Bruces Trapline

[3nails]

How do you deal with the skunk?

[Humptulips]

How do you deal with the skunk?

Today I had two. I shot one. He sprayed and I left him behind to air out. I'll get him tomorrow. The other I let out of the trap. I'm trying to make a rat trap work for them. I have a new prototype and I'll set it tomorrow where I let him out. He'll be back and we'll see if it works. If it works right it will kill him which is the ultimate goal. Dead skunk when I show up would be ideal. I think I will put a small hole in my cat traps so the civets can escape so I don't have to let them out.
 Then I'll just wait 'till I see sign of one at the cat trap and set a modified rat trap that will kill it. I don't like to deal with live skunks!

The other way is to set a small cage trap to catch the civet. You can fit small ones that I have in a 7 gallon bucket so I have packed in a bucket of water and drowned them in it. This is less then ideal so I'm working on a better method.

They use injection poles on striped skunks pretty successfully I guess but I don't think they would work on civets.

[Humptulips]

Well, trap problems today. Lost an otter out of one of my swim throughs.
Anyone that has took a mind to copy my design I'll warn you about the defect.
I built an access door into the top of the trap to assist in setting the trap. You will want to seal that hole up.
The otter I caught managed to bend the access door and get out, 4x4 hole.
I spent the day pulling traps out of the water and sealing the door shut with c rings.
The traps are a little harder to set but that will be better than losing another otter.

Caught two beaver and a rat today so it would have been a good day but losing the otter kind of spoiled it.
Didn't get any pictures. Might take some tonight of the put up and post later.

[lokidog]

Well, trap problems today. Lost an otter out of one of my swim throughs.
Anyone that has took a mind to copy my design I'll warn you about the defect.
I built an access door into the top of the trap to assist in setting the trap. You will want to seal that hole up.
The otter I caught managed to bend the access door and get out, 4x4 hole.
I spent the day pulling traps out of the water and sealing the door shut with c rings.
The traps are a little harder to set but that will be better than losing another otter.

Caught two beaver and a rat today so it would have been a good day but losing the otter kind of spoiled it.
Didn't get any pictures. Might take some tonight of the put up and post later.

I had a coon squeeze out the edge of an access hole that stretched to about 1 1/2" X 6", it left a lot of hair and a little skin on the wires.   

[hornhunter1987]

civets? do we have those around here? 

[pnwmtnmn]

Bruce does!

[bob maier]

Bruce, sorry to here about the lost otter. Could a guy use a piece of snare cable and fishing swivel to sew the access door closed, could make it harder to open.

[Humptulips]

Bruce, sorry to here about the lost otter. Could a guy use a piece of snare cable and fishing swivel to sew the access door closed, could make it harder to open.

I suppose. I just closed them up permanent. Yea, the trap is harder to set but it can be done and it isn't worth the worry of losing another otter to have the door.

On another note I had a few traps that sprung to easy. It was a simple fix to file the trigger out a little, not the dog the other part.
I'm not sure if this is like the problem you had with your traps, Bob, but I fixed them easy. I had to take the trigger off to file it.

[Humptulips]

Some pictures from last night.
Before

After

[Humptulips]

From today.

A picture of a set. You can just make out an otter in it on the left side.


Out of the water


Lousy picture but look at that nice tail (no jokes please, I've heard them all) Wish there was still a market for them. It'd make a jumbo wallet!

[carpsniperg2]

Man that big sucker sure make a nice round!

[Humptulips]

Forgot to mention I caught an otter a couple days ago. Someone was kind enough to shoot it with a shotgun. At least they didn't steal the trap.

[bearpaw]

that's a shame bruse.... 

[onetrapper]

I swear that there are too many so called hunters that were never taught that if isn't yours ..leave it alone.  Should be part of training to  get a hunting license and yoou lose it if you screw with someones property.

[Humptulips]

It doesn't look too bad. Must have been a way off. Maybe only a dozen pellet holes and they're small holes so I don't think it will hurt the grade too much.