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Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7736740
12/07/22 08:21 AM
12/07/22 08:21 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 9,733
Northern Illinois
M
MChewk Offline
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MChewk  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 9,733
Northern Illinois
Tim, good story! Around here the 'rats take a beating in the marshes, ponds and lakes from hawks and now eagles. We are seeing more eagles showing up.
The creeks still have rats but limited numbers. Everything wants to eat muskrat...snapping turtles, mink, otter and raptors. I'm surprised we still have 'rats...lol

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7736835
12/07/22 10:53 AM
12/07/22 10:53 AM
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 586
central IA
B
bodycount Offline
trapper
bodycount  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 586
central IA
Muskrats are very good food for humans too. Just get a fresh rat and fry like a rabbit. Serve with gravy.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7737147
12/07/22 07:51 PM
12/07/22 07:51 PM
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 3,912
Ohio
S
stinkypete Offline
trapper
stinkypete  Offline
trapper
S

Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 3,912
Ohio
YouthTrapper. Your stretched muskrat put up is looking much better. Good job. The way it sounds. You are about the only guy in the country with water and muskrats. I am jealous grin

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7737210
12/07/22 08:37 PM
12/07/22 08:37 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,545
minn
F
fossil2 Offline
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fossil2  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,545
minn
mchewk,,same thing here. too many eagles and other raptors, and otters. ive seen otters clean out a slough in a matter of days. almost no rats in our creeks anymore either. we'll need 2 good wet years to bring back any numbers of rats at this point.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: stinkypete] #7737476
12/08/22 12:10 AM
12/08/22 12:10 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
T
TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Originally Posted by stinkypete
YouthTrapper. Your stretched muskrat put up is looking much better. Good job. The way it sounds. You are about the only guy in the country with water and muskrats. I am jealous grin


Well luckily I do otherwise I wouldn't be catching anything. Rats are my favorite thing to trap no matter the day. I have also really enjoyed putting the fur up, I just wish I had a bigger space to do it in since that little shed gets a little crammed.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: fossil2] #7737479
12/08/22 12:12 AM
12/08/22 12:12 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
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TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Originally Posted by fossil2
youre getting way too many wring outs. when you open the hut, clean out any loose material first, then widen out the plunge hole to as big as possible. reach down the hole and push any debris away from the underside of the hut. when the trap fires, the rat should dive immediately without anything hindering its trip down the hole. a rat can often times climb back into the hut with a #1 sized trap, but a 1 1/2 coil usually holds them down, after they dive. some huts will have a plunge hole thats actually too small for the trap to fit through. either widen the hole or skip that hut.


I figured I was getting too many. I clean out most of everything I can reach and always clear the plunge hole. I'm using 1.5 longs right now since my 1.5 coils are still getting the new pans on them. I've been a little lazy about getting them fixed. I would use my #1 coils but I stole the chain off of them to put on my 1.5s since they were really short. This summer though I'm going to get all my traps fixed and chained appropriately.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7738656
12/09/22 01:26 AM
12/09/22 01:26 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Well, I came home from school yesterday right after 7th period and slept for a solid 6 hours. Stayed home today all day and slept until around 12:30. Had to check traps today so I went out and checked around 2. Got 2 rats today, made my conibear holes bigger, and fixed up some of the huts a little better. Put up both rats and made a video about it but I can't get them to merge so I'll try again tomorrow to get them fixed otherwise I'll just have to upload 4 different parts. Had another two wring outs. One was caught by the toe and the other by the whole foot. So yeah, stay tuned for a muskrat put up video tomorrow or so, I'll make sure I put a post in here about it.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7738660
12/09/22 01:35 AM
12/09/22 01:35 AM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,545
minn
F
fossil2 Offline
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fossil2  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,545
minn
today was a 50% loss in wring outs. sounds like your 1 1/2 longsprings arent fitting down the plunge holes, and theyre holding the rat inside the huts. those traps are over powered for a rats front foot. the weight is nice for drowning in open water, but a poor choice for inside a hut. youll be setting new huts soon, so just use a few of your 1 1/2 coils for now.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: fossil2] #7738668
12/09/22 02:30 AM
12/09/22 02:30 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Jun 2022
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South Dakota
Originally Posted by fossil2
today was a 50% loss in wring outs. sounds like your 1 1/2 longsprings arent fitting down the plunge holes, and theyre holding the rat inside the huts. those traps are over powered for a rats front foot. the weight is nice for drowning in open water, but a poor choice for inside a hut. youll be setting new huts soon, so just use a few of your 1 1/2 coils for now.


Yeah, I need to fit those pans tomorrow night. I'm going to scout farther to the south of this slough but it's still connected to see if I can find any more settable huts otherwise I'll switch to one of my other spots.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7738669
12/09/22 03:09 AM
12/09/22 03:09 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
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South Dakota
Here's the put up video, hadn't skinned a rat in a little bit so cut me a little slack. Also I just realized the knife scraping the skull so that's my bad, didn't realize I was doing it till I watched.


Last edited by TheYouthTrapper; 12/09/22 03:10 AM.
Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7739398
12/09/22 09:06 PM
12/09/22 09:06 PM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
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TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Only 1 rat today and I didn't feel like getting the wood stove running for only 1 rat so I froze him. Going to pull traps tomorrow until Friday since we have snow moving it quickly. Going to work on some projects for the time being. Need to put up some more firewood since I still have a couple of months of needing it and I'm getting quite low.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7740301
12/10/22 08:17 PM
12/10/22 08:17 PM
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 827
Illinois
D
DRF Offline
trapper
DRF  Offline
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D

Joined: May 2016
Posts: 827
Illinois
Once you get your opening cut done place the rat on the table and you can hold the belly while pulling the pelt off and you won’t rip the belly open as often.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7740839
12/11/22 01:29 PM
12/11/22 01:29 PM
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 3,559
lewis county,new york
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newfox1 Offline
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newfox1  Offline
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 3,559
lewis county,new york
I read your whole thread young man and your doing a fine job, I like trapping muskrats almost as much as I like trapping beaver. Keep up the good work, I like your positive attitude, and your work ethic, this country would be better off if we had more young people like you.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: DRF] #7741430
12/11/22 11:04 PM
12/11/22 11:04 PM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
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TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Originally Posted by DRF
Once you get your opening cut done place the rat on the table and you can hold the belly while pulling the pelt off and you won’t rip the belly open as often.


I need to clean my table first, it's full of slough grass and mud from brushing the rats. Will try it when I have some more rats.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: newfox1] #7741431
12/11/22 11:05 PM
12/11/22 11:05 PM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
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TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Originally Posted by newfox1
I read your whole thread young man and your doing a fine job, I like trapping muskrats almost as much as I like trapping beaver. Keep up the good work, I like your positive attitude, and your work ethic, this country would be better off if we had more young people like you.


I love trapping them too, sucks that there isn't a little bit more money in them. I wish we had more people like me but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7741437
12/11/22 11:12 PM
12/11/22 11:12 PM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
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Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Well forgot to post yesterday. Caught 2 rats and pulled all my traps, and started skinning them. Skinned out the smaller one first and did fine, got to the bigger one, and got to the head. I messed it up badly and didn't finish the cut on the one eye so it got all messed up and I had to scrap it. It was just one of those nights yesterday. The bigger one was alive when I go to the hut too and he was feisty and tried taking off with the trap and fiberglass stake. I don't think he realized that there was a 6' drag behind him while I dug out my axe handle. Then today I went to a family friend's house who fixed my knife and cut some firewood. We have a local arborist who drops all the wood off at this guy's house since he has a wood boiler but it's hundreds and hundreds of cords of wood so he lets me snag a couple of dozen logs every now and then. Got most of it split tonight but will have to split the rest tomorrow and cover it with a tarp since we're already looking at getting some snow tomorrow. This load of wood should last me a couple of months hopefully.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7742208
12/12/22 10:10 PM
12/12/22 10:10 PM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
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Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
Well put up and stacked/piled the rest of the firewood today. It should last me a couple of months and now I already have people messaging me for snow removal jobs so I'll be busy even without traps out.

https://youtube.com/shorts/nRuegt2NWAk?feature=share

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7743225
12/14/22 12:31 AM
12/14/22 12:31 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
No school today and no school tomorrow. Will still be holed up for a while though. Still looking crappy out, just been working on mink pans on the 1.5 coils these last few days. Only have about a dozen left and then I have to fine tune everything. Once I'm done with that, I'm going to see what I need for parts for my broken traps and then start seeing what I need to sell to make my trapline a little more organized.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7744958
12/16/22 01:04 AM
12/16/22 01:04 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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South Dakota
All this snow is making me go a little bit crazy. I feel like I have eaten more food in the last week than I have in the last month. I shoveled the sidewalk about 50% tonight while the dog decided to take her sweet time running around. I wore my Sitka Traverse hoody and Duck Oven jacket and I was sweating by the end with the wind whipping and snow everywhere. Hopefully going to get traps out Saturday if the roads aren't terrible still. Got all of my 1.5 coilsprings with the new pans checked over to make sure they still set and everything. Now it's time to put tags on them and put hagz brackets on the ends. Been thinking of ways to streamline my traps and I have found out the best way so cataloging traps that I want to sell/keep. Been a busy few days, haven't even started fixing my traps in the broken bucket yet.

Re: TYT's 2022-2023 Trapping Season [Re: TheYouthTrapper] #7746529
12/18/22 02:20 AM
12/18/22 02:20 AM
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
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TheYouthTrapper Offline OP
trapper
TheYouthTrapper  Offline OP
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Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 1,295
South Dakota
12-17-22: Well got tags and brackets put on all the 1.5 coils yesterday. Those finally went back out to the garage after months of being in the house. Been cataloging and collecting traps that I want to sell/trade. Went through my bucket of broken traps and only had 2 that were actually broken. One of which I'm selling anyways, so I'm just going to sell it as a parts trap. The other is a 1.5 longspring I broke while unloading the truck after pulling traps. I threw it on the ground to get rid of the ice on it and it bent the jaw enough that it popped off entirely. Probably going to end up being a parts trap too.

12-18-22: Went out today scouting around 10 am. Found a good spot where I have permission but it was right off a highway so couldn't find anywhere to park where I wouldn't get stuck. So I abandoned that spot against my better judgment. Headed back to the house, went up north to where I have been trapping and decided to check out the road that has the slough I have been trapping for the last couple of weeks. Well ended up busting through two drifts and decided that was enough so I was going to turn around at the next wind tower road (the guy had wind towers in the middle of his field). So I was braking to turn and of course, I'm at the top of a hill when I start braking it was pretty slick out and I ended up sliding down the top of the hill about 20 feet into a big drift that buried the truck up to the frame. Started shoveling for about 20 minutes and tried everything. I was just getting ready to call my dad to come to pull me out and the landowner pops up over the hill and luckily stopped in time. I had a chain with me so we got me all pulled out and that wrecked the day for me. Went and drove around and couldn't find any tracks really. Went out and scouted with my dad after I got home and we couldn't find any either. Found one slough with a good couple of huts and some random tracks so I'm going to go set that tomorrow. Plan to set out a dozen weasel boxes so I can maybe catch a few before the season closes at the end of January. So yeah, it has been an eventful day, plan to go to bed in the next hour or so, and hopefully going to get up around 10 am again and get some traps out after being stuck at home for a week with no skinning to do.

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