hi iwas needing to make some mink boxes . what is the best way to make them were there not to heavy and will hold 150s conibears. anybody have any good idea's that are good to get those's mink with and best bait .. thank's tom

anybody

Most guys use newspaper tubes or wooden boxes with slots cut for the springs and a 110 or 120. There was just a thread the other day about it and I think something in the archives.

Review this post and just make your box to fit the trap you will be using: http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3726644/Re_mink_boxes_using_110_s#Post3726644

My advise Is to not make very many.

they dont work here.... way better off blind setting. if your going to make a box, make it for coon and put a wire back on it they can see thru

i've made wood tunnels for mink too...they also suck

matt

I have used a few, we don't have many mink here, but I do catch some. I used 1" x1" welded wire, just cut four pieces 12" long, and a square for the back. That way the collapse for storage. Mine were for 120's but they could easily be modified for a 5x5 trap. Cut notches for the springs. Throw a half a muskrat in and you got a mink. Don't think i have any pictures, but I know a few mink have not even let go of the bait after the trap fired. I do normaly cover the sides with dead grass to make it look like a tunnel. Hope this helps.
Oregon.hunter

Well, it's hard to beat a good blind set in the right location, but I have pretty good luck with boxes, too. It has been my experience that mink don't like wires in thier face, and sometimes refuse to enter a box protected by a standard conibear, while others will commit. After a few years of messing with various "coni-pans", I've converted to nearly all wooden pans, using mostly 120's. I do not use 110. I fooled around a bit with the Belisle 150 single spring, and found that, as with 110's, stability was problematic. One way to fix that is a screw run from the outside of the box through to between the jaws, sticking out just enough to secure the jaws, with the spring on the otherside bent up....


I don't worry so much about a wire mesh back, although some of my boxes have the. I also agree that you will be much more successful taking a little bit of time and camoing and blending the boxes in with grass, branches, or whatever is there at the set to make it appear a little more natural.

Oh, and the pan in the above pictures is, in my opinion, sitting too low, and should (was) be bent up a little bit.

IMO pan trigger traps are a definite asset in a baited mink box. As AV stated, "mink don't like wires in their face". I also prefer wood pans but also use corregated plastic which works well also. Both are easily attached to the standard trigger wires. I staple the wood pans on and run the wires through the plastic corrugation slots. Again as AV metioned the pan should be angled up slightly about 20 degrees or so.

That's it, right there. Before I figured that out, Too many catches that were too far back.

In fact, it well might have been BC that clued me into that!

heres one.I was fooling around and wanted to hang the coni from the top of the lid.It is isnt showing up real well.I ve set these around frozen rat marsh and picked up quite a few mink and weasles.A fisher will crawl all over the box and generally foul the set.

Matt, your mink must be smarter than the ones up north...

Its an after ice up deal only,to begin with.When I do it,anyway

A few years ago I caught a couple Mink in my boxes, I had just made them I think. It was probably 3 or 4 years ago. No luck with Mink in them since. They run by them every year. I don't have that many Mink around here for some reason, and I am trapping around an old beaver dam on my property. I did catch a weasel in one this year. I had a few mink walk right by them and not commit. I was using Mink food lure, and Shell fish oil. I think gland lure too. Had muskrat and beaver meat in the boxes. Then tried perch when the meat ran out from small critters. Killer on coon and an occasional Fisher that goes by too. I was wondering if I sprayed Mink urine in the box if that would help?

It's important to go into fall with a nice clean box with nothing decayed from the year before.I use no lure.just rat carcass.The marsh is iced up,there is no open water,mink will go through the side of a rat house if they can at this time.It's just another tool in the arsenal along with all the other types of sets you'ed be making at that time.I like to think that as I put the pressure on the rats by thinning them down,the mink become easier to catch as I'me stealing meals away from them.After Ice up it becomes increasingly more difficult for a mink to get under the ice to other rat houses,especially if there isn't any snow cover yet filling up the cattails and taking the frost out below.Its hard to make it work if there is 3 foot of snow in the marsh.

It might be handy to make the boxes big enough for the 5 inch traps, just in case you want to use them, might be a little better for coon and fisher.

It might be handy to make the boxes big enough for the 5 inch traps, just in case you want to use them, might be a little better for coon and fisher. I agree, use 120's and pan triggers.

I agree with many. Skip the boxes and make some natural cubbies, then set as many footholds as you can 50/50 pockets and blind sets, then set as many 110 trail/bottom edge sets. the trick to successful mink trapping in my mind is setting a few different type of sets at each stop. Mink will go by boxes lots of times. They will occasionally go by a pocket only to be caught in a blind set. If you want to put up mink numbers you have to cover all bases. This will put more fur in your truck each check. I f you stop at a brook and just put in a cpl pockets and water fluctuates than those sets are gonna be working or not working, but if at a stop you put in a cpl pckets, cpl blind sets, and cpl 110's and water fluctuates than a cpl are bound to still be working and the ones that are working will catch fur. This is especially true for a five day check like we have in Maine where I trap mink.