Trapping. Or the silent methods for taking game and fish

[Kevin L]

Kevin I've been hunting, cleaning and cooking wild animals since the mid 60's. Deer, duck, dove, rabbit, squirrel, raccoon, possum, woodcock, quail, and yes, even a pig and armadillo or two. I never caught anything from them.

You worry too much.

Perhaps that's true.

I do--after all--work in the medical field.

My concern is that post SHTF there will be stress, poor diet, a lack of medical care, and people whom are elderly and/or with chronic medical conditions that will be trying to stay alive in adverse conditions . . . and these circumstances will lower the effectiveness of peoples' immune systems.

Another part of my concerns are that there will be no animal control and no public health department to track zoonotic diseases, so animals and wildlife will not be managed and/or tracked by biologists with their labs and computers.

Yet another valid concern is with things like waste and sewage disposal, and the disposal of dead bodies. Without the proper infrastructure to handle these issues, insects and scavengers will multiply, and disease will be even more of a problem with wild animals. I have seen situations where an elderly person--with a dog or cat--has died in their apartment, and their own dog or cat will chow on the dead body after a certain point (and I am an animal lover, and I don't hold this against their pets).

One last concern is that if our borders collapse, then an influx (or exchange) of refugees may bring rare tropical diseases and parasites that may become established in wild animals.

After SHTF, I believe in prevention and caution over cure . . . at least for the first several months to maybe two or three years until nature settles back into a stable, dynamic equilibrium.

 

[DrHenley]

Population health in wild animals is usually inversely proportional to the population density. When they are not crowded together and pampered like they are in some cities and parks, they are usually pretty healthy...because the ones that aren't don't live long or breed.

 

[bigpaul]

Population health in wild animals is usually inversely proportional to the population density. When they are not crowded together and pampered like they are in some cities and parks, they are usually pretty healthy...because the ones that aren't don't live long or breed.

yeah, thats happens a lot over here with Rabbits, too many and the population collapses with a disease called myxomatosis , then the population recovers for a few years then it collapses again.

 

[Kevin L]

Population health in wild animals is usually inversely proportional to the population density. When they are not crowded together and pampered like they are in some cities and parks, they are usually pretty healthy...because the ones that aren't don't live long or breed.

Thank you for clarifying.

Maybe you are correct about me worrying too much about things that are possible, but unlikely.

I grew up in a household where all hunting was considered sadistic, and people whom owned guns were--by definition--brutal.

I had to "deprogram" myself with a lot of education, and exposure to people whom hunt and trap to decide that such people weren't really all Satanic after all.

I considered my family to be a little hypocritical, as they weren't vegetarians . . . and I was brought up to consider activities like whaling, and the extiction of animals like the thylacine, the 9 different kinds of moa (in New Zealand), the passenger pigeon, the Carolina parakeet, and so forth whenever anyone talks about hunting.

My parents were well-intentioned, but misinformed. Intelligent hunting policies keep deer and rabbits from overpopulating and suffering from disease and starvation, and overpopulation of deer in the Northeast has been implicated with Lyme disease in people.

I understand all of these things intellectually, but it's rather difficult to avoid feeling guilty about hunting because of my childhood programming.

Perhaps my obsessive concerns about disease from wild animals has to do with my subconscious mind fearing God's wrath from "needlessly" hunting animals.

In any case, I'm working on it.

P.S. It's possible that part of this animosity from my parents toward hunting comes from my maternal grandfather, as he was actually needlessly sadistic toward animals in front of my mother when she was a little girl. He felt that being brutal toward animals toughens a person up and helps build character, as the world is not all "chocolates and roses."

P.P.S. My Jewish father often lit a candle of remembrance and recited Kaddish on Yom Kippur for the animals that humans have driven into extinction.

 

[Arcticdude]

Perhaps that's true.

I do--after all--work in the medical field.

My concern is that post SHTF there will be stress, poor diet, a lack of medical care, and people whom are elderly and/or with chronic medical conditions that will be trying to stay alive in adverse conditions . . . and these circumstances will lower the effectiveness of peoples' immune systems.

Another part of my concerns are that there will be no animal control and no public health department to track zoonotic diseases, so animals and wildlife will not be managed and/or tracked by biologists with their labs and computers.

Yet another valid concern is with things like waste and sewage disposal, and the disposal of dead bodies. Without the proper infrastructure to handle these issues, insects and scavengers will multiply, and disease will be even more of a problem with wild animals. I have seen situations where an elderly person--with a dog or cat--has died in their apartment, and their own dog or cat will chow on the dead body after a certain point (and I am an animal lover, and I don't hold this against their pets).

One last concern is that if our borders collapse, then an influx (or exchange) of refugees may bring rare tropical diseases and parasites that may become established in wild animals.

After SHTF, I believe in prevention and caution over cure . . . at least for the first several months to maybe two or three years until nature settles back into a stable, dynamic equilibrium.

I've skinned thousands of animals in my 50+ years of trapping without gloves. Back when I was about 16 I caught a disease from a coyote or fox, I'm guessing. I dont remember what the name of the disease was but I remember the doctor said it was very similar to the bubonic plague.
This past winter I decided to start wear gloves in the fur shed. Not so much for disease protection but more for keeping my hands clean when I have a pile of animals to skin.

 

[Kevin L]

I've skinned thousands of animals in my 50+ years of trapping without gloves. Back when I was about 16 I caught a disease from a coyote or fox, I'm guessing. I dont remember what the name of the disease was but I remember the doctor said it was very similar to the bubonic plague.
This past winter I decided to start wear gloves in the fur shed. Not so much for disease protection but more for keeping my hands clean when I have a pile of animals to skin.

Thank you.

 

[Arcticdude]

Got permission to trap beaver on a large ranch about 6 miles down the road from here. This will be very convenient for me as I won't have to trailer my jet boat 75 miles to the river over snow/ice covered roads.

 

[Arcticdude]

I just placed my trapping supply order a couple days ago. It'll be like Christmas when this stuff arrives next week.
On my next order I'm going to include a couple bear traps. Never know when one may come in handy......

 

[Dracos]

One way to kill silently, on game up to turkey size is a with a blowgun. And its fun. Its a well known fact that chickens cause mice. Some times I go out to the chicken house and dart mice. There are some nice broadheads made but the wire on a bead works fine. Chickens love to eat mice as much as mice love to steal chicken food. Most mice have tapeworms, but chickens rarely do.

 

[Dracos]

My air rifle doesn’t seem to bother rabbits or turkey too much. They stick around long enough to reload. Turkey are really stupid around here, but I could get a couple meals of of 1. Quail not so much

It is interesting to look through a "sportsman" magazine and see all the fancy and expensive gear necessary to hunt turkeys. The fact of the matter is that turkeys are not too bright.

 

[Arcticdude]

Got all my traps cleaned, dyed and ready to go. I'll start setting on Monday for beaver, muskrat, mink, otter and coon. It's not going to be the same without Gus, but at least the grandson will be here in a couple of weeks.

 

[Arcticdude]

Here's a picture of what I use for catching muskrats before the water freezes. There's a trap on each end, sometimes I catch 2 at a time.

 

[Arcticdude]

Here's a cubby for otter. Works good for bobcat and coon too.

 

[Kevin L]

Here's a cubby for otter. Works good for bobcat and coon too.View attachment 14074

What's it like to catch a bobcat?

I knew someone whom had a pet bobcat, and this animal weighed about 35 pounds . . . and was very, very powerful. I played with this animal (his name was Charlie), and I could tell that he was very intelligent.

How does an animal like that react to being trapped? How do you handle such an animal without being torn apart? Do you simply walk up to the trap and shoot it in the head with a .22?

 

[Arcticdude]

What's it like to catch a bobcat?

I knew someone whom had a pet bobcat, and this animal weighed about 35 pounds . . . and was very, very powerful. I played with this animal (his name was Charlie), and I could tell that he was very intelligent.

How does an animal like that react to being trapped? How do you handle such an animal without being torn apart? Do you simply walk up to the trap and shoot it in the head with a .22?

Bobcats have some of the best fur of all fur bearers in my opinion. And among the most valuable.
I use mostly body grip traps (AKA killer traps) for most of my trapping, so the animal is killed instantly. Sometimes I do use foot traps for bobcat, and only foot hold for coyotes and fox. Bobcats hunt mostly by sight so its important to hang an object from a nearby tree to get their attention, like an old DVD or a strip of aluminum foil ect, to get them to the set. Bobcats usually don't fight the trap much and its common to come up on one that is sleeping. I use a .22 cb cap short. One shot between the eyes does the trick, no exit hole and no damage to the pelt.
I know people who use cage traps for bobcat too.
I'd love to have pet bobcat too. We knew a couple once that had a pet lynx. They'd bring it to the bar and it would jump up on the pool table and play with the cue ball.

 

[DrHenley]

I shot a bobcat for its fur. But I made such a mess of it with the 30-06 it made me sick. I decided to enjoy bobcat fur on live bobcats from then on.
Speaking of bobcats...I was deer hunting with my daughter in a milo field. We were sitting on stools between the rows. A bobcat poked its head out from behind a row of milo just inches from my daughter. Its reaction when it saw us was hilarious. It froze, and then did its best to be very nonchalant about the situation and just kept looking straight ahead as if it was pretending it didn't see us and we didn't see it. And then it slowly walked backwards the way it came until its head disappeared into the row of milo.

 

[Arcticdude]

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[Arcticdude]

You should know better than that doc. Such a waste. But "hunters" do it all the time. I guess they get bored and just want to kill something. I've heard of people shooting coyotes, fox and bobcat from the road on to land that doesn't belong to them.

 

[DrHenley]

What can I say? It was a long long time ago when I was young and foolish.

 

[Arcticdude]

Another beaver to skin. About 60 pounds. I think i hurt myself carrying him out if the swamp.