Advice from a Veteran.
In trapping, cultivate the habit of taking great care in making sets.
Always leave the surface level. As you cannot tell what particular
animal may come your way, prepare for the most cunning. Note the
surroundings of your set and use such material for covering as may be
found there so that all may appear natural. Never stake the traps
down for a dry land set, but select for a drag an old limb or root;
not one fresh cut if avoidable. Obliterate your tracks; John Sneakem
will not then catch on so quick. Above all things, never molest
another's traps.
The jump-trap as now made by the Oneida Community has thicker jaws
than the old style and therefore it is not so liable to foot the
animal. I find it a good trap to use.
For mink, a good set is close to a bank and near the edge of the
water. The bait if any is used, should be fresh muskrat, rabbit or
chicken. All are good. If you wish for scent, the musk from the
animal you are trapping is preferable.
One famous trapper says, "any fool knows enough to catch a muskrat."
I doubt whether this man himself, knows how to trap them
successfully. Of course, everyone knows that muskrats should be
trapped along streams or swails where you find their works. For bait
use carrots, cabbage or sweet apples. I like sweet apples best, and
so do the muskrats. Set the trap in about two inches of water, fasten
the chain at full length to a sunken limb, drive a stake on either
side of the chain near where it is fastened and you need not fear
that the rat will "foot" himself. He will soon become entangled and
drown.
Another good set for rats is by scooping a piece out of a sod and
placing it on a stone or root just under the water. Set trap on sod,
fasten the chain as before and scatter bits of apple on the sod.
* * *
Now, boys, as many of you are about to seek new trapping locations,
and as I have had more or less experience in trapping from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and as I get many letters from brother
trappers as to different trapping locations, I thought perhaps that
it would not come amiss to give you a little of my experience in
regard to this matter. I would advise that before you go to a new
location in other states from those in which you are familiar with
the game laws, that you first write to the State Game Commissioner of
the state that you intend to trap in, enclosing 10 or 15 cents in
stamps, and ask for a copy of the game laws, or for the information
that you desire. The address of the Game Commissioner is usually at
the capital of the different states. Advice on game laws is generally
so meager that it is often misleading, and one relying on newspaper
information, often runs up against problems that he would not have
undertaken had he known the exact truth of the matter. The game laws
of the different states are changed so often that the only way to get
reliable information is to go direct to headquarters. Now, some
states have local laws, county laws, and some states have even
township laws.
I will also speak of writing to trappers for information as to the
quantity of the fur bearing animals and game in their locality as
another way to get posted.
Now, while I hope that the average trapper is as truthful as mankind
generally, I am aware that a trapper will sometimes exaggerate as to
the amount of game in his locality. If the person whom you make the
inquiry of, is not particularly interested in trapping, or knows but
little about trapping and wild life, he is liable to think there is
much more game in his county than there really is. And on the other
hand, if the party makes a business of trapping, he is quite liable
to think that game is less plentiful than it really is. It is a good
plan to write to two or more parties in the same neighborhood, on
this matter, if you can, and then draw your own conclusion as to the
scarcity or plentifulness of the game in that section. But the better
way is to go and prospect the country and acquaint yourself with the
locality, for you remember the old adage, "If you would have your
business done, go and attend to it yourself; if not, send some one."
* * *
I have read with interest the discussion of the many different makes
of guns, the different calibers for large game hunting, etc., and as
I am not well up on "gunology," I have listened and wondered why
there was so much agitation on the gun question. I believe that
nearly all of the modern guns that are manufactured today are
good--at least sufficiently good shooters for all practical purposes.
Shotguns can be bought at $3.00 or $4.00 that do good work. Perhaps
there is not a man in the country who has carried a gun as many days
as the writer, but what has done more target shooting than I have.
Back in the 70's when men hunted deer in this section for the money
that was in it, I often did not take my rifle down to shoot from one
season's hunting to the next, unless by chance something in the way
of game came into fields near the house. I was always in love with my
gun and if I did not like it I would get rid of it at the first
opportunity. I am still of the opinion that a gun is similar to a
man's wife, you must love them in order to get the best results.
I always wanted as good a gun as there was on the market. By this I
do not mean the highest priced, nor the highest power gun, but the
gun that would do the business. A man by the name of Orlando Reese
and I were the first to buy Winchester rifles in this section, and I
think in this county. The guns were the common round barrel .44
caliber and we paid $60.00 apiece for them. The same kind of a gun
can now, I think, be bought for $12.00 or $14.00. Previous to the
time I bought the Winchester, I had been using a Henry rifle for a
time, but it was not a good gun for hunting purposes. A few years
later the .45-75 Winchester came into use, so I sold my .44 and
bought a .45-75. I did not like it so I sold it and bought a Colts,
which was a good gun, but one day I was doing some fast work on a
bunch of deer and in my haste I did not work the lever just as I
should and it jammed. This made me rather angry, so I sold it and got
another .44 Winchester, which I used for a long time, but I disposed
of it very unexpectedly.
I was coming out from camp after a new stock of provisions. My
partner, Amersley Ball, was with me. We had not gone far after
getting in the wagon road when we met a man by the name of Lyman who
was on his way to the Cross Fork of Kettle Creek, for the purpose of
inspecting the timber lands and wanted a gun to carry with him.
Before Mr. Lyman was hardly in speaking distance he yelled at me and
asked what I would take for my gun. Thinking that he was only joking
I said $40.00.
Mr. Lyman came up to me, took my gun from my shoulders, looked at it
and asked me if it was alright. I replied that if it was not I would
not be carrying it.
Mr. Lyman replied, "I guess that is right," and taking a check from
his pocket dropped down on one knee, filled it out for forty dollars
and handed it to me, so I was without a gun right in the midst of the
hunting season.
My protest was of no use, as Mr. Lyman took the gun and went his way,
laughing at me. I received a little more for the gun than the usual
price at the time, but there was no dealer at our place who kept the
Winchester in stock. The dealers were always obliging and would take
your order and get you a gun for a small profit of about sixteen
dollars. I had no time to wait for a gun to be ordered, so I began to
look about to find some one who had a gun for sale. Mr. Wm. Thompson,
the publisher of a local newspaper in our place had bought a new .38
caliber Winchester to use in his annual outing and said that he would
have no further use for a gun until another season that if I would
give him $35.00, I could have his gun. I gave Mr. Thompson the money
and the next morning we went back to camp.
After we had arrived at camp, I crossed the divide from the
Sinnemahoning side of the Pine Creek side to hunt. I had not gone far
after reaching Pine Creek before I struck the trail of five or six
deer. After following the trail a ways I concluded that the deer
would pass around the point of the ridge and pass through a hardwood
balsam on the other side of the ridge.
I climbed the hill and made for the balsam in hope to head the deer
off. I had only reached the brow of the hill so that I could look
into the basin when I saw the deer. I thought to myself, there is a
good chance to try my new gun, for I had not yet shot it. I drew on a
large doe that was in the lead of the bunch and cut loose. The doe
made a leap into the air, made a jump or two down the hill and went
down, while the rest of the deer made two or three jumps up the hill
towards me and stopped and looked back down the hill in the direction
of the doe that I had shot. I pulled onto the shoulders of a buck,
the largest deer of the bunch, who gave his tail a switch or two,
wheeled, made a few jumps down the hill and fell, while the rest of
the bunch made a lively break for other parts. I continued to scatter
lead as long as I could see them.
I ran down to the deer that I had killed, cut their throats, removed
their entrails, climbed some saplings, bent them down, cut off the
tops and hung the deer on them. Getting a pole with a crotch at the
end to place under the sapling, I pulled the deer up the best that I
could and started on the trail of the others. I did not follow the
trail long when I saw one of them had a broken leg. The deer with the
broken leg soon dropped out from the others and went down the hill,
crossed the hollow and went into a thick hemlock timber and laurel.
As it was nearly night, I left the trail and went home to camp. The
next morning, Mr. Ball went with me to help get the wounded deer. We
did not follow the trail far until we saw the deer fixing to lie
down. I backed up and went up the hill above where we thought the
deer might be lying. While Mr. Ball waited for me to give the signal
to come. Mr. Ball had not gone far after I had howled, letting him
know that I was ready, when out of the laurel came the deer. Mr. Ball
was close, so that we both got a shot, killing the deer almost before
it was on its feet.
Now I was so infatuated with my new gun, that it was a case of love
at first sight. This was in the late 70's. I have used several
different makes of guns. I also had a .30-30 Savage, which I
considered a good gun for big game, and in fact, I can say that the
most of the guns that I have tried were all good. I however am still
married to my little .38 Winchester. I can say that in all these,
considerable more than thirty years, I have never run up against a
subject but that this little Winchester was equal to the emergency.
Now I wish to ask, why it is that a hunter cares for a high power gun
that will shoot into the next township and kill a man or a horse that
the hunter was not aware of existing, when a gun of less power will
do just as good execution in deer hunting? The ammunition for the gun
of lower power costs much less and there is far less danger in
killing a man or beast a mile away. We hear men talk of shooting deer
200 and even 300 yards. In the many years that I have hunted deer, I
believe that I have killed two deer at a distance of from 50 to 75
yards, to one a distance of 100 or 150. I believe most deer hunters
will agree that there are far more deer killed at a distance of 50 or
60 yards than over that distance. I think that if those hunters who
kill deer at a distance of 100 or 200 yards will take the trouble to
step off the distance of their long shots, instead of estimating
them, they will find that 100 yards in timber is a long ways. Yes,
boys, 20 rods through the timber is a long ways to shoot a deer. Why?
Because the deer can not often be seen at a greater distance, where
there would be any use of shooting at all, and the little .38 will do
all of that and more too.
* * *
Perhaps the average beginner at trapping makes his greatest
mistake in listening to those who have had more experience in
handling the pen than the trap. For instance, someone advised readers
to use a No. 2 or 3 Newhouse trap to catch marten and said that
marten frequented marshy places. Now if they had asked the editor of
Hunter-Trader-Trapper, he would have told you that the Pine Marten
frequented the higher and dry grounds in dark, thick woods and that
it was their nature to run on old down trees and to run into hollow
stubs, trees, etc., and that these were the places to set your traps.
Unless you were in a country where the snow fell very deep, then you
should use the shelf set. He would have also told you that the No. 1
and 1 1/2 Newhouse trap was plenty strong enough for the marten, that
many use No. 0.
[Illustration: SPRING SET FOR FOX.]
The average trapper also makes a mistake in listening to some one's
ideas about scents in trapping the animal, instead of going to the
forest, the field and the stream and there learn its nature, its
habits and ways, and its favorite food. He also makes a mistake by
spending his time in looking after scents, rubber gloves to handle
traps with and wooden pincers to handle bait, instead of spending his
time in learning the right way and the right place to set his traps.
For one little slip and the game is gone if the trap is not properly
set. It is like hunting in the days of the percussion cap gun. I have
tramped all day long over hills and through valleys to get a shot at
a deer, and just at night get the coveted opportunity, taking every
precaution to see that there was no bush or obstruction in line. I
would take deliberate aim, holding my breath that my aim might be
sure. I trick the trigger, flick went the hammer, up goes the deer's
tail and away he bounds beckoning me to come on. Come on, and my
day's tramp has been in vain all on account of a damp gun cap. Now in
these days of fixed ammunition, such mishaps rarely occur.
It is so in setting the trap, one little misfit and the game is gone.
In the Hunter-Trader-Trapper, I read, undoubtedly written by a
trapper of many years experience, telling the true way of setting the
trap in front of a V shaped pen. He said that the trap should always
be set so that the animal had to pass over the jaws of the trap and
not between them. Now mark my mistakes, for of late years I have been
very particular to set the traps so that the animal passed between
the jaws, not over them for I reasoned like this: I thought that the
animal might step on one of the jaws and turn the trap up without
springing it. In so doing be frightened away, or that the animal
might have ball of foot resting on the jaw of the trap, while it set
the trap off with its toes, or the ball of the foot might rest on the
latch, while the trap was sprung with the toes on the pan. In either
case, the animal's foot would be thrown entirely from the trap or so
that it would only get slightly pinched, which would put a flea into
the animal's ear that he would never forget.
In days long since past, I was not particular how I set the trap,
just so I got it planted, but in those days I also made the mistake
of running after scents. We make a mistake in thinking that the fox
is more sly in some states than in others.
Not long ago, I received a letter from a friend in Maine, asking if I
did not think that the fox was harder to trap in some states than
others. Now the states that I have trapped in are rather limited, but
I have trapped in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, mostly in
Pennsylvania. I have also trapped in one or two other states, and
wherever I found the fox, I found him the same sly fox. In order to
trap this animal successfully it was necessary to comply with the
natural conditions.
We make mistakes in not handling our fur properly; in not removing
all fat and flesh from the skin in not stretching the skin on the
proper shaped stretchers. Stretchers for most fur that we case should
not taper more than 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch from shoulder to hind legs.
We make mistakes in setting our traps too early, for one prime skin
is worth more than three early caught ones. We make mistakes in not
having one, and only one, responsible and honorable party in each
large city to ship our furs to; by giving one party a large trade
should give the trapper the full market price for his furs. It would
also have a tendency to make the buyer honest and honorable, even
though he was not built strictly that way in making. All trappers
should know the address of the party agreed upon in each city. This
would give the trapper a chance to ship to the party most convenient
to the trapper.
The worst mistake of all mistakes is in one who uses poison to kill
with. Let me tell of an instance that came under my observation the
spring of 1900, I believe it was. I had an occasion to go into the
southern part of this country, my road lay over the divide between
the waters of the Alleghany and Susquehanna, about five miles of the
road lay over a mountain that was thickly wooded and no settlers.
While crossing this mountain I saw the carcasses of four foxes lying
in the road. On making inquiries I learned that a man living in that
neighborhood was making a practice each winter of driving over the
roads in that section and putting out poisoned meat to kill the
foxes. I chanced to meet this man not long ago. I said, "Charley,
what luck did you have trapping last winter." His reply was, not much
only got one or two foxes. Old Shaw has dogged them out of the
country (referring to a man who hunted with dogs). I said, "Charley,
don't you think that poison business had something to do with it. He
replied, "Oh, h--l there will be foxes after I am dead." This man
called himself a trapper, and is quite an extensive fur buyer. Thomas
Pope says, "Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands
mourn." But, in this case, I think it is the dumb animal that mourns
and not the man. The trapper who makes the greatest mistake of his
life is the one who does not subscribe for the Hunter-Trader-Trapper.
* * *
In a former article I undertook to give the most practical way of
killing a skunk, as I have found it, but owing to a mistake, it left
the method of killing rather hard to be understood, so I will try
again. I do this, owing to the many requests that I have from
trappers to give a method for killing skunks, without the skunk
scenting themselves as well as the trapper. Practically, there is no
way of killing a skunk without causing the skunk to discharge his
scent. Their scent is a skunk defense, and they will use it when in
danger.
Now my way of doing the job is to go at it without hesitation. We
have an old adage, "If you would grasp a nettle, grasp it as a man of
mettle." Now my plan is to wear clothes on the trap line to be
discarded as soon as the day's work on the trap line is finished.
When I come to a trap that has a skunk in it, I approach the skunk,
advancing a single step at a time, with a good strong stick about
four feet long, with the stick drawn up in readiness to strike as
soon as close enough. Now when I am close enough to make the blow
sure I strike the skunk a hard blow across the back, and immediately
after, I place my foot on the skunk's back, holding the animal tight
to the ground. At the same time giving the skunk a sharp rap or two
on the head with the stick to make sure that it is dead. Then pick up
the skunk and remove it a little to one side of the place where it
was killed. Rip the skunk across from one leg to the other close to
roots of tail, skinning around the scent glands at the roots of tail,
so that the glands can be easily cut out and thrown away or saved for
bait, as the trapper wishes. Now proceed to skin the skunk. By
following these directions, the trapper will not suffer any great
inconvenience from the animal's scent.
Now if the trapper is a little timid, he can carry some kind of a gun
of small caliber and shoot the skunk in the head. But if the skunk
does not use his weapon of defense, then it is a different skunk than
I have been accustomed to meet with. If the trapper uses a clog
instead of a stake to fasten his trap with, and his traps are close
to water, he can use a long pole or a hook and gently drag the skunk
to the water and drown it. Then the water will carry the fluid or
scent as discharged, away.
Now if the trapper is very timid and has plenty of time, I would
advise that he provide himself with a light pole ten or twelve feet
long, split at one end and take a quart tin can with sockets or
brackets soldered onto the sides of the can, so that the can may be
placed in between the split at the end of the pole. The two prongs
placed into the sockets on the can so as to hold the can firm. Now
fill the can part full of cotton and prepare yourself with a bottle
of chloroform (not brandy). Now with this outfit the trapper will
proceed to follow along his trap line, and when he finds a skunk in
his trap he will cautiously approach the skunk after he, the trapper
(not the skunk) has well saturated the cotton in the can from the
chloroform from the bottle. Then gently work the can up to the
skunk's nose and over its head, when the chloroform will soon do its
deadly work. After the skunk is dead, the trapper should remove the
scent glands as before described, lest the scent may be squeezed from
the glands in skinning the skunk.
Another reader asks what kind of a gun he shall take with him to hunt
deer, as he is contemplating going on a deer hunting trip next fall.
Now I would say any kind of a rifle that suits you. But if you should
ask me what kind of a gun I use, I would not hesitate to say that I
prefer the 38-40 and black powder. This gun shoots plenty strong to
do all the shooting as to distance or penetrations that the deer
hunter will require, and there is not near so much danger of shooting
a man or domestic animal a mile away that the hunter knows nothing
of, as is the case with a high power gun. Besides, from an economical
point, the ammunition for the 38-40 black powder gun costs only about
one-half that of the smokeless or high power guns. However, if the
hunter thinks that he must have a high power gun in order to be a
successful deer hunter, he will find the 30-30 or similar calibers
good for large game, and it is not heavy to handle.