MYSTERIOUSLY SPRUNG TRAPS.
In determining the length of time to have a trap set depends largely
upon how many other traps you have in the vicinity and what success
you are having with them. It may be that a trap will remain at a den
for two weeks unsprung and during the next two weeks catch two or
three animals. Other traps may be sprung occasionally and not contain
game, but if the trapper has followed instructions as previously
given there should be little difficulty in catching each and every
animal that comes after the bait. The trap should have the animal the
first time it attempts to steal the bait, but of course it cannot be
expected to every time. A good trapper will get the animal, however,
before it fools with the bait many times.
If, on visiting a trap, you find the bait gone, replace it and set
the trap as before. The chances are that on the next visit of the
animal it will get caught. Should, on the second visit, the bait be
gone and the trap unsprung, the chances are that the animal is still
in the den and is stealing the bait from within, without stepping
over the trap. In this case, either place the bait on the outside of
trap or not use any bait for a few nights. The animal will most
likely soon venture out, if you quit feeding it, and will get caught.
[Illustration: BAIT STEALER--BIRD.]
The ideas advanced by some that animals spring traps after turning
them over, with their noses or paws, is all nonsense. It may be
possible that they do step over the trap and knock it off with their
body, thus not getting caught. Such cases are rare, however. You have
no doubt visited your trap and found a few hairs in it. On such
occasions it was probably knocked off by the body of the animal. It
may be possible that animals have turned traps over in their
endeavors to get bait with their nose or paw, but you can rest
assured that they did not know by so doing that it lessened the
chance of getting caught. If you can induce an animal to come and get
the bait there is no doubt but that you will catch your game sooner
or later.
In regard to traps being sprung, it is possible they are set too
easy, and go off of their own accord, after the trapper has left
them. Again they may work too hard, not going off easy enough. All
these things the trapper should guard against. If the trap has been
properly set there will be no trouble from the source just named, and
traps once set the trapper should keep away from, as far as possible
when making his rounds, unless they are sprung, the bait gone or
contain game.
Should traps be sprung morning after morning without catching the
animal it is possible that if you move the trap, or better still
leave the one as before and set another, you will be rewarded.
Sometimes an animal will manage to get bait without getting caught.
At other times it may get bait without knocking off the trap. At such
times the bait is too near the trap most likely, the animal reaching
it without stepping over the trap, or if the trap has not been
properly set the animal may be going around the trap.
Just how long a trap should be left at one place if not bothered is
hard to say as so many things bear upon the question; if the weather
is cold and few animals moving they should be left much longer than
if good trapping weather. If the den has been a good one other years,
that is, if you have caught game there, then leave longer than if you
never caught anything there. If other traps are making catches near,
leave as long as you are trapping there unless you find a much better
looking den near and have no trap with you, then take this one.
[Illustration: NORTHERN TRAPPER WITH PACK BASKET.]
When traps are sprung and pulled back into the den as far as the
chain will allow them to go, the chances are that the animals is
still in the den. On the other hand, if the trap is dragged to the
outside the game is liable to have gone away. In either case it will
likely be around again in a few nights, as having once got a meal it
will not be slow to make another visit. If the animal was caught and
only escaped after prolonged struggles is may not return for some
time and possibly not at all. Yet when a trap is set and fastened as
directed, few animals when once caught escape. Here is where proper
fastening comes into use; if the trap had a fairly good hold on the
animal and the trap was staked solid the game might have escaped but
would be so badly injured and frightened that it might never return.
[Illustration: SOME NORTHERN FURS.]
When fastened properly to a bush or light drag, the game rarely
escapes even though the trap has only a toe hold, unless the trapper
is days in making the rounds. Should an animal escape when only
slightly injured it is apt to soon return.
In many cases where game has escaped after once being caught it is
not the fault of the trap but of the trapper. Should the bone in the
animal's leg be broken and after days of endeavoring the animal frees
itself there should be no blame attached to the trap, the fault is
with the trapper--he should have visited the trap sooner.
Many trappers believe that animals become so sharp that they will
turn traps over. This we hardly believe. At the same time trappers
have set traps upside down and caught the animals. This, perhaps, is
accounted for from the fact that the animal in reaching for bait
would turn the trap. It is usually the case that animals will go
about getting bait in a certain manner and the changing of location
of trap may be the means of making a catch.
Some years ago when trapping mink, I visited a certain deadfall that
was "down" each morning and the bait eaten. The trap was reset and
rebaited each time for perhaps a week, even after making the pen
smaller and the trap easier to go off, it continued to be down and
bait gone. By this time I was anxious, and taking a No. 1 steel trap
I carefully set it on the inside of the pen, covered it well and
rebaited the deadfall. On my round the next morning neither the trap
nor bait were disturbed.
The second morning the deadfall was down and in the steel trap was a
small mink--the smallest I ever caught. This accounted for the animal
being able to get inside the pen and eat the bait. It was so small
that when the log fell its body was entirely inside the fall. I
hardly think that small mink, which was less than a year old, knew
that it would get caught unless it was inside the fall, but its size
was such that it could easily get out of danger, and each time it ate
the bait it was in the same position on the inside.