You can use several clothes pins to keep the nose(or what's left of face) at the top of the stretcher. Then hang it nose down. You'll get it ! !

Wire drying rack is fine, just always try lay them on their backs.

Look on YouTube for coon creek outdoors. He has some very good fur put up videos. Just take your time and go slow. Spped will come with experience.

You would be correct, the eyes and nose are still on the carcass, I got the ears on all of them. I was using my knife quite a bit when I got down to the face, I definitely need to watch some more videos and take more time.

Russ Carmen has a trick I have used on muskrats and mink. After your catch. Wrap them in newspaper. You would be surprised on the way home. How much water the newspaper will absorb from the fur. Good catch. Yes keep those eyes ears and nose on the hide. Helps keep the hide up. We all started some where. You will get the hang of it. Just keep trying and don’t give up

I would have tried again if I had caught any today but it was too windy to run the line, luckily we have every other day check here. We don't get any newspaper so can't try that trick but having that fan and heat on them worked great.

Well, today was a bad day for trapping. The day started off with me waking up and seeing it was too windy to get check rat traps, so I naturally look for things to do and got some beaver traps ready for Thanksgiving break that went quickly so I hung out for a bit in the house. Went back out to the garage and started tagging 3 coon boxes and 6 dogproofs for me to go set. I got it all done, the truck loaded, and headed out to the spot. Got all of the traps but 1 coon box out and I found a nice enough looking trail to put it by. I started setting it and was about to set the 220 when I see a guy coming through the ditch to where he thought he saw me enter. So I assumed he was looking for me and I stepped out of the tree line. He came up to me and asked what I was doing so naturally I said I was trapping. He asked for what and I said coons, opossums, and skunks. He asked what traps I was using and I told him conibears and dogproofs. He said that I need to pull all of the conibears since he has cats and dogs that run around there. So I said I will pull this one box and he proceeded to say that his cats and dogs run the whole tree belt not just this part. So I said I'll pull them all and I walked up to the truck with trap and box in hand and put them in the back end. He walked up to me as I was closing my topper door and said that he had called the landowner ( I had permission), and he said that the landowner said no to conibears. I went and pulled into the guy's driveway turned around and went and picked up my 6 dogproofs and 3 coon boxes and said goodbye to that perfect spot. I understand that I need to be careful while using these 220s and I assumed I was far enough away from any houses. I may have been in the wrong but I don't think I was, was I? Sorry for the long read but I really need opinions on this to make sure I didn't do anything wrong.

It’s a game of learning. Call the landowner or go to his place to confirm what the guy told you. Sometimes it is BS. Just saying. Don’t let it get you down. I have 4 counties I run. 4 different game wardens. Come trapping season I will get at least two calls. All BS but the wardens have to follow thru on a complaint. Running into the public is always a possibility. But sounds like you handled it very well. Chin up young man. Keep plugging away.

You might not have been wrong, I am not familiar with SD regs. But I think the guy will be a problem down the road. I assume he felt it was ok to be on the property you had permission to trap, and felt comfortable enough to call the owner to complain about the 220s. He would be watching every move you made. I think you were right to pull those traps; I would have done the same thing. Sometimes its not worth trapping a spot even if you are in the right. Maybe others here will give you a different answer, but I would have handled it just like you did.

Doing good, say at it.

Keep at it, you will get better. Mad S, has good advice!

First time in 3 years that I have had a run in like this. I'm just going to stay away from that area from now on and just leave it at that.

I handled it the best I could even though I was mad. If I had left the dogproofs, the next thing I would have to deal with is probably the sheriff because the guy heard shooting. I even hung out at the truck for about 5 minutes before I went into the tree line and he could have approached me then.

It's better to give up an area than deal with drama. Drama in trapping=much less enjoyable. Take the time you would have spent running that spot an invest it elsewhere.

Yep, going to maybe set another rat spot and check one spot one day and the other spot the next day.

Another day, another check! 1" of ice on the slough this afternoon means it's time to pull. I pulled and will organize all of my gear and get ready for snow on Thursday and Friday. Probably going to set some weasel boxes, mink boxes/sets, and a couple of coon sets this weekend. Had 4 rats and 1 coon this check but no coon sets out. I caught the coon in a feed bed set for rats. Set with a Duke 1.5 Coil, 6' fiberglass pole and it didn't escape. Had to run a 1/2 mile - 3/4 mile in waders back up to the truck to grab the gun to dispatch it. Got it dispatched, pulled the last few traps, and loaded the truck to come home. Ate some dinner and sat in the garage getting the gear out of the boat and unthawed. Still need to pressure wash them to get some of the reeds and sludge off, that slough water dyed those traps a nice dark black. Have a good night y'all!







This is the boat with quite a bit of the gear removed and catches out but still very messy.




Also here's a side note, an air compressor with a spray nozzle does a very good job of making rats dry enough to freeze without them sticking to everything and it makes them fluffy.

Oh I bet that coon is a dirty little bugger You held him. Nice catch there

He's not very dirty surprisingly, just a little wet. Very surprised I held him though. Not a bad catch but this weather really messed up my trapping.