When did you START?

When did you start trapping?

8 years old with my Father now I am 54 years old

When dad told me to get rid of the rats in the barn.

I really don't remember if it was a trap or snare but it was 60 some years ago.

13 on my own > read trapping north American furbearers by Stanley Hawbaker..

When I was 10. I am 65 now.

8 years old.

I was 13 when i started. I am 64 now.

When I was 6 years old... I am now 79... guess how many years that is?

Garry-

73 Years, WOW. You must have alot of experience.

Think I was in my 50s and had just read a box set of Lewis and Clark journals. Bought two 330s sand caught a few nice beavers and an otter. Then decided to try bucket sets for raccoon. Then caught the bug.

Always trapped recreationally. I was retired on disability and the fresh air and exercise were good for me. An orthopedic surgeon put an end to the fun about the same time gasoline rose above $4.

Fall 1961

Three years ago; older dog learning some new tricks.

11 or 12 when I started trapping for fur(muskrats,coon mink beaver skunk) and tanning the pelts.Didnt start selling raw fur until I was 15,when I moved north and started trapping fox,marten,beaver,rats,and ermine.This was all from my own learning.A couple years later I got into more remote lines with an experienced trapper and started on lynx wolf otter,as well as the other fur,and learned how to trap efficiently and manage the fur properly and catch quantities on a commercial basis.

I was about 28. Guy I worked with got me started.

5 years old.

5 or 10 yearz ago after my wife past away
Needed something to get me off the couch

Just looked at aome old pics 7 years ago

buy one of his books and you'll see.

same here only i;m way younger-only 52

About 65 years ago.

About 71 years ago.
I peddled my bike down to the lake got In my 12' boat fired up my 1 1/2 horse Elgin and started setting and checking rat and mink sets. There were very few coon In the county at that time.

Technically about 25 years ago as a little kid throwing duck guts in cages for coons and skunks on the duck club. But that was just for egg eater control for the pheasants and ducks on the property. I started actually trapping 3 years ago.

When I was 10 or 12 me and my buddy went to the local gun shop and bought 2 #1 Victors s and set them in a pond. It rained for a week and we couldn't find our traps under the flooded pond. So we went back to the store and bought two 1 1/2 vics and set for coon. Every day we caught one we'd sell it in the round and get more traps. I'm 53 now and I can remember those few weeks better than most of the years and all the fur since then..... funny how those memories are so vivid.

I was 11 or 12 , I'm 44 now

When I was 10 or so

I started in 2012 at age 56 when I retired.
sure wish I could have started earlier.

absolutely love it. i love deer hunting and fishing, but when you head out in the morning to check your trapline you have no idea whats going to happen.
I have seen things that very few people will ever see.

Muskrats and coon back in 67, 5th grade got in trouble reading a trapping book in class and not paying attention(at all)!! Was obsessed with trapping after going with an older cousin to run his traps. First muskrat I caught got eaten by a mink.

I started when I was 10 or so, I’m 60 now, where did the time go?
Would go with my grandpaw on weekends,he was 65, he was a very efficient Trapper
He did wear a 330 Home one day, grandmaw had to take it off him..
Learned a lot from those two...
If I could just turn the clock back sometimes...

1961.Muskrats,coons and possums.

Man I stared maybe when I was 8 with my Dad. We put on 107 miles a day. We caught about 17 to 21 mink per year. We caught a few rates and 25 or coon. Dad only set a trap or two per location. He did not gang set like these days. We started late Oct and ended before deer season so around 19th of Nov. I trapped Fox in the field where we spread the coon carcus's behind the barn. Man I could catch the fox.

This will be my 42nd year of trapping,started when I was 11.

Somewhere around 48 years ago. I was about 14. 62 now.

Earliest memory was in November of 1963.

About 5 years ago. Still finding my way and groove. Sometimes tough to be self-taught. Ive had success that ive had trouble duplicating. Mainly want to get consistent with the yotes. Other critters im ok with. Not a big question-asker, or poster, but more of a reader. The more i fail the more motivated i get. I need a trapping pal.

Are you close to the Twerker,hes looking for trapping partners.

I'm guessing it had to be about 44 years ago. I know I was 12 when I shot my first deer with a bow, and pheasant with a .410, and I know I had caught coons and rats before either of those events.
Wow, 44 years? At least I'm not old though.
Jim

Unfortunately not, at least 3 hrs without checking a map. Id get along too well with him. Prolly for the better.

37 years ago. I am 48.

Not sure how old I was probably 8 or 9 keeping coon out of the sweet corn with cage traps. I used to sleep in the field with my pellet gun and dog when I'd here the trap close we'd go let it out and tree it by edge of the field and shoot it. Those were great times! Dad was a BIG TIME trapper in my eyes at least but he worked nights and didnt trap near home would be gone a month or more out of state trapping. So I would use his traps and figure out the tricks myself. I remember him talking about a hole in the dirt you'd put bait in to catch animals but no details so I would make a shallow dirthole put some tuna or other food in it and set the trap on the ground with the pan covering the hole mostly caught skunks but it was a good childhood. Really started learning how to trap as a young adult after dad passed and I was looking for a connection to him and the outdoors. Now it's an obsession.

I helped a buddy of mine on a small multi species line for rats, mink, and coon one season when I was around 14. Didn't actually start trapping myself until I was 20. Been trapping almost 10 years so far and last year got into instructing trapper ed as well along with hunter ed and bowhunter ed.

1972.

12 years old...two #2 longsprings.

55 years old now....and many more traps...

I tried a few times earlier, but I think I was 16 when I took my trapping course required by the state of Kansas. Lyle Gibson & Mike Clements taught us about state law, ethics, and the mechanics of set building and all us kids was off like shots from a gun.

Lee Hinkle gave us the best price for beaver and rats, Dick Archer paid a few bucks more for the coyotes when they primed up, and Dan Barrow wanted all of our cats but there weren't many back then. They always had time for us snot nosed kids whether we had a basket full of fur or and entire pickup bed and we read every word printed in Fur-Gish-and Game so we filled a few beds and started taking pride in our craft.


If you remember any of these names you are old LOL. Lee probably does, Maybe Marty too.

At age 15 I was introduced to trapping by a high school buddy, who ran a short muskrat and 'coon line west of Columbus, Ohio. I bought one trap and set it in front of a muskrat hole, and the next morning I found a small female mink waiting in the trap. My friend couldn't believe it, as he'd never caught a mink himself.

I trapped through college; during the season I could earn more trapping than working a part-time job in those days of high fur prices.

By the time I got to law school, there was no time to trap. And no time the next twenty-five years of law practice. Then I kicked back a bit, and learned how to spend time on things like trapping and writing again.

So I trapped here in Alaska for about eight years. During that time I caught a bunch of martens and muskrats, a fair number of mink, an otter, two wolves, a beautiful big cross fox and half a dozen reds, maybe a dozen ermine.

Never caught a wolverine or lynx, and always wanted to. Never caught a coyote, and I can live with that.

Jim

When I was 12. Will be 60 years this fall.

when I was 8-9 with a friend about 1969

8 years old

about 7 years ago

I was 11 in 1975. Spotted some old traps in papaws shed and asked him about them and he said I could use them and advised me to hang an apple over them about a foot high. First catch was a rabbit which I proudly gave to my mamaw to fry. I was absolutely hooked and several possums and a couple of muskrats were the first seasons catch which I got 24.00 for. I’ll be 56 this season and haven’t missed a season since.

1976 1st sets were with #1 long springs for weasels/mink.

1985 with a trapping license
Before that ....kid stuff since I was 5

Muskrats on Ogontz Bay in the UP with my brother in law fall of 1968.

1965 I think, I'am 72 now

Thanks guys, this is awesome!!

1957 age 9 pocket gophers Ran the line for 4 years, 3 with a bike. There was a 25 cent town ship bounty for them and I had a couple farmers pay me an extra dime, most a nickel. Not big revenue but probably the most profitable lines I have ever ran.

Bryce