I get itchy during summer and try and get things ready for season. I am degreasing a couple dozen MB alphas that a local guy bought and never set and will get them waxed and ready for season over the next few days. Have some dry dirt put up which is easy to find with the drought and will make waxed dirt with it soon. Next, I will talk to some more landowners for additional permission. What is everyone else doing trapping related.

Still trapping, lol.

I only Trap during late fall early winter. Kind of jealous of the guys that can do it year-round. Retiring in four years maybe then.

Yep me too. but I am starting to pick my weekends with this triple digit temps/heat index they are not bothering me as bad.lol

Trust me it ain't much fun trapping in the summe other than what you can do with the money charged lol. Especially coyote, muskrat and beaver work

I’m just trying to get a little more in before hip surgery. I’ll be missing out on a month or two worth of extra $$$ during that time. Already let my son hit one of my places during my turkey trip and he racked up some dough on that place.

Just pulled the last of my woodchuck traps.
Got paid and got a nice tip.
Also got three ticks on me and two in the trap bucket.
Time for making waxed dirt next dry hot spell

Sometimes it doesn't even involve trapping and you get paid to sit on your arse.

Snake wrangling last week and next. Walk through give the all clear and wait for 14-15 hours.

Pays well but is the most excruciating work I've ever done. At least they feed well, steak on Friday.

I'll follow that up, after the crew clears out, with some actual snake trapping.

With so very little rain here in months, putting up lots of dry sifted dirt. Will wax it later.


Also started inventory and seeing what I need to buy/replace. Might be selling some older traps I don’t plan to use. Convert those to a little cash for more supplies.

Jim

I’m in the process of finishing all my beaver jobs for landowners that wanted the dams cleared. I do it all by hand as our business is new. Also starting to sift and dry all our sand and sifted topsoil in preparation of making waxed material for our own personal use over the next year as well as material for retail. It really never ends here as we both work full time.

Making some predator bait and tuning traps

Even though I've quit coyote trapping doesn't mean that I'm done trapping. I'm back where I was a dozen years ago trapping/snaring beaver(through the ice) so my attention and ideas have changed direction to beaver & otter and more efficiency than before. Here's what I've been doing this summer-
For those who do not subscribe to my Youtube channel-

Making body grip safeties safer
https://youtu.be/TrR9N58syu4

My Beaver Skater Stabilizer for RBGs
https://youtu.be/pVP-0b9M6bY

How about some take-down drowning rods
https://youtu.be/lql8FuqI62s

Bring things up to date, Beaver Floats my way

Got skunk job going, and making up snares.
A lot of cover here this year, plenty of rain

I'm educating beaver, except for the few that step on the trap pans or crawl thru the snares.

Seldom,
Just watched your videos. Very good content! I'd sure like to sit and talk with you about trapping, but Michigan is a ride from south Ga.

Btw...do a video on them beaver floats.

You will find my phone number on my Youtube home page by looking & clicking on the “about” tab. I’ll gladly talk with any trapper!
Thank you for the compliment!

Come spring, I can tell you there will be some videos on the floats. .

Seldom
I’ve been trapping beavers for 40 years and still learned from your videos. Thank you. Quick question. Do your floats work equally well in both Fall and Spring?

My Gosh Seldom, you are one creative guy. Really like the idea of drowning rods. Very neat.

Mac

I don’t know 080808 but I’m figuring spring when the 2 year olds get run off and are on the move. Also in the spring on the bigger rivers the floats will always allow the trap and lure to be available regardless of rising water levels.

I’d bet they’d work in the fall as well if you were on the colony and the fact I don’t have the rapid water fluctuation which is really the purpose of a float.. Just like any other caster mound but not on shore.

Seldom. I’ll find out is Fall. I just built a couple but look forward to your design/video. Thanks

Thanks Mac! It wasn’t my idea, a Canadian fella posted an older Youtube video showing how he made them. The video was very poor quality but I was able to understand the principle so I took it from there and I think my video is a little easier for folks to understand if they want to build their own.

Thanks for the compliment Mac!

As I watched and rewatched others video of their floats there was a common theme about the trap either being too low or to high, usually too low and with their design there was no adjustment other than adding weight to the front. Also, the beaver wanted to climb onto the float from the side and I think because of the lure holder being too short/too far from the trap.

I kept taking my floats over to a local pond and trying them with a trap on until I felt I had the answers. My design is such that the springs aren’t locked into the float by use of a slot so I can raise of lower the traps to the degree I want above water. Also, the floats float pretty level with a 330. I also added a piece of pvc pipe for the “1/2” float rod to slide up and down on rather than become wedged and get hung-up.

Good thoughts. Again thanks. With the price of most fut where it’s at the experimenting provides much fun.

2 dozen to add to the line decide to add some Chain extensions to a few more this year. I runabout 1/2 with 18 extra inches of chain. My old dog kennel is where I hang ‘em for a couple weeks before I wax.

Took time to clean the wax from the night latch and bottom of the pan on my MB 550s . Noticed that the cast jaws have four different markings on them. I have bought about four dozen of these over the years. some of the inside jaw spreads are about an eighth of an inch wider, but they all still work great

I love my MB’s but I started going with closed jaws for that reason. Some offsets are really offset in my opinion. The first couple of dozen were what I considered “offset” the ones after that seemed to have a much larger offset.

I have to use the offsets to stay in state regs but have wondered about that. The fox is pretty much gone in my area so have not had a problem with pullouts on Coyotes. I currently run 550 offsets and the original MB #3 Alphas and will be trapping for a few days in Kentucky this year so am really anxious for season.

Yep. 365 a year. But I envy those who just clean and dip traps in the summer. I can honestly say = I HATE = cleaning and dipping traps. I know it has to be done. But here I am in West Texas with a make shift close line and Formula 1 dipping MJ 600 Sterlings 12 at a time. Things are slow here. Mostly snare work So Time to do the cleaning and dipping. Wish I could pay someone to do it for me ! LOL!

Secured up 300 more acres from a farmer friend