not a trapper, but would like to start, i have a few q's. help please?

I AM the foxpro

New member
ok, ive NEVER trapped in my life at all, i generally want to trap for foxes and coyotes. and bobcats at my house in the adirondacks. where can i get traps? what kind of traps should i get? how big? what kind of bait? and the most important is kinda stupid but i have to know. how do you dispatch the animal? i understand you gotta shoot it but do you walk up to it and put one in thehead or what?
 
Foxpro -- go to www.sullivansline.com. this guy sells traps and has a few forums. also www.trapperman.com. i can not stress enough on getting some books like bernie Barringers Farmland trapping, it covers a lot of animals in one book and he makes sense. get some books before you buy traps. read Russ Carman, Charles Dobbins, Hal Sullivan, Tom Miranda, for just a few. hope this helps.
 
Foxpro I would suggest you think about buying or renting a video called cannines 2ooo by Hal Sullivan. It costs about 29.00 from any trapping supply house but it will pay for itself in spades. It has a super section on how to adjust and modify traps like professional trappers do, discusses sizes of traps and shows actual construction of sets and set placement. Where to position traps at your sets for different animals. It will save you 10 years of trying to learn on your own. Once you can catch a fox you can catch any animal out there. The basics of land trappinp are the same such as set construction, bedding your trap, and actual placement of traps. Books are good but a picture is worth a thousand words. Good luck and keep your skinning knife sharp.
 
Good advice given so far - I would like to add a couple more videos that you might want to watch - Leggett's Trapping fox by the thousands - This is a great video that shows location - location - location. Then there are the videos by J.C.Conners - any of them are good - I have the flat sets - alot of information and good blending techniques. You can never stop learning - these videos will help your learning curve alot! Good luck!
 
Foxpro usually to dispatch an animal if I am keeping the fur, I rap them with a stick along the snout between the eyes to knock them out. Then I stomp on their heart area. This stops their heart and dispatches them immediatly. If you shoot them then you have to contend with blood on the fur and holes. If I am just doing predator control and not worried about fur I shoot them with a 22 between the eyes.
 
For coon, skunk, opposum, fox, otter, and bobcats use #1 1/2 or #2 traps. #2's are good all around traps and I like the Victors. I use double long springs and coil type traps. #2's will often break the legs of fox, but are not too much of a problem. If you are going after coyotes, I would move up to #3 or #4's.

Even when after fur, I always use a .22 to dispatch the animal. If you use CB shorts, there is usually not exit on head shots. Knocking them on the head with a stick often creates more mess than the .22. To me, the .22 is better, and you don't run the risk of having to hit the animal several times to knock him out. A crushed skull makes a mess when you are skinning it out.

Bait depends on what you are after. If you are after coons, sardines are the best bait around. Sardines will catch just about anything out there. When I am after coon, which is usually the most abundant and valuable furbearer in my area, I usually use water sets and sardines. With water sets you rarely catch anything other than coons. I have caught the occasional oppusum or otter. If you use dirt holes or other land sets using sardines, expect to catch a lot of skunks and opposums, not to mention dogs and house cats. I have caught bobcats using sardines as well. If you are after fox, coyote, or bobcat, I would recommend using urine and gland lures. For fox, fox urine is hard to beat. You can use meat such as rabbit or rat in addition to the urine and gland lure. Using bird feathers is very effective on bobcats.
 
I hate to shoot my catches because of the mess when skinning and transporting. For fox I stun them with a light crack on the middle of the muzzle, then I bend the head back to break the neck. This is a quick way to put the fox down. The coons and coyotes I stun them or just go ahead and suffocate them with my foot. The cats I put down by using the catch pole, instead of releasing it I pull it tighter and they are done in about 25 seconds. I used to thump the skunks but now I just shoot them.T.20
 
wow, after seeing all this, it makes me not want to trap, now im not an antihunter or anything of the sort, but that is inhumane in my books and im sure i speak for many other people. i just couldnt walk up to a live animal and just beat it in the head and stomp it to death, i would really get messed up. cant you just simply put a 22 to the back of the head, it would be a hell of alot quicker and less morally painful.
 
Foxpro, trapping can be a wonderful way to learn animal habits and a real challenge. It also is not the most humane way of taking these animals. But it is the best and most cost effective predator control measure. There is nothing friendly abought a leg hold trap. I personaly haven't trapped in 20 years other than to help a friend of mine occasionally who contracts with the state for doing predator control when he has to be gone. I quit trapping because it does not give me any personal satisfaction. I do not enjoy seeing a animal trapped or dispatching them in any manor. That said some of the ways described here of dispatching an animal may sound cruel and inhumane but in reality you may find are the quickest and best way of doing this with the least amount of trauma to the animal. Do you think that coyote or fox you catch in a trap is just going to stand there and give you a nice clean shot? Anyway give trapping a try it is something that I feel should be learned. And love it or hate it at least you will know what its about.
 
i don't know but it sounds like i'm in the minority, i usually catch around 250-400 animals in traps every fur season, anything that is alive is shot in the brain with a 22 cal pistol i carry, i've never had a problem with set contamination on my canine line by doing this. most of the time with fox, bobcats and coyotes they will jump around when you aproach them, but they will usually settle down quickly so that you can shoot them in the head and kill them quickly. i suppose you could make it as brutal as you wanted to, but for me the quickest and easiest way to dispatch an animal in a trap is a bullet. if killing the animal bothers you, you could use conibear traps, or drowners, then the animal will be dead when you get to your set, but as far as i know you ain't going to catch any canines in conibears or drowning sets, but snares do a pretty decent job of dispatching fox and coyote if you neck snare the animal in an entanglement situation. don't give up on trapping we need new blood to keep the sport alive, i always try to respect the life of the animal that i am harvesting, and i try to do it as humanely as possible, feel free to email me with any more questions. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Foxpro, I guess if you put a lot of animals down you will see a head shot is not always a sure thing. Not many things are. The methods I mentioned are almost as fast and a cleaner kill for me. No matter how you put an animal down it still takes a few seconds for the heart to stop.
I use these methods because I feel they are humane and quick. Killing the animal is never fun for me, it is the hardest part of the fur harvesting. I never beat an animal to death, it could be the longest way to kill an animal. The tap on the bridge of the nose that I was talking about usually does not give them even a bloody nose.T.20
 
I would like to apologize for my first post, it does sound graffic and somewhat harsh. I was just trying to answer a question that was posed. The method I use is done so due to many years of experiance and trapping many animals and searching and being shown by helpful people what works best for them. The method I use I guess could be thought of as beating an animal to death, but I use it because it is fast and the most humane method I have found. that includes shooting them in the head with a gun. As Tactical .20 stated this is not a sure thing and that is what I found. I also stun them by hitting them along the snout. this does not crush the scull or as he stated usually even give them a nose bleed. It does stun them however. I then step on the heart area to stop the heart. All of this takes about 3 seconds and the animal is dead. Even when I shoot them in the head I still do this last step and if you shoot enough of them you will find out why just as I did. I was just trying to pass along some wisdom as many did for me when I was trying to learn. I apologize if I offended anyone.
 
I have to agree with cwhain.

Tactical- Could you explian

I hate to shoot my catches because of the mess when skinning and transporting. For fox I stun them with a light crack on the middle of the muzzle, then I bend the head back to break the neck. This is a quick way to put the fox down. The coons and coyotes I stun them or just go ahead and suffocate them with my foot. The cats I put down by using the catch pole, instead of releasing it I pull it tighter and they are done in about 25 seconds. I used to thump the skunks but now I just shoot them.T.20
I'm not sure I understand your post. You start off saying you hate to shoot them and end by saying you used to thump the skull, now you just shoot them. Although, I know people who have used the "heart stomp", I have not used it myself. Chicken I guess. Surely you stun the coyote before the stomp? I would think stunning would be required before stepping on anything from a coon on up. Even 'ol 'possum can give a nasty bite.

I'll stick to the .22, especiall since I use a lot of non-drowning water sets where you can not often get close for a stomp or clear club swing.
 
Yellowhammer:

I believe Tac.20 was saying he used to thump skunks , but now just shoots skunks.

Other than shooting, the other common method is to use a needle with a killing fluid injected into the skunks lungs. Quick and usually scentless. (takes about 10-15 seconds for skunk to expire) Done with a syringe on a pole.

Modern traps have done much to improve them and make them more humane. Items such as laminating the jaws and proper swiveling help a bunch. The size of the trap and how it is adjusted make a big difference. Strong springs are better than weaker springs.

Cruel ? Have you seen how these animals die "in the wild" ? Get a good look at a mangy fox or coyote. No, it's not for everyone, but neither is hunting.
 
hey if any of guys catch me in your trap give me the old .22 in the head i don't want the head thump or the neck break, question i'm kind of new to this forum do any anti's ever cause any problems in any of these forums? I know that everyone has their own way of doing things, but maybe we should watch what we say so that it doesn't end up as ammunition for an anti trapping group. just my thoughts hope i didn't offend anyone. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
YHammer, yes if the yote can turn his head to the place where I would put my foot I will stun him first. I always put the trowel over his neck to keep him from reaching my ankle. Coons are not much of a problem, unless they are the 30 pounders. I used to thump the skunks from about 5-6 ft away, now I just shoot them. Grinners are a joke as far as fighting back, I just shoot them because I don't take them home anyway.
I get few skunks now that I went to a 3# pan tension. I tried the skunk pole method, it works good if you want to avoid the skunk from spraying. It seemed to take longer for them to go under, I might of not done it right or something? T.20
 
Tac .20- Sorry, I misread your earlier post. You clearly said thump skunks. I read thump "SKULLS". Must have been late, yea that's what it was....

I usually shoot skunks with a lung shot. Don't ask me why, but skunks shot in the head will often spray, but skunks shot with a lung shot seldom do. Read about this method in the "Trappers Handbook" by RicK Jamison, so I tried it and it seems to work. It's not 100% of the time, but much better than head shots. About 10 yards is as close as I ever wanted to get to a skunk.
 
thanks, i now see why you guys use these methods. and i totally understand, im sorry if i offended anyone or anything of the sort. and i know how the animals die in the wild. thats what i tell people that ask me about hunting. i think ill start trapping but with a .22 lr. now what do i need to get started? both me and my grandfather are new to trapping so i need lots of info. also can you guys post pics of different traps. like the snares and conibears you guys mentioned. thanks for clearin all this stuff up. i think i will enjoy trapping. thanks again.
 
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