Trapping Season Prep and Primer Discussion

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Dave Canterbury, David Canterbury, The Pathfinder School,Bush Craft ,Survival skills, Historical Lore, Primitive Skills, Archery, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Navigation, Knives, Axes, Fire, Water, Shelter, Search and Rescue

Tags: Bushcraft,Survival,David Canterbury,Dave Canterbury,Pathfinder,The Pathfinder School,Archery,Hunting,Fishing,Camping,Primitive Skills,Fire,Water,Shelter,Navigation,First Aid,Search and Rescue,Signaling,Prepper,Preparedness,Self Reliance,Survivability,The 10 C's,Knives,Axes,Saws,Bow Drill,Ferrocerium Rod,Ferro Rod,Tarp,Hammock,Canteen,Cooking,Longhunter,Trapping

Video Transcription

morning folks I'm Dave Canterbury with self-reliance outfitters in the pathfinder school what I thought we'd do today is talk a little bit about trapline prep I have a trapping class coming up here to Pathfinder school the 9th or 10th to the 14th or something of next month I think those are the dates I'm not sure and then I also have trapping season coming up and I've had a lot of requests for trapping type videos so I'm going to make a video today on prepping for trapping season and one of the things that we need to talk about real quick is you know I've been trapping for quite a while now and I've been to the firt acres of America College two times I'm a certified expert shopper with the fur takers of America and I've found over time that there are certain things that you really are gonna want on the trapline versus a lot of the fluff that people think you need on the trapline and a lot of that depends on what type of trapping you're doing and what type of traps are using and as you'll see later in this video I use a pretty good variety of traps because of the way I trap I trap for self-reliance I'm not trying to get that big fur check at the end of the month or the end of the trapping season excuse me by running a big long line of 200 traps I run about 24 traps

maximum at any given time and sometimes I'll switch them in and out depending on what I'm trying to trap but I try to trap a good variety of animals a for practice B so that I can fill my freezer with some meat that I can have during the winter time if I want it and also for just a few furs to have for trade and things like that or to give away to kids at classes when they want to mess with a piece of leather or fur so that's why I trap but in a Silverlight scenario which we'll talk about a little bit more there's certain ways to trap and if you're trying to get that big fur check at the end of season there's other ways to trap so those things are all really up to you but what I want to talk to you about today real quick other than prep trap prep for the season is or how I do it is I want to talk a little bit about the tools that you need versus the tools that many people might think you need so let's first talk about Conibear type traps which are your x closing suitcase type traps that are killing traps for blind sets and they come from 1:10 at 3:30 and everything in between 1:10 being for your smaller animals like mink 3 30s being for the big boys beaver you're going to want first of all a set of post pliers is indispensable in the trapline no matter what your trapping and some trapping wire is indispensable on the trapline no matter what your trapping those two things you're gonna want no matter what if you're using Conibear type traps you're definitely going to want a safety device that you can put over that trap before you release the Safety's off of it and things like that and you ready to walk away from the trap but while you're making your set you're gonna want this safety on there to make sure that you can't accidentally spring that trap on yourself whether it's a 110 or that's a 330 a set of trap setters or spring setters like these come in real handy for the larger stuff 223 30s things that have double springs on them that are a little bit more difficult or a lot more difficult that's set by hand but this tool makes it much easier especially in cold weather or in the winter or when the trap is frozen up with an animal in it or something like that this makes it very easy to get that taken care of and then you're going to want some type of a rope with you all the time especially if you're using larger khana bears in case you were to have an accident you can't get that trap opened up and off your arm or whatever it's trapped around so for khana bears a safety some types of rope it doesn't have to have necessarily a hook on it I use this one for also putting my game gambrel on as well when I'm skinning out on the line and then a heavy-duty set of trap size and that's gonna do you pretty well for Conibear trapping now you may also choose to use things like these h stands which are really really convenient for Connor bear trap him because you just drop the kana bear in the H and you shove it down in the ground at the height you wanted off the trail and you're set to go you know that's a cut a bunch of sticks or mess around the other advantage to these is you know Connor bear chops are made to kill the animal on the spot and I've never had a Conibear run away that's not to say that it couldn't happen but I've never had it happen

so if you're setting these traps you can also use this h stand to put the loop of that trap around and bury it in the ground and it becomes somewhat of a stake as well as becoming a trap Stan I like these h stands really well especially if I'm only using you know six Connor bears on my line or seven Connor bears on my line altogether carrying seven extra stands isn't that big a deal it makes it a lot easier than trying to fool with cutting sticks and carving and whittling leg around the line but I will show you how to do that this year as well now once you get beyond the Conner bears and there's are other types of little tricks that you can use to set these things on stands and brackets we'll talk more about that as season goes on when you start using foothold type traps you're going to for upland sets necessarily not necessarily for water sets for water sets trapping wire works really really well things like piece of cable with loops in both ends that you can just wrap around the tree clip it off too with a speed clip like these will work really really well for you and I like to speed clips on just about everything because once you put an earth anchor in the ground for a foothold type trap and you bury that thing in there with a setter like this and you pull it sideways in the ground you'd not have to have a special tool to get that thing out of the ground or you've got to pull it out with a four-wheeler or something that you can put a lot of pressure on this thing to get it out because they're not coming out of the ground really easy and animals definitely not going to pull now so what I choose to do is these are called disposable earth anchors for a reason I usually leave them in the ground season to season a lot of times and just put a piece of flagging tape on them after I take the speed clip off depending on the size of trap I'm using and I take the trap off I just put a piece of colored flagging tape on there so I know where it's at for the next season but I pretty much have my traps or my trap locations that I use from season to season plot it into a GPS and I remember where they're at anyway for the most part because I'm not setting that many sets although I've probably got 50 different set locations I'm only using about 24 to 25 traps at a time so a set of Earth anchors is something that you're going to want an earth anchored driver now you can use just regular stakes but again it's that much more weight to have to carry they're easy enough to make from rebar if you don't want to buy disposable earth anchors and things like that but I choose to use them because the simple once you start getting into upland type sets you're going to want and I've got two more types of Earth anchors here I've got larger ones of smaller ones and I've got an earth anchor set here that's homemade out of piece of rebar and I've got one machine made out of a piece of steel now you're going to also want I've got a smaller set of trap setters here as well you're gonna want something that you can dig up and for me this groundhog type tool you can see how old this thing is it's been beat on for about five years now I just wrapped the handle up with the friction tape it's got a shovel on one end it's got a digging tool on one side the hammer on the other this gives me a multifunctional tool that I can make a trap set with all in one without having to carry multiple tools to do it now if you want to carry something like this hole digger this thing works out really really well and I carry it for that reason because I like what it does you don't dig a good deep hole really fast it's almost I got a core sampler you pull a core sample out you've got you know a 12-inch deep hole at an angle below your set if you're trapping for canines things like that you can really shove that bait in there make them work the set and it can work for it's just more likely for them to get in the trap but if I'm doing cubbies and pocket sets and things like that this tool right here will do it all around the water no problem I carry this extra piece when I'm trapping on land and then you're gonna want a couple of sifters of different sizes I use this heavy duty steel one right here that's made out of reinforced steel reinforcement mesh here and solid steel sides because I can use this for digging and I can use it for sifting if I really want to get some fine sifting done I carry a smaller sifter inside that if it's convenient to do so and that's just for sifting dirt and roughage over your trap set to make it look more natural so those things are the things that you're really going to want depending on what you're trapping like I said you can get away with really really simple if you're just trapping with Connor Bears doing pocket sets and things like that trapping wire a single digging tool and a couple Connor bear tools really you need once you start getting into more complicated upland trap sets for things like fox kiya cats and things like that then you're going to want to add a few more more complicated or more refined tools to your kit but I would definitely recommend one of these heavy-duty sifters when the time comes that you buy a sifter because this one's about four years old now and other than the rust and the patina it's good as it was the day it was bought and you could just about drive over that thing with your truck and never destroy it whereas most of these newer ones are made from like an aluminum pie pan with the bottom of a cutout and a piece of mesh tack welded in it those you can tear those up fairly easy although this one's about three years old so they last a long time as you don't abuse them but that's a pretty thin mesh if you drop the heavy tool on or something like that while you're packing up your trapping stuff you could punch the either a break down screen this thing you're never going to tear this thing up I'm just not guarantee you that okay so you got all your tracking stuff and you're ready to do your sets and you're you you're ready to go what are you gonna carry this stuff well I generally use a sled to be honest with you I'll either pull up behind a four-wheeler a Rokon or I will just pull it behind me if there's a good amount of snow on the ground this year I actually bought one of these heavy-duty reinforced trapping baskets it's made out of the heavy plastic with a drain hole in the bottom of it I thought I would give that a try this year just to see how it works out so that I can drag that sled to an area and then walk away from it especially in a water setting area where I can check you know four or five one tens or one 60s or whatever I've got going on pocket sets carry this around with just a few tools in and out of the sled a few extra traps in case I got to do a reset and take a trap with me something gets fouled up or I lose a trap by chance then I've got that stuff with me in this basket I'm gonna try that out this year I've used trap baskets I've used about every trap basket there is including a trashcan strapped to an ALICE pack frame and the trash can works pretty good especially if you don't have a lot of money but it's just not really big enough for what I want this thing is a lot bigger than the garbage can it's got a contoured back on it it's got straps that are built into it bolted on to I don't think you can ever destroy this thing no matter what you do and if you put a cork in the bottom that thing made out rubber from a scientific supply place or a lap supply place it would hold water as well and turned upside down it would make a great seat around camp so I don't think that's a bad investment no matter what if you're doing a lot of heavy-duty traffic ok guys so I'm out you're getting ready for trapping season and we're gonna talk a little bit about trapping both suffer lifestyle trapping and fur trapping but today what we're doing is we're kind of getting ready for a season then I've got some new traps here and I'm making sure that each one of these traps is tagged that's Ohio State law and most states have the same law that you have to have a tag on the trap that has at least your name and phone number on so I'm going through and I'm putting these tags on it's really simple you just buy the tags and are usually made out of copper you can make up your own tags out of soda pop cans and things like that as well but these tags pretty much are gonna last forever you put them on there and it's a one and done and I just put a mid chain somewhere and a regular old pair of fence pliers is used to squeeze that d-ring together real simple just like this fold it over what you got to get it straight in the pliers first fold that dude over and it's good forever so I take all my traps and make sure each one of them has that copper tag on it I've got a few tags in here that are older this is kind of still got a copper tag on it you can see so it's still in good shape but I've got some in here that have makeshift type tags on them or a thinner metal tags that you write on with something hard and I'm gonna replace those this year with true copper tags so that's what I'm doing now and then I'm going to clean traps up we'll talk about that in a minute and we're gonna speed dip the traps to get them ready for the season we'll talk about that as well stay with us okay so I've got six of these Coon cuffs I think brand really is insignificant it depends on what you want to do and what brand you prefer again sometimes it traps you get what you pay for and now I'm going to use speed dip which is just a quart jar that you mix with a gallon of gasoline and it evaporates very shortly and it will die your traps block for you and if you fill this thing up the gas you're gonna go with doing a little bit quicker what they look like coming out of there with that speed bit bonds and you want that stuff to kind of run and drip off so what I do is I set up a line to hang my traps on after our speed dip so I just hang those traps enough on the line got fresh speed diplom doesn't take any time you don't have to let them soak in there very long a couple minutes is good enough and then just let them hang until they're dry and the smell like I said will dissipate you want to do this stuff a couple of weeks before trapping season ok let's talk for a minute about a trap that's you down to three or four years old like this for 50 Minnesota bring again the brand new your traps really is up to you it depends on what you want to spend what you want to do you can just take a wire bristle brush and knock any heavy rust off of this there is any these traps will work I can tell you even if they're rusted people get a little bit over complicated with this whole trap prepping thing you know Pete askance told me one time at the firt acres of America college that he had taken traps that were prototype designed traps and things like that straight out of the boxes with the factory oil on put them in the ground and caught animals with them so I think some of that's a little overrated I mean in this day and age when the coyote and the Fox and things like that are in pretty much open areas anyway they smell things like oil and gas and human scent all the time and I don't think there's a whole lot to the fact that's gonna drive them off the trap especially if you're trapping like I said in a rural area around roadways and things like that now if you're trapping out in the middle of nowhere it might have some effect most of us aren't doing that so I just get rid of most of the heavy rough and then I'll put that on the string and I'll speed dip that I've gotten an old tag on this

you can see it's kind of clumped up here it's kind of a mess so I want a good tag on that thing that's nice and legible so I'm going to put a new tag on that for this year and cut the old one off and I'll do that with the rest of these 450s and I've got half a dozen these four fifties as well speed dip them and hang them for the season and they'll be ready to go okay so the next traps that I'm working on here are Conibear traps and these are your suitcase style killing traps that close in X fashion on the animal when the trap is fired and we'll talk more about this stuff out the trapping series goes along but for Suffern long its purposes and again there's different types of trapping in my opinion from self reliance to fur trapping to emergency traffic but for self-reliance purposes I would have to say that these Conibear type traps especially to-220 it's probably the most significant trap that you can have in your arsenal because it will probably bring you more food than any other trap you've got and it does not have to be baited it's a blind set or trail set type trap although it can be baited and these type traps will work for mammals as well as fish and emergencies but a 220 Conibear like this in the state of ohio this has almost a 7-inch jaw spread has to be set in water in the state of Ohio this thing will kill Coons on land it will kill possums on land like there ain't no tomorrow and it's probably the best all-around trap for putting meat on the table in my opinion bar none but again check your state game regulations before you go out and set these traps because in Ohio this trap has to be set on water because the jaw inside diameter is larger than five inches okay so depending on what type of trapping you're doing obviously is going to dictate the size of your line as well as whatever conveyance you have to travel and whether you're walking your line or whether you have a snowmobile a sled a rock on a truck you're riding the roads doing Road trapping things like that all of those things dictate but for me I try to keep my pipeline down to 25 traps or less and it's because I'm really not trying to be a fur trapper I'm not trying to make that huge fur check at the end of the year that's not my idea behind chopping my Nippon trapping is to have a few first to trade here and there and have meat that I can feed on during the winter months it's a hunter gatherer mentality trapping is always going to provide more food for you than hunting as a general rule because it's passive 25 traps is quite a bit of weight to have to carry you're gonna need some kind of a conveyance and a sled of some kind to carry that many traps but that many traps affords you lots and lots of opportunities to catch game now let's talk about why the selection of traps that I have real quick because truly speaking in all transparencies for a self-reliant emergency-type scenario all bets are off give me a dozen kitten cuffs in a dozen to 20 counter bears and I will not go hungry guaranteed I'll not go hungry from a seasonal trapping standpoint here in the state of Ohio and doing things legally because it's not an emergency it's not a true self-reliance scenario I can't go to the grocery store we're not in a depression I've got money I've got six tuned cuffs or dog proof raccoon traps they call them I've got three 155 Magnum Conner bears I'm not really after mink I'm after food so the muskrat is really the smallest thing I'm trying to trap around water I've got the 155 for that four blind sets under banks undercut banks things like that we'll talk about that later on the series I've got a half a dozen 450 Minnesota brand traps here double coil springs and these are mainly for coyote

although 550 s are a better coyote trap a 450 will catch a coyote a bobcat or a large raccoon or a fox and being that's a little bit smaller it's easier to use it multifunctional

and Coon as well and bait it says I have six number one send along Springs those are for water trapping mainly Coon opossum muskrat things like that you know they have four to 20 Conor Barry again those are your meat providers right there for sure if you can set them on land you'd be guaranteed food but because you have to use them in the water

they still make great sets for certain animals around water areas I don't have any traps large enough for chopping beaver because in Ohio unless you're trapping private land if you're trapping a wildlife area it's a draw to try beaver and Beaver come in very late in the season like the end of December for trapping through January latter Park January something like that so I'm not really interested in trapping beaver although I do understand how to trap beaver this 25 traps right here gives me everything I need to produce plenty of fur fur trade and plenty of meat for me to eat all winter long and we're going to talk about these traps and this trapline this winter as we go through this series all right folks one Dave Canterbury with self-reliance Outfitters in the Pathfinder school one this has just been a little primer video that we will begin with in our trapping series this year I wanted to show you a few of the traps and I plan to use on the line some of my rationale behind the traps that I'm using and then talk a little bit about getting some of those traps ready whether they're brand new traps or whether they're traps used last year for the last five years and then also a little bit about tools of the trade that I find are the most important to have in case you're just getting into trapping and you wouldn't understand what you really should go out and spend your money on because trapping is one of those hobbies just like many others that you can spend a lot of money you really don't need to spend very very quickly buying this that and the other thing and every latest gadget on the planet and you really don't need it trapping is not that difficult it's a matter of understanding the animal setting on sign and understanding what's gonna bring that animal to your trap and then the proper trap to catch that animal that's really as simple as it gets and I would recommend that you start off

give yourself a budget get yourself 20 to 25 traps the gear you need to set those traps and get out and practice them pay attention to your game laws in your state of your local area before you set the first trap whether it's on your land or on public land I'm Dave Canterbury / self-reliance Outfitters I thank you for letting me take this video I thank you very thing you do for our school for a family of four business all of our sponsors instructors affiliates and Friends and I'll be back with another video as soon as I can thanks guys