There may be some of you readers who don’t know what is meant by some of my terminology when it comes to trapping.  And so I decided I needed to give a little “Trapping 101” lesson on here.  Don’t think that I know everything about trapping because I don’t.  But I will share my knowledge with you just in case you are just starting out and want to sound like you know what you are doing.

I mostly trap muskrats and the occasional smallish critter that gets caught by accident that might have a value to their fur, such as mink and weasels.  Those two critters require that the trapper have a license with the state in order to trap them and sell the hides.  I have that license in my pocket.  So, even though I am targeting muskrats, I do occasionally catch one or two of the other guys during the season.

Believe it or not, Every Predator in the world likes muskrats!  Every one!  With that being said, it’s amazing that the muskrat population ever gets very big.  Out here in Northern Utah, flying predators like hawks, owls, eagles, crows and to some extent magpies, are always flying and hovering over the swamps looking for something to eat and when a little old muskrat comes swimming along he becomes the target.  Much more for the predator to eat than a simple mouse.

Foxes, Coyotes, Racoons, Mink, Weasels, Badgers (to some degree) and even large fish like Muskellunge and Pike will eat a muskrat in a minute.  So how on earth do they survive enough for me to be able to catch a few hundred each year?

They get tricky.  I used to think of them as a very dumb animal but in the last seven years or so, I have gained a new respect for them and their survival instincts.  They can be seen traveling and swimming around during the day, but most of their activity takes place after dark.  They don’t especially like windy conditions either as they can not hear the wings of predators over head, or the crunching of snow or dry grass from the ground predators.  They tend to swim more under water and travel very quickly from one air hole to another.  They stay hidden under canopies of grass, toolies, under cut banks and bull rush reeds and they also have their burrows (homes) under ground or in huts built out of naturally found materials.  Muskrats are a root and plant eating animal for the most part and they dig in the muddy banks of streams and ponds “a whole lot”.  This digging on their part causes a whole heap of problems for the rancher or property owner if they are trying to improve a water way or direct the water to an irrigation system.  Trust me when I say Muskrats cause big time problems and their numbers must be controlled or you will lose a great deal of your property to their habits.

Ok, we have talked about muskrats in general and what they do and what other animals like to eat them.  What about what the fur is used for.  Back in the early days of the USA, game animal hides and furs were used as pants, shirts, shoes and coats to keep the cold from freezing you to death.  A thick old buffalo hide is very warm when draped over you and you are sitting near a nice warm fire at night.  A lighter weight Coyote fur jacket is nice when you need to travel and stay warm while you go and a good pair of beaver or muskrat gloves are nice to have when the snow is falling.

Today, most Americans don’t care much for fur garments.  There are even groups who really would like to see people like myself taken off the earth all together.  The thought of killing an innocent little old muskrat just causes them all sorts of mental anguish…I don’t care about them types either, so I guess the feelings are mutual.  But, people in Russia and Asian countries where the winters are so bitterly cold even the Cold gets Cold, they love the feel and warmth of a good fully primed fur coat, gloves, hats and scarfs.  That is where these little muskrat hides eventually end up.  I catch and process the fur to its dried and stretched state, a fur buyer comes to me and buys my furs, he ships them off to an auction house or fur processor over seas, they buy them from him and then they have the furs tanned and sent off to a garment manufacturing plant, where the tanned furs are made into the coats, hats, gloves and scarfs.  Then off the finished items go to the cold climate countries where the people buy them up to keep warm.

In a very simple explanation, Chinese and Greeks are the number one buyers of the dried and stretched hides and the Russians and Mongolians are the number one purchasers of the finished coats, hats, scarfs and gloves.

Enough said about that.

As for traps that we use to catch our muskrats.  I grew up using what is called a Conibear trap.  This trap was invented in the early 1950’s by a man named Frank Conibear and of course it was something very new to the trapping world.  It is a very quick trap that dispatches (kills) the animal about as fast as any trap can.  It sets in a square shape and catches the animal by the body rather than the foot.

This is an unset Conibear trap:

There are larger versions of this trap that have a spring on both sides of the jaws.  You can see this trap has been used for a few seasons.  A trap like this would cost about $8 new and you can catch a heap of fur in one until it becomes un-fixable and you have to toss it away.  In today’s fur market one muskrat would pay for one trap.

How does a trap like this work?  When it’s set, like this one,

It can be placed in front of a den opening (where legal…check with your state regulations) or in an under water run (remember the tricky ways muskrats get past a predator).  The muskrat comes swimming along and swims through the opening.  Their head pushes the hanging down (or up) wire trigger, which in turn pushed the “dog” (the thing holding the trap in it’s square shape) and allows the two jaws to close onto the animals body.  The force of the spring is what gives it its force and holding power.

Notice the stick is caught on two places.  It catches muskrats in the same way.  It sometimes breaks the animals back, chokes it with a neck catch or at the very least holds the animal under water until it dies by drowning.  Either way, you have yourself a very valuable pelt with little or no damage to the hide.

Another trap we use quite often is what is called a leg hold trap.  In its simplest form a leg hold trap does just that, catches the animal by a leg, front or rear depending on how you set the trap and holds it until you come along and dispatch it and take it out.  We always strive to kill the animal as quickly as possible when using any trap and so when we use a leg hold trap it is always best to place it near deeper water so that the animal will drown quickly.  Otherwise it will suffer until you come along the next day.

Another thing the trapper needs to know about a caught muskrat is that when they are caught in a leg hold trap, they try their very best to get away and often times they will chew their foot off in order to do that.  Every year we have a few rat feet in our traps even though we do everything we think possible to keep that from happening.  The rats don’t necessarily die from that and so we will catch 3 legged animals every year as well.  There are some traps designed to minimize a muskrat from chewing off it’s leg and those traps are called “Stop Loss” traps.  They have a spring activated wire guard that comes around and pushes the muskrat away from the actual jaws of the trap, keeping it from being able to reach its foot with its teeth.

(Traps like these cost in the neighborhood of $12 to $16 each.  More complicated and more metal than the Conibear type).

The wire guard in this case is extending down below the trap jaws, that is because the spring is very strong.  When the trap is set, the guard lays under trap pan (trigger) and also under the “dog”, the trap jaw holder when set.

This “set” stop loss trap will lay flat against the ground and the animal comes along and steps into it.  The pan (trigger) goes down, the dog pops up and out of the way as the jaws begin to close and the animal is caught by one (or sometimes more than one) foot.

Here you can see the stick being pushed away from the jaws by the guard.  With an animal caught in this trap, it will jump around and if you have set it in the right place, the animal will try and swim away with the trap fastened to its leg, the weight of the trap will pull it down under water and it will drown.

Not only being under water drowned, but also out of sight from over head predators trying to get an easy meal.  Nothing will bite into your fur price bigger than a big old hole in the animals hide.  One more reason for trapping instead of  shooting the animal.

There are instances too where we come across a deep run, an under water trail that the rats use often and we wish to catch as many rats in one night as we can.  A set like that calls for a “colony trap”.  This trap is a long wire box type trap with doors on both ends.  Traps like these can be made by yourself or bought for a variety of prices from under $10 to over $50.

Notice the doors, one on each end, hinged at the top and sloping inward.

The rats will hit the door when they swim up against it, the door lifts open allowing the rat inside, but the door on the other end won’t let the rat out and it will drown.  You can catch multiple rats in colony traps in one night of trapping if the situation is right.

Colony traps are called that for their possibility of  catching a colony (the whole family) of rats in one night.

And we use one more system of traps in our arsenal, the “float set”.  Float sets can be in most any configuration and made of almost anything that will float and be big enough to hold the size and weight of a muskrat.  One must keep in mind when using a float set, that other water animals will also use the float.  Animals like ducks and geese and we don’t want to be catching them.  When we do we hope they are still alive and we can let them go.

Brother Bob has made up some relatively light weight floats that I am going to try this season and have placed two of in my outfit for tomorrows first day.

It’s a little hard to see the traps on this float, but there are two stop loss leg hold traps, one on each end of this float.  The traps chains are attached to the float by a bent over nail or staple.  They will be set and placed one on each end and some bait, like chopped carrots between the two traps.  The float is anchored either by a stick through the hole you see in the center of the board, or wired to a stake or other item along the bank.

Floats are used where bank dens, runs etc are not available and you know there are rats swimming around in the lake or pond.  The rat swims up to the float and climbs up and out of the water.  Sees the bait and heads in that direction stepping right on the trap and getting caught.  Then it jumps off the float with the trap attached to its leg and drowns directly under the float.  It’s a great feeling for the trapper to approach the float and not see either trap on the wood.

I have seen floats made out of styrofoam, air filled plastic containers, wood and even an old life jacket.  Muskrats have a tough time swimming past something floating that is big enough for them to climb up on.

Floats can be as large as you want to carry and have as many traps on top as you like.  Just remember, the bigger it is and the more traps you have on it the heavier it is.

So there is a little lesson on the muskrat and how Bob and I like to catch them.  My plan is to make a short video this year while I’m out in the field to show you just how we set up these various traps and maybe even catch a rat or two.

Bears Butt

Feb. 18, 2013