Is our industry becomeing more and more full of get rich quick gadgets?
What are your thaughts?

I dont know of too many in our industry getting rich quick. But I do believe alot of people fall for marketing and promoting more than they maybe should. If it sounds good or looks good it has to be good right?

Which ones are you thinking of in particular? I agree they are out there, have been for years. Seems someone finds the newest one every so often.

You see a lot of them that have come and gone when you look through ads in old Trapping publications. Kind of cool to see all the old gadgets that didn’t pass the test of time.

Not near as much as the hunting industry I'll tell you that. For every one or two we get they get a good 10-15....and I'm not exaggerating, if anything I'm low balling lol.

Seems the gimmicks peaked during the fur boom, but that was a crazy time of high $$ fur.

Most of the true game changers are far and few between in the trapping world lots of good ideas some not so great but they are tools some work some don’t work as well.

I remember the guy selling jugs of chicken guts must of worked at a processing plant or had access to the cleanings but I’m sure he sold a lot of the stuff. How many guys still have a black trappers cap in their gear I never really used mine back then.

I agree with that.

The hundreds of brands of lures is the biggest gimmick in the trapping industry.

Oh yeah LD, that black trappers cap..... Electronic squeekers, suspicion remover, long handled trap placers, unorthodox method books, etc....The industry was rife with that stuff in the 70's & 80's.

every industry is plagued with solutions looking for a problem, that were probably solved with a little good process and education.

the less available education , the more the market is ripe for the exploitation.

people experience a problem and if good training on the procedure and process isn't out there , then the market is open for gimmicks to get you a process or procedure

look at saw chain sharpening , got to be a thousand gimmicks , all you need to learn is some control , technique and 2 dollar file will sharpen your chain just fine and you can make a handle for it with a bit of a branch you cut off.

some things reduce fatigue , some things reduce time , some things increase safety , some things reduce damage , some things hold more securely, those are the things worth money.

^ 100%

I tried buckwheat hulls here in SD some days you couldn’t cover them fast enough on a windy western day it was a race. LOL

I used the trapper's caps for years. Made bedding easy and firm without risk of firing trap. I'd buy one now for the Bridger 2 dogless if one was made.

I still use the squeakers. They work. Have captured several bcats, grey fox, and coon that were too interested.

I should've said...the hundreds of TYPES of lures...not brands.

But we have u toob and forsums to sort out the lewer from lore.
Er, a, ya need to buy the book.

Better info now than ever.
Free trapper schools all over,
pay per view too.

the gun/shooting/training/ammo industry is ridiculously full of them

What's an example gimmick in trapping?

One guys gimmick is another guys favorite. Buckwheat hulls do work especially in the snow. I used to like the trappers cap, but not so much anymore. I consider the cookie cutter tools a gimmick. Don't like to carry extra stuff anymore.

A not so good tool isn't a gimmick though someone compared traping to hunting. Scent control in hunting is a gimmick. It's been proven not to work, yet people still buy it for some reason. Does trapping have anything that is a plain gimmick?

I don't get it Savell?

Lol, that's probably the nicest way i've ever heard anyone describe ole Hal.

Personally i dont see much anymore in the 70's and 80's it abounded secret sets secret lures new trappers sucked them up Nowdays lure makers have been around for as long or longer then i have and have quality products traps and accessories have improved wish i had a dirt auger and swivels 50 years ago

I don't think scent control is a complete myth. Of course you can't eliminate scent entirely, but going in the woods reeking just doesn't make sense.

Nothing wrong with hulls and trappers caps under the right conditions just too windy here some days to get them covered quick enough. Most soils I trapped in the caps would not be effective with those soils.

Coyote and deer love the way I smell lol

Yeah I cover a lot of traps with shredded leaves when trapping in the woods, but not in wide open areas.

I have seen a few lures that were so weak, I would call them a rip off. Maybe not a gimmick, exactly, but something made to catch trappers, not fur.

I honestly think I sometimes scare off canines by smelling like deer hides all the time. Dogs freak out about it, so why not fox and coyotes?

What about the stamps than make critter tracks at the set??? I think the tire set for coyotes is a gimmick, like a lot of ideas that get passed around that sound good while setting on the couch.

I think about 80% of the urine sold to trappers is a gimmick. Maybe "scam" would be a better word

Every industry has gimmicks

You're suppose to be down wind from where the deer come from, so does it matter? Besides, it's impossible to beat a deers nose no matter how much you shower.

Deer seem to love the smell of smoke too. They never show up until I got a cigg in my hand, lol.

Without question! Any industry or hobby has it's share of gimmicks. I have a tackle box FULL of lures, that the only thing they ever caught was me! LOL

I used this in the late 70s and early 80s. It worked okay but eventually moved on from it.

Mitlyng's Trapbedder

? What's it for?

… goes under the pan

… but what people didn’t realize was that some pan tension and a little hand eye coordination eliminated the need for such nonsense lol

Nothing compared to the hunting nonsense.

For me demagnetizing traps is a big one...Caps, hulls, squeekers, etc might not officially meet the definition of a gimmick, but they never stood the test of legit efficiency for me.

What was the black trappers cap for?

Wasnt the father of this site's owner a proponent of trappers caps?

Trapper cap was a device that allowed you to pack dirt inside the jaws without setting off the trap.

I don't know that he did. I know that there was none in all his stuff I went through after his death, so he didn't own any.

I can remember a Vienna Sausage can with a stick handle fabricated to the bottom of the can. A notch was cut out on the side of the can for the dog end of the trap. Early trappers cap and home made. I don't recall where I seen this but it may have been in the old Trapper newspaper in the 1980's

Glow lure, according to some on here.

They were in his Land Sets and Techniques book. cant remember if it was the black plastic ones or not, id have to look again later

I don't know... some of these gimmicks seem to be around today....
"night latch and the Miles gun notch" ....one was made into a very popular Paws- I - Trip system a very popular system found in several traps made today.
Trap setters for both coil springs and body gripping traps...another very popular tool used by most trappers. Trapping hammers...heavier design and with digging blades,
Disposable stakes and drivers...these go back to the early '50s, Trapping dyes and dips... again back to the early 1960's. etc...
I think so called "gimmicks" are just some trappers trying to figure out an easier way to do things either to make things go faster, easier and regarding lure urine and bait application...less messy.
I do agree there were the fast buck artists back in the day on SOME gimmicks but as you can see some had merit and we use them today.
Just my take....

Anyone remember those full page adds in T&PC from Barkers Trapline Tools?

Yep...some decent stuff there too

I could never put the trappers cap in a gimmick category, i see it as a teaching tool i have seen it give alot of guys and gals confidence to reach in there and bed that trap in good one of the most important parts at setting a trap . just the way i see it.

I see a difference between "crutch" and "gimmick".

Paw print stamps, spinnerbaits, glow in the dark glitter lure = gimmick

Trapper caps, bedding tools, whisk brooms = crutch


To each their own. Whatever gets you in the woods.

That's a great break down, IMO Rusty Axe Camp.

Apples and oranges to 500 dallor videos plastic track makers synthetic bones and plastic turds
What you listed had a need and a use to better a industry

Wasnt put out thete to make a quick buck

The picture is of old Halitosis Sullivan.

Keith

I don't make a coyote set without using my homemade cookie cutter sized to fit an MB550 and compatible trap pan cap. Much easier to make a bed and bed trap using these with my 75 year old hands that don't bend like they used to. Same reason I use a setter for all my bigger bodygrips and 5# footholds. I just consider myself lucky to be able to trap at my age even if I have to use a "gimmick".

You wanna see gimmicks, the archery industry the last 45 years.

Although most trappers are frugal, we're always quick to buy something new and give it a try. On a rare occasion a new product comes out and is a game changer to the industry...for example, Lee Steinmeyer's Death Ray.

Bingo Kinley31....agreed. Lee's Death Ray was a game changer for some trappers working near people where firearms are NOT allowed and blood was frowned upon.
Gimmicks. Call them what you will...some are/were tools made by trappers that helped THEM on THEIR trapline.

Again apples to oranges. Lee developed a heck of a tool for a real need and buikt it to.last how is that the same as a plastic bone or turd?
Lee didnt build it to just make a quick buck either

As far as us not being near as bad as bowhunting
I disagree. It may be worse! we are a smaller group with alot more difftent supply company putting 4 dallor materials togeather to sale for 20 bucks a pop to new trappers.

How is that compareable to quality tools?

I remember thinking the first DP's were a gimmick.

HA! Me too!

Did someone actually sell plastic turds? Never saw that ad, lol.
I think that the real problem would be a new trapper thinking he needed all the extra gadgets before he could catch stuff. Like buying mail boxes for mink sets. Sure, it might work, but you sure don't need it. Or 25 different lures when you only need a few good ones.

Bingo thats exactky the point.
And yes several actually

Remember the soup can coon trap?

I get a kick out of the glow in the dark products (trapping trappers). Also lure sellers that post catch pictures in trail sets and the animals were harvested in conibears. I'll admit to falling for some of the smoke and mirrors over the past fifty years, but I'm pretty confident that I can spot a gimmick and a fast buck chaser a little better in my social security years (which in itself is a Ponzi scheme).

All outdoor industries have them, especially hunting fishing and trapping. It depends on the maturity of the individual who falls for them but millions have been made millions will be made.

Duck hunters are bad for that, willing to try anything that's claimed to suck in those ducks a little better.... I used to buy some of that stuff, cause heck, I've wasted money before on crap, lol

somehow it never made a difference....