It was a weird year. It started out with a big pack of wolves running around. I got a black the first couple days of the season, got the smallest grey I've caught a couple weeks later. He was about 52lbs. Then the wolves basically disappeared for the season. Never saw sign of the big pack again, there was a smaller pack of 3 or 4 that I saw sign of a couple times, but very random and impossible to pattern. We went out to close down the line today, and of course as soon as we got on the trail there was a pack of 5 making a mess all over the place. Ended up putting some sets in for them (probably won't be back before end of season) and closed down most everything else.

Got to one of the sets and had a big swamp donkey in a #9. He'd been there for a while by the looks of it. Sitting there trying to figure out what to do, decided to deal with him on the way back. As we fired past him on the sleds he gave a couple good tugs and released himself. Thankful for that, but he twisted up that trap pretty good. That makes two busted 9s for the year, another one got run over by heavy equipment. Then two more that are hopefully where I left them, another run in with a misguided trail clearing rodeo from some loggers. I'll have to try to find them in the spring. May have to hit up JR for some jaw reshaping tips.



Further down the trail we cut the first set of wolverine tracks in 10 years. Pretty cool, hope I have some move in to play with next year.



Crossed those tracks a couple more times on the trail. A little over 2 miles as the crow flies from where we first saw the tracks, probably 4 trail miles away, there is a wolf bait station. Well this guy hit a wolf snare in there and got hung up for awhile. They sure make a mess of things. He twisted around and busted loose. The tracks we saw was him heading out of Dodge.



Can't see real well, but the cable is twisted up something fierce. From the looks of it, we only missed him by a day. No snow in the tracks.



Anyway, kinda crazy. First sign in forever, and he hit a bait pile. Bummer to lose him, hope he doesn't hole up and die somewhere. The season closed a few days ago, but I don't think I would have been an upstanding enough citizen to turn in my first wolverine. Maybe some of his buddies will join him next year.

Ended up with two wolves, four tom cats, 18 marten, a few yotes, some ermine, one fox. As the year went on there was less and less sign of any kind around. One local guy theorizes that the canines are dying off due to lack of food. Could be, don't think I've ever seen so little sign.



There's always next year, right?

In your last paragraph you mention that a local trapper thinks it’s lack of food that caused lack of fur. Well the wolves have been eating pet dogs here in town so probably he is right!

Thanks for your write up, it was good!

I had a moose bend up the jaws on a modified TS 85 this year, a lot weaker jaws than a #9 though and it didn't hold onto him. Dang thing stepped on that trap three different times, finally just pulled it the third time when he bent up the jaws.

I've caught a few moose in these, often the trap is just tripped, sometimes hauled off a little ways and he pulls out with no damage. The worst case I've had, I never recovered the trap, couldn't find it due to the weather patterns at the time of the incident. The bad damage this time was largely due to the side attachment to the chain. The sideways yanking did the damage, a center attachment probably would have let him pull out without jacking things up so bad.

yes smalltime your trap can be fixed and should be good as new. I have seen worst.

I'd take ten bent traps rather than rodeo with a moose!

Agreed!

Sourdough and I Wrestled down over 10caribou one day that were in 9’s. He got hit in the chest with one that had just been caught. We were too close to the catch circle. The rack extends way beyond their front feet….lol

I had a new trapper with me and when I told him how to walk up slowly and grab the rack and wrestle the bou down and I’ll remove the trap. He questioned why he was doing the wrestling my reply was your younger. He did good and the caribou went on its way unhurt!

Nothing like laying on a caribou looking it in its big eye while the trap is removed. Usually you have to force them to get up and leave. I really think they like being in contact with a trapper! Kill a wolf save game!

I hope the wolves come back for you! Never fun messing with the swap donkeys, glad it popped out for you! Alot of trappers have not been seeing much of sign, wolf coyote or fox. Lack of food, high cat numbers, distemper, mange and lice has really put a hurting on things down here. Oh and the freaking huge dump of snow we got 3 weeks into the season.
Thanks for sharing and hope you connect!

That's a big disappointment Smalltime !! Get him next year

Al, what about this one? Should be fixable, if i can get the jaws reworked.





Here is a better pic of the gulo free snare.

Man those 9's took a beating as did that wolf snare. Good luck with the wolves making another pass through your line before the end of the season and I hope you get some wolverine activity next season.

I really never had a trap that could not be repaired. Oh Snap had brough me some that dozer had literal flatten them. I was able to fix them.

The good thing is you know theyre around for next year

My pard and I had good luck with snare pole sets around Nome. Hard to get stout enough and long enough trees tho. Willows and cottonwoods was our usual available timber. Caught a wolverine in a 3/32, 1x19 snare and he was just able to touch the snow enough to spin with his back feet. Sure enough twisted off!

So close to catching your wolverine. They are something else for sure. Thanks for sharing your adventure this season. It seems as fur was pretty scares all over.

As for fixing the #9's, they are all repairable but sometimes it is more cost effective to purchase a new one by the time you figure your time in. I have straightened some pretty bad ones myself over the years. Many hours of banging away with a beater and anvil. The center swivel on the base plate really helps on the frame not bending. Not much you can do for a dozer running them over. I have extra jaws if you need them.

As a teenager I had a guy down the road a few miles ask me to trap some beaver on his place. Smartest beaver I ever trapped, the former owner had been a trapper and he had them wised up to everything. But the new owner had bulldozed over a shed out in the brush that was grown over with briars. There were probably a hundred traps in that shed that he gave me. I'm still using a couple 330s that I pieced together out of the ones that were bulldozed over, one had both jaws cut in half, but the springs were good and I put them on jaws of another that had fouled springs, etc. A bulldozer can do a number on about any trap, regardless of how tough it is built.

I'm pretty sure those 9s aren't fixable though, I'll send you my mailing address and you can send them to me and I'll take them off your hands.

I straightened out the moose trap today. Took it apart and went after it. I used a nut driver to control the springs for removal and replacement. The hollow shaft fits over the spring and you can remove it to take tension off the lever. For jaw removal, bend the hooks out enough on one side to let them come out of the frame, the other end can be removed leaving the hooks bent.



Here is one jaw done. I think a piece of 8" pipe would be about right for an anvil for reshaping jaws. I quickly dismissed the idea of using the acetylene tank, although it looked to be about the right size, lol.



I had to beat the base flat and fix up the ears. While it was all in pieces I took a wire wheel to it and cleaned it up a bit.



Not perfectly shaped, but the jaws meet up pretty good and it works just fine. In order to get the loose jaw to lay mostly flat I had to take a size xxl slip joint pliers and tweak the levers pretty hard toward the loose jaw. It layed out decently enough after that.



This was the easy one, I will give the other one a go at some point.

I had to take a size xxl slip joint pliers and tweak the levers pretty hard toward the loose jaw. It layed out decently enough after that.
If you under the trap lever, you see where it looks bent. that is how you can tweak the trap so the jaw lays flat. All i used was a screwdriver to do that.

Makes sense. I used a long screw driver through the lever cutout that jaws pass through, that works as well. The second one was worse off, but got that one fixed up too.

Never thought of it before but your welded swivel likely kept that 9 from "break away" mode with the moose. Very good thing.

Good deal. Looks pretty good. Yeah that loose jaw laying flat can be a pain, I've actually welded a bead on the other jaw where it touches the levers when set on a trap to get the loose jaw to lay flat. And when I four coil TS 85s I just weld a chunk of keystock on the lever where the dog jaw hits.