Mink Trapping Part 9

Now if you set a trap and use this scent with a little muskrat musk, when a mink comes along he smells the musk of both mink and rat, and begins to look around or rather smell around for the remains of the rat to make a meal on. If you have the trap and scent in the right place you will have another mink on your list.

Of course there are a few old fellows that are educated that are pretty shy of anything that isn't natural to them. These fellows you can catch in blind sets somewhere along your line. About the best place I can find to catch mink is where they drill into a rat house to catch rats. They smell around till they find a soft place on the south side of the house and dig a hole just large enough to crawl through, right into the rat's nest.

CHAPTER XIX.

DEADFALLS.

First a little pen about a foot square is built of stones and chunks or by driving stakes close together, leaving one side open. The pen should be built smaller and tighter than shown in ill.u.s.tration, so that a small mink or weasel cannot get in from the back or sides. The pen in ill.u.s.tration is purposely large so that triggers and bait can be seen, giving the inexperienced deadfall trapper a better idea of how to set.

The stakes should be cut about thirty inches long and driven into the ground some sixteen inches, leaving fourteen, or thereabout above the ground. Of course if the earth is very solid stakes need not be so long, but should be so driven that only about fourteen inches remains above ground. A sapling say four inches in diameter and four feet long is laid across the end that is open. A sapling that is four or five inches in diameter and about twelve feet long is now cut for the "fall."

Stakes are set so that this pole or fall will play over the short pole on the ground. These stakes should be driven in pairs; two about eighteen inches from the end; two about fourteen further back. (See ill.u.s.tration). The small end of the pole should be split and a stake driven firmly through it so there will be no danger of the pole turning and "going off" of its own accord.

The trap is set by placing the prop (which is only seven inches in length and half an inch through) between the top log and the short one on the ground, to which is attached the long trigger, which is only a stick about the size of the prop, but about twice as long, the baited end of which extends back into the little pen. The figure 4 triggers can be used if preferred, but the two piece is as good if not better. The bait may consist of a piece of fish, chicken, rabbit or any tough bit of meat so long as it is fresh, and the bloodier the better.

An animal on scenting the bait will reach into the trap--the top of the pen having been carefully covered over--between the logs. When the animal seizes the bait the long trigger is pulled off of the upright prop and down comes the fall, killing the animal by its weight. Skunk, c.o.o.n, opossum, mink, and in fact nearly all kinds of animals are easily caught in this trap. The fox is an exception, as it is rather hard to catch them in deadfalls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE POLE DEADFALL.]

The more care you take to build the pen tight and strong the less liable is some animal to tear it down and get the bait from the outside; also if you will cover the pen with leaves, gra.s.s, sticks, etc., animals will not be so shy of the trap. The triggers are very simple, the long one being placed on top of the upright, or short one. The long trigger should have a short p.r.o.ng left or a nail driven in it to prevent the game from getting the bait off too easy. If you find it hard to get saplings the right size for a fall, and are too light, they can be weighted with a pole laid on the "fall."

The most successful trapper uses some deadfalls as well as steel traps, especially if trapping for a season at one place. If trapping season after season in the same locality deadfalls are a great help for mink that are apparently hard to catch in steel traps readily take bait from deadfalls and get caught. On the other hand, mink that refuse to take bait from deadfalls are often caught in blind steel trap sets.

The experienced trapper knows that mink travel along creeks, rivers, swamps, ponds and lakes. Care should be taken in selecting places to build deadfalls. If there are dens this is a good place to construct them. If there are many dens so much the better, but one is all that is required, for a mink is apt to investigate all and will scent bait. If you are acquainted with the territory you must know some places where mink frequent. It seems that the nature and habits of mink are such that although a mink had never traveled that territory before it would follow about the same course as others, as tracks in the mud and snow showed.

To prove this I will mention that some years ago in one deadfall I caught eight mink in five winters and one in a steel trap, making nine caught in the five years. This deadfall was built on the bank of a small stream some 20 feet from the water and near a large sycamore, under which there was a den, although the trap was some feet from the entrance to the den.

The first winter one mink was taken; the second two; the third three; the fourth two; the fifth one.

The fourth winter a few weeks after catching one in the deadfall the trap was down and the bait gone. The trap was rebaited, but for several trips I found the trap down and bait eaten. I felt sure that it was a mink, and although I set the triggers easy--I was using the two piece trigger and upright spindle--the animal continued to get the bait.

After a few more visits and the trap down, bait invariably eaten, I made the pen smaller. The next round I brought a No. 1 Newhouse steel trap intending to set it if the deadfall was down without making a catch. Sure enough it was.

For some trips I had been suspecting that the "bait getter" was a small mink. I baited and reset the deadfall as usual. Next a small place was excavated inside the pen and near the bait, on the deadfall spindle, the trap placed and carefully covered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STONE DEADFALLS.]

The next morning I found everything as I had left it the day before, but the second round I saw that the "fall" was down before I got near and on closer approach saw a mink, a very small one, in the steel trap.

The mink was small and went inside the pen for the bait. In constructing deadfalls for mink care must be taken to have the pen built tight but not too large.

It is best to build deadfalls in advance of the active trapping season so that the animals may become accustomed to them, and the trap weather beaten. Chopping and pounding might tend to drive animals away. In August, September and October is a good time to build, for if in new territory signs, if any, should be readily seen.

While it is best to construct deadfalls in advance of trapping season, yet the writer has built deadfalls late in November, set and baited and found mink in them the next morning. If rightly built ten or a dozen is all a man can make in a day, and like setting steel traps, a dozen carefully set for mink are worth a hundred set at haphazzard.

Mink are great travelers, so that it is needless to set deadfalls close together. One about every mile is enough unless there should be many dens and rocky bluffs along the streams, then they could to advantage be built closer, for other game is liable to be caught. In this case they should be made a little heavier, as you may catch opossum, skunk and c.o.o.n.

Where one stream empties into another is often a good place to construct a deadfall. If before selecting your places to build a few trips are taken along the streams it will be a great help. Where small streams empty into ponds or lakes or the outlets will be found ideal places for mink.

When deadfalls are built before the trapping season it is well to set them, having the top of the pen covered, just as though the trap was baited and ready for business.

Another thing that should be carefully looked after is triggers. Many cut triggers from green bushes. If this is done, hard wood such as oak, hickory, dogwood, sugar, beech, etc., is best. The upright trigger, which is only a straight piece of wood about a half inch thick, should be slightly rounded so that the spindle will slip off easier when the animal is at bait.

It is a good idea to prepare a lot of triggers in advance. For stone deadfalls the figure 4 must be used as the two piece will not work--going off entirely too hard.

Of course we all admit the steel trap is more convenient and up-to-date, says a New Hamps.h.i.+re trapper. You can make your sets faster and can change the steel trap from place to place. Of course the deadfall you cannot. But all this does not signify the deadfall is no good; they are good, and when mink trapping is consumed the deadfall is the trap you want. To the trapper who traps in the same locality every year, when his deadfalls are once built it is only a few minutes work to put them in shape, then he has got a trap for the season.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOARD OR LOG TRAP.]

I give a diagram of a deadfall (called here Log Trap) which, when properly made and baited, there is no such a mink catcher in the trap line that has yet been devised. This trap requires about twenty minutes time to make, and for tools a camp hatchet and a good, strong jack-knife, also a piece of strong string, which all trappers carry.

This trap should be about fifteen inches wide with a pen built with sticks or pieces of boards driven in the ground. (See diagram.) The jaws of this trap consist of two pieces of board three inches wide and about three and a half feet long, resting edgeways one on the other, held firmly by four posts driven in the ground. The top board or drop should move easily up and down before weights are put on. The treadle should be set three inches inside, level with the top of bottom board. This is a round stick about three-fourths inch through resting against two pegs driven in the ground. (See diagram.) The lever should be the same size. Now put your stout string around top board, then set, pa.s.s lever through the string over the cross piece and latch it in front of the treadle, then put on weights and adjust to spring, heavy or light as desired. This trap should be set around old dams or log jams by the brook, baited with fish, muskrat, rabbit or chicken.

CHAPTER XX.

STEEL TRAPS.

For generations there will be good trapping sections in parts of the North, West and South, so that the hardy trapper will continue to reap a harvest of pelts and fur.

Mink are widely distributed over America, and while their numbers, in some sections, have been reduced by the high prices and close trapping and hunting, they are found much more frequently in the settled districts than those who give trapping no attention or thought.

In the rapid development of the country the steel trap has played a wonderful part. They have subdued the monster bear and hungry wolf, as well as caught millions of the smaller fur bearing animals, adding largely to the annual income of the hardy trapper.

Steel traps have been in use for more than fifty years, but for some time after they were invented they were so expensive that they were not generally used. Of recent years they have become cheaper and their use has become general. Trappers will be found using them in large numbers whether in the Far North for marten, fox, beaver, etc., or in the South and Southwest after c.o.o.n, otter, and smaller fur bearing animals. Professional trappers use generally from 50 to 300 steel traps, depending upon what game they are after.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A GOOD FASTENING.]

Steel traps are manufactured in various sizes. The smallest, No. 0, is used for gophers, rats, etc., while the largest, No. 6, is for grizzly bear, and will hold him. The No. 1 1/2 is known as the Mink trap. The spread of jaws is 4 7/8 inches. The No. 1 spread of jaws 4 inches is also adapted for mink.

An old and experienced trapper who has spent many years in the forests of Northern Canada has used the No. 0 with remarkably good success. There is no doubt but that the smallest size will hold the mink in the Newhouse brand, and we are alluding to the Newhouse manufactured by the Oneida Community, Ltd., Oneida, New York, as it is acknowledged to be the best trap in the world.

The fastening of traps for any animal has much to do with the trapper's success. Traps fastened to something solid are not so apt to hold the game. If only caught by a toe or two and the animal jumps around the toes are apt to be pulled off. Traps should be fastened far out in the water, when trapping for mink, if the weather is not so cold that the water is frozen. In that case the fastening should be to a "bushy" bush, or at least to something that will give with every pull and jerk of the animal.

As many mink trappers devote more or less time to trapping other fur bearing animals, a description of the various Newhouse traps, telling the animal or animals each size is adapted to, etc., will no doubt be of interest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEWHOUSE NO. 0 TRAP]

Spread of Jaws, 3 1/2 inches. This, the smallest trap made, is used mostly for catching the gopher, a little animal which is very troublesome to western farmers, and also rats and other vermin. It has a sharp grip and will hold larger game, but should not be overtaxed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEWHOUSE NO. 1 TRAP]

Spread of Jaws, 4 inches. This Trap is used for catching muskrats and other small animals, and sold in greater numbers than any other size.

Its use is well understood by professional trappers and it is the most serviceable size for catching skunks, weasels, rats and such other animals as visit poultry houses and barns.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEWHOUSE NO. 81 TRAP]