100 degree trapping

When the ranchers contract you to come and get the coyotes and bobcats that are predators of their animals, the first thing you do in south Texas is look at the temps. The second thing you do is grab plenty of H2O! It was almost 100 today and tomorrow it'll be 104 degrees, but the first full check of the line was productive. This is not fur trapping. This is sniper fire. Find the sign. Set it. Get 'em.

Hunter Stinger, a past attendee from our Trapping Academy has joined me. He started day one check with a nice female coyote!

Send some heat my way even the ticks are growin fur here

I bet you hate to take a nice cat like that this time of the year.

50 degrees hotter than here....yikes

I hear ya, I try to start early running everything. Stay hydrated, and not just water. You need the electrolytes also. Take care.

la4wd54,
You as well brother. We hydrate early and often.
Good luck to ya.

Blessings
Mark

Stay hydrated Mark.
I'm hating these early mid 90's temps we are having not looking forward to the summer

Adam,

Yessir. This 104 on the radar for tomorrow is rugged, rugged. I have a ranch slotted in this same area from June 20th for two weeks.
I may be getting too soft for all this.
Might take up checkers.

Ya i cant live in a place like that, id die for sure

Good luck to you and Hunter.

Nice.Bring on the heat.

104° is no fun.
Mark, Hopefully storms start rolling through. Checkers is fun

The heat is no fun for anybody.

Aw come on Mark hang in there !
When you soon get to be a famous TV preacher, think of all the stories you'll have of what's been done for you !

Not too sure about the famous TV preacher avenue, but the stories are real life drama. "These are the days of our trapping lives."

You must have to check your traps quite often under those conditions?That heat must be hard on animals out in the open like that for any length of time.
I know beaver held alive in summer heat will expire in just a couple hours from hyperthermia if they cant get to water..

Boco
I would bet that Mark runs & resets in the mornings. Even with high temps during the day the animals (shade up) just like we do. Being he's trapping nocturnal predators
that hunt in the cool hours of the night; they probably aren't in the traps long before he's back.

If a guy was to
Look at his trap much after about 11:00 you wouldn't need a fancy death ray, just a scoop shovel and a trashbag, if you wanted to clean up the mess.

Mark & Donna. HEB has some knock off Gatorades called Power Ade. I drink a lot of water but getting around in the heat takes a lot of the salts out of you and replacing them quickly works good for me.

hats off to ya's,gets near 60 here and i'm whining.

Hang in there. Looking forward to more adventures.

Over 104 again the last two days and Hunter is doing very well. He about comes off the buggy seat when he catches Texas critters! He's a heck of a trapper. Full of giddyup and go for sure. He's getting the bobcats on walk through sets as I like to use them here for the coyotes and cats both.

We get out early and wrap up early afternoon on the checking traps part, but drive and scout the ranch in the afternoon looking, looking, looking.

I work hard on my ranches and they appreciate a job well done each and every time. Trust is earned, and I'm kinda old fashioned so that's fine with me.





Blessings y'all!
Mark

Good advice Leftlane. I'll alert the Mrs. to look for that Powerade. By 10:30 the buggie floor is ankle deep in water and gatorade bottles for sure.
But this is a great way to earn tuition money!

Good job Mark and Hunter.

That's a nice looking cat.

Pickle juice has a lot of electrolytes too.

Wish I could have come suffer the heat with you. It snowed here 2 weeks ago, rained enough last week to put Noah back in business and this weekend it is supposed to hit the 80s. Keep up the reports, i love seeing the pics. Just got my ADC permit approved so now I can start getting the muskrats off the golf courses. Not as interesting as coyote trapping but it will earn a few bucks and I get to trap during season for fur also. Stay shaded out there.

I don’t like to set traps in weather over 50 degrees

Nice bobcat

Mark. Your bobcat is much better look than my Texas bobcat went aren't that far apart. But I swear my bobcat today looks like and Alabama bobcat. Was hoping my first TEXAS bobcat would be prettier. Want so good pictures so o could look back = on my first Texas trapping job but o well.

Steeltraps,

The bobcats get better in Texas as you move south into the valley. You're a bit north but still you should get a nice one or two. Ours are way off as last year this area only got 9 inches of rain and they get a brown hue to them. Not sure how that all works but it happens in dry years it seems. With this year's recent moisture, bunnies and quail and all sorts of prey species are rebounding quick, so they hides will grey/blue up once again as they typically do.

Shot a nice 5+ foot rattler yesterday, so that was a bonus. I didn't see it as we were leaving a trap site (sun in my eyes), but I sure heard Hunter yell, "You just ran over a HUGE snake!" If you keep quiet and stalk 'em, you can get a nice shot at their head in all that cactus and mesquite. Thumped him, skinned him, and he'll be a knife sheath soon!

Watch out for snakes steel traps! Remember, they can strike 2/3'rds their body length. Mine was shot three times in the head and still striking my snake tongs. Tough, tough, critters.

Blessings,
Mark

Steeltraps,

You running Spartan tires on your buggie? I replaced the Essex Kevlar that I had been using with these military grade Spartans at the suggestion of some of my ranch hands, and boy-o-boy they ride better and seem to be mean as needed going through the sharp stuff everywhere!

Yikes if you lived in South Central Texas there are winters your steel would stay hanging in the shed and never see dirt.

I am guessing Lavernia is the warmest place Mr. June ever hung his hat anyway.

Mark. I am not sure. They gave me a 2019 Can Am to trap off of. I will see when I go back out this afternoon to hangs some more snares. I have only seen 1 snake so far. Its was very long and black. Got across the road before I could see it good

Maybe not in Dallas, but South of La Vernia and East of I-35 (in South Texas), you fail to mention the flippin’ HUMIDITY to go with those 100 degree temps!!!

That long black snake was probably a whip snake. Rat eaters. Non-venomous.
They grow to about 6 foot in length but last one I was asked to "get" was 7'3" long.

By far the warmest Leftlane. By far!

It's this dew point of over 70 also Aggie. Stifling most days and it won't let up this year. Keeps everything green just with the saturated humid air.
I miss dew points of 40-50!

Quit whining...unless they have gnats too, lol! I don’t mind the heat or humidity, but I swore when I left GA umpteen years ago to “see the world” I’d never return. And after 4 years, I returned. It’s bad enough with sweat dripping in your eyes, but gnats in your eyes, up your nose, and in your ears is a whole different distraction!!

I don't know what they are but the gnats are ear eaters. Small, black, gnatistic, dive bombers. But they don't like DEET so all is good with suntan lotion and DEET spray!

Wanna Be. After last nights 1 inch of rain. Gnats are rough to day in South Texas Mark. I saw the same colored snake again to day. About 5 ft long. Maximus Big Horn 8 ply tires are on the buggy I'm on.

Y’all both have my sympathies, lol. I’ve found the best time to do trapping work Is actually in the middle of the day. It hasn’t reached its hottest yet and the gnats aren’t as bad. Early mornings and evenings are just brutal!