by Tim MacWelch
COYOTE
Looks similar to fox droppings, but twice the size. Large foxes and small coyotes have very similar scats.
SKUNK
Uneven, and highly variable.
GOOSE
Tubular, like raccoon scat, but more slender. These scats are entirely plant material, often with some whitish coloring like bird and reptile droppings.
RAT
Dark brown or black, like large grains of rice.
GROUNDHOG
These round or oval pellets, composed of plant material, can be found on the dirt mound outside their den or inside the den.
PORCUPINE
Various shapes and full of plant material and bark pulp.
RABBIT
Small, round pellets of finely chewed plant material. This scat can be flattened and several colors, from greenish to tan or brown.
CHIPMUNK
Similar to rat scat, but more uneven.
DEER
These pellets are highly variable. Some are round and others are tapered. They’re generally found in a small pile and are full of vegetative materials.
054 LEARN TO TRAP
Hunting and trapping have a lot in common. They each consist of broad skill sets that allow you to collect animals for food (or other uses, like fur). Traps are the satellite hunters that you can place across the landscape to catch your food for you while you hunt or do other tasks elsewhere.
Some animals are legal to trap in any fashion, while others may have a limited range of harvesting methods in certain areas. But sometimes the rules go out the window; when you or your family start going hungry, you’ll be very glad to have trapping skills to add to your food-gathering strategies.
Most traps are activated in one of these two ways—learn how they work, and you’ll be able to pick the right one for your situation.
TRAPS
BAIT DRIVEN
EXAMPLES
These traps use bait to entice an animal into activating a trigger. The animal may have to pull or push the bait to set off the trap; other traps fire when the animal steps near the bait. These are often successful traps, as the scent of the bait lures in animals that might otherwise pass by.
TRAPS
TRAVEL DRIVEN
EXAMPLES
Set to engage when an animal travels through a specific area, this type of trap relies on you knowing the animal’s typical habits (snares placed on animal runs are a common example).
055 SELECT YOUR TRAP
While you can build effective low-tech traps with materials you’d find in the wilderness, in some situations it just makes sense to use more modern options, such as cable snares, leghold traps, and body-grip traps to improve your odds of success. Choose from the following trap types, based on your needs and the animals in your area.
SNARES You can build primitive snares with materials gathered on-site, even weaving your own string out of bark fibers—but many animals will be able to chew through string. Cable snares made from braided steel cable are more secure.
FOOTHOLD TRAPS Common foothold traps are clamping jaws that grab an animal when it steps on the trigger. They do not kill the prey outright; the trapped animal is usually shot by the trapper.
BODY-GRIP TRAPS Two heavy springs move the trap bars together, snapping the animal’s neck, breaking its back, or strangling it. They can be treacherous to set.
LIVE-CATCH TRAPS The typical cage trap is a live-catch trap. This forgiving trap allows you to release animals that you didn’t intend to catch and is ideal for urban, suburban, or farm settings.
056 OBEY THE LAWS
The art of trapping is a legal method of taking wild game in many areas, but it doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you like. Local areas have their own regulations about the practices of trapping, and they may be very different from another region. Rather than worrying about the history and politics behind those regulations, it’s better to simply obey them. Those laws are generally in place for a good reason, and unless it’s an emergency situation, they apply to you. Learn what you are required to do when trapping, so you don’t run afoul of the game wardens.
GET A LICENSE Many areas require them, and they’re generally inexpensive and good for a year.
GET PERMISSION If you are trapping on private land that you do not own, get a signed letter that grants you permission to trap. Be specific in the letter to avoid misunderstandings.
OBEY THE SEASON Certain animals are only legal to trap at certain times. If you start trapping too early in the season, or your traps are still set after the season is over, then you are in violation.
CHECK YOUR GAME Most areas require that you “check” your trapped game, both to observe your personal limits on taking the animals and to keep count of the trapping in the region. Take the animal to an authorized game-checking station so they can verify the species and other information. In most areas, catching animals without verification by the game authorities is considered poaching.
VISIT YOUR TRAPS DAILY Some areas require this daily walk of your trap line; regardless of the rules, it’s a good trapping practice.
057 HIDE YOUR SCENT WITH NATURE
It’s hard to trick an animal’s nose. Although trappers may use many different types of traps to catch a meal, they all have the same problem: They’ve got human scent smeared all over them. Trapping is never as much about fooling an animal’s eyes or ears as it is about fooling the nose. To have any luck when dealing with wild animals, you’ll need to remove as much human scent from your traps and your skin as possible. De-scent everything—and often—until you set the trap on your trap line. Try these steps to de-scent your traps with elements from nature itself.
STEP 1 To de-scent your hands before handling or making trap parts, start by washing them in the local waterway. Use sand, clay, mud, or silt as an abrasive and oil absorber.
STEP 2 As your hands and any trap parts dry, wipe on powdered black charcoal from the campfire. Don’t use the white or gray ashes, just grind black charcoal chunks into a powder and apply.
STEP 3 Now layer on a strong-smelling local plant as another cover scent (see item 058). Just make sure you stay out of the poison ivy, poison oak, and sumac!
STEP 4 The final touch on this layering system is fresh, damp local dirt. Rub it generously on your hands and the trap parts as a final cover scent and odor absorber.
058 GET CREATIVE WITH COVER SCENTS
The rich smells of plants are a normal part of a terrestrial animal’s daily life. They smell crushed pine needles when they step on them in the forest. They smell the wild onions when they brush against them in the field. If these smell strong to us, imagine how intense these odors are to the animals. Use these strong-smelling, local, nontoxic plants on your skin and your traps—it’ll just smell like everyday life for the animals.
PLANT
PINE NEEDLES
HOW TO USE
Evergreen needles can be chopped or crushed to release the strong pine resins and oils.
PLANT
MINT LEAVES AND STEMS
HOW TO USE
The entire plant can be rubbed to spread their mentholated oils.
PLANT
ONIONS AND GARLICS
HOW TO USE
While not generally food for animals, their sulfurous stink can help to turn the animals into food for us.
PLANT
YARROW LEAVES
HOW TO USE
These feathery leaves can be bruised to release their piney oils and resins.
PLANT
WINTERCRESS AND WILD MUSTARDS
HOW TO USE
Crush the leaves for a strong scent that is short-lived but pungent.
059 TRAP LIKE A PRO
The complex art form of trapping has been practiced for millennia, and experience has taught us plenty. The next time you’re out trapping, review and remember the following tips. Put them into action, and greatly improve your results.
TOP TRAPPING TIPS
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sp; ROTATE YOUR BAIT Meat and other perishable baits may need to be replaced daily. And don’t bait with something that is already available (like corn in the cornfield or acorns near oaks).
PROTECT YOUR TRAP Ants, mice, little birds, and other bait stealers can pick the bait clean in a jiffy; try to set the trap out of their reach.
LOSE THE STINK De-scent in order to get the animals to approach your trap (see item 57).
BE PREPARED Any given bait may catch a variety of animals. Make sure that the trap is strong enough for the biggest animal you might catch.
JOIN THE RESISTANCE When setting a fixed snare, make sure the animal can’t tear it loose from its point of attachment, and put a swivel in the line so the rolling and flipping animal can’t kink and break it.
AIM HIGH With snares involving spring poles or other methods of lifting an animal in the air, make sure there’s enough lifting power to get the heaviest member of that species off the ground—and high enough to be out of the reach of scavengers like coyotes, at least 5 feet (1.5 m) up.
060 FIND THE RIGHT BAIT
Trapping requires focused preparation. When you begin a new trap line, you should choose the right bait for each trap. Sure, cheese or peanut butter will work on a mousetrap, but what if you’re not after mice? You often need very specific baits depending on your goals (meat, fur, predator reduction)—which is why the knowledge of trap baiting is such an important part of the overall art of trapping.
HERBIVORES
There are plenty of vegetarian baits to choose from. Groundhogs go for sweet apples cut into pieces so their fragrance is released. Squirrels are very fond of whole peanuts, and they have a hard time resisting crushed sweet pecans and hickories. Just don’t try using them under a tree full of those nuts. The animals won’t go for the human-tainted bait when there is plenty of the same food lying nearby.
CARNIVORES
Meat eaters tend to have specific tastes. Coyotes love beaver meat. Foxes love rotten, hard-boiled eggs. Mink, ermine, and fisher cats love fish. Bobcats love fresh organ meat like liver and lung. You can also use various scent baits—it doesn’t have to be food. Coyote and beaver scent can be used for coyotes. And coon urine can be a useful cover scent against other animals, as well as for attracting raccoons.
OMNIVORES
Omnivores, by definition, will eat anything. This can make them either easier or harder to bait. For raccoons, you can use canned tuna or sardines. The fouler and cheaper the fish are, the better. You can often trap for raccoons alongside creeks and streams, pouring the tuna juice into the creek so they’ll follow the smell to get their treat. Possums love lunch meat, hot dogs, and other processed meats.
061 LEARN YOUR FOOTHOLDS
Foothold traps date back as far as the 16th century, and are the only sensible method for trapping larger animals. Historically, even bears were trapped with super-sized (and toothed) clamping jaws. While the toothed versions of these traps are rarely legal, smaller smooth-jawed traps can allow you to trap furbearers, game-meat animals, and dangerous predators successfully. Check out this array of footholds and track down the one that’s right for your needs.
TRAP
DOG-PROOF TRAP
QUARRY
Raccoons and opossums; excludes all canines and most other animals.
NOTES
Protects pets; larger versions can be used to catch small primates who will reach in for the bait.
The modern style uses small—but powerful—coiled springs to close its jaws.
TRAP
COIL-SPRING TRAP
QUARRY
Vast number of options, from small mink to large coyotes.
NOTES
Protects pets; larger versions can be used to catch small primates who will reach in for the bait.
The modern style uses small—but powerful—coiled springs to close its jaws.
TRAP
LONG-SPRING TRAP
QUARRY
Also good for everything from small mink all the way up to large coyotes.
NOTES
Powered by one or two flat springs; stronger than a coil spring, but requires a wider hole.
062 KNOW THE WHOLE TRUTH
More than any other trapping method, foothold trapping has been responsible for negative stereotypes and unfavorable reactions from nontrappers throughout the last hundred years. Here are some of the common misconceptions about this method and the mechanisms that make it happen.
MYTH
FOOTHOLD TRAPS ARE DANGEROUS TO HUMANS AND KILL PETS.
TRUTH
Smaller traps could break someone’s toes if they hit it in bare feet, but only the largest footholds could injure a person in boots. If your pet steps in the trap, the jaws can be pried open by hand.
MYTH
FOOTHOLDS CATCH MORE “INNOCENT” NONTARGET ANIMALS THAN THEIR INTENDED QUARRY.
TRUTH
This is simply not the case. These traps are set in specific ways, with species-targeting baits and setups, which minimizes the chances of catching the “wrong” animal.
MYTH
FOOTHOLDS ARE CRUEL AND TORTURE THE ANIMAL.
TRUTH
When a foothold trap catches an animal’s leg, the pressure from both sides of the trap will cause the foot to go numb, much like your leg falling asleep when you’ve sat on it too long.
MYTH
FOOTHOLD TRAPS ARE OUTDATED AND ANTIQUATED.
These traps are constantly being redesigned for effectiveness. Yes, antique traps may be substandard, but purchasing new traps will get you the best there’ve ever been.
063 SET AN EFFECTIVE FOOTHOLD
For the best chance of success, place your foothold traps logically and carefully, considering your target animal’s haunts, habits, and favorite foods. Here are three classic sets that you can use to catch a wide range of game animals.
FLAT SET The flat set is a lightly buried foothold with a nearby scent stake. Lay down a small tarp to work on and to collect excess dirt. Dig a small, shallow depression, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) deeper than the trap is tall, and stake the trap to the ground with a chain and swivel inside the hole. Place a sheet of wax paper over the set trap to keep dirt from filling the space under the pan trigger. Lightly bury the trap and drive in the scent stake nearby. Use logs, rocks, clumps of vegetation, or anything else to create a fence or funnel to direct the animal to step on your trap. You could also dangle a bird wing or feathers near the trap to attract bobcats (where legal).
DIRT-HOLE BANK SET Find a dirt bank, stream bank, logging road cut, or a similar location. Drive a stake into the bank to create a hole that resembles a small rodent hole. Poke some bait deep into the hole with a twig, and place some freshly dug dirt below the hole to mimic a recent animal excavation. Set your foothold as you would with a flat set. For best results, know the distance from the target animal’s nose to its front feet, and place the trap that far from the fake rodent hole. Then figure out half of the width between its feet, and go to the right or left by that much. These measurements tell you how far out and how far to the side to place the trap so that the animal steps right into it.
WATERLINE POCKET SET Excavate a bigger fake animal burrow right at the waterline (or use an existing one), and you can let a very small amount of water (instead of dirt) camouflage the foothold.
064 TAKE CARE WITH BODY GRIPS
Body-gripping traps (also known as conibear traps) are some of the most devastating traps you’ll ever set. Think of them as giant rat traps without the attached board. They can be set in a remarkable variety of ways, horizontally and vertically, on land and underwater. Many sizes are available, from small single-spring traps to huge double-spring traps that are downright frightening to set. Here’s what to use for your desired prey.
TRAP
SMALL-BODY GRIPS
QUARRY
Weasels, muskrats, minks, martins, fishers, and rats
NOTES
These start small, at 4-inch (10-cm) jaw spread
s.
TRAP
MEDIUM AND LARGE BODY GRIPS
QUARRY
Opossum, raccoons, skunks, bobcats, foxes, groundhogs, otter, and smaller coyotes
NOTES
These pose a greater risk to trappers, as the larger springs store up more energy when set; these are the most likely to catch pets.
065 SAFELY SET A BODY GRIP
The most important part of the trap is the safety clip on each spring, because your safety is always paramount. Get to know this strong little metal hook; it’s meant to hold the springs of the trap in a closed position while you set the “dog” (the trigger). When the safety clips are properly engaged, the trap cannot close on your hand or body. Carefully follow these steps to get it right.