DEADFALLS.
First a little pen about a foot square is built of stones and chunks
or by driving stakes close together, leaving one side open. The pen
should be built smaller and tighter than shown in illustration, so
that a small mink or weasel cannot get in from the back or sides. The
pen in illustration is purposely large so that triggers and bait can
be seen, giving the inexperienced deadfall trapper a better idea of
how to set.
The stakes should be cut about thirty inches long and driven into the
ground some sixteen inches, leaving fourteen, or thereabout above the
ground. Of course if the earth is very solid stakes need not be so
long, but should be so driven that only about fourteen inches remains
above ground. A sapling say four inches in diameter and four feet
long is laid across the end that is open. A sapling that is four or
five inches in diameter and about twelve feet long is now cut for the
"fall."
Stakes are set so that this pole or fall will play over the short
pole on the ground. These stakes should be driven in pairs; two about
eighteen inches from the end; two about fourteen further back. (See
illustration). The small end of the pole should be split and a stake
driven firmly through it so there will be no danger of the pole
turning and "going off" of its own accord.
The trap is set by placing the prop (which is only seven inches in
length and half an inch through) between the top log and the short
one on the ground, to which is attached the long trigger, which is
only a stick about the size of the prop, but about twice as long, the
baited end of which extends back into the little pen. The figure 4
triggers can be used if preferred, but the two piece is as good if
not better. The bait may consist of a piece of fish, chicken, rabbit
or any tough bit of meat so long as it is fresh, and the bloodier the
better.
An animal on scenting the bait will reach into the trap--the top of
the pen having been carefully covered over--between the logs. When
the animal seizes the bait the long trigger is pulled off of the
upright prop and down comes the fall, killing the animal by its
weight. Skunk, coon, opossum, mink, and in fact nearly all kinds of
animals are easily caught in this trap. The fox is an exception, as
it is rather hard to catch them in deadfalls.
[Illustration: THE POLE DEADFALL.]
The more care you take to build the pen tight and strong the less
liable is some animal to tear it down and get the bait from the
outside; also if you will cover the pen with leaves, grass, sticks,
etc., animals will not be so shy of the trap. The triggers are very
simple, the long one being placed on top of the upright, or short
one. The long trigger should have a short prong left or a nail driven
in it to prevent the game from getting the bait off too easy. If you
find it hard to get saplings the right size for a fall, and are too
light, they can be weighted with a pole laid on the "fall."
The most successful trapper uses some deadfalls as well as steel
traps, especially if trapping for a season at one place. If trapping
season after season in the same locality deadfalls are a great help
for mink that are apparently hard to catch in steel traps readily
take bait from deadfalls and get caught. On the other hand, mink that
refuse to take bait from deadfalls are often caught in blind steel
trap sets.
The experienced trapper knows that mink travel along creeks, rivers,
swamps, ponds and lakes. Care should be taken in selecting places to
build deadfalls. If there are dens this is a good place to construct
them. If there are many dens so much the better, but one is all that
is required, for a mink is apt to investigate all and will scent
bait. If you are acquainted with the territory you must know some
places where mink frequent. It seems that the nature and habits of
mink are such that although a mink had never traveled that territory
before it would follow about the same course as others, as tracks in
the mud and snow showed.
To prove this I will mention that some years ago in one deadfall I
caught eight mink in five winters and one in a steel trap, making
nine caught in the five years. This deadfall was built on the bank of
a small stream some 20 feet from the water and near a large sycamore,
under which there was a den, although the trap was some feet from the
entrance to the den.
The first winter one mink was taken; the second two; the third three;
the fourth two; the fifth one.
The fourth winter a few weeks after catching one in the deadfall the
trap was down and the bait gone. The trap was rebaited, but for
several trips I found the trap down and bait eaten. I felt sure that
it was a mink, and although I set the triggers easy--I was using the
two piece trigger and upright spindle--the animal continued to get
the bait.
After a few more visits and the trap down, bait invariably eaten, I
made the pen smaller. The next round I brought a No. 1 Newhouse steel
trap intending to set it if the deadfall was down without making a
catch. Sure enough it was.
For some trips I had been suspecting that the "bait getter" was a
small mink. I baited and reset the deadfall as usual. Next a small
place was excavated inside the pen and near the bait, on the deadfall
spindle, the trap placed and carefully covered.
[Illustration: STONE DEADFALLS.]
The next morning I found everything as I had left it the day before,
but the second round I saw that the "fall" was down before I got near
and on closer approach saw a mink, a very small one, in the steel
trap.
The mink was small and went inside the pen for the bait. In
constructing deadfalls for mink care must be taken to have the pen
built tight but not too large.
It is best to build deadfalls in advance of the active trapping
season so that the animals may become accustomed to them, and the
trap weather beaten. Chopping and pounding might tend to drive
animals away. In August, September and October is a good time to
build, for if in new territory signs, if any, should be readily seen.
While it is best to construct deadfalls in advance of trapping
season, yet the writer has built deadfalls late in November, set and
baited and found mink in them the next morning. If rightly built ten
or a dozen is all a man can make in a day, and like setting steel
traps, a dozen carefully set for mink are worth a hundred set at
haphazzard.
Mink are great travelers, so that it is needless to set deadfalls
close together. One about every mile is enough unless there should be
many dens and rocky bluffs along the streams, then they could to
advantage be built closer, for other game is liable to be caught. In
this case they should be made a little heavier, as you may catch
opossum, skunk and coon.
Where one stream empties into another is often a good place to
construct a deadfall. If before selecting your places to build a few
trips are taken along the streams it will be a great help. Where
small streams empty into ponds or lakes or the outlets will be found
ideal places for mink.
When deadfalls are built before the trapping season it is well to set
them, having the top of the pen covered, just as though the trap was
baited and ready for business.
Another thing that should be carefully looked after is triggers. Many
cut triggers from green bushes. If this is done, hard wood such as
oak, hickory, dogwood, sugar, beech, etc., is best. The upright
trigger, which is only a straight piece of wood about a half inch
thick, should be slightly rounded so that the spindle will slip off
easier when the animal is at bait.
It is a good idea to prepare a lot of triggers in advance. For
stone deadfalls the figure 4 must be used as the two piece will not
work--going off entirely too hard.
Of course we all admit the steel trap is more convenient and
up-to-date, says a New Hampshire trapper. You can make your sets
faster and can change the steel trap from place to place. Of course
the deadfall you cannot. But all this does not signify the deadfall
is no good; they are good, and when mink trapping is consumed the
deadfall is the trap you want. To the trapper who traps in the same
locality every year, when his deadfalls are once built it is only a
few minutes work to put them in shape, then he has got a trap for the
season.
[Illustration: BOARD OR LOG TRAP.]
I give a diagram of a deadfall (called here Log Trap) which, when
properly made and baited, there is no such a mink catcher in the trap
line that has yet been devised. This trap requires about twenty
minutes time to make, and for tools a camp hatchet and a good, strong
jack-knife, also a piece of strong string, which all trappers carry.
This trap should be about fifteen inches wide with a pen built with
sticks or pieces of boards driven in the ground. (See diagram.) The
jaws of this trap consist of two pieces of board three inches wide
and about three and a half feet long, resting edgeways one on the
other, held firmly by four posts driven in the ground. The top board
or drop should move easily up and down before weights are put on. The
treadle should be set three inches inside, level with the top of
bottom board. This is a round stick about three-fourths inch through
resting against two pegs driven in the ground. (See diagram.) The
lever should be the same size. Now put your stout string around top
board, then set, pass lever through the string over the cross piece
and latch it in front of the treadle, then put on weights and adjust
to spring, heavy or light as desired. This trap should be set around
old dams or log jams by the brook, baited with fish, muskrat, rabbit
or chicken.