WIDE SPREADING JAWS.
Occasionally I see in H-T-T, trappers advocating a large spreading
trap, writes an experienced Canadian trapper, and some even go so far
as to invite the trap manufacturers to make still wider ones than are
now on the market. My experience in trapping, which was varied and
extended over a number of years, is that it's a mistake to have a
trap that catches the animals too high up.
The best and most enduring hold a trap can have on an animal is the
paw or just above where it joins the bottom of the leg. I have found
this with beaver, foxes, marten, lynx, bear, and in fact all animals
I have caught. Just above and the paw itself is a mass of sinews and
muscle enveloped with a stronger skin than any part of the leg, and
therefore must give more resistance. I have found a fox that was
caught in a No. 2 Newhouse after three nights' struggle as secure as
if newly seized. The jaws having closed securely across the thick
part of the forepaw.
[Illustration: TRAPPER'S CABIN AND PACK HORSES.]
Again from a shortness of a proper sized trap I once set a No. 4, for
a fox. The fox was caught between midnight and daylight, and when I
visited the trap at the latter limit (six o'clock), it was high time,
for another half hour of struggling and the fox would have been clear
and away. The jaws had caught him half way up the foreleg and snapped
the bone like a pipe shank. With his twisting and leaping there only
remained a strip of skin and one tendon that kept him prisoner.
For mink I have found a No. 0 trap, if carefully set with proper
precaution, is as good and lucky as a No. 1 or 1 1/2 trap, as some
trappers advocate. I used a bunch on a considerable sized lake last
fall. The lake had numerous small creeks and rivers falling into it.
At the junction of these with the lake I set my traps. They were all
No. 0 selected on account of their lightness. As there was a long
carry to get to the lake from a traveled route and added to the
canoe, my gun, blanket and provisions, the traps were somewhat of a
consideration, and I therefore took the one of less weight. I made
two visits to the lake before it froze and got twenty mink, one
marten and a female fisher.
When I made a water set I saw that the bank outside went down pretty
bold and I always tied a stone to the trap and thus insured the
animal drowning. Where I set on land without fail I attached the
chain to a tossing pole, thereby preventing the fur being damaged by
mice or the animal being eaten by some other. Some may question the
possibility of such small traps being for any length of time in order
as a water set, but I must explain. The lake was of considerable size
and the season the latter part of October. Such a lake at that season
of the year is not subject to any fluctuations in the height of
water.
I may say in conclusion about this particular sized trap that on that
trapping tour I only lost one mink, I found the trap sprung with a
single toe in the jaws. The trap had been a dry set one, and by
reading the signs I found some snow had melted and dripped from an
overhanging branch on to the junctions of the jaws. This had frozen
(the trap being in the shade) and prevented its usual activity. As a
consequence It only caught on as the mink was in the act of lifting
his foot, so I was satisfied it was the circumstances and not the
fault of the trap that caused the missing of this mink.
Another undesirable point about any trap is to have the springs too
powerful for its intended use. One only wants a trap's jaws to close
up sudden enough and to hold what it catches secure against any
possibility of the animal withdrawing its foot. Once you have this
it's all that's required or necessary. A trap with springs with a
strength out of reason is awkward and vexatious to open, and when the
animal is caught goes on with its continued pressure until the jaws
of their own action almost sever the paw or leg, and the animal with
very little struggling finishing the amputation.
I knew an Indian once who had a bear trap which was not much larger
in spread than a No. 4 trap. An ordinary man by placing a foot on
each spring could set it, and yet that trap was his most reliable
one. He had others too, but he took his "Davy" on that. It acted like
that celebrated motto, "What we have, we hold."
This trap was made from his own directions, and he had the jaws at
their inner edge three-quarters of an inch thick and bevelled off to
a quarter of an inch at the outer sides. As he aptly put it--"I want
the trap to hold the bear until I go there and shoot it, not to chop
off its foot."
Another point about a bear trap that I consider could be remedied
with advantage to the trapper, is to have the ordinary chains
lengthened by a few links. It is not always possible to place the
drag stick close up to the open trap, but where the chain is longer
no difficulty would be found. A few more links would add very little
to the weight or cost.
[Illustration: TRAPPER MAKING BEAR SET.]
To a lone trapper setting bear traps miles away from any human
beings, it's a tricky and dangerous job. I consider a man so situated
should, as a precaution, carry one of those patent clamps for
depressing the springs, in his pocket. I am aware some do not use
them, as they consider them too slow, preferring a couple of short
levers jammed under a root and pressed down with the knees while the
hands open the jaws and place the trigger. Others use a piece of
stout cord to tie down one spring, while with their weight on the
other the jaws fall apart.
But accidents will happen to the most careful persons; by some
inadvertence he might get caught by the hand or thoughtlessly step
into it, and if he did not perish would have considerable difficulty
in getting out, while with a cool head and a clamp within reach he
could promptly free himself. I knew one man who lost his life in a
bear trap and another who had almost succumbed to his suffering when
found and released. There are three things with a trapper's life that
I was always extremely polite and careful with--a bark canoe, a bear
trap, and a gun. I handled these for forty years but never fooled
with them.
Had the Indian mentioned used the celebrated Newhouse traps, we feel
sure that he would have found no cause to complain. While to some
trappers the springs may sometimes appear to be too stiff, yet the
face of the jaws are wide and as the manufacturers are always in
correspondence with bear and other trappers, there is no question but
that they know and are now manufacturing what meets the views of the
majority of trappers.
We believe that of some sizes they are making the face of the jaws
even wider than formerly.
The Newhouse bear traps are furnished with bear chain, clevis and
bolt, illustrated and described under Newhouse Traps, but briefly
described here. This chain is five feet long and with clevis can be
fastened around any log which the trapper will want to use.
One thing must be born in mind, viz: That when traps are set, they
are covered, and should severe weather follow, freezing this
covering, it requires a stiff spring to throw the jaws together
quickly. Our belief is that more large animals escape from traps too
weak than from the too strong ones. Yet there are times, no doubt,
when had the spring been weaker and the face of the jaws wider, the
results would have been fully as satisfactory.