CHAFF METHOD, SCENT.
Get some chaff, a bushel will do, and put it out in some good place
where there are foxes, writes a Maine trapper, J. F. Miller. Put some
small pieces of meat in the chaff, (skunk, muskrat or cat is good),
and take a shingle and pound the bed down solid all over. Don't have
any soft place in the bed, and don't handle any of the chaff with
bare hands, or the bait either. Leave it in this shape until you go
on, then get your trap ready to set, but you want your trap clean and
free from rust, and this is a good way to do. Scrape with an old
knife, then use a clean pan and boil in clean water for twenty
minutes, and no fox can smell your trap. Set in edge of bed and cover
in good shape, and make it look as natural as possible, and don't
walk all around in snow, stand in one place and walk in same tracks
when you visit this place, and don't go only every other day.
Now I will tell you of a good way to make a scent that will draw a
fox to a trap. It will draw a fox a number of yards, but it will not
draw them one mile or one half mile, and I doubt if it will one
fourth mile, or any other scent that was ever made or ever will be.
That is my idea of scents, but I know that they are good to draw
animals to traps; they are like methods, some are better than others.
This is not the best, but it is good. Take a cat, skunk and muskrat
in April, dress them and chop them up fine and put them all in a
glass jar. Put cover on and set them where it is warm so they will
rot in good shape, and in the fall add a little fish oil and you will
have something that will smell right loud.
[Illustration: SOME PET FOXES.]
Most anything that will smell strong is good scent, but no matter how
good your bait and scent is, you must have the trap so the fox can't
smell it, and know how and where to set it. Don't forget to set your
trap where there are foxes. This is one thing to keep in mind, always
set where you see signs. Some think they can set a trap any old way
and place, and ought to make a catch, and then get discouraged. If
you don't get your game the first night try again and keep right on
trying; it is courage and grit that makes a successful trapper. Look
for signs whenever you are in the woods, and study them and the
animals that you want to catch. I always look up places in summer,
and when the time comes to set traps I know just where every trap is
going and how many I want.
I tried a great many times to catch a fox before I was successful. I
remember one time I got an old horse for fox bait in winter, and put
him in a good place. We had a snow storm a few days afterwards, and
boylike I started with my rabbit dog and gun to look for rabbits and
to take a look at my old horse to see if the foxes had begun to feed
on him, and when I got to him he was a sight to behold. The snow was
all trodden down solid around him where they had circled and stood
around and fed on him. That was too much for me. It took the rabbit
fever all out of me for that day, and I started for home to get six
No. 2 1/2 Newhouse traps to set around the horse, and I could not get
home quick enough to suit me.
I had always wanted to catch a fox so bad and I thought the time had
come. I set them as well as I could and covered them up good, as I
thought, and went home. It seemed to me that morning would never
come. I knew I was going to have a fox, so I was up early and started
after it. When I got almost to the bait I saw new tracks going
towards the horse and that made my heart beat a little faster, as I
was sure I had one, but they had gone as near as three feet and that
was as near as they would go. They knew the traps were there as well
as I did, and they never went there as long as my traps were set.