4- You actually keep top lot certificates? They're more luck than skill. I use my overall averages as my benchmark. But I agree lets stay on topic please.

Okie - if you flip your nail over and blunt the tip it won't split the lath as often, been there.

So tomorrow I'm heading out to run a few sets and get 20 more out. i'm using another design that I made out of pieces of corplast. They stack very nice and 20 of them weigh less than a pound. Because the boxes are shorter i will use them in vertical sets. When you put a vertical set on a wide trunk a marten usually charges up the tree. On a skinny trunk they wrap their paws and climb slower. I want them charging.

I would doubt if they know how the marten was trapped or even have time to check to see. Damage is damage and the pelt goes into the damage section where it fits without a CSI or postmortem to check trapping methods.

Ron,the graders were not told how the marten were trapped-That would have made the study biased.The skins were marked by the FIC,graded then checked independently to see if any that were caught in magnum conis had any more damage than any other.They did not.Neither do mine,less in fact than the old weak traps.

T4E not offended in the slightest.....and I agree not all top lots go to us Canucks......but enough do that I think we can rule out conis as the limiting factor...... In that standard pole set in the picture it looks like the trap is on the ground? Is that a tip-up set? Do you put your bait in the can?

Good advice on tree size Brian I have noticed the same.....could you post the dimensions of those coreplast boxes please. I love that idea and want to make some asap.

Simple pole set with a #2, works for me. Always like to see others sets.

I for one when I did set the typical pole set, if I had a chance at all I went for setting under the umbrella of the biggest spruce around just for the protection against snow fall. I personally could never figure why someone would set out in the open when there was protection near by.? Any thoughts on this?

Personally I think top lot has a lot to do with the numbers game. ;0) The more marten you have to send in more chances you have of getting them in a top lot. It is not the number of top lot that impresses me. It is the fact that anyone with a lot of top lot certificates had a lot of marten to send in. ;0)
That is impressive to me!!

There is so much to gain from everyones opinions. I personally don't like to see guys get worked up on who's is better than an others or what is right or wrong. To me there is food for thought in every post. Glean what you can from those so willing to share.
I got some great tidbits of advice from posts, Canadian and US.
This flipping place (Tman) is like a treasure chest to anyone that spends time here. Blows me away the out of the box thinking that goes on here about trapping.
Keep bringing it on men. We have another archive potential thread among us.

Well, I'll throw my 2¢ into this circus ring,.. but you're probably gonna get ripped off.

I too, like T4E, am a confirmed foothold marten trapper, after trying & using every type of set/trap I could think of, over many years. And I agree with most of the issues concerning both footholds & body-grippers that have been mentioned by others. These type of threads are good for bringing out ideas & methods from all across North America, and this is how one can pick up even little things to improve your methods that you just might not have thought of otherwise on your own,... there's some pretty ingenious trappers on this forum.

And nothing is more true than doing what works best in your particular area/habitat,.. and we are not all the same in that regard. And since most of you have violated Bushman's directions of keeping this thread picture-heavy,... I'm going to have to help make up the slack for some of you,...

But there are some rather important advantages (in my humble opinion) in using footholds that haven't been brought out yet,.. so I will mention a few.

First of all, my experiments with body-grippers has been less than desired in the number of refusals to enter them,... this has been true for mink as well,.. (and wolverine too). I could post a lot of pictures just like FT of marten tracks coming right up to sets, and not going in. And trigger styles/configurations make no difference, including pans,... for me in my area, a considerable number of marten just don't want to enter them,... and I used mostly 160's from the start. Just like some areas have marten that won't climb, mine don't want to go thru a steel frame.

I trap in some of the deepest snow country in Alaska,... some of my main marten country has annual snowfall depths of 30-45 feet,... so for sure, my main issue is having a set that keeps working no matter how much snow falls,... even in no tree areas. I have years when I step off my snow machine, and have trouble getting back on again, with my head level with the running boards in extreme conditions. My next most important issue is mice/shrew damage. I have a good friend who traps a little north of me who has no mouse problems,... he has fox problems. I have never had a fox eat a marten in my life that I can remember,...

A ground cubby with footholds is closest set to 100% capture that I have seen in my experience when working,.. but of course they are the worst for getting put out of commission & rodent damage, so I don't use those. Pole sets with 3"-4" of snow on them are somewhat out of commission from what I've seen, and in my area, that would be almost all the time. I have caught lot's of marten in pole sets, but it very deep snow, or higher elevations, trees aren't always available.


For me, in my area, nothing has worked better/lasts longer than plywood boxes, (5/8"-3/4" preferred) set mostly horizontal. I have tried different heights-lengths,... and have come up with the smallest dimensions that still work almost every time,.. 6" tall, and 14" deep, with 10" sides. I can get 16 boxes out of a full sheet of plywood and scrounge up scrap plywood whenever I find it, so all my boxes are free. It's fast & easy to rip up a whole pile of them on a table saw. One of my favorite methods of setting my boxes is to attach them to a pole, then I can stick my pole anywhere I want,... even out in the wide-open spaces,... and it stays working. I always use 8d nails to attach them,... that way they don't get wrecked when a bear or wolverine tears them off. Also, I can easily pop them off & move them up a tree as the snow gets deeper. At the end of the season, I pop the box off the tree & place it over the sawed-off end of a smaller tree somewhere, as high as I can get it, where they are generally safe from summer-time bears and porcupines. I would rather not use plastics & other non-biodegradable materials and have trash scattered around my set areas. Here's a few of my pole/box marten sets,...

Wolverinebait That looks like a very effective set ! I think you brought up something that is very important to the overall discussion...refusals......I think it depends on how much food is available. I very rarely see a marten refuse to enter a set......it does happen, but so rarely that it isnt an issue.....If a marten comes near a set in my country one of two things will happen.....either I catch it, or it gets past the trap & gets the bait....this is where the pitchfork trigger shines....they fire the trap every time. My thinking is that trappers that see lots of refusals are likely in an area where the marten have lots of food......so they can be picky......in areas with less food they are much less likely to refuse a free meal......

WB
Thanks.
On your sets do you put the trap inside the box or just under the overhang?
On a 6 inch wide entry do you do anything to fence them into the trap pan? Any guiding at all?
Do you have a photo of a trap set in a box?

WB- do you have any pictures of the sets without the catch? I'm new to marten trapping, have a grand total of 5.25 marten. I trap a burn and the big spruce for coverage is few and far between.didnt have any issues with snow covering traps, but the birds eating all the bait was a big problem. My plan this year is to go with chunks of moose hide and lure.

When I trapped marten in Montana. I either caught the marten making the track anywhere close to my set or it was disabled for some reason. Never would they resist. OH the joy of trapping marten like that again.

Alaskan
I tried the big moose hides a few years ago with a smelly fish paste lure on them for smell. Little success. That is not to say that it would not be affective in another location. But it was a bust for me.

This is why I use smaller nails to attach my boxes, so they don't get wrecked when bears or wolverines tear them down,...




The drawbacks of body-grippers are the same for me as for most,... besides a lower catch rate. Carrying a bunch of replacement traps that can't be used to set more areas is a fairly big factor for me, since I refuse to drag a cargo sled around if at all possible to avoid it, and on trips of 15-20 marten caught, this is a big pile of traps. As far as the damage issues using body-grippers go,... this too, must be an area-weather related thing to some degree. I for sure had more damaged marten in them than footholds did. Using only #0 or #1's would only result in some occasional minor foot damage,... which is no detriment to the price of the fur. But many of my body-gripped marten had lines/damage in the fur across the body that I could not comb out, not matter what I did. Any wiggling around at all in those traps would cause that,.. just like it does with otters, beavers, etc. I remember watching Dean Wilson grading marten at times & picking out the body-gripped marten that he could see had a line going across the body,... for sure not all/most did, but some certainly did. A foot-caught marten will never have body damage from the trap.

Someone mentioned that having to deal with live marten was a negative thing that body-gripping traps eliminate. I actually LIKE having live marten in my traps for several reasons, which can never happen in body traps:

1) I know they are not damaged from mice, from being frozen against anything, etc. Let's face it,... if you're anything like me,... the most damage I do to marten is trying to haul hard/frozen marten home on a bouncing sled all day. I usually carry towels with me to wrap frozen marten in,.. but marten fur is so fine & delicate that even touching each other can make marks in the fur. And having a body gripper trap frozen around it with sharp, poking things sticking out only invites more damage trying to get it home.

2) A simple love-tap on the snout, hold their hearts, and a marten is dispatched in a min or less. Not only is a warm, unfrozen marten going to make it back home undamaged, but I can get him peeled & on the boards right away that night. They peel better fresh, and I really like keeping up with my skinning as much as I can,... no freeze-dried faces, tails, etc. skinning something you caught 2 months earlier.

3) A foot-caught marten, caught by only a toe or two, can be released just fine. Maybe not too many people will do this too much at current prices, but I have done it in the past, more than once. I have released small black females on numerous times that I know were just fine. Can't do that with a body-gripper. It's not always a sure thing that it will work, because I can think of at least 2 times that I had caught the same marten in the same set, now hanging dead that I had released the previous check. But at least you have that option on occasion to manage your marten line with footholds that you don't have with body-grippers.

You know,.. I don't think I have very many pictures of boxes set without a catch,.. that is kinda weird now that I think about it. I just have the trap inside as far as I can get it, spring in first. I generally don't have much of a bird-squirrel issue, but on occ I'll get one. Weasels are the biggest pest, but not sure how to avoid them without loosing marten potential as well.


Another advantage of using footholds over body-grippers for marten (or maybe not,... depending on how you look at it) is the possibility of catching something better,... and bigger. With current prices, this may not be a good thing, but in the past it was. I can think of at least a half-dozen times that I have caught & held a wolverine in a #1 longspring in a marten box. (funny thing is, I have no pictures of this,... ), but of course have lost most of them. But I always anchor my trap with this in mind. But years ago, when lynx & even fox were worth more than a marten, I considered this a bonus that wouldn't happen in a little body-gripper,... even on pole sets,...

Man WB! I can't even catch a fox in a set made for them! Love those pics though!

Great post WB.
But man I hate to prove you wrong. ;0) But all in fun no less.


Caught the last week in March.
110 duke or similar in a plant pot. Undoubtedly the nicest furred fox I have ever caught. At the time of year when they are most all are terribly rubbed. Higher country.
I was amazed. Certainly not the normal. But a rarity that can happen. Agree with everything you have said WB. Just fun to share the oddity of things at times.

Yeah, I know you're right,... it has happened. Seems like I remember someone on here posting a picture of a wolverine caught in a 160 too,... but it's really not all that uncommon to catch other stuff like this in footholds,... I have a lot more pictures of lynx, fox, even a coyote caught in boxes,... just not wanting to spend the time trying to find them, but I did just run across a couple more that I don't even remember, including a tail-caught marten in a pole set. The weird things always make for good memories. That's a very nice fox,.. great picture!

Hello, can someone please explain a little tip up detail or point me to some other thread that does. I tried to see how FT's coni set off his tip up but I can't get there. thanks.

Any foothold set in a tree here is a totally illegal set.Some of those pics demonstrate why.
WB do you check your traps every day?