Time to get skinning

[Bullytrout]

Good checks yesterday and today.  Big thanks to my friend and trapping partner Tom for taking the other 5 beaver to skin.

[JakeLand]

Nice haul ! Any good pics of your marten?

[Bullytrout]

I can’t figure out how to post more than one photo per post.

[Bullytrout]

Here we go

[Bullytrout]

Another

[JakeLand]

That right there is why we marten trap !! Prettiest fur out there good job !

[Bullytrout]

I have a few more

[Bullytrout]

From early season. Color version of what was printed in the fur shed.

[Bullytrout]

Last marten pic unless you want to see tails sticking out of boxes. I should take more pictures but...it’s not really my thing.  In the moment taking pictures almost never occurs to me.

Jake,  their pelts are gorgeous and I really enjoy the variations in coat color but my favorite part of marten trapping is I don’t need waders 

[JakeLand]

Oh ya no chest waders are a plus ! I’m liking those boxes maybe some design pics ? I’m in the process of a making collapsible box so I can fit more on my pack frame

[Bullytrout]

The boxes are simple, fast and cheap to build. They are just a three sided box hinged off a wooden block attached to the bottom.  I used scraps of cedar fence board for the sides and 2” thick cedar blocks for the hinge.  The sides are screwed into the block and I used a washer on these screws to reduce wear and tear. The two parts pivot on the screws. I drove a staple in the to of the hinge block to wire bait off to.

The width of the boxes are good but the interior at 5 1/2” is too tall.  The back frame of these little rat traps is only 4”.  I think this gap encourages critters to come in head high trying to go over rather than through the trap.  This causes the strike bar to push the animal clear when the trap is fired.

You could rip down the sides to 4 1/2” to save weight and space but I will just use some filler under or above the trap.  My reason for this is that I like the volume of the box as I can fit a whole duck carcass behind the trap.

These won’t nest while assembled but it would be easy to take the bottoms off for transportation and then reassemble them in the field.  It would just take two screws or a single through bolt.

[Bullytrout]

Side view

[Bullytrout]

Marten seem to respond really well to prebaiting.  I hang beaver just like you would for cats and set traps on active baits.  From what I have seen they will stick around the bait even after it’s gone.  I haven’t been pulling down the baits when I set, I just screw a trap to a tree 30’+ away and call it good.

 I have game camera footage of a marten eating the entire front half of a 60# beaver in 4 days. They are voracious. I pinched one (plenty of fur in the trap)  and rather than being scared off he ripped the hardware cloth off the back of the trap and ate the bait from that end.  I replaced the trap and caught it on the next check.

. 

[JakeLand]

Simple effective boxes ! Ya every year I get thousands of pics and videos of marten on baits they literally a carcass cleaning machine

[wags]

If any of you guys who use the Koros would bring examples of your setups to the March get-together I think it would really be appreciated.

[Bullytrout]

Wags, I will not be heading to the rendezvous this year.  It’s too much windshield time through the beast (I-5 south of smoky point).

If anyone from Whatcom or Skagit county is heading down I would be happy to hand off a setup for display.

Jake,  I thought of a couple other reasons why I enjoy marten trapping so much.

1. No grinners
2. No coyotes
3. So far no cougars
You either catch marten or you don’t

[JakeLand]

Yes indeed!!! Did get a ermine that a marten ate but zero grinners and coyotes! Did get a grinner in one that was set for skunks but that was down in the valley

[UrbanTrapper]

Great job!  Thanks for posting this.  I'd like to see one of your boxes.  Can you send it down with Gary Dahl? I think he will be attending. 

  - Chip

[Josh_D.]

Novice question: is their head setting off the trap on the pad/platform? 

[Bullytrout]

The way I set them trap is fired by the marten’s front feet.

[greenhead_killer]

awesome run. thanks for sharing.

 quick question for you more seasoned guys, do you think that box style set up with the koro traps would work with mink as well? or have you tried that method and found it to not be worth the effort? thanks.

[JakeLand]

awesome run. thanks for sharing.

 quick question for you more seasoned guys, do you think that box style set up with the koro traps would work with mink as well? or have you tried that method and found it to not be worth the effort? thanks.

I think it would work just as good on mink as marten ! The key is bait ( personally I think muskrat is the best or duck ) if there’s a mink around it will go in a box no problem

[Humptulips]

awesome run. thanks for sharing.

 quick question for you more seasoned guys, do you think that box style set up with the koro traps would work with mink as well? or have you tried that method and found it to not be worth the effort? thanks.

The only way we will know is if someone experiments with it. I do think mink may be tougher to kill. Will the KORO be up to it? I might set them where they could drown if caught to start with.
I made a few sets along creeks here but very few mink around here. All I caught were civets.

[greenhead_killer]

Thanks for the input guys. I’ll get some gear together over the next months and give it a go next season. See how they work out. Sorry if I jacked the thread. Back on track

[Bullytrout]

I have caught a couple mink in koros but overall the results have not been as good as when used for marten.  I have had many issues with misfired traps that don’t appear to be pullouts. Some have been from coon but some are definitely caused by mink as was shown by tracks and other sign.  I have also had mink almost entirely eaten by raptors out of koro sets.

It will take some more experience but I think that this trap will prove to be adaptable to taking mink.  I just don’t know if it is the best tool for the job.

A couple of things I have learned:
Always tie them off, coon will find them and throw them around
Pay attention to overhead cover.  The environments that mink like to hunt are the same areas that hawks are hunting.
Duck carcasses seemed like the best bait since vermin will eat all of the bait when using muskrat or beaver meat. The feathers and bones with a little Lennon’s mink lure still bring the mink in.

[Bullytrout]

One more koro tip: dye and wax or otherwise dip them. When (not if) the strike bar pivot/sleeve rust the trap will slow or fail to close.  It will also keep the pelt from getting rust stains.

[greenhead_killer]

More good info. Thanks!

[Bullytrout]

I had pulled all my traps but for a couple of cat sets awhile ago but picked this guy today.  Was only at 300-400 feet above sea level.  In this location  I would have expected a coon or mink not a marten.  Pelt is a little springy but not as bad as it looks in the photo but it did have a at least a dozen tick on it.
Also had a game camera stolen from a bait.  With the nice weather and everyone on forced vacation there is as many people around the upper valley as a weekend in August, not a fan!

[JakeLand]

 :tup:what the hell was he doing at that elevation? Male ?

[Bullytrout]

Yes, it was a male. Other than plugging up a cat trap I have no idea what he was doing down that low. There had been a good size cat working the bait daily and no pictures of the marten.  I pulled the camera, set a trap and this is the result. the ticks make me think he must have been down low for a bit, even then it seems early for ticks.

Here’s another one that came out of a higher elevation cat set.  Really light/orange overall with a big chest patch.

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Nothing prettier than the Orange Fur of a Marten hanging against the Fresh Snow as you approach the Set.
Doug