Got my Fenn's ready

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

That thing is outrageous mate! Ye dead right there! I mean, never mind the Anti's; What sort of medievil mentallity sits there and thinks, " Hmm. Yeah. And if I dig some f*cking old nails through here, then ..... " The brits are said to be a nation of animal lovers. Sure, we may enjoy setting out to kill certain animals even, unashamedly, for 'fun'. But I don't think anyone in their right mind would sit and dream up a barbarity such as that. FFS.

 

Anyway, contrary to the historical continental european experiance ~ and this is a large part of my original point ~ the art of Rabbit Trapping was once a widely held and practiced skill in uk. Gin traps were used because Gin traps is what they had. Maybe one day people will go duck shooting with laser guns? Who knows. But, in their time, those boys only had Gin's and, by f*ck, did they get good with them! Gamekeepers, of course, were the ultimate. They had to trap so much more than just rabbits and so their skills had to be consumate - as were my earlier Mentors. Now it's all lost.

 

Just to wrap up by saying I'm not in any way harping for a return to Gin traps. There's simply no need for them now. We have traps which could yet cover most bases. But, again; Do 'we' have the skills to use them? I'd point to France on this one. Over there they lost the Gin much later than us (as did Germany). But what have they done? Have they shrugged and said, " Le Snare! " ? Well, sort of. But they've now gone over Big Time to the Foot Snare. And there we come full circle. A perfectly, proven Humane method of catching foxes. But they need to be set with every bit as much skill and art as an American 'Steel Trap' or a british Gin. Who, in uk today, has the skill to place a 2" disc of steel precisely where he knows a fox will soon place one of his 1" front paws?

 

I suspect ye'd be hard pressed to gather a car load of such men today. So who would be able to teach any future Trappers such ways? Has to come from 'abroad', mate. 'we've' lost the lot

[snareman 3]

Knight latched the trigger knotch, tossed the light chain, pulled out the light J hook, drilled the frame for a new J hook, 3 foot machine chain number 2 and added 3 swivels. Simmered in Lye and ready for a dye and wax job next weekend.

 

I also set a few up on drowning rigs. Dyed about 200 mink traps and getting ready to go through 200 body grippers. Snares I'll KO next week. After that it's get some more areas to trap.

Well what did you do today.

n.r. why do you need 3 feet of cnain to kill a mink , all you need is a lentgh of wire and wrap it on the end of a stick , and push it under the bank . when the mink is caught , it pulls out and sinks with the weight of the trap anyway , ive trapped them up to 6lbs. a simple rabbit snare holds them also , all your doing is giving yourself work for nothing , a fenn trap does not kill a dog minkquickly they are not strong enough , thats why i used to use drowning wires . you don,t even need a swivel , i can see your overkill if there are coons around , and if they step on one of the traps they will be out in seconds and gone .

[snareman 3]

Bit bloody harsh, Tomo! I can understand the termenology perfectly well myself. What still leaves me completely nonplussed though is the need to take what is, fundamentally, a killing trap and go to such lengths to make it a corpse 'drowning' set up

 

Sorry, NR; Could ye please explain ye thinking there mate? Just so I can get on with my life without for ever trying to work out this riddle ye've set here

 

shitty , you should watch and listen ,especially with your record on mink catching all mink traps should be set with drowning wires/chains , cos even tho we try ,as we all know not every animal is caught correctly and killed outright , therefore its of benefit to add this wire /chain to ensure an animal is not sitting pretty in a trap stapled to a box, i set all my mink traps with wires to allow the mink to drop into deep water wether its dead in the trap or not, i even set rat traps in the same way on stream banks just to be certain of a swift end

 

these yanks are way ahead of us lads when it comes to trapping and snaring,this customising of traps and snares make them work better and faster so making better and more catches so give the man a chance, i,m learning off nightrunner all the time , he,s helping me out no end thru emails and photos, the lad knows what he,s talkng about

moley, these guys are not any better than us at open trail snaring , trust me, gw.

[Madcowz 0]

Oh I do like the idea of trap modding!

 

I don't have the skills of these guys, but I might pimp mine by lowering it by 20mm, adding an alloy chain and maybe painting the spring.

 

We could meet up with our traps in fast food car parks on Saturday Night playing loud animal calls.

 

 

 

/Mad

[NightRunner 0]

Because when I set the trap and make a catch I want it to go down quick and be hidden. When you say stick are you meaning a stick or a rebar stake. The puropse of staking on an angle and into the currnet is to get them out of the way. Also we have raccoon so if you can get them out on the surrnet chances are you won't get a pull out. It's like setting up a bridge if you have a thief in the area set down off the current a big trick is to see if there is mud in the water if so the thief knows he has a gift up stream.

 

I don't know what your compition is like over there or if you get trap thieves. We do certain areas you can leave your gear out and other trappers will just walk around it. Then some will take every last trap, place rocks under your pan, take your catch. I don't know of your dealing with that.

 

As for setting snares in bare open area's, well explain how you would snare in a dry area. You guys can't even use a cam lock with a kill spring. When the price of fur goes up so does the compition, in some areas of the US bobcats can trade for 400 a pelt. You'd be surprised what a good trapper can set with out you even knowing it. Name of the game is cut off the compition.

 

I have seen areas where 3 trappers are set up right on top of each other, 8 traps in a 15ft x 15ft area.

 

A drowned an hidden animal is one that is going in the back of the truck.

 

We also have certain states that have what is known as a road right of way anyone can trap that area. The big coon and mink trappers work these. There are some that will put up 300 mink in 10-14 days some 1000 coon in less than 30 days.

 

Ask away

[NightRunner 0]

moley, these guys are not any better than us at open trail snaring , trust me, gw.

 

That all depends on who you have seen trap and where.

[snareman 3]

Hang about; Nightlatching them I can see. But what's with the three foot chains and all the swivels, mate? Which Fenn's are ye talking about here? What do ye hope to catch in them? And why should a dead one require three swivels?

 

 

I am going after them for mink some of the areas I trap no foot holds. The three foot of chain is to take mink down in deep water. Make a pocket and stake the trap out in deep water on an angle with the current, the chain adds weight. I'll take some pics in the next day or so.

night runner , you don,t need anything added to a fenn trap , to take a mink down , the weight of the mink caught in the trap takes it down itself , a 4 foot length of 6 ply electric fence wire tied to the trap ring , and the other end tied to a little thin peg pushed into the underside of the bank , takes them down and dead , and out of site , without all the added scrap and extra work .snareman .

[NightRunner 0]

You boys do not have coon, they feel everything with there feet and will pull a trap up out of it's bed. When your dealing with wire it's nothing but a pain. Try putting 60 traps in totes, when you pull one out with chain it pulls right out. Try that with wire. A mink will float and there's not enough weight to pull them down that is why I want the chain.

 

A little thin peg NO WAY always stake a trap for the biggest animal that stops by. I have had coyotes and fox in pocket sets for mink. Put a 20 pound coon on a little peg and you'll be looking for traps all day. I have a feeling you guys don't have compition that leeds to stealing.