great pic, and good read thanks swamp

You Really Should Write a book!!!

Wife tells me same thing. I do have some interesting GW stories..

Cool picture,

I held one in a #2 Bridger.

Not familiar with bear trapping, but I have seen photos of one coon caught with each front paw caught in two different DPs set close together.

My grandad used to help the sheriff trap sheep killing bear here in Michigan before the houndsmen got it outlawed in the early 1950's. He used a log drag, he called it a "clog", always made of green oak, instead of fastening the trap down in one spot. Never asked why. I know that twice they trapped bear they didn't catch......one left the trap, along with the 8-10 foot oak clog, way up in a big White Pine with a toe or two toes in it. The other bear that gave them the slip was seen crossing a page wire fence......it was hugging the clog up next to it's body with the forepaw that was in the trap. They never saw it again, and never found the trap and clog. He said they had an awful time following that bear's trail because it didn't leave a hard drag trail. Most times he said the trails looked like they were made by a bulldozer. Sheep killing was a common problem back in those days. One time my Grandad was coming out of the barn and heard his sheep raising a ruckus over the hill, along with a loud squeaking type noise. He went to the top of the hill in time to see a bear in the process of climbing over a fence with a dead sheep held up tight to it's body......the squeaking noise was the page wire fence. Behind the bear were 13 other dead or dying sheep the bear had mauled. Some had their guts strung out and needed to be shot. He never killed that bear. All the above incidents happened when my mother was a kid. She was born in 1917. The only bear trapping I have done was in Maine, not far from BruceT's place. Although Maine outlawed old timey foot holds for bear trapping, I hope my Grandsons both get to foot snare themselves a Maine bear. Their dad foothold trapped one with my trap as well. I don't know much about my French Canadian Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandpa, first name of Ephraim, but his son was a bear trapper, that makes my boy a 6th generation bear trapper. That makes this wore out old trapper smile.