The use of rat traps in washington state for martens and the like.

[hardkorrhunter]

Ive seen some of these wood boxes for weasel and such with a rat trap placed inside. My question to yall is wether this is leagal in washington state and if anyone knows if this could be an effective way to grab some marten?

[Chesapeake]

Didnt you just pass the test? LOL just messing with you.

Commercial type rat traps should be legal. I would say they are too small for Marten.

[Carp Commander]

The use of a commercially purchased mouse/rat traps is legal and they work very well for long and short tail weasel (Ermine). Some trappers have suggested making their own rat traps. I think with a little creativity any of us could build a "rat trap" large enough to take a beaver. This isn't a good ideal and would probably cause us to loose rat traps. Just my thought on the subject.

Trappers are however experimenting with rat traps for muskrat. I have heard mixed reviews but I think everyone will agree that it takes a very exact catch and you can expect to loose more than you catch.

Hope that helps.

Doug

[hardkorrhunter]

Yup that helps alot doug thanks. As far as the marten go i might just build a wooden live trap like some ive seen on youtube for rabbits, though i will still try the rat trap box too and modify the spring to grab a little better as far as building the larger version rat trap your right doug probly not a good idea.....

[onetrapper]

Marten should have no problem with a small cage trap.  Rat traps are not big enough.

[Humptulips]

This season I did a lot of experimenting with rat traps trying to make them work for spotted skunk. They are a whole lot smaller then a marten. I finally came to the conclusion they will not work. I changed the trap so the springs were stronger, installed a strike bar and made it so they would get hit perfectly. All that and even though struck across the neck they were not killed and managed to pull back out of the trap.
I cannot imagine them being of any use except for weasels.
I also do not believe a homemade rat trap or an overly modified rat trap would be legal.

[hardkorrhunter]

Thats what i needed to hear thanks bruce........


Jessie Korr

[hardkorrhunter]

Just for the record i had no intention of overly modifying a rat trap i just simply planned on tightening the spring up a bit but i was a about 15 the last time i seen a marten so what size cage trap would yall recomend we actually caught the marten by accident in a bobcat cubby set with a number two foothold............

[onetrapper]

7x7x24 works for mink

[Shasta Pond]

Just curious.
I v`e lived out here for a little over 27 yrs. and am a sojourner from the Black Hills of Dakota. It is totally different out here fellas. As far as the state law is concerned is there indeed a legal description between a "snap trap" and a conibear "Body trap"? I understand the difference mechanically speaking , but as far as actual trapping use in the State of Washington is concerned if a person hypothetically advanced a "snap trap design " to the degree of taking large game, would that not degrade or ruin the pelt even if the dispatch was instantaneous? Using such a strong bar and torsion spring causing at least severe bruising and underlying tissue damage ? My curiosity is that basically both traps clamp down onto the body causing to some point, vital constriction and fracture. I guess that i am confused that certain parameters per say were not grandfathered in regarding the smaller trap sets , floating box or cubby sets utilizing conibear to where domestic animals would especially not enter into, mink or weasel, muskrat, beaver sets. How is a domestic animal or dog going to get into a floating muskrat trap? or am i lacking in some education concerning all of this?
I have been thinking about trapping again , but packing a mess of "crab pot" cages out into the woodlands? To me, that is so intentional and willfully constructed , burdensome and restrictive , more like a punishment coming out of the 2000 capitol offices down in Olympia. It is more like running a trapping spot than it is a trap line, like a one person vendor at a carnival and not a profitable chain store. I guess my question is building a more precise lethal single bar snap trap that accommodates itself into an inclusive mated box for a specific purpose an illegal proposition to use in Washington ? The trap is non-movable , affixed to the interior portion of the confinement so what ever goes through does not come back out. Only the trap owner can release the trap removing it and the contents. Thanks

[Bigshooter]

If it grips the body it can not be used.  Except for a common rat trap may be used with little or no modifications.

[Humptulips]

Shasta Pond,

You have to understand the history of this law. It did not come out of Fish & Wildlife or the Legislature. It was written by HSUS as an Initiative and voted and passed by public vote. No one had any input on it except HSUS and their goal was to break the back of trappers.

Bodygripping traps were made illegal for fur trapping with this law. Defintion for a bodygripping trap by law is:   "Body-gripping trap" means a trap that grips an animal's body or body part. Body-gripping trap includes, but is not limited to, steel-jawed leghold traps, padded-jaw leghold traps, Conibear traps, neck snares, and nonstrangling foot snares. Cage and box traps, suitcase-type live beaver traps, and common rat and mouse traps are not considered body-gripping traps.

The phrase "not limited to" in the above basically takes in everything that would grip an animal except those traps that are exempted in the last sentence. This precludes making your own traps or something like you describe.

There is the exemption for " common rat and mouse traps ". We have asked WDFW for a definition of what constitutes  "common rat and mouse traps". They have refused and actually threatened us to define it very restrictively if we pushed it so we have let it slide.
We are still working on this in a different aspect that I can't go into but suffice to say WDFW could be a big help through definition and they have chosen to let the law remain vague.

[Shasta Pond]

Thanks fellas for the educational input, that is much needed info which helps take at least some of the sting out of it. I`ll just keep my comments quiet and just state that i understand now with clarification what happened. I was reading that they want to ban all Wolverine trapping down in Oregon (the Cascades?) so it sounds as if there is a inordinate agenda aimed at the Pacific Northwest Fur Trappers . Perhaps at some point , not all being lost, perhaps some rights will be recovered and we will at least be able to respectfully return to the small conibears for mink and muskrat etc.. i hope? Guess maybe i`m going to have to get interested in angry feisty cats in live cages for awhile and get into some deep woods trapping instead of the river, i see that they brought some pretty fair money the past couple years. Dang i love the river, it`s like panning for Gold . Cheers.

[Humptulips]

It's Montana where they are trying to ban wolverine trapping. They will succeed it looks like. MT was the only state in the lower 48 it was legal. Oregon is facing another Initiative to ban trapping. Signature gathering starts this year. The wording is a doosy too. It would totally ban fur trapping.
HSUS sees what we are doing with cage traps and they don't like it so every new Initiative they run they tweek it to try and stop fur trapping.
OR beat them twice now. We'll see if they can do it again.

I saw a poll taken on anti hunter sentiment. The worst states are CA, OR, WA and believe it or not AK. I think the data on AK may be a little off because of their method of polling. Be that as it may the west coast is the most vulnerable to anti hunting/trapping Initiatives. Any state that allows Intiatives and Referendums is in danger but especially the west coast.

[Special T]

If you need a little more power to the rat trap, you can wind the spring 1 or 2 revolutions. You may need to use a different staple to hold it on however because the small ones thye use may pull out.