beaver to float clear of the passageway for other beavers to utilize it.
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Name: muskey
caster mound set,rig your trap to a drowner.pile up abunch of mud leaves twigs, then put some caster lure on top of pile. also i put a touch of lure at waters edge. also i set the trap back away from the mound for the back foot.
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Name: jackson
I use body grips entirely, the 330 is my 'go-to' trap for quick and clean kills. I search for crossings, put fencing materials[usually dry sticks] to guide beaver to the center and, as our body grips must be completely submerged here in Missouri, I put a dive stick [somewhat larger than fencing material] across top of trap. Beaver will dive under firing the BG.
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Name: wabi
My favorite beaver set is a 3/32" 7x7 snare placed on dry land near the water on an obvious trail the beaver are using to enter/exit the water.
I use a drowning slide whenever possible, but when drowning isn't an option a well swiveled (swiveled at the loop and also at the anchor point) snare in a non-entanglement situation works well for me. I make an 8-10" loop and hang it from 2-4" off the ground (depending on the location).
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Name: Charles Sanders
My favorite is a 330 bodygrip in front of a dam crossover. Its also good for an occasional otter slipping through. I also like 330's in runs. They're good beaver sets and also take an occasional otter. When I make these I simply set my trap, stabalize it (sometimes with commercial stabalizers, often just with sticks from the dam, and then hide it good (small wax myrtle branches work good for this).
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Name: Hal
The dam crossover is one of my favorite sets for beaver. On the upper side of the dam, I'll hide a foothold trap rigged to a slide out into the pool to drown the beaver. Below the dam, in the spillway, I'll use a bodygrip trap. My second favorite set is a castor mound. I use a foothold for that set. Make the mound with a shovel full of mud about 18 inches from the water line. To measure trap placement, put your elbow against the bank just below the water level, and reach out with your hand. Where your knuckles fall, is where the trap goes. Offset it a few inches to one side. The trap should be rigged to drown the beaver in deep water.


Stretching Beaver. Beaver Trappers: How do you stretch your beaver, or do you sell them in the round, or just skinned out?

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Name: Paul Gingras
I use hoops. I don't have the luxury of being able to dry the beaver before I skin and flesh so this helps tremendously.
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Name: FLSH ETR
Email: ftc12000@yahoo.com
Topic: Stretching Beaver
I stretch my beaver pelts on the typical beaver board made from a four by eight sheet of 5/8ths plywood. Cut into thirds, three pieces will stretch six pelts, utilizing both of sides of the board. After painting all of the boards white, I used the paper pattern available from fur companies to draw the different size ovals on the board, using alternate red and black colors. I'll use beaver nails, or 8d box nails to secure the pelt to the board, choosing the closest size oval. After all nails have been installed, including those used to close the leg holes, I'll lift the pelt up from the board surface to the nail heads using a long screw driver, to ensure proper air circulation. I'll use borax on areas of the pelt where the fleshing knife didn't do its job sucessfully.
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Name: muskey
I STRETCH my beavers on plywood that marked with nafa demenison.
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Name: jackson
I sell mostly in the round, larger 40#plus beaver I will skin out, sell as is. Beaver meat and castors sometimes worth more than skins.
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Name: wabi
I'm fortunate to have a local buyer who pays well for beaver "in the round". I have skinned beaver in the past, but the option of selling "in the round" at a loss of only a few dollars per beaver is my usual choice when I'm limited on time (and I usually am limited).
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Name: Charles Sanders
I stretch mine on a board with a Canadian (oval) stretch.
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Name: Hal
I stretch on specially made 48" X 32" boards. (I used to use plywood stretchers in the same size.) I have my boards marked with oval patterns in alternating red, blue, and black line. I use four-penny nails. They drive easily because the are slender.

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