What was your first target animal?

Well I started with a friend trapping muskrats and always chasing the elusive coon and if you could catch a fox to us kids you where the best trapper out there lol. Now we have very few muskrats in our area coons are easy to catch and fox have become rare but we have coyotes so now I mainly trap coyotes and chase a few beaver once in a while

mushrats on thanksgivin mornin.

muskrats , an coon

Coon tin around pan caught one first night .

Mine was mink, used to catch a few rats in mink sets.

Coon with my grandpa

I ran a possum line around the house before school. I set every den hole I could find plus log piles along a power line. They brought 1.50 each. Rats were 4.50. I caught two that winter.

Rabbits, in a box trap my grandfather made for me in 1953.

Rats with the old man.

Woodchuck

I do love catching muskrats when I can find a pocket of them.

Beaver are probably my favorite animal to catch.

I spend most of my time trying to catch coyotes because there are so many of them, they are everywhere, and the fur is selling pretty good.

Raccoon was my first target. Still my main target.

Muskrats, neighbor taught my brother and I.

Raccoons, My dad had a friend of his show me how to catch them when I was pretty young. I've been trapping Coyotes, fox, and coons ever since I turned 11 and figured I could do it again.

Muskrats, my favorite to skin.

Rabbits, then coon

Coon and I had better luck my first year (last year) than I have this year...lol

Coon

I played around with live traps when younger, but my first commercial line was muskrats, got 1.40 each from Russ Cumberland

Raccoon was the first targeted animal. Then it was onto muskrats

Raccoon exposed pan

Muskrat...

Muskrats after school

Pocket Gopher then red fox that was stealing my gophers w/ gopher traps attached

Mink,then jumped into dirt trapping for fox 41 years ago.

Set a #1 victor in front ti if a hole to catch rabbits and caught a badger. Muskrats were the real first
.

Coyotes

Bird under a propped box @ (4 1/2 yrs)

But as a licensed trapper. RACCOON

Muskrats

Rats, Norway and Roof rats. Dad made it my responsibility to keep them cleaned out of the barn and chicken coop.

Red Fox.

Muskrats ,used to catch em by hand when i was a little shaver back in the early 70s ,then my cousin showed me how to trap em. that sure made it easier.

Muskrats then. Still today.

My dad trapped and I tagged along when I was about 8 years old. If there were weasel on the pond we were trapping, he would let me set for them while he concentrated on rats. I loved trapping weasel; still do today. Unfortunately, they're not worth much.

I forgot about the prop box for rabbits don't know what I would have done if I would have caught one

Spotted skunks, I caught three of them before trapping any other furbearers.

started out trapping coons. Driving home from checking traps one morning I found a beaver on the side of the highway that had been hit by a car. Set a couple of traps for beaver the next day, and I have been hooked on beaver trapping since.

Skunks what else.

Started out trapping squirrels in box traps with my brother when I was around 5. Then started trapping coins with my dad when I was about 10

57

Red Fox

When I started trapping Red Fox were so numerous you could set traps in a row and cover with grass and just use a stepping stick .

Pocket gophers.

Coon. Caught my first one in a #1 1/2 longspring....sold it on the carcass, wet and muddy, for $38 in 1979.

As for furbearers I'll proudly be the first to say "nutria". After a couple of years of trapping nutria I caught my first muskrat... and didn't know what it was!

Rabbits...... in a wooden box trap my dad and me made on a snowy blizzard type day...…. back in "63" or somewhere around there. That's 1963... !!!!

Gophers

Crows...Two bits bounty.

It didn't take all that many crows to buy enough traps to move on to pocket gophers @ $.35

Muskrats or coons not really sure what was first, i trapped both my first year with my own line.

Raccoon blind sets around my chicken coop. Now i chase coyotes all over the place.

Raccoon was the first I ever set a trap for. Probably a Victor and I don't remember where the trap came from. Beaver was my first catch some years later.

I set for coons, fox and coyote. Only caught coons the first year.

Age 10 pocket gophers

Bryce

8 years old. My sister pulled me out of school to help her set muskrat sets. After a couple weeks I had my own muskrat line. Caught more muskrats back then ( 1963) in a 1/4 mile of creek that I could catch now in 20 miles. Man I miss muskrats.

Beaver self taught with the help of 330MANIAC and Tman

Coyotes was my first target then coon

Back when Possum was king in the late 70's. A green skinned big one was $4.00 and that was a lot of money. Little ones or even black ones would bring a dollar and was welcome.

Later on when I was driving up through college in the early 80's the target was mainly coon. Fox and bobcat were a real bonus.

RATS - Norway Rats - they were everywhere in my neighborhood - thanks to the influx of welfare and other undesirables moving in, as the old Europeans started to die off.....

It was crazy how quickly their numbers exploded, but thankfully the numbers now are way down, my neighbor and his son were using a .22 rifle while I was using a .177 RWS air rifle along with small round conibears set in their holes, and small long spring traps in weasel boxes

Beaver. Really started chasing them during college.

i'm 51 and caught this rat here this morning. 6 in pipe under it.same place i caught my first rat when i was 8 in 1976.

that's pretty cool PCR. I was 8 and my brother loaned me two #1 long springs to set for muskrat on his line. He only charged me the animals i caught for rent of those traps. I learned a few lessons from him and some were even trapping lessons lol.