Friday, October 23, 2015

dog proof trapping, and how to kill a possum

Dog proof traps are a great way to get started, and all you will catch is raccoon and opossum, not any dogs. Setting them is simple, bait trap BEFORE setting (use tuna, small marshmallows, uncooked bacon, or they make a special DP bait called "truckload coon bait") find the place you want to set trap, like in a sand bank were you see coon tracks, and set trap. If you can’t set it with your hands, then some have special setters you can use. Push trap firmly into the ground,stake with a piece of re-bar and you are all set! (No pun intended) They are fast, easy, cheap and they work.You can get them at any of the trapping supply places mentioned in the MY FAVORITE BOOKS post. 

Last year, all I got in DPs was a possum but I did not get a picture of it. To let something go out of a dog proof, take a stick about 2’ long and put it on the animal’s neck, and with your foot pin the stick to the ground to keep the animal from biting you wile you let its foot out. Possum’s are nearly impossible to kill the normal way (shooting through the head) but shooting in the body through the lungs will kill them faster. I remember one time I had a possum in a cage trap, and to kill it I shot it with my pellet gun in the head 4 times (a dose which I killed a coon with once) and left it all night in 30 degree weather to bleed out, and the next morning he was still there, alive! My grandpa had to impale it twice to with a 1" thick iron pole kill it. That goes to say how hard they are to kill. They can also swim pretty good too, but in a cage trap you can drown them in about 5 minutes. Another way that I read that you can kill opossum is to knock it unconscious with a tap to the head, lay it on its stomach, and put a 2’ stick on their neck, stand on both ends, and jerk it sharply up by its tail, breaking its neck. That is really all I have, and I am sure that there are many other tricks, I just don’t know them, but you now know how to set a DP, good baits, and how to kill a possum.
Have fun,
Caleb


Monday, October 19, 2015

Some Of My Favorite Books



In this post, I figured that I would share the books that I got (or get) valuable information from.
I will write out a list and tell what they are by category, because there are a few that are just good reads. Here they are.

Books Just For Reading:

The Deer Pasture

Undaunted Courage, this is a book on the Lewis and Clark expedition, it has a lot of facts, 500 pages

Boy Scouts in a Trappers Camp, this one’s great, and any other by Burgess will be good too

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

TRAPPING INFO BOOKS:

The Trap Collector’s Guide, this one by Parr and Andreski is a book I look through 3 times a day. It’s worth the price tag, and I like it even better because I met Tom Parr! (my favorite book).

Any books by S. Stanley Hawbaker have some of the best sets and information there is.

If you can find it, the Fur Trapper by Edward Phetteplace is good too.

Trapline 2000 by Hal Sullivan has some good modern information, and I have not read any of his other books, they should be good.

The Trapper’s Bible is an old book. It has great drawings, and advice from over 20 different trappers. However, some of it is hard or probably would not work.

MAGAZINES
American Frontiersman - this is a twice a year magazine that is worth all of the ten dollars it costs. There are articles on hunting, trapping, building, and a lot of other great stuff.

Backwoodsman - printed 6 times a year, this magazine is good for ideas of things to do, and it does interviews with some survival experts often.

Fur-Fish-Game one of the oldest best magazines ever printed, just go ahead and get a 17.99 subscription, its worth it. In it you will find trapping, hunting and fishing (hence the name), with articles by Tom Parr, and Hal Sullivan.

Trappers World owned by Tom Parr, this magazine stands right up there with FFG.


TRAPPING SUPPLY PLACES
www.thesnareshop.com  sells fishing stuff too!
www.minntrapprod.com  this website has trapping info, trapping supplys, and if you make a order over $50.00, you get a free gift!
www.rpoutdoors.com  a great place, it is where I ordered from for a long time.

These are the places I order from, there are more not listed and that is all for this post.

Have fun reading, Caleb

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