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Author
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Topic: 24 Hour Trap Check
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 09, 2007 09:33 PM
TA,
Thanks for the offer. ![[Smile]](smile.gif) Tim Behle had a bunch too and made the same deal.
I have 20 wire stretchers now, and a few of the wood ones I made.
I'll be stoked when I've got all of them full, at once, and need more!
It's actually cool that I have the wooden stretcher boards. A few of the rats I've caught this week, have had cuts in them, big enough that I had to pin them shut (it seemed easier than trying to sew them?).
I'm getting a really good handle, on how hard I can handle the 'rats when I'm skinning them.
It's way more of a "fingers and thumbs" peeling job, than knifework, now.
Norm,
Thanks for followin' along.
It's amazing the things a guy can learn "on the job", all day today things I learned yesterday helped.
(I'm using a lot more guiding sticks than before, "fencing" the entrance to a set and blocking alternate routes)
I went and pulled a bunch of my colony traps off the first place, and moved them to the new place.
Some of the ditches are DEEP!!! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Good thing I wear chest waders... but I ain't very tall, so I still gotta "stay in the shallow end of the pool".
At the first place, I never did find a bank or den hole.
Now I've got three traps set directly over holes, just in a 100 yard stretch of one ditch.
I'm gonna have to make a bunch more traps. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
I caught another housecat today, at first we thought he was a big ol' possum, and Red was all ready to "euthanize" him, Behle style! (*Only with less firepower, and no running)
When I leaned into the cubby in the brush to let him go, he durn near ran over me getting out of the cage.
Next time I'll drag the cage out and point it in a safe direction, before firing a cat (or anybody else alive) out of it. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
So far everyone else I'd let go crawled out slowly, or had to be forced to go.
Krusty 
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 10, 2007 11:00 PM
On the job training paid off. 
We caught three nice beavers today!
Fred and I are splitting what we catch.
I thought that meant sharing all the work, and splitting the selling price? But like he told me today, "He agreed to teach me to trap beaver, not to finish and market fur".
Since it's my area, he let me pick the first one (telling me I wanted the big one), and I got the third one too.
Next one is his, and so on. Same for any otters or any other "incidentals" we might catch.
The biggest one was 55 pounds, the other one I got 40 pounds, and the one Fred took was real close in size to the 40 pounder (I dunno if he weighed it?).
We came up short one conibear trap making today's check, instead of a chain Fred's using a cable with a tree-lock on the end, and somehow it got unclipped (*though I could swear there's a re-bar stake missing too).
I'll keep looking for it, (if there's somebody in it) eventually it'll pop up, no matter what.
When I skinned the second one I used Lance's advice, on skinning the face, starting inside the mouth and working it back up and over the nose and lower jaw.
We also got it skinned a lot "cleaner" then the first one, in about half the time.
I think it worked out really well, to learn on muskrats, and apply those trapping and furhandling skills to beavers next.
Red (my brother) saved a bunch of meat, for stew, they're having a potluck dinner after the fur sale.
Seems like as gooda time as any, to give it a try?
Red's still pissed about the "deer roast" he thawed out, only to find that it had muskrat feet when he opened the ziploc bag... he shoulda known, we never put deer in ziplocs.
Everytime I ask him if we should try cookin' up a hunk of muskrat, he just says something I won't bother to type.
Fred and my Dad got some photos, I'll post them as soon as I can.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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wdhunt40
Knows what it's all about
Member # 184
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posted February 11, 2007 09:26 AM
Krusty are you speaking of the Major Fred? And I do not know how I missed you at this years rondezous in Chelan.
Wayne
Posts: 11 | From: cheney wa. | Registered: Apr 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 12, 2007 09:11 PM
We caught a four foot otter, and another beaver! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
I can barely sleep at night, but working and trapping makes me have to sleep some.
I can't wait to get there each morning, and see what's in store for us.
I'm starting to put the sets Fred built, back together after a catch, that steepens the learning curve a whole bunch more.
My dad gave me the photo CD, but I'm too tired to deal with uploading and posting pics tonight (and my current connection is 16k, so it'd take all night).
Wayne,
I know Fred was in the Marines, but I don't know what rank?
There's some photos of him in the recent WSTA newsletter.
Yes, I do realize what a priveledge it is, to have him teaching me.
I wish I'd known you were going to be at the rondy, I might have bothered to make myself more visable.
It's probably hard for some of you guys to believe... but in real life, I am shy and reserved, and pretty much keep to myself around people I don't know.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted February 13, 2007 04:40 AM
AN OTTER!!!
That is way too cool!!
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted February 13, 2007 08:11 AM
quote:
AN OTTER!!!
That is way too cool!!
I was thinking the same thing. Good going, K.
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31535 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Norm
Knows what it's all about
Member # 240
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posted February 13, 2007 11:31 AM
Magnificent.... Congratulations on the progress and the success.
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Carpe Diem
Posts: 778 | From: Phx AZ | Registered: Oct 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 14, 2007 02:31 PM
Thanks everyone!
We're up to six beavers, my last one weighs 68#.
Fred got one close to that big today too.
I also caught a mink yesterday, in one of my raccoon cages.
It was so cute I almost let it go... almost.
It's almost jet black, with a little beige patch on the chin.
My dad says he'll get it taxidermied for me, in trade for the hides to make his beaver vest.
Wayne,
You know Fred, but he didn't know who you could be, by your first name and location alone.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Norm
Knows what it's all about
Member # 240
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posted February 14, 2007 04:38 PM
Congrats on the Mink...
are you using a neck noose or something to dispatch them out of these cages?
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Carpe Diem
Posts: 778 | From: Phx AZ | Registered: Oct 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 14, 2007 09:21 PM
Ooops, typo... the beaver weighed 58#.
Norm,
I'm using the creek, and just throwing the cage in.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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JD
HONORARY OKIE .... and Tim's at fault!
Member # 768
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posted February 14, 2007 10:22 PM
Wow, sounds like you`re doing a heck of a job krusty, way to go!
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Jason
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What do Obama & TA17Rem have in common........both are clueless asshats!!!
Posts: 1456 | From: NE. | Registered: Dec 2005
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JoeF
resides "back east"
Member # 228
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posted February 15, 2007 05:21 AM
Krusty, I'm envious of what you're getting to do now. I still consider the time I spent trapping as a youngster some of the best time I've ever spent in thte woods.
Just a thought on the rats with the small cuts. Are you getting them drowned good and quick?
Congrat's on the otter.
I have the distinction of running over one on the highway in the early 80's some small number of days after its' release in to the wild as part of a reintroduction effort. The conservation department wasn't real proud of me.
Most of the people I talk to now wish that I would have ran over them all. They are thick now.
Enjoy it, man!
Posts: 646 | From: Midwest | Registered: Aug 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 15, 2007 10:37 AM
JD,
I'm mostly riding Fred's coat tails.
The place is crawling with beavers (and otter), so I'd have eventually caught some by myself, they're not like coyotes, lol.
But it's like having them handed to me, and getting to see how he gets them on the platter too.
When we get to hauling heavy stuff, go get me some cottonwood sticks, or wading in deep, that's when I really do a good job.
It's hard to feel like I'm bringing enough to the table, to deserve half of what we get.
Joe,
I said to Fred the other day, "Wow, thanks man, this is one of the best days I ever spent in the woods".
It's a huge shame that I had to wait until mid-life to ever get involved.
What a great way for a kid to learn responsibilty and respect, for the land and it's owners, and the animals that live on it.
And the responsibilty of sticking to a task, no matter what.
Dealing with the disappointment of hard work unrewarded, in hopes of a pay-off somewhere down the line.
Hopefully I still have a lot of time ahead of me, to keep doing this, it suits me pretty well and I really enjoy doing it.
On the rats with cuts...
One of the got hit in the neck, with the trigger on the conibear, the other two were in colony traps.
One of them had several old cuts, a couple quite large.
And the last one had a fresh rip in it's knee, probably from the lifting the door, as it got caught on top of it.
Those will be the ones I save for garment use, everybody in the family wants something made from some of the fur.
_________________________________________________
Okay picture time...
Here's the otter, up close and personal;
My first two beavers, seriously;
And my Dad, in the before picture... after will be in his beaver vest;
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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JD
HONORARY OKIE .... and Tim's at fault!
Member # 768
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posted February 15, 2007 03:05 PM
Your first beaver is certainly something you`ll remember
On a serious note...Think of how much you learned from these guys about trapping & skinning over the internet & then compare that to having someone there to teach you in person & then consider that you`ve been blessed with both, you`re a fortunate soul to say the least, you`ve been flooded with several lifetimes worth of knowledge & it sure seems to be paying off, just think what could happen if you would stumble across someone who would take you under his wing for some coyote calling, you`d be unstoppable, hell, they`d probably even write songs about you, keep up the good work!!
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Jason
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What do Obama & TA17Rem have in common........both are clueless asshats!!!
Posts: 1456 | From: NE. | Registered: Dec 2005
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted February 16, 2007 03:32 AM
quote:
I said to Fred the other day, "Wow, thanks man, this is one of the best days I ever spent in the woods".
It's a huge shame that I had to wait until mid-life to ever get involved.
What a great way for a kid to learn responsibilty and respect, for the land and it's owners, and the animals that live on it.
And the responsibilty of sticking to a task, no matter what.
People have been asking me for years why it is that I love to trap so much, but I think you just explained it better than I ever have.
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Alaskan Yoter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 169
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posted February 16, 2007 05:47 PM
Hey Jeff, looks like your have'n a good ole time down there trapp'n the fur.
Uh........nice beavers dude! And an even nicer otter ya got there.
Be safe,
Todd
Posts: 235 | From: Wasilla, Alaska | Registered: Mar 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted February 17, 2007 05:03 PM
Krusty, I wanted to thank you for your trapping posts. Since I haven't been able to plant steel in a few years I've been able to vicariously run your line thru your posts. Kind of neat & I don't get wet!!!! Keep on keepn' on.
Are you going to be at the WST fur sale next week??
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7619 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 17, 2007 08:31 PM
We're up to nine beavers, and 3 otters!
I'm still working at the place I trap (with my brother), mending fences, so it makes going from the trapline to work easy.
My Dad found a guy (friend of the guy who's always done the deerskins) who's going to teach us to clean skin and flesh a beaver in 20 minutes.
I have to wait until next Friday to get the seal on my (first) otter, it's too warm to hold it that long, and I had to freeze it.
So I took one of the scapels I got, and I started at the gumline, and skinned to it's eye... just like I knew what I was doing!
It helped that the otter's head is flat, and his eye was close to the upper jaw, but it's also that I've gotten a pretty good feel for what the knife is up against.
There's no way in the world I'd have believed someone, if they told me ten years ago, what I'd be doing today. No way.
I'da choked on my granola bar!
JD,
You'll probably like Red's joke;
He sticks his finger in the mouth of the beaver carcass, wiggling the tounge back and forth... and he says "Hey check it out, for the first time ever, the beaver licked ME!
Back to the serious notes, I agree that with trapping I have been blessed by the information available on the internet, and in real life.
I couldn't be more thankful.
(*Note: I might be able to eventually call a coyote, if I'd go out and try again. I haven't made a predator stand since I shot my buck last Nov)
Tim,
I've also been blessed, to have had some excellent English teachers.
All I can hope, is that someday I am able to form sets, and stands, the way I can form sentences.
Todd,
I am having fun trapping. Ya know what else I been having fun doing the last week or so?
Making calls again.
Kokopelli,
The pleasure, in sharing, has been all mine.
I feel like I owe some of the fun I am having, back to Huntmasters.
I had given up on fighting the state to give me a trapping license, or trying to deal with the WSTA.
But you guys made me see that I was missing out, by not pursuing it.
Heck, Tim wasn't going to take no for an answer, and he wasn't going to give up, until I had a WSTA membership card in my wallet, and I posted pictures of critters in traps (and I'm pretty sure he ain't gonna give up on my hopes of eventually getting a coyote).
In answer to your question, yes, I am going to be at the fur sale. Wild horses couldn't keep me away.
I really want to see it, in action, even more than I want to sell any fur.
LOL, I'll be lucky to cover gas money to and from the sale, on the fur I got!
Hey, what ever happened to Tripp? He's the one that turned this thread into a continuing thing... he's the first one I thought of, when I saw the mink/unknown polecat in my cage.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 23, 2007 08:35 PM
Turns out the mink is an escapee, a feral ranch mink.
We're up to 15 beavers, and 4 otters!
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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TA17Rem
Hello, I'm the legendary Tim Anderson, Field Marshall, Southern Minneesota Sector
Member # 794
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posted February 23, 2007 09:33 PM
Way to go on those beavers Krusty.
P.S. I don't know if you know this but anyway here goes. To increase youre catch or pick up a few smart ones try openning up the beaver dam in the middle and then place a trap on the up river side a foot below water level or where you think the beaver will step, off to one side. When the water level drops the beaver will come to make repairs and then you should get him... good luck
[ February 23, 2007, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: TA17Rem ]
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What if I told you, the left wing and right wing both belong to same bird!
Posts: 5120 | From: S.D. | Registered: Jan 2006
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ninthinning
Knows what it's all about
Member # 900
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posted February 26, 2007 05:10 AM
Krusty,
Really enjoying reading about your adventures. Its great you have your father and brother involved. Before we got five feet of snow here in NY my trap line was producing great. Looking forward to future installments.
9th
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Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk - Habakkuk 1:8
Posts: 67 | From: Colden | Registered: Jul 2006
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 26, 2007 11:17 AM
My phone service has been down, I'll get back on for another report soon.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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varmit hunter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 37
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posted February 26, 2007 05:51 PM
Krusty. I wont to thank you for bringing back old memories to. I swear there were times just before dawn I could feel the spirits of the old great ones around me, Like Jeremiah Johnson, Jim Bridger and many more.
This picture was taken many years ago. That is my house in the back ground. In one week I caught enough Red and Gray Foxes to pay for a new 300 win mag with scope, and never got out of site of that house.
Krusty. I forgot you're laws on steal traps, but we have a lot of Otter around here. The best trap we ever found for Otter was a number 11. No it sounds crazy, but thee so dammed fast.
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Make them pay for the wind.
Posts: 932 | From: Orange,TX | Registered: Jan 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted February 28, 2007 06:14 PM
It's been a heck of a year, and I figure I done alright fer a rookie.
I went to the fur sale last weekend, I got top lot on my 'rats, selling them at $4.70 apiece.
I'm glad I took the time, to put them up right. Even though it only brought 30 cents more each (than the average), I was more just proud to see that they looked the best.
I asked the fur buyer, "why'd you buy these 'rats?" his answer was "because I need 'rats" when I explained they were mine, and asked again, he said "they were good 'rats, so I gave ya a good price".
Yesterday I caught the biggest beaver of the season, a 65# female.
I also caught two others, bringing the tally to 18.
Last night, I boarded up and fleshed the first beaver. I've been skinning them out and freezing them, so I could put them up at the end of the season, and after I made some boards.
Dang that's a lot of work!
But like Fred says "If beaver trapping was easy, everybody would be doing it!"
The "medium" sized beaver stretched out to a #2, I probably could have gotten it to a #1 if I had the nailing order down better.
I put up a #5 today, it was so much easier to stretch and to flesh the second one (it didn't hurt that it was only half as big either).
Tonight I am going to make a big wide fleshing beam, and try fleshing one that way.
What size is bigger than a #0? I've got a couple "large" beavers that won't fit on the 32x48" (FHA sized) boards... do I use a half sheet of plywood, and just eyeball lines for a double and triple zeros?
Tim,
It's funny that you mentioned a "tear down" of the dam, that same day I moved one of the foothold traps, that had been unproductive, and remade the set like you suggest.
Hopefully it'll produce another catch, before it's all over, I plan on pulling out on Friday.
Ronnie,
My list of "greats" doesn't go as far back as your's.
I thought of guys like Cal Taylor, Tim Behle, and you!
Our laws are more leanient then they seem.
There are ways to get around the law, and to use "real traps", legally.
Forgive my ignorance, but a #11 what kinda trap?
Thanks again to everyone, for following along, for all your assistance, and most of all for your inspiration.
Krusty
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted March 01, 2007 04:35 AM
A #11 is the same as a #1 Longspring, only with an extra spring added to the other side of the jaws.
When your #1's get old, just pull one apart and add the spring to another trap.
I've never had otters to trap, but they make hellacious coon and mink traps.
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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