A good many trappers, both amateur and professional, speak of mink being hard to catch. I can't see it that way, says a Pennsylvania trapper. Really they are as easy as the water vole or skunk with me. I simply set all my traps bare, no covering whatever, you clog your trap when sprung. I lost a good many by so doing, so now I set bare at all times for both skunk and mink, and I get my share of them.
I use both bait and blind set; water set I think is the best, that is, in bitter cold weather when the ice is thick. My way of making, I call it the ice set, is to take a piece of oil cloth or an old buggy top cover will do, and put about five pounds of salt in same and sew up; have it about two inches thick. Don't make it too solid, leave it loose enough so you can work the most of the salt around the edges to bed trap in. Now puncture with needle to let fumes of salt through; cut a hole through the ice at the edge of the water, scrape out hole to bed salt in; but first put a stone in the hole, and bottom and side it up with stone to keep the mud from clogging the needle holes. Now you will wonder what the salt is for; simply to keep the ice from freezing the hole shut. I had nine of that kind of sets set last winter and trapped seven mink. The hole will never freeze shut. Always set trap under water.
Last winter I complained to my better half that I had better take my traps out of the run where I trap, as I couldn't make a water set because my traps froze over night. She said, why don't you put salt around your traps? That put me to thinking so I got an old piece of oil cloth and got her to make four for me on the sewing machine; I put a five pound sack of salt in each one.
The best place to set is on the inside of a curve. In slack water you will have to keep moving your set as the water rises and falls. Undoubtedly that is the best cold water set I have ever tried, and it has been a complete success with me.
I use the cubby set for mink. Before severe weather sets in I take two boards six or eight feet long, lean them against each other V shape, put water vole carcass (rabbit, chicken or fish is also good) in center and a trap at each end, about one foot from end. I also have the hollow log set. It is on the same principle as the cubby set. A cubby is easily built. You can make them out of stone if you can't get boards.
My advice to all young trappers is, study the nature and habits of your game and you will be successful in taking all kinds of fur bearing animals. Here is one of my methods, writes a trapper, of taking mink around swamps and lakes where there are shallow springs that never freeze up.
The bait house: This should be built in about two inches of water, as follows: Get some sticks about one foot and a half long and drive one end in the mud in the shape of a horse shoe, with the tops leaned together and a door left in one side about three inches wide. The pen should be a foot wide. Now get some moss, grass or weeds (the moss from an old rat house is best) and cover over well. Lay a chip or chunk of wood back of the house and place a piece of fresh muskrat on it. Set the trap under water on the door with spring pointing to one side. If there is deep water near by the drowning wire is the best way to fasten traps, and if water is shallow fasten the trap to a long stone of about eight or ten pounds weight and place back as far as the chain will reach from the house.
There are certain springs around all lakes and swamps that a mink will visit every time that he comes that way, and if a house is made at these springs and kept baited every mink can be caught.
The bait hole: This is a good method to use along creeks and rivers before the water freezes over in the fall. Find a steep bank a foot or more high near the water and dig a hole back in a foot deep and about eight inches high and level with the water. Scoop the dirt out in front of the hole about two feet wide and two inches under the water; but don't get the hole so low as to let the water back in. Let the water come up to the mouth of the hole and set a No. 1 steel trap square in front of the entrance with the spring pointing away, and fasten so the mink will drown.
The log set: Find where an old log lies in the water, stick chunks of wood in under the log on the bank so the mink will have to pass around in the water under the log. Set trap, a No. 1, in an inch of water square under the log and stake out in deep water as far as possible. If a little bait is sprinkled on each side of the log it will hasten the capture of the mink.
The ditch set: Early in the season the mink are great rovers and explore every ditch, hole or hollow log near the stream, and a trap set in the ditch in shallow water will often get one. If the ditch is too wide, drive a row of sticks across and leave an opening for the trap. Set the trap in the opening and fasten it back as far as possible.
The dry log set: Mink have a habit of passing through every hollow log that lies near the stream and if one can be found like this it is a good place to catch them all winter. Put some bait back in the log and set your trap in the entrance. Cover the trap and chain with powdered rotten wood, sprinkle it all around near the trap, and fasten to a drag or small pole.
These five ways are the only methods I use. Sometimes I set a trap for a few nights where a mink travels around a small bog between the bog and the bank, and very often get one in these places.
In setting for mink on land I go about it in this way:
First, I prepare my traps by boiling in hemlock boughs. Before setting my trap I dig up the ground with a trap hook. Dig a place two feet across and set the trap in the middle and cover lightly with fine leaves, putting some under the trap to keep it from freezing to the ground.
Don't be afraid to dig up the ground thoroughly, as a mink will always stop and investigate such a place. Have your hook long enough so you will not have to walk on the new ground. Fasten your trap to a springy bush or brush-drag.
After the ground freezes you will have to shelter your traps. I have used the following ways with good success:
Take two good sized chunks of wood and lay them about six inches apart. Set a No. 1 1/2 trap between them at each end, put your bait between the two traps and cover it with small brush and grass. If you can find an old hollow log it is a good place to set. These two sets you can use all winter.
Red squirrel, chicken, rabbit, partridge, muskrat or turtle are all good baits.
When you get a mink or rat alive let it bleed around your trap. It is also a good plan to hitch a string around your bait and drag it from one trap to another.
A man that follows the woods has some queer experiences, says a Pennsylvania trapper. Some eight or ten years ago I was hunting the Allegheny Mountains. It was in January and we were camped on the Elk River. There was a light snow on the ground. My trapping partner told me he would show me how to catch mink with the land set. Taking our traps we went down the river until we came to some logs that lay across a hollow. In some places the log was from three to four feet from the ground, and other places it was not over two feet. Sticks and limbs had lodged against the log, leaving small openings. In these open places we set our traps, covering them over with leaves. We caught several this way.
Now that will do in West Virginia, but in Pennsylvania in this part of the state it takes a water set or a deadfall to catch the mink. In the H-T-T I have seen a great many different opinions in regard to trapping mink, some claiming they have no trouble in catching mink, others cannot catch them only with the water set or deadfall.
Now my experience is that it depends upon where I am. In the sandhill region of Virginia I could catch mink only with the water set, while in the mountains they were very easily caught with the land set. Much depends on what kind of bait is used. I once had a line of eighteen traps baited with birds and chickens on the Nottoway River, and out of the eighteen traps, I baited one with the carcass of a muskrat. Well, I didn't catch any mink in the traps baited with chicken offal and birds but the trap baited with muskrat won.
It is better for the novice to serve a few season's apprenticeship on the muskrat or skunk before attempting the capture of the shrewder fur bearing animals. Boys, if you live near a trout brook, a creek, pond, bog or spring hole, where there are fish, frogs or clams, you may be sure that any such water is frequented, or at least visited by mink, though your unpracticed eyes may fail to detect signs of their presence; and by procuring a few traps and setting them according to some methods, you can realize a good bit of pocket money every year, and at the same time have more real pleasure than you get from all other sports combined. Don't be discouraged if you catch nothing at first. Visit your traps regularly, keep your eyes open and your wits about you, be patient and persistent, and success is bound to come in the end.
The young trapper's first essay for the mink should be with some sort of water set--dry sets requiring much greater skill and caution--and of the many methods employed the following is perhaps the most effective for one so simply contrived. Having chosen a suitable location for your trap, preferably some good sized pool with the water still and not too deep at the edge, and the bank rising so abruptly that the set will not easily be over-flowed; gather up a few dead sticks 1 1/2 inch thick and break into stakes about 15 inches long. Drive these firmly into the ground to form a three-sided pen four inches wide by eight inches long, the open side at the water's edge.
Hollow out a little place for the trap and place with the spring in line with the entrance, as the animal's foot will then be less likely to be thrown out by the jaws closing; press the chain down into the mud out of sight; fix the ring pole, running it well out into deep water; put the bait (fish, bird or squirrel) in the pen, pinning securely with a dead stick, lay a few sticks over top of pen, and cover trap carefully with rotten leaves fished up from the bottom, dropping on a few pinches of mud, and sticking a row of short twigs on the outer side to keep them from spreading or floating away. Then if the water falls the trap will remain nicely covered.
You now have things pretty well in shape, unless you apprehend trouble from trap thieves. In such case you cannot conceal your set too carefully, for a theft may not mean merely the loss of a trap, but possibly a valuable pelt as well. An excellent mode of concealment is to cut several fir, pine or hemlock shrubs and stick them up, as if growing about the pen, which is most likely to attract the eye. Also throw a scraggily top of some kind into the water over the ring-pole to hide the catch after drowning. Lastly, rearrange as naturally as possible the leaves and dead stuff disturbed in your work, see that nothing has fallen on the trap, spatter a little water about and your set is complete.
Another good way is to drop two traps side by side in shallow water, surround each by a little circle of rocks and hang the bait by a thread about 12 inches above them. In trying to reach the bait Mr. Mink runs a good chance of blundering into one of the traps.
Better yet, get a shallow box having a weatherworn appearance, bore half inch holes in the sides, and sink in the brook so that the water coming in through the holes will cover the bottom to a depth of three inches. Drape the sides with moss and weeds, put in some live trout and two or three traps along with them, and for those mink that are so particular as to want to take their food alive, you have a set that insures them a warm reception.
Yet another method is to find an over-hanging bank with a narrow strip of beach between it and the water. Beginning at the water, drive stakes at an acute angle out to the bank, both up and down the stream. At the apex of the V shaped fence thus formed place trap under water. No bait is needed.
I was speaking of water sets. One more and I will pass on to the land set, for though an almost endless variety of the former could be given those presented, with such modifications as will suggest themselves under varying conditions, will serve as a very good elementary education for the young trapper. The following was given me by an old trapper: We were riding together near a brook when he said, "I set a trap here three years ago, which I have never had an opportunity to visit, but I will wager you there is a mink in it if it is to be found." Whereupon he left me for a few minutes, returning triumphantly with the trap and the skeleton of a mink's foot in the jaws.
His way was to go along to shallow rifles, pin a piece of meat to the bottom, place the trap a few inches below it, and a little above drive a short line of stakes at right angles to the current to keep off drift. High water or low, cold weather or warm, you were sure, he asserted, of every mink that came up or down the stream. And my own experience has gone very far towards making this claim good.
Now, all of the foregoing sets are easily made, and may be used by the novice, after a little practice, with every probability of fair success, but when we leave the water for dry land greater difficulties will be encountered. There is a smell about iron which wild animals are quick to detect and recognize as an indication of danger. Water destroys this scent, but of course in the land set this advantage is lost.
Various directions are given for killing it by smoking or steeping, but I have found that if the trap be properly covered there is small need of spending time in this way. And right here let me say that in dry sets success hinges largely on the skill with which you cover your trap, especially if bait be used, and it is best to use bait until one has gained a pretty good idea of the habits of his game. The bait may be protected by a pen of stakes such as is described in my first water set, but placed a little back from the water in as dry a place as possible.
At the entrance dig a cavity somewhat larger than a trap, with a shallow trench leading around to one side for chain. Line with fine sprigs of hemlock, and set trap evenly and firmly. The hemlock will not only keep trap and chain from freezing down (a thing to be carefully avoided) but also help to neutralize that tell-tale smell of metal. Get some moss of a dry, fibrous nature, and containing no earthly matter to freeze. That found on rocks is generally the best. Tear out a crescent-shaped piece of a size to half fill trap, and fitting snugly between pan and jaw and two small pieces to fill in on back or trigger side of pan--or only one piece, like the first, if using a trap with spring on the outside.
If you have done your work properly, the inside of the trap is completely filled, from jaws to pan, with no chance for anything to get under the pan, and no wad of batting beneath it (as is used by some) to become swollen with moisture and prevent its free working. Now go around trap on the outside with moss, pressing it in so as nearly to cover jaws, lay a thin leaf over pan, and cover with well pulverized rotten wood, which may be found in any old stump.
Lastly, throw on bits of leaf and pinches of dirt until it resembles as nearly as possible the surrounding ground. Don't be afraid of covering too heavily, so long as you don't put too much over hinges of jaws. You want it so that the iron will not be washed bare with the first rain. But avoid any appearance of a mound, as nothing arouses an animal's suspicions quicker than this. The chain may be covered with loose earth and stump dust. Some advise hitching to a clog, but I generally use a stake, and seldom, ever lose a mink by footing. But if a green stake is used be careful to smear the exposed end with mud to remove its fresh appearance, and to secure the bait use a dead stick invariably.
Many guide books speak of leaves as a covering for the trap, but the fact is that dry leaves are something that the mink habitually avoids, doubtless not liking the rustling sound given out in traveling over them; hence it is best to use them in land sets sparingly, and to locate your trap so that the shy fellow will not have to wallow through a carpeting of them to reach it.
I have had excellent luck by placing trap at the edge of a bank a foot or so high, with a good runway underneath. The mink smells the bait from below and springing up to investigate often lands plump in the trap, when if he had been afforded the chance for a closer inspection he might have gone on without troubling it. You may think this a small thing, but it is just such trifles that circumvent the shy fellows.
In making your set do all the work from the back side; also approach on the same side when visiting. Go no nearer than necessary to see that everything is all right, and make your stay in the vicinity as short as possible. If any part of the trap has become exposed cover with stump dust. A small fir stuck down by the trap with branches projecting over it will serve as a protection from rain and snow, but is seldom needed when trap is covered as above described.
Always be on the lookout for places to set when hunting or fishing. Let your eyes run along the strips of beach and boggy, peer under overhanging banks and among piles of drift, and scrutinize closely every log spanning streams. You will be surprised to find how often you will hit upon footprints, droppings, holes and runways, the knowledge of which will be of the utmost value to you when the trapping season arrives.
If you trap the same section year after year you will get to know the favorable points so well as to do with half the traps necessary at the beginning, and get much better results at that; for one trap in the right place is worth half a dozen, clapped down haphazzard. Some places are good for one or more mink every year; an old hollow log near the water, a passageway among roots or under a fallen tree trunk, a narrow shelf along the face of the bluff, a particular hole or den--any of these, if kept guarded by a well set trap, may prove a little bonanza for you every season. In such places it is better to use no bait, a little fish oil perhaps excepted, as you will then take unawares many a sly old fellow to whom a morsel of meat, no matter how cunningly arranged, would be simply a signboard of danger.
I remember well my first experience at this style of trapping mink. I noticed what looked to be a well worn little path on the bank of a stream leading down under a big pile of drift. As an experiment I placed a trap in this path, and to my delight found a fine mink waiting me at my next visit. Two more mink followed within a week in the same place, while a trap nearby carefully set and baited was not molested.
I had supposed I knew about all there was to trapping, but this opened my eyes a bit. I began searching out and setting in similar places, with the result that my usual catch was doubled that season. One day on looking into a hole which had rotted into the foot of a big ash standing on the bank of a stream I saw a small dead fish lying among the roots as if it had been left there by some creature that had taken itself off at my approach. I promptly clapped two traps into the cavity, taking care not to disturb the fish, and soon after had a mink as a reward for my trouble.
But the best natural situation I ever discovered was under a high, overhanging bank--just the sort of roadway every mink coming along that side of the stream would be sure to choose--at a point where a willow tree completely blocked the way, except for a narrow passage perforating its tangled roots. One trap could guard this effectually, and, as in the trunk of the old ash, it was entirely protected from snow or rain. Of course a mink could get around the trunk by taking to the water, but so far as I could judge they seldom did so, and each year as long as there were any mink in the vicinity I was sure of several here.
Mink in fact prefer traveling by land as a rule. For this reason a trap placed at either end of a log spanning a stream that is too wide for them to jump forms a most killing set. Drive a few stakes on each side of a log at the ends to prevent the animal from jumping shore to one side of trap, and use extra strong traps, as you are likely to drop on a fox or coon with this set. No bait is needed. In winter any spring hole, even if near human habitations, offers good possibilities. Mink visit them to burrow for frogs, and one of two traps sunk in the mud and shallow water are pretty sure of an occasional catch. And they are but little trouble to tend as the warm spring water prevents freezing.
Now a word about bait. In my opinion the very best bait is fish; trout, pickerel, shiner or any other fresh fish, being all about equally good. But salt fish should never be used for mink, though after being smoked it makes a taking bait for coon. Red squirrel I consider next to fish. They are plentiful everywhere, and the mink makes many a meal off of them in the absence of his favorite food. The oft-quoted chicken's head has invariably failed for me, nor have I found the flesh of the muskrat such a killer as is claimed by some. Partridge heads, wood mice and frogs are all good. In the absence of anything else I have sometimes used English sparrows with fair results.
Don't be too generous with your baits. A section of small fish an inch long is sufficient and much less likely to arouse suspicions than a larger piece. In carrying bait in your bag, wrap in an old rag so it will not come in contact with the metal of hatchet or traps, and wash clean before using. Locate your traps on long, comparatively straight reaches of the stream, as mink often make short cuts when traveling and might miss your set entirely if placed on a bend. Above all, study your game and don't get too knowing to take a pointer.
For mink I have found a No. 0 trap, if carefully set with proper precaution, is as good and lucky as a No. 1 or 1 1/2 trap as some trappers advocate, writes a Canadian trapper. I used a bunch on a considerable sized lake one fall. The lake had numerous small creeks and rivers falling into it. At the junction of these with the lake I set my traps. They were all No. 0, selected on account of their lightness, as there was a long carry to get to the lake from a traveled route and added to the canoe, my gun, blanket and provisions, the traps were somewhat of a consideration, and I therefore took the ones of less weight.
I made two visits to the lake before it froze and got 20 mink, 1 marten and a female fisher.
Where I made a water set I saw that the water outside went down pretty bold, and I always tied a stone to the trap and thus insured the animal drowning.
Where I set on land I without fail attached the chain to a tossing pole, thereby preventing the fur being damaged by mice or the animal being eaten by some other.
Some may question the possibility of such small traps being for any length of time in order as a water set, but I must explain. The lake was of considerable size and the season the latter part of October. Such a lake at that season of the year is not subject to any great fluctuations in the height of the water.
I may say in conclusion about this particular sized trap, that on that trapping tour I only lost one mink. I found the trap sprung with a single toe in the jaws.
The trap had been a dry set one, and by reading the signs I found some snow had melted and dripped from an over-hanging branch on to the junction of the jaws. This had frozen (the trap being in the shade) and prevented its usual activity. As a consequence it only caught on as the mink was in the act of lifting his foot, so I was satisfied it was circumstance and not the fault of the trap that caused the missing of this mink.
The No. 1 Blake & Lamb and the Oneida Jump are the ideal mink traps for me, says an Ohio trapper. When it comes to the snow set the old Blake & Lamb is second to none. The only fault I find with this trap is that the chain is not long enough, and this is the fault with other makes of traps as well.
When I trap mink I use muskrat carcass for water sets. The favorite food of the mink is crawfish, frogs and fish. Of course this kind of bait can't well be found in the trapping season. When I find a sly old mink I leave off both scent and bait, conceal my traps well under the bank or places where it likely travels, and just leave the trap there. If I don't catch it in a week I only go close enough to see whether there is anything in the trap or not.
About mink, I think they are queer little animals. Sometimes they are wise and sometimes they are not. I think the reason some of them are wise is because they get educated on trap lore by getting their toes pinched in some poor trap or trap that is carelessly set. I use No. 1 Newhouse for mink and lost only one mink out of my traps last season, and I got one of his toes. I cover my traps so there isn't a bit of chain or trap in sight, and use clean traps free from rust. I use muskrat musk and mink musk with good success, but common sense is the best.
I trapped over the same ground all winter and caught four mink in one place and three in another. I see that some trappers think that the scent of the mink will scare them away, but that is the best scent I could find when trapping mink on rat houses. A large rat will make a hard fight for a small mink if he has a fair show, and when a mink gets into a fight he will throw out scent like a skunk. For that reason I think scent is all right to attract mink to traps.
Now if you set a trap and use this scent with a little muskrat musk, when a mink comes along he smells the musk of both mink and rat, and begins to look around or rather smell around for the remains of the rat to make a meal on. If you have the trap and scent in the right place you will have another mink on your list.
Of course there are a few old fellows that are educated that are pretty shy of anything that isn't natural to them. These fellows you can catch in blind sets somewhere along your line. About the best place I can find to catch mink is where they drill into a rat house to catch rats. They smell around till they find a soft place on the south side of the house and dig a hole just large enough to crawl through, right into the rat's nest.
First a little pen about a foot square is built of stones and chunks or by driving stakes close together, leaving one side open. The pen should be built smaller and tighter than shown in illustration, so that a small mink or weasel cannot get in from the back or sides. The pen in illustration is purposely large so that triggers and bait can be seen, giving the inexperienced deadfall trapper a better idea of how to set.
The stakes should be cut about thirty inches long and driven into the ground some sixteen inches, leaving fourteen, or thereabout above the ground. Of course if the earth is very solid stakes need not be so long, but should be so driven that only about fourteen inches remains above ground. A sapling say four inches in diameter and four feet long is laid across the end that is open. A sapling that is four or five inches in diameter and about twelve feet long is now cut for the "fall."
Stakes are set so that this pole or fall will play over the short pole on the ground. These stakes should be driven in pairs; two about eighteen inches from the end; two about fourteen further back. (See illustration). The small end of the pole should be split and a stake driven firmly through it so there will be no danger of the pole turning and "going off" of its own accord.
The trap is set by placing the prop (which is only seven inches in length and half an inch through) between the top log and the short one on the ground, to which is attached the long trigger, which is only a stick about the size of the prop, but about twice as long, the baited end of which extends back into the little pen. The figure 4 triggers can be used if preferred, but the two piece is as good if not better. The bait may consist of a piece of fish, chicken, rabbit or any tough bit of meat so long as it is fresh, and the bloodier the better.
An animal on scenting the bait will reach into the trap--the top of the pen having been carefully covered over--between the logs. When the animal seizes the bait the long trigger is pulled off of the upright prop and down comes the fall, killing the animal by its weight. Skunk, coon, opossum, mink, and in fact nearly all kinds of animals are easily caught in this trap. The fox is an exception, as it is rather hard to catch them in deadfalls.
The more care you take to build the pen tight and strong the less liable is some animal to tear it down and get the bait from the outside; also if you will cover the pen with leaves, grass, sticks, etc., animals will not be so shy of the trap. The triggers are very simple, the long one being placed on top of the upright, or short one. The long trigger should have a short prong left or a nail driven in it to prevent the game from getting the bait off too easy. If you find it hard to get saplings the right size for a fall, and are too light, they can be weighted with a pole laid on the "fall."
The most successful trapper uses some deadfalls as well as steel traps, especially if trapping for a season at one place. If trapping season after season in the same locality deadfalls are a great help for mink that are apparently hard to catch in steel traps readily take bait from deadfalls and get caught. On the other hand, mink that refuse to take bait from deadfalls are often caught in blind steel trap sets.
The experienced trapper knows that mink travel along creeks, rivers, swamps, ponds and lakes. Care should be taken in selecting places to build deadfalls. If there are dens this is a good place to construct them. If there are many dens so much the better, but one is all that is required, for a mink is apt to investigate all and will scent bait. If you are acquainted with the territory you must know some places where mink frequent. It seems that the nature and habits of mink are such that although a mink had never traveled that territory before it would follow about the same course as others, as tracks in the mud and snow showed.
To prove this I will mention that some years ago in one deadfall I caught eight mink in five winters and one in a steel trap, making nine caught in the five years. This deadfall was built on the bank of a small stream some 20 feet from the water and near a large sycamore, under which there was a den, although the trap was some feet from the entrance to the den.
The first winter one mink was taken; the second two; the third three; the fourth two; the fifth one.
The fourth winter a few weeks after catching one in the deadfall the trap was down and the bait gone. The trap was rebaited, but for several trips I found the trap down and bait eaten. I felt sure that it was a mink, and although I set the triggers easy--I was using the two piece trigger and upright spindle--the animal continued to get the bait.
After a few more visits and the trap down, bait invariably eaten, I made the pen smaller. The next round I brought a No. 1 Newhouse steel trap intending to set it if the deadfall was down without making a catch. Sure enough it was.
For some trips I had been suspecting that the "bait getter" was a small mink. I baited and reset the deadfall as usual. Next a small place was excavated inside the pen and near the bait, on the deadfall spindle, the trap placed and carefully covered.
The next morning I found everything as I had left it the day before, but the second round I saw that the "fall" was down before I got near and on closer approach saw a mink, a very small one, in the steel trap.
The mink was small and went inside the pen for the bait. In constructing deadfalls for mink care must be taken to have the pen built tight but not too large.
It is best to build deadfalls in advance of the active trapping season so that the animals may become accustomed to them, and the trap weather beaten. Chopping and pounding might tend to drive animals away. In August, September and October is a good time to build, for if in new territory signs, if any, should be readily seen.
While it is best to construct deadfalls in advance of trapping season, yet the writer has built deadfalls late in November, set and baited and found mink in them the next morning. If rightly built ten or a dozen is all a man can make in a day, and like setting steel traps, a dozen carefully set for mink are worth a hundred set at haphazzard.
Mink are great travelers, so that it is needless to set deadfalls close together. One about every mile is enough unless there should be many dens and rocky bluffs along the streams, then they could to advantage be built closer, for other game is liable to be caught. In this case they should be made a little heavier, as you may catch opossum, skunk and coon.
Where one stream empties into another is often a good place to construct a deadfall. If before selecting your places to build a few trips are taken along the streams it will be a great help. Where small streams empty into ponds or lakes or the outlets will be found ideal places for mink.
When deadfalls are built before the trapping season it is well to set them, having the top of the pen covered, just as though the trap was baited and ready for business.
Another thing that should be carefully looked after is triggers. Many cut triggers from green bushes. If this is done, hard wood such as oak, hickory, dogwood, sugar, beech, etc., is best. The upright trigger, which is only a straight piece of wood about a half inch thick, should be slightly rounded so that the spindle will slip off easier when the animal is at bait.
It is a good idea to prepare a lot of triggers in advance. For stone deadfalls the figure 4 must be used as the two piece will not work--going off entirely too hard.
Of course we all admit the steel trap is more convenient and up-to-date, says a New Hampshire trapper. You can make your sets faster and can change the steel trap from place to place. Of course the deadfall you cannot. But all this does not signify the deadfall is no good; they are good, and when mink trapping is consumed the deadfall is the trap you want. To the trapper who traps in the same locality every year, when his deadfalls are once built it is only a few minutes work to put them in shape, then he has got a trap for the season.
I give a diagram of a deadfall (called here Log Trap) which, when properly made and baited, there is no such a mink catcher in the trap line that has yet been devised. This trap requires about twenty minutes time to make, and for tools a camp hatchet and a good, strong jack-knife, also a piece of strong string, which all trappers carry. This trap should be about fifteen inches wide with a pen built with sticks or pieces of boards driven in the ground. (See diagram.) The jaws of this trap consist of two pieces of board three inches wide and about three and a half feet long, resting edgeways one on the other, held firmly by four posts driven in the ground. The top board or drop should move easily up and down before weights are put on. The treadle should be set three inches inside, level with the top of bottom board. This is a round stick about three-fourths inch through resting against two pegs driven in the ground. (See diagram.) The lever should be the same size. Now put your stout string around top board, then set, pass lever through the string over the cross piece and latch it in front of the treadle, then put on weights and adjust to spring, heavy or light as desired. This trap should be set around old dams or log jams by the brook, baited with fish, muskrat, rabbit or chicken.
For generations there will be good trapping sections in parts of the North, West and South, so that the hardy trapper will continue to reap a harvest of pelts and fur.
Mink are widely distributed over America, and while their numbers, in some sections, have been reduced by the high prices and close trapping and hunting, they are found much more frequently in the settled districts than those who give trapping no attention or thought.
In the rapid development of the country the steel trap has played a wonderful part. They have subdued the monster bear and hungry wolf, as well as caught millions of the smaller fur bearing animals, adding largely to the annual income of the hardy trapper.
Steel traps have been in use for more than fifty years, but for some time after they were invented they were so expensive that they were not generally used. Of recent years they have become cheaper and their use has become general. Trappers will be found using them in large numbers whether in the Far North for marten, fox, beaver, etc., or in the South and Southwest after coon, otter, and smaller fur bearing animals. Professional trappers use generally from 50 to 300 steel traps, depending upon what game they are after.
Steel traps are manufactured in various sizes. The smallest, No. 0, is used for gophers, rats, etc., while the largest, No. 6, is for grizzly bear, and will hold him. The No. 1 1/2 is known as the Mink trap. The spread of jaws is 4 7/8 inches. The No. 1 spread of jaws 4 inches is also adapted for mink.
An old and experienced trapper who has spent many years in the forests of Northern Canada has used the No. 0 with remarkably good success. There is no doubt but that the smallest size will hold the mink in the Newhouse brand, and we are alluding to the Newhouse manufactured by the Oneida Community, Ltd., Oneida, New York, as it is acknowledged to be the best trap in the world.
The fastening of traps for any animal has much to do with the trapper's success. Traps fastened to something solid are not so apt to hold the game. If only caught by a toe or two and the animal jumps around the toes are apt to be pulled off. Traps should be fastened far out in the water, when trapping for mink, if the weather is not so cold that the water is frozen. In that case the fastening should be to a "bushy" bush, or at least to something that will give with every pull and jerk of the animal.
As many mink trappers devote more or less time to trapping other fur bearing animals, a description of the various Newhouse traps, telling the animal or animals each size is adapted to, etc., will no doubt be of interest.
Spread of Jaws, 3 1/2 inches. This, the smallest trap made, is used mostly for catching the gopher, a little animal which is very troublesome to western farmers, and also rats and other vermin. It has a sharp grip and will hold larger game, but should not be overtaxed.
Spread of Jaws, 4 inches. This Trap is used for catching muskrats and other small animals, and sold in greater numbers than any other size. Its use is well understood by professional trappers and it is the most serviceable size for catching skunks, weasels, rats and such other animals as visit poultry houses and barns.
Spread of Jaws, 4 inches. Occasionally animals free themselves from traps by gnawing their legs off just below the trap jaws, where the flesh is numb from pressure. Various forms of traps have been experimented with to obviate this difficulty. The Webbed Jaws shown above have proved very successful in this respect.
Noting the cross-section of the jaws, as illustrated at the left, it is plain the animal can only gnaw off its leg at a point quite a distance below the meeting edges. The flesh above the point of amputation and below the jaws will swell and make it impossible to pull the leg stump out of the trap.
The No. 81 Trap corresponds in size with the regular No. 1 Newhouse.
Spread of Jaws--91, 5 1/4 inches; 91 1/2, 6 1/4 inches. The double jaws take an easy and firm grip so high up on the muskrat that he can not twist out. A skunk cannot gnaw out either.
These traps are especially good for Muskrat, Mink, Skunk and Raccoon.
All parts of the No. 91 except the jaws are the same size as the regular No. 1 Newhouse, while the 91 1/2 corresponds to the regular No. 1 1/2.
Spread of Jaws, 4 7/8 inches. This size is called the Mink Trap. It is, however, suitable for catching the Woodchuck, Skunk, etc. Professional trappers often use it for catching Foxes. It is very convenient in form and is strong and reliable.
Spread of Jaws, 4 7/8 inches. The No. 2 Trap is called the Fox Trap. Its spread of jaws is the same as the No. 1 1/2 but having two springs it is, of course, much stronger.
Spread of Jaws, 5 1/2 inches. This, the Otter Trap, is very powerful. It will hold almost any game smaller than a bear.
Spread of Jaws, 6 1/2 inches. This is the regular form of Beaver Trap. It is longer than the No. 3 Trap, and has one inch greater spread of jaws. It is a favorite with those who trap and hunt for a living in the Northwest and Canada. It is also extensively used for trapping the smaller Wolves and Coyotes in the western stock raising regions.
Spread of Jaws, 6 1/2 inches. In some localities the Otter grows to an unusual size, with great proportionate strength, so that the manufacturers have been led to produce an especially large and strong pattern. All the parts are heavier than the No. 2 1/2, the spread of jaws greater and the spring stiffer.
Spread of Jaws, 5 inches. The above cut represents a Single Spring Otter Trap. It is used more especially for catching Otter on their "slides." For this purpose a thin, raised plate of steel is adjusted to the pan so that when the trap is set the plate will be a trifle higher than the teeth on the jaws. The spring is very powerful, being the same as used on the No. 4 Newhouse Trap. The raised plate can be readily detached if desired, making the trap one of general utility.