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.