How to set the trap--I use rubber boots and set in the morning when the dew is on the grass or on a wet day. The set should be made near the foxes' runways or on high ground; dig out a place the size of your trap, take something with you to put the trap and dirt on--for this purpose I use a piece of oil cloth, two feet square--fill all around outside of your trap with fine dirt, and put a large leaf over your trap. I use a large leaf from a first growth basswood. As soon as they fall from the tree I gather them and lay them flat together in the mud until I want them to use. Why I prefer this particular kind of leaf is, they grow so large that one leaf covers the trap. After the leaf is over your trap cover with fine dirt or something that must be in keeping with the surroundings. Now stand in one place and take your brush from the jar and paint a circle about two feet in diameter, the width of your brush on the grass all around your trap. This should be repeated once or twice a week, especially after a heavy rain storm. Nothing can steal your bait, John Sneak'um cannot locate your trap.
When visiting your traps carry an extra trap along, and when you make a catch set a clean trap by exchanging traps; always clean your trap after making a catch before setting again. Now boys, start in right, by using a good trap with a large pan, one that can be easily concealed. Don't try to catch a fox with a weak trap, for you will only be disappointed and at the same time be educating another fox, and he will make the rest shy, for they often travel in pairs. When making your sets, don't disturb anything around the place nor use a bush drag where there hasn't been one, for the fox is quick to notice. Use a grapple that can be concealed under your trap. Just try and see how slick a set you can make and try and learn the habits of the animal you are trying to catch, for that is the key to success.
Much has been said pro and con relative to trapping that most wary of our wild animals, the red fox. A few incidents pertaining thereto that have come under my observation may be worthy of mention, says J. A. Newton, of Michigan.
There are practically three conditions under which trapping the fox may be done. First, by setting in beds, so called, of dry chaff or ashes before snow falls; secondly, in snow during the coldest weather, and lastly spring water setting as some writers have described.
I shall confine myself to the two first mentioned conditions. In the first instance a spread of chaff or ashes covering three or four feet of space is made where foxes are known to travel. As a rule the most acceptable bait is lard scraps, suet, smoked meat rinds, etc. These are scattered in small bits in the bed, and as a lure nothing can be more efficacious than a few drops sprinkled in the bed composed of the female fox gland taken in the rutting season that has been dissolved in alcohol. It must be kept tightly corked. The same taken from the female dog at this period is about as potent.
The traps must first be thoroughly smoked with some resinous twigs or corn cob, or be boiled in ashes to eradicate the scent of iron, rust, and of other game that has been caught. After this do not handle traps or bait except with gloves.
All old trappers in my section bait a fox a few nights before placing the trap, as the more visits Reynard makes to the bed, and devouring bait without having his suspicions aroused, the more reckless does he become and the easier is he taken when at last the trap is placed.
One old trapper, who is very successful, does not set his traps until some night when the first snowfall is at hand. The new white mantle covers the bed and all human sign made in setting the trap. The clog should have been previously placed some days before so that the fox will become accustomed to the sight of it. The fox has not forgotten the exact location of the bed with its tidbits and comes to it with unerring precision even when covered by snow, and unless he by good luck kicks the trap over and springs it he now comes to grief.
Old man Titus says: "Having nailed the game don't kill on the spot but drag him off a ways. Then don't leave the carcass lying round conspicuous or it will scare the rest out of the neighborhood."
My first insight into the manner of snow trapping I gained from a man named Williams. Several of his sheep concluded to part company with this cold unappreciative world, and their owner determined to make them still serve a purpose. Hauling them off in as many directions as there were of the dead, he left them until deep snow and severe weather came, cutting off much of the natural prey of the fox which reduced him to seeking carrion. After their inroads on the bait had become well established, Williams placed a trap at each of the remains, covering a little snow over them and stapling to pieces of fence rails previously placed.
"Now," said Williams, "the only thing to do is to keep away from here two or three days until a little more snow falls to cover our sign, or is drifted a little by the wind." He used no scent of any kind, saying that "starvation is the best lure in the world." "All I do is to smoke the traps and not handle barehanded," he added.
After two or three days of snow flurrying weather we visited the traps and noted that one was missing. We could see a dim trail where it had been dragged away. We followed and found the fox in a drift. He was poor and had frozen hard. Five were taken at the sheep bait inside of two weeks, after which there came a thaw stopping further snow trapping.
One old trapper tells of a fox that came near outwitting him, being not only the most cunning but also possessing a degree of meanness almost satanic. "I baited him in a bed of chaff several nights," said he, "and then set my trap. The trap could not have contained scent, but the old chap appeared to know it was there; he carefully nosed out and devoured every scrap of bait, and then as deftly dug the trap out, turned it over and sprung it and left a soiling evidence of his scorn and contempt for me upon it. That I was mad you needn't doubt for a minute. I tried setting three and four traps, hoping he'd make a miscue and get into some one of them, but no, he was too smart, he sprung them all each night and insulted me besides. All at once the thought struck me like a brick, I'll set the trap bottom side up. This I did, removing all the traps but one. "The cat came back" and as before turned the trap, bringing it right side up. I had set it full catch so that it would spring rather hard. He slipped a cog in not taking into account that the trap didn't spring when he turned it; when bestowing his disdain a too close contact brought a sharp click and he was fast. I never saw so sneaking and beat out an animal in my life. He would like to have had the ground open up and swallow him if it could."
An acquaintance of mine who is a settler in Northern Michigan heard a great squealing and commotion among his hogs one night late in November, and bounced out just in time to see a large bear drop one of his shoats as it passed through the bars. The porker was stone dead, being bitten through the nape of the neck. The settler, whose name is Clark, drew the pig into the woods and left it between two fallen trees. With his axe he chopped a niche large enough to contain a trap, when set, from each of the logs; a piece of moss was carefully fitted over each cavity and all of the chips were removed.
Foxes there are very numerous, and Clark soon noticed that the bait was being sampled; he knew the fox nature in that they have a habit of walking logs or on the highest points when investigating an attraction. When the tracks to and from and circling the bait became frequent Clark placed a trap on each log, covering them neatly with patches of moss; the chain was fastened to clogs concealed under the logs, and the chains were hidden with strips of moss. Upon his first visit to the traps, two days later, the trapper found a fox in each trap, and several more were taken before crows and other scavengers had polished the bones of the bait.
On the quiet, boys, I will say that it requires so much preparation, caution and patience to successfully trap the red fox that I have more frequently resorted to the hound and shotgun; by this means I have often taken the jacket of a cunning old dog fox, after running him over the hills an hour or two, that it would have taken much time and patience to trap. After one gets the runways learned, and if he possesses a good gun that loads properly, and is a tolerably fair shot at running game, the means is much quicker. It is like digging out a nest of skunks as against the slow process of trapping one at a time.
I had a little experience with a sly old female fox last winter, says Claude Roora, of Ohio. I had noticed on early snows where this old fox had two holes under an old rail fence where she would pass through every night, and also a stone beside a sheep path where she would stop. I picked out those three places to set traps for her under the next snow.
One morning I thought it looked as though it was fixing for a snow. I got three No. 2 Victor traps and told my wife I was going to catch that old fox that night if it snowed. I went to the three places and was very careful not to tear things up any more than just to dig places the size of the traps. I had grapnels fastened to chains and dug holes deep enough to bury them, so that when the traps were set on top of them it would be just a little below level of the surface of the ground, and covered all up with dead grapevine leaves. About the time I got the last trap set it commenced snowing and quit snowing before dark.
Next morning I went early to get my fox before the hound men got out, thinking sure I would have her. When I got within one hundred yards of set No. 1 I saw her tracks leading straight to it. She went up within five or six feet of the trap, turned short off to the right and went down to set No. 2, went up within five or six inches of trap where she turned short off to the right again, made a few jumps down the hill, jumped over top of fence, circle back up the hill to sheep path, followed it out to set No. 3. She went up to this trap, raked every bit of snow and leaves off of trap and left trap bare and in plain sight, not even springing trap. I covered trap up again thinking I might fool some other fox, but in about half an hour the hounds came along on her track and one of them set his foot in the trap and his owner let him loose and threw the trap away.
The hounds followed the fox up over the hill, routed it and ran it about an hour and holed it under a big rock, and the men went off and left it. Now the hounds had been in the habit of holing this fox under the same rock, and the most of us know that when a pack of hounds hole a fox they generally tear things up some. In other words, they leave some signs. I set the traps as nice as I knew how, and when I went back the next morning traps were turned upside-down and fox gone.
So I concluded I would follow the track and see if I couldn't find her asleep and shoot her, but had not gone far when I found the snow had drifted so I could not follow her. I came back home discouraged. Next morning I thought I would go and see if she had been back on the hill. When I got to set No. 2 I saw where she had come up from the opposite side from what she had been in the habit of doing and stuck her right foot square in the trap. She went about one hundred yards where she got tangled in some grapevines and was waiting for me.
Now I think there are instances where the scent of steel or human scent will scare animals away from your sets, and when you mix them both together they are a sure warning of danger with all shy animals. Now if this fox did not locate that trap at set No. 3 with her nose I would like to know how she did it, for I removed every bit of dirt I took out to make set and left all level and two and a half inches of snow ought to make things look as natural as any fox could expect to find a set, and at a rock where she had been in the habit of seeing things torn up by the dogs when she came out on previous occasions, and traps hidden out of sight, her nose surely told her where they were set.
In the many years that he has been striving for his glossy pelt, man has evolved numerous clever schemes for outwitting the fox, but in the meantime Reynard has not been an idle observer regarding the ways of the human enemy, says J. L. Woodbury, of Maine. He lacks the advantage of books or tradition for handing down his store of accumulated knowledge, but in some mysterious way it is transmitted from generation to generation, nevertheless. So it is that the fox of the older and more thickly settled sections is a very different animal from the fox--even though it be of the same variety or species--inhabiting a part of the country where its kind has not been so persistently hunted. Tricks that prove effective with the latter are utterly lost on his better-schooled brother. Hence the simple methods advanced by some trappers are a bit amusing to the trappers here in the East, where the subject of this sketch reaches the acme of wisdom, and is, we believe, the peer in shrewdness and cunning of any animal in the world. However, we do not wish to be understood as ridiculing anybody's methods. We read the crudest of them with interest, realizing that they are all right in the region whence they came.
I would advise the amateur fox trapper to begin with the water set if practicable. Nearly any one of the many different forms are good enough, with such modifications as will be found necessary to adapt it to varying conditions of different sets. As one should not begin operations until freezing weather, spring water should be selected for the trap. A good-sized spring works best, but if this is not to be had, utilize some of the little springs to be found in plenty near the sources of brooks. One with a dark bottom is to be preferred, as then there will be no sand to clog the trap, which may be pressed down into the mud until it is all hidden but the pan. This should be about an inch under the water, and covered with a lump of moss.
The position of trap with relation to bait has so often been explained I need not dwell upon it here. If the spring be a large one it is easy to place the bait so that it will be protected by water on all sides save the one desired, but if a smaller pool be employed the side opposite the trap should be barricaded with stumps or brush; which work, by the way, had better be done some time during the previous summer. And rather than leave too narrow an approach to the bait if is better to set two or even more traps, for reynard's suspicions are quickly aroused by anything resembling an inclosure.
As to the matter of bait, it may be said in general that foxes like about all kinds of meat. Yet the task of selecting a killing bait is not always as easy as might be expected from this, as individuals seem to have their particular preferences, while the morsel that would be eagerly sought by the same fox at one season will have no attraction for him at another. If you find "signs" in the vicinity of your sets, yet they remain unmolested, experiment with different kinds of baits, as the angler tries a variety of flies at every likely-looking pool. It is certain that mice, rabbits and grouse are among the best baits.
For the "scent" part, some trappers claim to do well without them, but a good scent is unquestionably a great help. Many of those for which receipts are given I know to be effective. But the most tempting bait and the strongest lure will jointly prove unavailing if one's set be unskillfully made, and carelessness be practiced in going to and from trap.
Water, of course, leaves no scent where it is possible to reach the set by boat or wading, but where this is impracticable arrange to go to trap but rarely, if it remain undisturbed. The height of springs vary but little with wet or dry weather, and this fact should be taken full advantage of by the fox-trapper. Carefully select a trap that will not spring of itself. See that the trigger is pushed well into the notch, pick out a good, close-fibred piece of moss for pan, not large enough to clog the jaws, and stick a few small twigs around it to hold it in place. Push the chain well down into the mud, have the bait exactly in the right place, and in fact use every care to have things fixed so that they will not be disarranged by trivial causes. Then in visiting, go no nearer than is necessary to see that bait or trap have not been disturbed.
Skunks will often prove a great bother, as they take all kinds of bait and kick up no end of a "bobbery" when caught. The fact that their pelts pay the bill in part is but poor consolation, when one has just got a particularly shy old red coat about worked up to the "biting" point.
Sometimes one will run upon natural conditions particularly favorable for a set--a rock, islet or piece of drift in mid-channel, or an old log spanning the stream. Experienced trappers are quick to note all such places as these, as well as points where, with a very little human handiwork, traps may be placed to advantage.
It is best to make all essential preparations as long before setting as possible, though bearing in mind that the streams are usually much higher in the trapping season than during the summer. Also begin putting out baits some time before setting traps. No animal exercises afterward the same degree of caution as on the first two or three visits to a spot, and even so shy a creature as the fox, if he become accustomed to picking up a few choice bits at a place, will soon neglect much of his usual precaution in approaching it, and though he take alarm and shun it for a time will ere long get up sufficient confidence to renew his visits.
If you find where there is a burrow with a family of young foxes, watch them all you can during your leisure moments. Learn where they get their food, where they cross the streams, and their general lines of travel. True, the family may be broken up and driven to sections miles away before time for trapping, but nevertheless a few traps should be placed in the old beats, as if one of this family should ever return to the vicinity he will be certain to revisit his former haunts.
Many trappers, and especially young trappers, expect to get a fox the first night, and, as it would seem, think to make their set so that not the slightest taint of man or iron lingers about the spot after they leave it. They boil their traps in this or that, or smear them with some odorous substance (the very thing perhaps to draw the game's attention to them); they handle them gingerly with gloves (which are often as strongly imbued with man smell as their naked hands); strap hides, pieces of board or snow shoes to their feet when setting or visiting, and in fact go through a rigmarole that would require about half a day to set a single trap. Then they think that if the shyest old fox imaginable should come along that night he would walk into their snare as confidently as a cow into a stall, or a man into his own house. Without reflecting upon the methods of any one, we must say that we consider many of these expedients unnecessary, unless when dealing with an unusually shrewd customer.
For my own part we make but little reckoning on a trap for the first two or three days, especially one with bait. Sometimes, of course, a storm helps us out, or we may nab a youngster who is green at the game; but this is an exception, not the rule. We take all needful precautions in respect to disturbance and scent, but our chief aim is to secrete and cover our trap well; to cover it so that no smell or iron can possibly reach the surface, and so that it will remain covered for weeks if necessary, and yet be ready for business, let the weather be what it will--snow or rain, heat or cold. Herein lies the essence of the art; to fix your trap so that it will not soon require your attention, then nature will speedily dispose of whatever scent you may have left about it. We are speaking now chiefly of land sets.
In looking up a place for a set, select one if possible where some natural or artificial provision will admit of approach without leaving much scent--a hard-beaten path, a double stone wall, a line of ledges, or a combination of some such conditions, which should be invariably followed in going to and from trap.
When you have decided upon the place for a trap, make all possible preparations at a distance; then go to the spot and do your work as quickly and cleanly as you can. If the ground is soft, use a strip of board to stand on. If you use gloves, have some especially for the purpose, and never leave them lying about your dog's quarters or the house. It will do no hurt to smear them lightly with whatever you are using for scent.
See that the trap rests evenly and firmly, so that if any part of it be stepped on it will not tip and pull apart the covering, or grate upon rocks or the chain. Make your excavation quite deep, filling in the bottom with some two inches of hemlock twigs or something of like nature, so as to prevent the gathering of moisture and a consequent freeze. Secure to a clog, or use a grapnel. The latter is in most cases preferable, as it may be buried from sight, while the former adds one more to the objects likely to arouse suspicion.
The covering is something that you will pretty much have to learn for yourself. Like swimming, no one can teach it by any amount of talking; practice is necessary to acquire the trick. Moss, leaves and rotten wood are the principal materials used, though pinches of herbage and dirt may be added to harmonize with set and surroundings. Leaves, however, should be used sparingly, as they change shape with every phase of weather, and thus frequently spoil what would otherwise have remained a good covering. If well rotted they give less trouble in this respect, and offer less resistance to the jaws in closing.
When using bait, if not setting in a bed, find a spot where little building is required to protect it--a hollow log or stump, the entrance to an old burrow, a niche in a ledge or hole under a rock. Sometimes, where a trout-stream flows under a step bluff, a little shelf is found in the face of the bluff (and one can usually be made if it is not already there); and by placing a trap on the shelf and the bait just above it, you have sly Mr. Fox at great disadvantage, as he must leap from the opposite side of the brook to the embankment to reach the bait. A projection in the face of a cliff, several feet from the ground, if it is inaccessible from overhead or either side may be similarly improved.
Always be on the lookout for such places as these, where those sharp eyes and that keen, pointed nose will be kept at a distance from your set until it is too late for them to detect signs of danger.
Old roads offer good possibilities for traps without bait. Unused plain roads, where the grass has sprung up may be practically covered by placing a trap in each wheel-rut and the central path. The space under a set of bars may be partly filled with brush and two or three traps placed side by side in the opening with good chances of success. We say two or three traps, as by so doing a larger opening may be left, which adds greatly to your chances. An attempt to coax this slippery fellow into narrow quarters quickly excites his suspicions.
Cow and sheep paths are much traveled by reynard, especially those leading around and through swamps. These are more easily trapped than roads, a good method being to first go along the path with your decoy scent, applying at intervals to objects close beside the path, and then setting traps, without bait, between the "doctored" points. An old pelt of some sort dragged behind you will serve to kill your own scent, and to keep the intended victim to the path.
As stated, an important element of successful fox trapping is to make as little disturbance, and to leave us little scent us possible, in working around, and going to and from trap. It follows then that one should not only aim so to fix his traps that they will require no actual attention under ordinary conditions of weather, except at considerable intervals, but should invariably locate them with a view to being able to look after them in a way not to arouse wily reynard's suspicions.
Sometimes, when trapping along a creek or other waters where it is not convenient to keep a boat, a rude raft may be constructed from which to make sets, and to be employed in visiting same. It simplifies the work one half to be able to do the whole thing by water, as water leaves neither scent nor trail. But where it is not possible to make use of this helpful agent, care should be taken to select a spot that can be approached over ledgy ground, or by jumping from rock to rock, two short strips of board to be stepped upon alternately, being often useful in bridging over any breaks that may occur in such line of approach.
Where this method cannot be employed, owing to the nature of the ground, it is advisable to vary the route in visiting, as by always following the same line a well defined trail will soon be made, which is certain to excite suspicion in an animal as shy as the fox. When dealing with an unusually shrewd customer, some wear snowshoes or strap hide of some sort on the feet, either of which is not a bad plan, as well as that of dragging a fresh pelt behind one to obliterate one's trail.
As to making beds of chaff, while I have no personal experience with this material, it never impressed me as being the proper thing for the purpose, as it is out of place in the woods or fields. If a man comes upon a pile of chaff any where away from buildings, it instantly occurs to him as being queer that it should be in such a place. Do you not suppose that the wild creatures, whose very existence depends upon their sharpness of observation, are likely to note the unfitness of the thing quicker than we? Of course, if the chaff be deposited in place early in the season, allowing time to discolor and decay, it may help the case, or feathers may be thrown over the bed. But in the latter event wind may at any time remove the covering. For myself, I have always had better luck in making sets for any animal with materials obtained from the immediate surroundings, and having therefore nothing foreign in smell or appearance to offend the creature's nose or eye.
Now a few words as to the fox's regard for iron. Does he feel that it is a thing to be avoided or not? It is my belief, brother trappers, that he does, under certain circumstances, have a strong instinctive fear of metal of any kind. That is to say, when he finds it in places where as a rule it is not to be found. The fact that he will walk for miles on the railroad track, and even upon the rails, is no argument to the contrary, for the reason that he has become accustomed to the iron in such places. A large quantity does not alarm him, but a small piece, half hidden in the dirt, in field or wood where he is not accustomed to see it, awakes his distrust. For the same reason, he will trot deliberately out in the road in front of a passing team, when the mere snapping of a twig beneath the hunter's feet would send him off flying. He has learned that danger rarely comes to him from persons traveling by team; it is of the stealthy step and the swift act of raising a gun that instinct has taught him to stand in fear. And so it is with respect to iron. It is all right in its place, he knows, but he also knows that it is quite out of place--from his standpoint, at least--in proximity to his favorite articles of diet. Why even the stupid muskrat, who will go into people's cellars, and in fact most everywhere else he wants to, and who will walk into any sort of set so long as the trap be covered, will not step into a bare trap. Dozens of times have I had my dog follow the tracks one has made around my trap when it was left bare by falling water, but invariably the rat has left the bait rather than put his foot on the uncovered trap. It is absurd to think the thick-headed muskrat is sharper in any respect than wise Mr. Fox.
I will give a method for trapping the grey fox, and have to say trap him the same as the red fox, as any method that will take one will do for the other, says L. M. Pickens, of Tennessee. The trapper can easily tell which of these species he is setting for, as the grey fox has more of a round track, while his red brother leaves a much larger and longer imprint.
Each of these animals are great rovers, starting on a forage by sunset, traveling many miles in a night; never holing up for the bitterest freeze that comes.
Look for fox tracks in stock paths, old roads not much used, places under fences, washouts, and in large gullies, as such places are their travels, yet many other unnamed places suited risks for your traps may be found if one is closely looking around.
Carry with you a hardwood stick, ready sharpened, with which to dig the pit for your traps, and dig this lengthwise with the path, (not across it), and deep enough so the trap will be just a little below level of surface; now place the trap in, cover over springs and around outside of jaws with dirt, and lay a piece of paper, flat leaves or a piece of cloth over jaws and pan, then pulverize some of the dirt you dug up, sprinkle over the trap 'till all is covered over good, then lay a dead weed or stick on each side of trap two or three inches away, which completes the set.
When you fasten the trap, do not staple it, but wire the ring or end of chain to a bush you cut, one that the fox can drag a distance, which always leaves the same trap pit or hole in readiness for your trap, which should immediately be smoked, set right back for another fox which is sure to come along, and if you are careful he will he yours, as it all depends upon skillful setting and covering the trap chain.
Have everything look as natural when you make the set as before, and I will guarantee the catch of every fox that comes along.
Use none but the best trap, and a Newhouse No. 2 is recommended, handle it and everything about the set with gloves, learn to respect the cunning of a fox by cultivating a habit of standing in one place, always be careful not to spit, whittle or leave any paper about a trap.
Don't use rusty traps, scour off the rust, and boil for thirty minutes in any green bark that will coat them; willow, walnut, or chestnut are good.
Don't lay your traps around on the ground at your sets; better carry them in a satchel, sack or something strapped around your shoulders.
Don't whittle or spit where you are making a set.
Don't staple your traps, but cut and wire the chains to a green limb, one that the fox can drag a distance, and visit your traps regularly, avoiding any unnecessary company.
The method recommended is only the "path method," and to be used altogether without any bait or scents; as I believe the best results are obtained by just taking a fox unawares, and the whole secret is in choosing the place, then knowing just how to conceal the trap, and have everything as natural as possible when the set is made.
Look for fox tracks in stock paths, in pastures, fields, and woods, in large gullies, washouts and places under fences, old roads not much used, sand bars along streams, and other places; always selecting a narrow place for your set; approaching such places with trap ready set and wired to the brush, then with ready sharpened hard wood stick, stop and stand in one place until trap is properly set, when you can just walk right on to the next place.
Always dig the pit just the size of trap to be used, having the springs lengthwise in the path or trail--not across it--and just deep enough so the trap will be a little below the surface level when put in the pit. Cover over springs and around the outside of the jaws with dirt, lay a piece of paper over pan and jaws, or put fine moss, cotton, wool or dead grass inside of jaws and under pan; then haul on the fine dirt, just enough of it to thinly cover all, brush with a twig to level and complete the set by laying a couple of dead weeds, or small sticks, just haphazard like some two or three inches on each side of the trap.
As soon as you kill your fox, reset the trap in the same pit, but if your brush drag is chewed up, replace it with a new one. In addition, if it is a female fox that is caught, kill it near a path or any good place where a set can be made and where you have lately noticed a fox's track; then conceal and secure your trap as before, and the chances are as good for you to catch one or more fox at this set.
Now try this method all the way through and you will soon see that I am right. My brother set his first fox trap Dec. 9th and on the morning of the 10th had a large female red fox and killed it in a pasture near a path, and that night caught the largest dog fox I ever saw or heard of.
He got both these foxes just exactly as the above method indicates. The dog fox weighed 19 pounds and its hide measured 5 ft. 5 inches on the board. The old fox had lots of gray hairs on his head, evidently an old timer.
Various are the ways being studied for the capture of the fox and other shy animals, says J. H. Shufelt, of Canada. Most every trapper has a particular method of his own. Years ago trappers thought it was necessary to set in water in order to be successful in catching foxes, but after a closer acquaintance with the ways of the fox, it was found that they were easily caught in a steel trap on dry land in many ways. At the present time the trapper has found a less expensive way of catching them with the snare. This method has many advantages, and when properly set is a sure thing. It takes in most of those old sly ones that have been nipped by steel traps, etc.
The method shown here is only one of the many ways of the snare. Owing to the peculiar fastening of the snare, a powerful spring pole or weight can be used with a lighter wire. I use a copper or brass wire 1 gauge, with a foot or more slack between fastenings, which gives the spring pole a chance to instantly take advantage of the fox as soon as caught, when he will be caught up to the staple (which should be high enough from the ground so the fox will swing clear) and choked.
I set my snares in paths where weeds or grass grow each side to hide the snare. The loop should be seven inches in diameter, ten inches from the ground. It is as well before trapping to get the fox to traveling a path by leaving some good scent along the path. This can be done by boring a three-fourths hole downward in a tree near the path and pour the scent in, which will last a long time. If the same care is used in setting snares as is used in trapping, I think the snare will catch more. They work well in cold weather, and some fine catches can be made after a snowfall with the snare. Then the fur will be good and prime.
A--Spring pole.
B--Staple.
C--Two small nails driven in tree. (Three inch nail head, end down, with snare looped at each end with a foot of slack between. As soon as the D--three inch nail is pulled down, it will slip past the nail at top end, when spring pole will instantly take up the slack, also the fox, to staple and does its work.)
E--Slack line or wire.
F--Loop should be 7 inches in diameter and bottom of loop ten inches from the ground.
Remarks--The nails should be driven above staple so it will pull straight down to release the snare fastening.
I may state that I learned all the best ways of setting traps for fox long ago from an old trapper, says A. H. Sutherland, of Nova Scotia. But I never bothered setting a trap for a fox in my life, for the reason that I can catch them with snares on bare ground much easier and cheaper than with traps. But on snow if I could get fox to take bait, I would try poison on him. I may add that the snare is good for other animals besides the fox, such as coon, skunk and wild cat.
Go to a hardware store and get some rabbit wire and put about five strands of it together, and twist it just enough so that it will stay together nicely. Have a small loop on both ends and run one end through the other so as to make a noose of it. Next get some good twine, put a piece about 10 or 12 inches in length into the loop on the end of the snare, that is, the end that is going to be fastened.
Now find a path in an old clearing or in the woods, and select a place where you think best to set your snare. Cut a stake about 2 feet long and 1 1/2 inches through, have a limb on the butt end of it almost 3/4 inch in length. Sharpen the small end of the stake and drive it in the ground, leaving about 10 or 12 inches above ground; then cut a nice little pole about an inch and a half at the butt end and sharpen it, trim off at about an inch at the top end and fasten your snare, or at least take your pole in both hands and force the butt end into the ground till it will be good and firm.
Now bend down your pole and fasten your snare to it, and put the end of the pole under the catch on the stake. Be sure to drive your stake close enough to the path so as to have your snare light about the center of the path and the lower side of the snare about 8 inches from the ground. It is best to have them high enough so the fox cannot jump over them. Of course a man must use good judgment at setting snares just the same as he would in setting traps.
Another good place is a brush fence. Find holes under it where the fox will be going through, put your snare there, and if there are any going you will have some of them. Next find a good stream in the woods or anywhere frequented by foxes, and if you find good trees that fall across the stream have a good sharp axe and give a good slash or two of the axe about the middle of the tree, or at least above the middle of the brook. As I was going to say, give a good slash or two of the axe lengthwise of the tree and make a wedge shape stake and drive it into the tree, and then fasten your snare to a spring pole. If you prefer, you could bore an auger hole in the log and drive your pin in that way, and fasten the snare to the pin about 10 or 12 inches from the log so that the snare will hang downwards, it will do better. Be sure and have the lower side of snare 7 or 8 inches from the log.
Now there is another kind of brass or copper wire that one strand will be enough to hold a fox. If you find that they are cutting your snares put little rollers of wood in the snare boring a hole lengthwise with a 3/8 bit, and have the roller almost 5 inches long and say an inch in diameter. Put that on snare so it will run down to the side of his neck, and he will keep biting at it.
I get No. 14 brass wire (mind, you must temper the wire) that I find the hardest part of the game. Cut your wire about 34 or 36 inches long, make it into rings round, put in a good hot fire for three or four minutes, or until red. Be very careful and not let it lie on coal, handle very carefully; don't strike against anything while hot, as it will break like glass, but if you have it tempered you cannot break it. I have caught three foxes in the same snare, says Larry Burns, of Canada.
You must make your snare just the same as a rabbit snare, only make a loop about six inches around. Find when the fox passes under a fence or on a cow path, in winter, find where they make a habit of going. Set your snare in such places or around old carrion in bushes, cedar is best, use weeds rolled round your snare, don't use too many as they will notice. Use a green stick to hold your snare fast, You wire about a foot from large end. Always stand up the stick just the same as growing. The stick should be 1 1/2 inches thick. Be careful and make as few foot marks as possible and stand on one side of your snare. While setting don't spit tobacco juice near snare.
A great many foxes have been caught in this country by the plan of the drawing outlined, writes J. C. Hunter, of Canada. A--the snare, should be made of rabbit wire, four or five strands twisted together. Should be long enough to make a loop about seven inches in diameter when set. Bottom side of snare should be about six inches from the ground. E--is a little stick, sharp at one end and split at the other, to stick in the ground and slip bottom of snare in split end, to hold snare steady.
B--is catch to hold down spring pole. C--is stake. D--is spring pole. Some bend down a sapling for a spring pole, but we think the best way is to cut and trim up a small pole about ten feet long; fasten the big end under a root and bend it down over a crotch, stake or small tree. Snare should be set on a summer sheep path, where it goes through the bushes.
Stake might be driven down a foot or more back from the path, where a branch of an evergreen bush would hang over it so as to hide it and a string long enough from stake or trigger to snare to allow snare to rest over path.
Of course, in making this set you will have to use care and your own ingenuity to a great extent, to suit the requirements of the surroundings. Another way is to find a log, tree or pole that lies across a brook that is too wide for a fox to jump from one bank to the other. Set snare on log, but in this case, bottom side of snare should be only about four inches from log, as a fox will carry his nose lower while crossing a stream on a log. If the log is near the water, a spring pole should be used; if the log is high up from the water, fasten snare to log by driving in a wooden pin in the side of the log, and when the fox gets in snare he will tear around, fall off of log and hang all right.
The following is said to be the manner in which they snare foxes in New Brunswick: Early in the season they go into the woods in some favorable locality and build a fence. This place is similar to what would be constructed for partridge snaring, only of course with layer brush, leaving a narrow opening sufficiently wide for the passage of a fox, fixing everything just as they wish it to be later on when ready for business, and having a spring pole at such a distance that it can be utilized when wanted.
Take a dead hen or some kind of meat, place it in a jar, so that it gets well tainted; that when the right time comes place the noose in place at the opening made in the fence, fasten to the spring pole, sprinkle a little of this tainted bait about, and await results.
In going and coming, wooden shoes or clogs are worn, so that the fox will not get the scent of the party setting the trap.
An animal in coming down the path passes its body or neck through the loop made of stout insulated wire; in passing it steps on the trip stick which settles with the animal's weight, releasing the trigger, which in turn releases the stay-wire and jerks the loop around the animal; the spring pole onto which the stay-wire is attached lifts your game up into the air, choking it to death and placing it out of reach of other animals that would otherwise destroy your fur. A small notch cut in the stay crotch where the end of the trip stick rests will insure the trigger to be released. This will hold the trip stick firm at the end, making it move only at the end where the animal stops.
New and valuable methods are continually being published in the Hunter-Trader-Trapper, an illustrated monthly magazine, of Columbus, Ohio.