Posted by White17




Len. I usually set my wolverine snares 8 inches off the ground. Did you use a chin stick to make him lift his head??

Posted by White17

FT: I have finally caught up on the reading and it sounds like you have a challenge on your hands. I think I would have used my hanging bait set early in the saga. MT suggested it but I wanted to point out that I do cover those traps. Not leave them exposed. As far as a good chunk of beaver being too heavy to haul I am forced to inquire: How then do you plan to haul wolverines on the return trip. They weigh a bit more than a chunk of beaver. :-))

There are two types of wolverine. Bold-wary, and wary-wary. I suspect you have the latter. The bold-wary wil circle once and go for it. The others require more thought and guile. Before you catch this guy you need to spend several more sleepless nights trying to figure a foolproof set. I call this process "gulo-interuptus" as it keeps waking a guy up at night.

Start off next year with both the snare on a pole set as well as the hanging bait set. Get rid of him early ! I have modified my snare on a pole set just a little so a guy doesn't have to hang'em so high to prevent twisting the snare off. I'll try to get some pix up to illustrate.

Posted by White17

I have not used scent posts but have often looked at the numerous places a wolverine will go to the edge of a trail and musk all over a short bush or shub. Probably should set every one you see like that. They seem to refresh that bush every time around.

Forget the porkies! Wolverines certainly know where every porky den in the country is located and they check them out. They definitely kill and eat them. They don't seem interested in ones that are already dead.

The icy/crystalline snow seems to be ok for me. If you can't scoop it gently off the surface, then dig down to where the snow is more granular and use that. Don't touch it. I place it with a waxed shovel( so it doesn't stick) and enough to make the trap invisible. be sure to remove branches from the entire trunk up 4-6 feet. If you leave branches on the back side to fence him out he will circle and go away. Make him comfortable and present an open, welcoming atmosphere so he drops his guard. Be sure the bait is high enough so he has to stand up to grab it, but not high enough to make him climb.

Posted by White17

In the past I have talked about the snare/pole set I use for wolverine. One important thing I have found is to keep it high enough so their back feet don't reach the ground.

Late this season the light dawned on me and I made a couple of modified sets. The advantage, I believe, is that the set can be made on a much lower pole or tree and thus the critter will be less likely to refuse to climb. I took some power RAMS and attached to the tree. The snare is 1/16th 1x19 cable. All else is identical to the regular set. Here's a few pix.

This is the Ram spring. I used cable ties to hold one arm to the tree. You could use wire.


Here is a better view. As you see I use fine willow to support the snare and romex staples to hold the willow. The bait is just out of sight to the right.


Different set but here you can see the staples and the safety device. These babies will take your teeth out so use the safety.


Here's the whole thing from a distance.



You can add a marten set beyond the snare but I suggest a bucket if you do so. You don't want the marten fouling the snare. Actually, I think it's best to omit the marten set as I think it gives the gulo second thoughts sometimes. Be sure to cable the RAM to something solid nearby.

I didn't actually catch in these sets this year but I'm certain they will work. I don't think that a neck caught wolverine would even quiver after firing the spring. The real nice thing is they are so resistant to weather.

Question by fishermann222
I have never seen a RAM used before. I may be the only one, but could you explain how the spring trips, and how it is staying compressed once you remove the safety device?

Answer by White17

The snare cable has a small nut compressed onto the cable about 2.75 inches from the back end. It fits in a slot in the eye of the spring that is uppermost in the pix. This keeps it compressed until business time. The critter gets in, gives a tug and the nut comes easily out of the slot, and the spring opens instantly. The critter is pulled against one spring eye while the other arm ( the bottom arm) of the spring applies constant high pressure. Hope thats clear. Wish I had one here to photograph.

QUestion by Family Trapper
Ken do you weave the snare and the willow?? How do you use the willow for support without it affecting the falling of the snare? I was using #11 wire attached to the tree and crimping on the snare cable behind the lock to suport it. Yours looks good. Just curious just how much you can hang on the willow.

Answer by White17
Ken do you weave the snare and the willow?? How do you use the willow for support without it affecting the falling of the snare? I was using #11 wire attached to the tree and crimping on the snare cable behind the lock to suport it. Yours looks good. Just curious just how much you can hang on the willow.

Correct. one staple on each side of the tree. Put it either higher or lower depending on the diameter of the tree, and the diameter of the loop you want. On a narrow pole you'll want the staples toward the bottom so the willow will be spaced right to fit the loop. A big tree and you want the staples mid-way on the trunk. Don''t go towards the top as the willow will lean in and narrow the loop. better to find a smaller tree. I may have a picture, I'll look.

MAybe you can see the willow/cable relationship better here. Maybe not too. This set doesn't have a RAM but you can see the willows better.

Posted by Family Trapper

Ken what size cable are you using on the wolverine snares that are not rammed.
Your polls are not very high. You must have no extra cable on the snare. I would have thought it would be better to have a little extra so they could not claw there way up on the pole again. But maybe it is not an issue.
What percentage do you get by the neck.

ANswer from White17

I use 3/32 1x19 cable. I have only caught one wolverine that was NOT a neck catch. I Use just ebough cable to make a loop and the rest is #9 to secure it to the tree. Most of my poles are as high as I can reach to set the snare. I would prefer that they get back on the pole rather than onto the ground but it seems as though once they bail off the pole they stay down. When they hit the end of the cable it has to be a heck of a jerk. Look at the picture of the wolverine and notice that there is very little debris on the ground below him. I don't think he lasted very long at all. Just a couple small pieces of bark on the snow.

More from White17

The wolverine liked the Backbreaker too. I saw a set of tracks in a slough make a 90 degree turn and go straight to my set that was at least 100 yards away at 10 below. I have no doubt it was the smell of the BB. I may be Dobbin some behind my ears to try to perk up a bit of attention from Barb.

AKtrpr asks:

never made any strechers outta pine, afraid of sap. anyone know wear to get some wolverine stretchers?

white17 answers;

I make my own wolverine boards out of spruce.

Here's the wolverine board dimensions.

The nose is 2"

2 inches down equals 3" across
9.5" down = 7.25" across
36" down = 7.5" across

length over all is 53"

At 2 inches down I drilled a hole through and through on the edge. Inserted a 16d galvanized nail with the head cut off. this allows you to spread the nose to what ever dimension you need and also keeps the two halves aligned.

Make the board in one piece and the split it on the table saw.

The bottom pieces have holes drilled evey inch so you can insert a nail to hold whatever width you need.

Joe; when attaching the trap to this cut bucket it appears to me that you must insert diagonally opposite cornes at the same time and then rotate the trap into position.

Is that close or am I making it too difficult ?

Hows this for a blast in the past. White breathed new life into it. But lost it. I had saved it as a pdf prior and had the date of its last post and was able to find it. Game on Wolverine people. ;0)

White is there a way to give us back edit mode so we can update lost photos?

Geez! After what has already happened I don't know how much more we can risk. I can see the EDIT function but I guess you guys can't. I'll poke around a bit and see if I can find a way.

Good thing Len had the PDF copy or we'd still be looking for this thing. I did look for it at the very end of these 101 pages. It looks like all the posts are here, clear back to Paul's first post about creating the forum for us.

Try it now

Wow, this is cool! Hope I can add to it this season.

Who doesn't like talking gulo's? I've been doing some heavy research on them, reviewing every research paper I can find on them. My motivation is a research project we're kicking off this year in a partnership between Alberta Trappers Assoc. and the Alberta Conservation Association. A select group of trappers are working with the ACA to monitor wolverines within their registered fur management areas which typically average 200 to 350 square miles. The traplines were selected based on known wolverine populations and active trappers working the lines, including two of my own traplines. After developing the protocol this winter we will expand the program across Alberta in upcoming years.

We are still harvesting wolverines during the study, but as we are on a quota of one wolverine per registered line the harvest is limited. We as trappers seem to be seeing an increase in wolverines in Alberta which is contrary to the feelings of some of the researchers. As trappers we grabbed the bull by the horn and approached the ACA to work with us in the field. Luckily this org ( ACA ) is funded by hunter & angler dollars and very pro hunting angling trapping. Some of the techniques we'll be using: camera traps - DNA hair snags - track surveys - telemetry collars - scat analysis - and carcass examinations.

I'm already developing some interesting thoughts based on some of the research I've read. I believe that trappers have contributed to wolverine health through trapping. Beyond the obvious of removing competing predators like wolves I think the bait robbing habit of the gulo has produced many extra cubs. It seems if a female can't establish food caches within a 500 meter radius of her natal den she will not give birth. These caches are started in early winter and the size and number of them decides that years production. How many of us in wolverine country haven't been robbed over and over. And mature females are more wary than others, one study of a large harvest period showed over 70% of the capture was sub-adults. Add in mature males and the mature female harvest is low.

One of my lines has lots of wolverine on the top end but no wolves in deep winter. Snow levels too deep. I'm thinking I need to be dropping carcasses up there early season to help those old girls out. I also think by using trail cams I can target my one allowable wolverine per year. I'd go for a mature male or sub adult. A researcher developed a setup that allows you to sex and age wolverines using a trail cam picture. That research took place in Alaska.

I have almost 200 pages or research papers where I've gone through and highlighted in red things I found interesting. I will post it here for those who have any interest. As well I respect the opinions on here as much as all those research papers. I plan on sharing our findings with you guys as we move forward this winter and would love your feedback and opinions. I might even post a few pictures. My business partner and I ( www.compassmedia.ca ) fine tuned our techniques last year and got some awesome footage both video and stills.

Storming and -30 this morning. the weather I've been waiting for as the ground was dry. Next week I'm off to wolverine country and the fun begins.

That sounds great Brian. Looking forward to any and all info.

Awesome!

Has anyone tried to edit their post? Try it please

Worked great. But I there is some of mine that otterman reposted that I can't. I could send a new tag to otterman if he would be willing to put it in.

give it a try Len. I will try and do it but am headed to town so it will be later today or tonight before I can get to it

Thanks Len !

Thanks Brian. Will be really interesting to follow your work.