Hey all, I've been planning my first trapping season for a long time now. Today I finally got in my car and drove to check out the local gamelands for the first time, only got a little bit lost, put another 78 miles on my old sedan and saw some amazing sights. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait for next fall to actually get out there.

I spent some time on google maps refining my potential route for the long run, and I'm pretty pleased with it...stops by three game lands in a nice row, 2 hour 0 minute round trip, 71.0 miles on the dot. Each place is 4000-6000+ acres, and each stop only adds about 10-15 minutes to the overall drive. I'll start by trapping one area so I can gain experience and test the waters so to speak, but I'm hoping that it'll be nice to have this as an option in the long run. It was also 30F and raining today, so I'm relatively confident I could handle a drive like that even in poor weather, but I'm getting a bit worried I'm getting too ahead of myself.

What I want to know is, how far do you guys go on your trapline? Hobby folks and full-timers. I know low fur prices makes the extra gas hard to justify, but is the extra ground covered worth it? Do you enjoy trapping one location, or many? Do you trap the same places all season, or change where you go? Anybody have experience with trapping public land, any advice you'd have for that?

Check your mail box.

Here’s what helped shorten my learning curve by decades. Join your state trapping assn, Google it. And contact officers AND district reps off their site and ask for a mentor to ride along with. MANY states have their own forums. Like here in NC. And TN has 2 and Va has 2 also and KY too. A mentor helps Learn trap prep and techniques and tricks and the laws in YOUR state regarding jaw spreads, shock springs, etc, etc. (( Laws vary a lot from state to state so BEWARE of FB and utube. You can be shown things that are illegal in your state!.)) This gets you in the info loop of FREE trappers ed classes and meets and fur sales/pick ups, and conventions. Then attend ALL YOU CAN, this shows folks you are serious and will be a good student. It sure helped open many doors for me and it could for you as well. ALSO, get several different trapping supply catalogs, like MTP, Murrays, Sterling Fur, FandT, PCS, Flemings, Northern Outdoors, Trap Shack, Schmitt enterprises, Southeastern outdoor supplies, JR & Sons, Grawes, rpoutdoors, etc etc, THEN circle gear you need, and give the catalogs to loved ones to buy your Birthday and Christmas and July 4 and Easter and Anniversary gifts. Explain to them, you want their money to go towards what you will use and need, as opposed to another sweater hanging in your closet. WORKS GREAT in our family.
here ya go https://patrappers.com/contact/
and here is a state forum https://www.huntingpa.com/forums/trapping-forum.26/

Public land trapping varies with the management area and the state you are in. I trap a lot of public land and rarely see other people out there doing anything, and certainly not trapping. Other guys in my state avoid the public lands they live near since there are too many people. Most public land will have little parts and pieces that just aren't all that huntable, but can be trapped. Those are the places I concentrate on. I've killed more otter than I can count out of a tiny ditch that runs between two crop fields on a WMA. Its by the road and the public land there is narrow and provides basically zero hunting opportunity, but that ditch accounts for several coon, otter, beaver and muskrat every season.

I'm snareing 135 miles from home currently 15 mile daily drive well if I avoid the local watering holes looking for "deer Hunters" or the local farm boy, buy a plat book and use it landowners can only say no, many ask your time frame if or when allowing trapping, by "game land" you mean public land? I haven't been at this long compared to many yet would like to keep doing it. Don't forget the pressure them areas get early season, all types of sportsman use it. Big ranchers often want #s removed always carry a "family" friendly photo book, traps and couple furs, business cards help, look the part I've found a difference in my fuel saving car VS pick up when stopping at farms 1st impressions are YOU Don't let others affect your style you gotta do you, if 78 miles is getting lost I could never find a Wal-Mart, enjoy the outdoors welcome to the trade

4 minutes from home. 20 minutes total time.

Drove 1055 miles to West Texas for a trapping job. I'm driving 165 miles a day checking about 100 traps

I think it is more of a question of how much time do you have and what do your state regulations say. If you work 50 - 60 hours a week there isn't a lot of time to be spending on the road not including resetting traps, skinning etc. If you are in a 24 hour check state you are doing that route everyday either before or after work.

With prices the way they are I wouldn't do it but I work long days in a 24 hour check state for land traps.

My $.02

My line starts just outside of town but go's about 25 miles, and other loop starts 19 miles north of town and that's about a 100 mile round trip.
And got a good water trapping loop right across the road from me.

With a full time job its either a short drive with atv or the furthest is a 15 minute drive with the pickup.

I'm envious of the guys who can spend several hours covering many miles on their lines. I too trap public land in PA but since I have a full-time job and a family, I am limited to a few chunks of public ground within a few minutes of my house. One in particular has lots of coyote sign, but gets used heavily by the public. Even this time of year you can't go more than a few minutes between seeing hikers on the trails. I haven't trapped there because many of the hikers have dogs that aren't leashed, even though required. The other issue with public ground is of course hunting in the early season. No better way to make enemies than to come traipsing through checking traps in the morning when guys are in tree stands, or setting traps nearby stocked pheasant fields with dogs all over the place.

So right now I'm pretty limited to a small chunk of public ground just a mile and a half away that is convenient, but I haven't found any promising sign there. Out and back every morning is a half hour, more if I have an animal to deal with. Even some days that is a challenge if I have to get in to work early. I am new to trapping and love it so far, but it's definitely more demanding and harder to find good spots than hunting.

Next season I am going to try to find some local farms to trap on. On the flip side, the good thing about trapping is that although options might be fewer on public land, there aren't nearly as many trappers approaching farmers as there are hunters. Around here, every farm in the county has a long line of guys wanting permission to bow hunt, but I don't know anyone else who traps. And most farmers would be happy to have the local predator population reduced. I did ask two landowners so far this year if I could trap their land and was denied both times because they had concerns with their pets.

In PA, the Game Commission maintains a database of cooperating land owners. I'm planning to start there for next year...

https://www.pgc.pa.gov/HuntTrap/Hunting/HunterAccessProgram/Pages/default.aspx

Thanks for all the replies everyone, and the messages.

Traprjohn, I've been doing my research for a couple years now, reading up on laws and how everything works, but I've never considered a mentor before...that's wonderful advice, thank you so much. I've been very much self-taught so far, and haven't had the chance to take any proper trappers ed courses. I'll be sure to take your advice, thank you so much!!

Redeye, yes, game lands are just public lands in PA specifically for hunting/trapping/etc, vs. other public land areas like state parks which are almost entirely recreation and no hunting/trapping. Thanks for the good points, I'm pretty nervous about asking folks if I can trap their land, but I'm hoping I can build up some confidence after trapping on public lands for a bit and maybe ask the next season. I'll keep all those points in mind, be sure to look my sunday best when I ask!

It's so cool to me how diverse everyone's trapping experiences and distances are...it's so neat!!! I totally understand why some might want a shorter distance, and others can/want to do longer. Back on my old schedule, trapping would've been impossible. Thankfully I've been out of retail for just under a year now, self employed and got a very "flexible schedule" to say the least! I got nothin' but time on my hands, and my idea of "fun" this past year has hopping in the old sedan and driving 60+ miles up and around the river just because I like doing it. I can't ever seem to get bored of it, no matter the time or weather...something about getting to know the local roads and rivers, even if it's just from in the car, it's a wonderful feeling. Needless to say, for me at least, a 70 mile round-trip trapline sounds like a really fun way to spend the fall/winter, much better than being stuck in the house...

Flint Lock, I totally understand...I'm very lucky to be in the situation I am now, where I can make my own schedule and organize my day however I want, but that would never have been possible when I was working retail. You do what you have to do though, and I GREATLY admire folks who manage to fit time in for trapping when Life is busy. As you and others have said, I believe you when you say trapping on public land is tough. Even though (in PA at least, from what I've read on the game commission's website) the public game lands are supposed to be for hunting AND trapping, support for trapping on public land is pretty disheartening. Even with regulations in place to protect dogs (ex. no conibears or snares outside of waterways, in PA at least) it's easy for folks to get very displeased with trappers very quickly. So it goes! I'm lucky enough to be relatively close to a string of pretty sizeable game lands, and I have no problem with going off-trail to find more secluded spots to trap. Maybe after I do that for a year or two I'll start asking landowners, too...I'll have to check out that link you posted, I didn't know there was a database for that, that's really cool!!!

I also hope your own trapping goes well, good luck with finding some more places to trap!!

You are right about the Game Lands being for hunting AND trapping. But it seems that there is this old world mindset that trapping is only a pursuit of grisly mountain men up in the remote big woods, with deer and pheasants all the rage in the more developed parts of the state. Case in point, page 50 of this month's Game News magazine highlights trapping opportunities on the 24,000 acres of SGL 25 in Elk County. How many trappers is that convenient to run every 36 hours??

Part of me wants to say too bad so sad if someone's dog gets caught in my trap when the regulations require that dogs must be leashed at all times unless hunting. After all, I have as much right to trap on that land as they have to hunt, hike, etc. And I know the law would be on my side. But, it's not worth the hassle to have that inevitable confrontation. Worst case scenario is some entitled "city slicker" out for a walk in the country who ends up making a big stink about it, calling their state rep, PGC, etc. and ends up casting a bad light on trapping in general.

Anyway, good luck to you too and keep us posted!

Exactly...couldn't have put it better. I think it's perfectly reasonable to be annoyed with it all while still being respectful to one another, you know? Even if we may want to say not-nice things sometimes HAHA! But it goes both ways, at least it should. I'll do everything I can to be conscientious of the other folks (and domestic animals) we share the woods with, but I sure wish they'd be more respectful of trappers, too! On paper we're encouraged to be there just as much as any deer hunter or trail walker, and part of me really wants to trap public land JUST to prove to them that trappers are just as welcome as they are, and we can all co-exist in sharing space together. But I know I'm bound to run into some trouble eventually with other folks not being as welcoming, no matter how careful I try to be...it's unrealistic to expect anything less. But I'm still cautiously optimistic.

And yes I will!! I'm planning on trapping this fall, so it's a long way off, but there's still a lot of hands-on learning to be done before then...I've been a long time lurker on the forums but only started posting recently so I'm sure I'll be around now and again.

I go as far as I can comfortably check each day, sometimes I get over excited and go too far and end up pulling those traps after a few days

As little or as far as I needed to. It’s the kind of question that a person has to ask of and answer themselves.


Personally I’d go to Alaska or Canada if I could justify it, but I can’t so I stay within my state, even more so within 75 miles or so from home

With a full time job and the family, I can only run out about 20 miles and then back. Keeps me plenty busy most of the time. This year I only had time to set up 2 quarters. I used to make an 80-90 mile round trip drive in the fall, setting on a new section every 2-10 miles. Took quite a while to get all the permissions.

What part of Pa are you from and how old are you?

For too many years I drove too many miles. Then I got older and smarter and stayed within a 20 miles from home route. I trap all private land. Getting permission is easy —or not. You just have to ask. Be polite. Listen to all the BS some older folks like to dish out. DON’T talk politics or COVID. Bring a dog proof trap to the door so they know what you’ll use and stress you use sweet baits to avoid cats!

I give everyone a written notice that includes my phone number and truck description. It says I’ll pay for damage I’ve caused. It also says I’m not responsible for the pets and working dogs of other people who use their property because I can’t control them. Then I sign the notice.

In over 30 years of doing this, I’ve only had one guy ask for payment due to damaged corn. Then he saw the beavers I’d removed and said don’t worry about paying, just keep taking the #%*+¥ beavers!

I’ve been kicked off a couple properties but then called back the next year because the coon damage got out of control.

It’s all part of the territory with trapping. Start door knocking. Be polite. Have thick skin. And if possible, avoid public lands.