What got you started trapping?
#6481914
03/05/19 07:23 PM
03/05/19 07:23 PM
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Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 510 Utah
foxhunter52
OP
trapper
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OP
trapper
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 510
Utah
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I'm pretty sure there have been numerous threads like this, Even so, I'm very interested to hear the stories of how you got to be a trapper.....It all started for me when a friend invited me to tag along with he and his dad checking some muskrat traps along a canal near our home. His dad was a good trapper, and we caught muskrats that morning. I remember the anticipation of coming to each set, looking to see if the trap was there and then, when we pulled it up, the excitement of hoping there would be something in it. When there was a muskrat, it was almost magical to me. Within a day I'd scrounged up a half dozen traps, jumped on my bike and began setting them along a small, slow moving river a ways from my house. I set the first trap in front of a hole in the bank and found several other places with tracks that looked like good spots. I'd put a carrot on a stick, push it in the mud and put a trap in front of it. I couldn't wait until morning to go check them. As I walked up to the first set and looked over the bank, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a large muskrat sitting on the bank looking back at me. After a few minutes of smacking him with a stick, I finally got him out of the trap. I caught another muskrat that morning and ten in the next week. My friends dad taught me how to skin and stretch them. He even helped me sell them. I made nearly twenty dollars in a month. But I would have done it for nothing. Long story short, I was hooked and have loved trapping ever since. I've enjoyed countless adventures trapping muskrats, fox, coyotes, bobcats, and a lot of other stuff. They've all been fun and exciting, some a little scary. I've taken a couple short breaks over the years, but now that I'm retired, I'm back for as long a the good Lord will allow, and I'm looking forward to next season. I'm sure many of you have stories to tell, and I'd sure enjoy reading them. If not, I guess I'll read Trapper magazine.
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6481964
03/05/19 08:06 PM
03/05/19 08:06 PM
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Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 4,100 Bonner County, Idaho
Wild_Idaho
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 4,100
Bonner County, Idaho
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Thanks for sharing that, foxhunter. Painted a real good picture, nice story. I grew up in a hunting and fishing family. My grandpa owned a duck club out in the marsh and he would use cage traps to trap coons and skunks on the levees surrounding the ponds. I'd always help him. We would take some duck or pheasant guts and throw them in the cage traps. The next morning I'd go out with my pellet gun and check the traps. I had a blast doing that. He skinned out a couple coons and tanned them and gave them to me. I had them for a lot of years until they got lost in a move somewhere. The last time I trapped with my grandpa was 20 years ago and I was probably 10 or 12 years old. My dad didn't trap at all and I didn't really know anyone who did so I didn't trap at all until re-starting around this time last year. A book called "Fish, Hunt and Trap a Little by Wesley Murphey put the bug in my ear to start trapping again. My first catch trapping on my own was a beaver, followed by 2 otter and 2 more beaver. This year I've caught beaver, muskrat, mink, coyote, coon and otter. I don't see myself taking another hiatus from trapping unless medical reasons prevent me from doing it. This is a fun lifestyle that we live. Putting out steel and putting up fur. I love it.
Real name Eric The sharpest hammer in the box of crayons.
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482026
03/05/19 08:48 PM
03/05/19 08:48 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,198 Midlands South Carolina
SGT. C
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,198
Midlands South Carolina
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A dozen Monties 1.5's and the revenue used to buy hunting and fishing gear as a kid. Sarge
Getting old is a fatal mistake
Always looking for reloading componets
I know a beaver or two, because I've seen a beaver or two
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482045
03/05/19 09:03 PM
03/05/19 09:03 PM
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Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 1,482 Ne pa
Jerry Jr.
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 1,482
Ne pa
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I was raised in a hunting and fishing family. My Dad was not for trapping tho I suspect it was because his first daughter is an anti (she is 18 years older than me). He always supported his kids and I know he did not know anything about trapping. Had he lived longer I am sure I could have educated him about trapping. Tho I am not sure I would have gotten into it if he was still around.
My story starts with my Dad passing. The second year after his passing we had way to many yotes out in the swamp. I found a guy I work with to come out and set traps. Long story short, I really liked going out and checking the traps and learned that it wasn't what you are told by the anti's. I saw how humane it is (nothing like the anti's make it out to be). I really enjoyed going out on the checks. I decided to dive into the trapping game. Through the help of this site and some friends I have been able to catch some critters. Not as many of the yotes as I have hoped, but we are working on that.
My Kids love to go out with me to check and set traps, to the dismay of their grandma (my Mom). I think it is because they have first hand knowledge of what happens on the line. They have seen several critters in traps. They know it is nothing more than a restraining device. They are not designed to inflict imminence pain like the anti's would have you believe.
Just the other night my 5 year old told me she was gonna hunt, fish and trap like me but she needs to be a little older. I tried to explain that with our laws she can do it now, but she has it in her head that she needs to be older. I am fine with her tagging along. When she is ready I will be there waiting.
Long story short, between this site and people on the ground you converted me in my early 30's. Congrats, I am rather hard headed. On a side note, everyone that I have talked to has been pro trapping, or at the very least accepting of it. This was our third year and I have not had one person (other than my Mom and sister) express a dislike for trapping and I have talked to many people about it. I don't hide what I do, I will gladly engage in a polite discussion with any one.
Time is more precious than gold if you know how to spend it .... but what do I know, I'm just a dumb farmer.~My Dad NRA LIFE MEMBER, Endowment Member
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482048
03/05/19 09:07 PM
03/05/19 09:07 PM
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 12,986 Central Pennsylvania
Nittany Lion
Don't call me Mister, Mister
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Don't call me Mister, Mister
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 12,986
Central Pennsylvania
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Muskrats in the farm pond.
I got myself a seniors' GPS. Not only does it tell me how to get to my destination, it tells me why I wanted to go there.
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482090
03/05/19 09:39 PM
03/05/19 09:39 PM
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,520 Kentucky
ky_coyote_hunter
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,520
Kentucky
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Grandfather got me started, he was an expert blind set fox trapper...Never used lure or bait, and I learned a few tricks from him I've never seen in print, or even talked about.
Member - FTA
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482093
03/05/19 09:42 PM
03/05/19 09:42 PM
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 2,492 Garden,Michigan
Buck (Zandra)
trapper
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trapper
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 2,492
Garden,Michigan
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A article in OUTDOOR LIFE around '73 or '74,the author interviewed 4 or 5 trappers from around the country,George Wacha was one of them.That article lit a flame that never went out.
Buck(formely known as Zandra)
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482098
03/05/19 09:48 PM
03/05/19 09:48 PM
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,331 north Idaho
decoy
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,331
north Idaho
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Hanging around Ludy Sheda I guess.
Hunt with your Kids, not for them. >>>----->
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482107
03/05/19 09:59 PM
03/05/19 09:59 PM
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Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,668 OK
Aaron Proffitt
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,668
OK
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A guy by the name of Mike Burma got me started in '81 around Collinsville/Owasso , OK. by allowing me to tag along with him. A couple years later, moved to the Missouri Ozarks where my uncles and grandpa trapped. A neighbor by the name of Ruben Belcher showed me some finer points. Rest is history.
Honor a Soldier. Be the kind of American worth fighting for.
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Re: What got you started trapping?
[Re: foxhunter52]
#6482443
03/06/19 09:21 AM
03/06/19 09:21 AM
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,447 Monroeville NJ
Jonesie
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,447
Monroeville NJ
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I started around 10 years old, that was 50 years ago now LOL Not sure why? Other than maybe hearing my grandfathers talk about the trapping they did in the early 1900's. One was from Oklahoma and the other here in NJ. plus a lot of the boys my age trapped to some extent. As a 8 year old kid or there abouts I trapped rabbits and birds in the back yard and field along with the rats that would be around the chickens. I set out to catch the fur around 10, I remember my first catch was a grinner in a wooden box trap with leather hinges that my grandfather from Oklahoma showed me how to make. Wasn't long I caught a coon in that trap and the coon tore it apart LOL I was so excited even though the trap was tore apart LOL I went and got a couple 1.5 jump traps, I didn't know anything about traps. I went to a stream put the trap in the water and hung a apple over top of it with string and next day had a black muskrat. I was off and running. My grandfathers would tell me how they trapped back in the early 1900's and I would do it. Although even in the late 60's and early 70's they was not the best methods LOL soon I learned the right ways and by 79 I was doing wildlife control for folks part time. Being just married and soon a first baby coming the fur and wildlife control help paid many a bill.
Last edited by Jonesie; 03/06/19 09:23 AM.
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