Jump to content

Coote

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    71

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Coote

  1. Coote
    Thanks for your thoughts Mitch. No....I've never used any sort of wire cable for snares. An old publication by the New Zealand Forest Service advises the use of Bowden cable for possum snares....and I think this is fairly similar to the wire you are talking about.... it is what I'd call control cable. I also met a guy in my home town that has caught a few with a very thin wire rope, but I can't be sure that it was 7x7 or anything. The Forest Service advised having quite a big diameter snare only about three-quarters of an inch above the pole that it is set on. From my experience I
  2. Coote
    I've been thinking about what Joeb wrote. He said: "The beats are NOT runs.... in the short stuff I find that they go all over the place once down and away from the warren .........look for a small flat area, then when you find it, there will normally be more in the line so to speake....set your wires on the middle beat of a run of three of so.......look for natural funnels in the foliage that would force a bunny to go a certain way" If I have understood correctly, it seems that Joeb has observed that the rabbits stick to regular paths mainly near their warren..... then beyond that th
  3. Coote
    Thanks Joeb....you've given me hope. I will take a closer look . This evening maybe. Aye...that Peg and Gun knows a thing or two. I checked my 13 rabbit snares and 8 possum snares this morning. No rabbits , but I did get a possum. This possum will be about the 100th possum I've got this year since around April. Here's a picture of the skin from this morning's possum. On the skin I have a few bits of gear. The big loop of cord I use to hang the possums up when I skin them. I tie the loop to a branch about six feet off the ground, and I take a cow hitch around a
  4. Coote
    I'm a bit frustrated. Last summer I found this forum and I learned a lot about trapping rabbits from the guys here. We are now in the middle of spring down here in New Zealand and I've found a small corner where there are maybe 10 or 20 rabbits living. Most of them are small. I am keen to snare these bunnies... but the grass is short and I cant see runs . Most of the fences are just three wire electric fences designed to keep horses enclosed, so consequently there aren't any decent gaps for snares. I have spent quite some time observing these rabbits and didn't find any decent p
  5. Coote
    Possumpaul spends quite a bit of time away from home, so he might take a while to answer your questions. In New Zealand, a .22 magnum is legal to use for deer in some places like private land. On government land or some other places where a permit to hunt is required, generally a centrefire rifle is specified. From my own experience I would not recommend a .22 magnum as being the ultimate big game cartridge. Most people here would use something more substantial. But having said that, I have heard of deer being shot with a humble .22 LR cartridge. I have shot maybe six pigs and fort
  6. Coote
    Good photos thanks Rabbiter. What part of New Zealand do you live in?
  7. Coote
    Yep... we have feral ferrets - and weasels and stoats. Stoats are the ones that our conservationists seem to worry about the most, but I know they want to get rid of every last member of the polecat family. NZ evidently had no native mammals other than bats and marine mammals when man first arrived here. But we had prolific and varied bird life.... but the stoats etc have changed things. I don't see many ferrets and stoats etc, but I know they are around. The only one I have killed directly was a stupid one that ran down a track toward me when I had a bit of rope in my hand. I s
  8. Coote
    I have never used cyanide and I have had very little to do with it. However here is what I think I know. We have sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide. I don’t know what differences are between the two compounds, but I am certain I wouldn’t want to have either of them in my mouth. In practical terms it seems that trappers have two main forms of cyanide that they use. One is a paste which I believe comes in a tube. The other is in the form of little pills coated with a tasty bait compound. The trade name given to a common brand of these pills is Feratox. I understand that these
  9. Coote
    Here is my buddy Paul. He is the local agent for a company called Basically Bush Ltd... and in this capacity he buys possum fibre and pelts from around the top of the South Island of New Zealand. He also hunts for his own possum fur and provides a private pest control service. He is an expert. Possum fur is currently being bought for NZ$70 per kilo, with anything from 12 to 18 possums being required to get a kilo. Good pelts are worth around NZ$10, but not all skins are good ones. Paul might handle 500kg of plucked fur in a good month. The fur is easily hand-plucked from a fre
  10. Coote
    Do you ever use the Bigalow or Banya killing traps ? If so,.how do you rate their effectiveness up against the snares? Have you tried the Kania Trap,..and would a Possom get his head in one ? All the best, ChalkWarren No.... I haven't used any of the traps that you listed. In fact I have never even heard of them. I think a possum is likely to try to get his head into anything that looks interesting - or if it smells of food. However big possums have quite a big head.... and I dunno if they would fit it into the trap shown in your picture...unless the opening is at least 3.5 inche
  11. Coote
    I reckon that a possum is unlikely to cause a human serious harm... but they could certainly draw blood and make your eyes water. A big one would only weigh about 10 pounds. They have big sharp claws, but those are mainly for tree climbing. They screech, bare their teeth and lift their claws in a threatening pose.... but I have never been hurt by one. I wouldn't, however, try to pick up a possum that wasn't dead. And they can take a bit of killing too. A guy I talked to a couple of days ago reckons they have 18 lives. A couple of times I have had possums suddenly leap into space
  12. Coote
    Yesterday I came across this tiny fellow while I was going around my snares. I could have easily clubbed it, but I didn't . It is in a typical possum pose.... the one that says "Back off or I will damage you".... but somehow I wasn't convinced of the danger seeing that this little bloke sat only about seven or eight inches high. I had to chase it away to make it hide itself. I was concerned that the local dogs might find it. I had quite a good run yesterday (for me anyway).... six possums from 19 sets. I think I am gradually improving.
  13. Coote
    A drag is a good idea to ease the load on the restraining cord... but I guess if the drag catches on something solid as soon as the animal is caught (and still has plenty of energy) then there is the danger the cord will break. But chances are even if the drag does catch, there will still be some "give" in the system which would take some shock out of the sudden loading that the animal might apply. I would be nervous about trying a drag.... I'm too scared I might lose the animal and condemn it to a slow death somewhere in a remote gully. I guess if I had a dog to track it... or if there
  14. Coote
    Thanks for the replies. That is interesting about the wax. I wonder whether they simply rubbed the wax into the cord like you would wax a bow string.... or whether they dipped the formed noose into molten wax... or just dipped a hank of snare cord into the molten wax. It is worth a try.
  15. Coote
    Thanks for all the comments. I set some more pole snares today.... I will see the results tomorrow morning. I measured a dead possum today. It was a typical adult. It weighed a bit under 8 pounds with its guts still in. The body from the head to the base of the tail was about 18 inches long. The tail was around 14 inches long. It was danged cold today while I was setting those snares. I guess the temperature would have been around 9 or 10 degrees celsius... but there was a nasty little wind blowing. Quite a bit different to the warm summer we've just had.
  16. Coote
    If some of you don't know what a pole snare is, it is a snare set on a sloping pole or branch designed to catch climbing animals. Typically it would be used for things like squirrels. I use them for catching possums. I am interested in setting methods and heights etc. For an Australian Brushtailed possum pole snare I have had success with poles at all angles from horizontal to about 70 degrees. The recommended snare size (according to one book) is maybe five inches in diameter with less than an inch between the pole and the snare, although lately I have been catching possums with
  17. Coote
    Theoretically snaring should be more successful on darker nights rather than moonlit ones. What difference has moonlight made in your experience?
  18. Coote
    Snaring has been going on for thousands of years, but people haven't had ready access to wire cable until fairly recently. So how did they do it? How did the old timers snare/trap big animals? What cordage did they use? If you didn't have wire, what would you use? If you had to use a cord weaker than wire, is there a special technique you would use to minimise stress on the cord? Any ideas? Thanks.... Coote.
  19. Coote
    It's comforting to read that you are having trouble finding rabbit runs too Mitch. I went and checked my snares this morning. As predicted, there was nothing in the pig snare... it had been sprung... possibly by a possum because I saw nibble marks on an apple I left nearby. Here is a snapshot of the countryside where I set my snares: Out of 12 snares I had three possums. That's a 25% hit rate.... which is pretty good in my personal experience, although seasoned trappers using poison or leg traps would expect a far higher catch percentage.... something like % or more. But I
  20. Coote
    I haven't snared a single rabbit since I got some brass snares. I also copied these brass snares using copper wire. I originally started asking questions on this forum when I had the challenge of removing some rabbits from a built-up area where I couldn't get permission to use my silenced .22 rifle. I got six of the offending rabbits... two with arrows, one in a leg-hold trap, and three in snares made from monofilament nylon. The owner of the nearby garden has evidently said that he is now "rabbit free" since my hunt and destroy mission. But I've always been keen on snaring so I contin
  21. Coote
    Very interesting thanks P&G Kevlar is different to wire. How do you keep the snares open in a nice noose? How many strands in the snares? Could be good for possums down here in the colonies. Have a great day..... Coote.
  22. Coote
    G'day Honorseveryanimal... I am not a rat trapper, but I do know that you can cut a "wip" for a spring snare and bring it to the snare site. Just sharpen the thick end and push it into the ground (or tie it to something). You could also use a spring or a bit of inner tube.... or if you could get it operating fast enough, you could use a weight on a string that passes over a branch or some sort of a pulley. You might not have found this old post on rat trapping.... heres the address: http://thehuntinglife.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3092 I hope the link works when you cl
  23. Coote
    Thanks very much for the information Hornhunter. Thanks too for your other posts. I was astounded at the number of coyotes you had hanging up .
  24. Coote
    Very interesting thanks Hornhunter. I am particularly fascinated to learn that big animals can be so easily caught by the leg in a snare like you've been using. How big is the coyote noose, and how high off the ground is the bottom of the noose? How many coyote snares would you typically have set overnight? And one last question... who would you recommend as a good supplier of reasonably-priced steel traps and other supplies? Thanks and best wishes.... Coote
  25. Coote
    We do have spiders here and there are about two species (out of the hundreds) reputed to have a venomous bite which can be unpleasant. However I don't really know of anybody who has ever had a serious problem with them. I would consider the common yellow wasp more of a nuisance. We don't have anything like the spiders they have in Australia, and I would consider it perfectly ok to walk barefoot anywhere, or to sit or sleep or camp in any patch of scrub without having to spare a thought for spiders or any other insect (except for bees or wasps). Insect repellent is sometimes necessary in so
×
×
  • Create New...