Who traps anymore?

[Doc]

So how many trappers do we actually have here. I trapped for a lot of years and eventually gave it up. I am curious how many people still run a trapline. It used to be a big deal in rural communities and a lot of us boys used to trap just to buy school clothes and get a few items that we wanted. In recent years, I don't even hear anything about traplines in casual conversation. I kind of got the impression that it is an activity that has all but disappeared. It's a real shame because there is no other activity that I can think of that teaches more about self-reliance, woodslore, and the habits of all the wild critters around us.

So, is there anyone here that still runs a trapline?

Doc

[BIGHUNTER2700537]

My dad and brother and I run a trap line of about 50 traps. Last year we caught 10 coyotes 4 gray foxs 11 red foxs 9 coons. We had a great year

 

[burmjohn]

Whats the deal with trapping anyways?  Do you check the traps every morning? How do you kill the animal?

[BIGHUNTER2700537]

Its a state law that youhave to check your traps every 24 hours. I check my early in the moring about around 5.00. How we kill them is a 22 in the back of the head.

[Doc]

My dad and brother and I run a trap line of about 50 traps. Last year we caught 10 coyotes 4 gray foxs 11 red foxs 9 coons. We had a great year

 

That is a great catch for a 50 trap line. Any idea as to what that all converted to in money?

What size traps do you use for coyotes? The last time I ran a line, coyotes weren't even around here.I still have a pile of Victor coil spring #2 traps and a lot of Conibear traps for muskrats (#110, I believe) and another pile of #1 and 1-1/2 legholds. Who knows, I may set out a line some day. I would have to get my trapper certification though.

Doc

[gutpile]

[BIGHUNTER2700537]

Doc, It was a great year we could not belive it we go every moring and there be something in are traps every moring. We usuly use duke traps and some other brands. We got around $1200 all tan and everything.

[nyfur]

I took up trapping again about 4 years ago,i'm glad i did... I'm having a ball!!!!!!!!!! Here are some pics from the last couple of years....

[Doc]

We got around $1200 all tan and everything.

What do you mean? Did you tan the hides before selling them?

Doc

[BIGHUNTER2700537]

Yes We do all the tanning of them are selfs

[gutpile]

[skyzmine]

now thats one big harry beaver

must be from the 70's 

[Doc]

Yes We do all the tanning of them are selfs

No kidding ....... that's great. I tanned a fox hide when I was about 12 years old, and it turned out pretty darned good too. It was probably a lot more crude than your job, but it didn't come out too bad. I believe I used Oxalic acid for the tanning solution. i got the recipe from one of those books that are advertised in Fur-Fish-Game magazine. I'll likely try it again some day.

Other than that one fox hide, we used to sell the raw stretched and dried hides to fur dealers. It seems that back then there was always dealers everywhere. Now I'm not sure just where I would go to sell hides. Over in Honeoye they have a trapper's association (Genesee Valley Trapper's Association?) that has periodic fur auctions. That's probably where a guy has to go now.

Doc

[gutpile]

Nope that beaver was caught on private property in 2001. The owner never let anyone on his hunting property but family and friends. And there were always beaver there but one summer he went down to the property and found three more dams and almost half his hunting property underwater. That's when he called me. That bugger was the first of twenty two beaver that came off the place. He weighed in at sixty five pounds Most were in the forty to thirty range. now every couple of years I go in and do maintenance trapping. I get some real nice mink and rats off the place too.

[itrapny]

There are about 10,000 licensed trappers in the state of NY and trapping is certainly alive and growing here in NY

[Doc]

There are about 10,000 licensed trappers in the state of NY and trapping is certainly alive and growing here in NY

I wonder how that number compares to back when I was a kid. It seems like almost every farm-kid had a trapline back then. We use to have choices of 5 or 6 fur buyers closeby then. Not anymore. I hope it's growing again. It's an activity that puts us as close to nature and it's critters as anything I can think of. If that was lost, it would be a big chunk of our heritage and culture gone and would be a real shame.

Doc

[itrapny]

That's hard to say because years ago  you didn't need a license to trap until you were 16 and no certification courses were required until after 1979-1980. I think that the number of trappers today is comparable to years past and that number goes up and/or down based on the prices received for furs too.

[Doc]

I don't know. 10,000 trappers across the entire state doesn't sound anywhere near what I would have expected as the number when I was a kid. Of course that was back in the 50's when I first started trapping. My gosh, my grandfather trapped, two of my brother-in-laws trapped, I trapped and at least three of my friends ran traplines and that was just in one little valley. Down at school there were several trappers that I knew. I would be surprised if today you would find any. I remember that within a 15 minute drive I could find 4 local fur buyers. Today there is only one that I know of in the county and that is an area auction. In fact, I don't know how many counties they actually handle. I might add that even inflation adjusted, the fur prices were not exactly huge back then either.

It's true that there is no way of actually knowing just how many trappers there were back in the 50s for the reasons you mentioned, but I know it was a rural way of life, and trapping was the way kids used to buy school clothes and other things they wanted. Today's lifestyle is nothing like that anymore, and I've got to believe that trapper numbers have suffered for it in a huge way.

Doc

[wellsley]

I haven't trapped in years but I still have all my traps and hope to get back into it when I retire.

[itrapny]

Why wait, just set a couple around your house that you can check in the morning before work?

[Doc]

Or you can do like I did ........ have your wife run the line for you during the week. She used to do the hill for the dry-land trapping during the week and I would do the swamp when I got home.I could do the swamp at night aftyer work because I used exclusively drowning sets there.

Wow, that was a lot of years ago. Probably couldn't find a wife that would do that anymore ..... lol. she's a good woman!!!!

Doc

[gutpile]

When I was in college I ran about a hundred traps. Up at 4:30 had The Wizard coon light from Nitelite. Be done about an hour before I had to be in class. Skin when I got home stuffed some food down my throat and off to bed. Avg check for those days ran $1200. And I didn't go to college till I was 45.

[wellsley]

Why wait, just set a couple around your house that you can check in the morning before work?

I'm not sure the neighbor's would like it. But its a good idea I've seen fisher and mink and muskrat in the back yard.

[gutpile]

As long as you are on your property OR property you have permission to trap what the neighbors think is irrelavant.

I had a series of farms three one next to the other. People were complaining to the owners and writing letters to the editor that "someone" (They knew it was me) was trapping along the village right of way through the property. They were told in no uncertain terms that a village right of way is not village property but belonged to the individual farmer. The only ones who had a right to be there were village workers maintaining a drainage ditch and people who had permission to be there......me. And if they were caught on the farm they would be arrested for trespassing.

[JGaruti3]

I would love to learn trapping...kind of hard when you do not have your own property and have to travel everywhere.  Plus I would really want someone to teach me how to do everything.  I would like to learn how to do the tanning of hides because I am very interested in that part.  Tough living in nYC and wanting to do all of these hunting activities.