it has finally to the point the doctors have told me I have to quit trapping due to some major health problems
I have a lot of trapping supplies and asked the 4-H coordinator if maybe they could use it. They are always looking for different activities for the kids to do I live in a small rural Central Texas town. They asked me if I could give a trapping class also. Sure no problem, maybe a few kids might want to learn. I made a series of classes that included safety, diseases they needed to be aware of, plus a lot of other stuff . Manual kinda ended up about 3 inches thick. gave it to the clubs leader. Each kid that was interested she made them look over it. Well I thought maybe a couple might be interested so we set the class size at 10. She wrote it up in the newspaper. Well we kinda underestimated the kids. So now the class has 11+ signed up with some others on a waiting list. This Friday is the first of the 5 week plus class. Wish me luck ok.
Jim

Great that you are passing it on to 4-H members, great group of people I was involved in it for several years as a kid.

way to go keep them traps ,trapping pass it on ,maybe some of the kids will get the trapping bug ,an be hook for life

Good on you.

Good luck and great job.

Mr. Red, I have sent you a personal message regarding your project. Please read and contact me.
Thanks for what you are doing! Don Hightower, TTFHA President

last night was the first class the kids age ranged 8 to 13 (three dads, even 1 mom were with the youngest ones) it went great and the kids had a blast the dads did also watching and helping the little ones
we started with myths and truths, safety both trapping and gun, importance of knowing your traps and the current laws then play time
I had a 220 body grip and a 3/4 pvc pipe set it and let one of the kids trip it the pvc pipe shattered. After that they would not touch the trap then we set 2 foothold traps explained their function and way it worked. I talked one of the kids into helping me I went first told them everybody would at some point get their fingers caught. I tripped one with my fingers and showed them it would not break any bones then the kid was real reluctant but tripped the trap and learned it just stung purpose of this was to teach them how to get their fingers out. Once they saw it would not hurt that bad each one got a trap and started to learn how to arm it and raise one of the jaws trip it The little 8 year old once he saw this figured out how to sit on the trap and arm it and trip it and do it again. All the kids had a blast learning how to arm the trap and kept doing it for quite a while and having fun while learning. The dads had fun watching the little ones and took a lot of pictures of their kids doing it. Dads and kids asked a lot of questions about all the stuff I brought. Finally the little guys started to get tired so we ended the class. It was so neat seeing a group of younger kids and dads wanting to learn trapping and having so much fun and laughing about things. The told me it was fun and could not wait till next weeks class..

I just got back a bunch of my furs That I loaned to the woman who teaches wildlife and forestry to 4H kids. My 3 sons had her in 4H a few years ago and she did an amazing job with their team. It's a great program with a leader like her.