TRAPPING (stoats and weasels)

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

This topic is in response to Matt's thread on natural sites, didnt want to rant on, on his thread so heres some of my opinions-

 

I suppose there are two kinds of natural site, theres the totally natural site, or at least, one that requires little or no alterations to accomodate the trap, except maybe adding a restricted entrance, or hollowing out a bit to allow it to spring freely. Some of my favorite totally natural sites are: inside dry stone walls, among rocks/crags, at the base of big trees- with gaps between the roots, holes in banksides, hollow trees/fallen limbs.

 

Then there are the ones made from natural materials found in the area, like stone from a wall, logs, scrap, turf etc, which are probably the ones I enjoy making the most.

 

Then theres the wooden tunnel, i ran around 100 traps housed in wooden tunnels, and they are great, if properly dug in and consealed- will fit in with its surroundings and look totally natural, deadly in gateways, ends of walls, boundry fences, along a sod cast, around release pens. Not just placed somewhere as a wooden tunnel with a trap inside. I would usually dig them in a bit and cover them with sods or stone, thus looking totally natural and inconspicuous.

 

I used to run a large hill shoot, and it took me over a year (too busy with other stuff) to get all my fenns out! I absolutely loved making/finding every site, all 275 of them! But a wierd thing is, that some of the best looking tunnels (in my eyes at least) hardly ever caught, and needed moved. And vice versa, many that I thought- thats not going to catch, should I just move it now?ended up being regular takers!

 

I used many rail traps( mk4 on rail across a burn, or drain) which are very effective, and can often be made naturally where a tree limb has fallen across a stream in woodland, simply chisel a base for the trap, then add a mesh cover and restrictor wires. Otherwise, especially on the fells, a plank will work juast as well, and some of the best were following fence lines or drains etc.

 

I ran over 100 baited traps, with a dead end, all year round, usually made out of stone, but some were wooden. These, I found, are deadly for stoats and will attract them better in hard weather.

 

I often hear keepers say that they only have time for trapping in the spring after the season! And most of them put less down than me, and had smaller shoots! I trapped all year round, every day, and ran 200 snares, which I flew round on the bike. I was putting down 7000 redlegs and 1000 pheasants. I did the trap/snare line in the morning and I filled hoppers on a rotation, every afternoon, doing different drives on alternate days. It worked for me, and only during very busy times did I have to spring the traps off.

 

I no longer work that estate, but I do still do a bit, on a smaller scale. Any other keepers/pest controllers running fenns? How many do you run?

 

Any one have any other methods or opinions?

 

Does anyone use large ammounts of other traps such as body grips, or seesaw with good results for ground predators?

[Holdaway 2]

.

[BBB 7]

i dont do much trappin nowadays . but i realy loved doing it. my favourites which i made were blank holes or run through's dug in bank sides under tree roots ect. as well as inside stone walling or any other good natural location's i could find. no lugging round wooden tunnel's for me . all i took was trap's a trowel and a bag of feathers soaked in musk. i used to use musk glands and pigeon feathers as a lure to draw em in. worked realy well . i no what your sayin about some trap's never catching trap's that we think are a cert. it usualy is the opposite..

[micky 3,325]

This topic is in response to Matt's thread on natural sites, didnt want to rant on, on his thread so heres some of my opinions-

 

I suppose there are two kinds of natural site, theres the totally natural site, or at least, one that requires little or no alterations to accomodate the trap, except maybe adding a restricted entrance, or hollowing out a bit to allow it to spring freely. Some of my favorite totally natural sites are: inside dry stone walls, among rocks/crags, at the base of big trees- with gaps between the roots, holes in banksides, hollow trees/fallen limbs.

 

Then there are the ones made from natural materials found in the area, like stone from a wall, logs, scrap, turf etc, which are probably the ones I enjoy making the most.

 

Then theres the wooden tunnel, i ran around 100 traps housed in wooden tunnels, and they are great, if properly dug in and consealed- will fit in with its surroundings and look totally natural, deadly in gateways, ends of walls, boundry fences, along a sod cast, around release pens. Not just placed somewhere as a wooden tunnel with a trap inside. I would usually dig them in a bit and cover them with sods or stone, thus looking totally natural and inconspicuous.

 

I used to run a large hill shoot, and it took me over a year (too busy with other stuff) to get all my fenns out! I absolutely loved making/finding every site, all 275 of them! But a wierd thing is, that some of the best looking tunnels (in my eyes at least) hardly ever caught, and needed moved. And vice versa, many that I thought- thats not going to catch, should I just move it now?ended up being regular takers!

 

I used many rail traps( mk4 on rail across a burn, or drain) which are very effective, and can often be made naturally where a tree limb has fallen across a stream in woodland, simply chisel a base for the trap, then add a mesh cover and restrictor wires. Otherwise, especially on the fells, a plank will work juast as well, and some of the best were following fence lines or drains etc.

 

I ran over 100 baited traps, with a dead end, all year round, usually made out of stone, but some were wooden. These, I found, are deadly for stoats and will attract them better in hard weather.

 

I often hear keepers say that they only have time for trapping in the spring after the season! And most of them put less down than me, and had smaller shoots! I trapped all year round, every day, and ran 200 snares, which I flew round on the bike. I was putting down 7000 redlegs and 1000 pheasants. I did the trap/snare line in the morning and I filled hoppers on a rotation, every afternoon, doing different drives on alternate days. It worked for me, and only during very busy times did I have to spring the traps off.

 

I no longer work that estate, but I do still do a bit, on a smaller scale. Any other keepers/pest controllers running fenns? How many do you run?

 

Any one have any other methods or opinions?

 

Does anyone use large ammounts of other traps such as body grips, or seesaw with good results for ground predators?

I catch a few rabbits in fenns ,and BGs,over the season i usally pick few oddments like rats ,stoats ferrets ,mink,and a couple of weeks back a brace of maggies .The 1 mink i caught in a fenn6 was still alive,as were all of the ferrets i have caught in them,i have caught two mink, a cat [feral]and ferrets in the BGs,and there allways dead.Allthough the fen6 kills adult rabbits OK if set right, ithink it is underpowered for mink or ferrets,but saying that, if they had more spring tension i would not be able to open one, and they would have to beef the frame up to stop distortion with the extra pressure .Fenn type traps control the market for rabbit kill traps ,and while that is happening we will never get a better rabbit trap or even a improved fenn.

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

i dont do much trappin nowadays . but i realy loved doing it. my favourites which i made were blank holes or run through's dug in bank sides under tree roots ect. as well as inside stone walling or any other good natural location's i could find. no lugging round wooden tunnel's for me . all i took was trap's a trowel and a bag of feathers soaked in musk. i used to use musk glands and pigeon feathers as a lure to draw em in. worked realy well . i no what your sayin about some trap's never catching trap's that we think are a cert. it usualy is the opposite..

Its a very satisfying job, especially the first catch in a new trap site.

 

Never heard of using musk before, im interested, where do you get the glands from?

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

I catch a few rabbits in fenns ,and BGs,over the season i usally pick few oddments like rats ,stoats ferrets ,mink,and a couple of weeks back a brace of maggies .The 1 mink i caught in a fenn6 was still alive,as were all of the ferrets i have caught in them,i have caught two mink, a cat [feral]and ferrets in the BGs,and there allways dead.Allthough the fen6 kills adult rabbits OK if set right, ithink it is underpowered for mink or ferrets,but saying that, if they had more spring tension i would not be able to open one, and they would have to beef the frame up to stop distortion with the extra pressure .Fenn type traps control the market for rabbit kill traps ,and while that is happening we will never get a better rabbit trap or even a improved fenn.

Good points! I agree with what you say.

[BBB 7]

well you need a dead stoat, weasel or mink. the musk gland's are located at the base of the tail just above the arse . skin the critter off and when you get down to the tail peel the skin back carefully and you will expose the gland's one either side of the tail. each is about the size of a grain of sweet corn and yellow in colour. remove em from the carcass carefully. dont puncture them at this stage or you will regret it . once you got em off cleanly intact put them in a plastic screw top jar put a few table spoon's of cod liver oil in with em . then puncture them this will let the musk come out like puss from a zit . it is super strong put the lid on the jar and pop in the freezer. bring it out an hour before you do your round's and it is ready to use. i used to make big batches of it. some of which i would add to pigeon feathers in a bag and use in blank holes ect. work's like a charm. these creatures are led by scent. plus it's better than using bait . as it can be used all year round without attracting flies...

[ianrob 2]

well you need a dead stoat, weasel or mink. the musk gland's are located at the base of the tail just above the arse . skin the critter off and when you get down to the tail peel the skin back carefully and you will expose the gland's one either side of the tail. each is about the size of a grain of sweet corn and yellow in colour. remove em from the carcass carefully. dont puncture them at this stage or you will regret it . once you got em off cleanly intact put them in a plastic screw top jar put a few table spoon's of cod liver oil in with em . then puncture them this will let the musk come out like puss from a zit . it is super strong put the lid on the jar and pop in the freezer. bring it out an hour before you do your round's and it is ready to use. i used to make big batches of it. some of which i would add to pigeon feathers in a bag and use in blank holes ect. work's like a charm. these creatures are led by scent. plus it's better than using bait . as it can be used all year round without attracting flies...

 

 

Christ does it stink. I once decided to keep the pelt from a white stoat. In the process, I must have upset the glands, my hands were stinking for days. That sweet sickly pungent FFS smell. :sick: :sick:

[BBB 7]

well you need a dead stoat, weasel or mink. the musk gland's are located at the base of the tail just above the arse . skin the critter off and when you get down to the tail peel the skin back carefully and you will expose the gland's one either side of the tail. each is about the size of a grain of sweet corn and yellow in colour. remove em from the carcass carefully. dont puncture them at this stage or you will regret it . once you got em off cleanly intact put them in a plastic screw top jar put a few table spoon's of cod liver oil in with em . then puncture them this will let the musk come out like puss from a zit . it is super strong put the lid on the jar and pop in the freezer. bring it out an hour before you do your round's and it is ready to use. i used to make big batches of it. some of which i would add to pigeon feathers in a bag and use in blank holes ect. work's like a charm. these creatures are led by scent. plus it's better than using bait . as it can be used all year round without attracting flies...

 

 

Christ does it stink. I once decided to keep the pelt from a white stoat. In the process, I must have upset the glands, my hands were stinking for days. That sweet sickly pungent FFS smell. :sick: :sick:

yeah you are right . but there is no better attractor IMO to sucker em in .

[gnipper 6,877]

Would you say that the smell of one mustelid will attract another species ie mink piss attracting a stoat for a nosey?

[BBB 7]

yeah i v even caught rat's in tunnel's that have reaked of mink. they are all curious by nature .and the combination of feathers and scent combined. gives a scenario of prey being cached. an easy meal which they wont pass up..

[alimac 882]

feck me dogs that must have taken you a week to type, but it was worth it, a very good thread starter.. i aint got much to add, apart from 90 percent of mine are based around the wooden box, very few natural sited fenns.. imo you can make them , as you have said, almost invisible to the un trained eye with just a little time and effort....

[moley 115]

feck me dogs that must have taken you a week to type, but it was worth it, a very good thread starter.. i aint got much to add, apart from 90 percent of mine are based around the wooden box, very few natural sited fenns.. imo you can make them , as you have said, almost invisible to the un trained eye with just a little time and effort....

 

i don,t run stoat traps now , but when i did , after a catch , i used to just queeze the glands onto the underside of the tunnel or rail , to stop the rain washing it off , one stoat was good for a few traps if you didn,t queeze to hard, the last tunnel got the carcase

[dogs-n-natives 1,182]

feck me dogs that must have taken you a week to type, but it was worth it, a very good thread starter.. i aint got much to add, apart from 90 percent of mine are based around the wooden box, very few natural sited fenns.. imo you can make them , as you have said, almost invisible to the un trained eye with just a little time and effort....

 

i don,t run stoat traps now , but when i did , after a catch , i used to just queeze the glands onto the underside of the tunnel or rail , to stop the rain washing it off , one stoat was good for a few traps if you didn,t queeze to hard, the last tunnel got the carcase

Hi Ali!

 

Yeah... an unusually long rant for me !! Hope things are going well up there still mate!

 

Re: moley ;- In the traps I baited, I used fresh rabbit/game/vermin and changed it regularly, more often in the summer, and less frequent in winter.

 

I heard people sqeezed the piss and glands on, but never did it myself for the following reasons,

 

I always presumed stoats and weasels were very territorial, always fighting with nieghbouring ones, therefore if you trapped, say a big dog stoat, which owned a large territory, and squeezed its piss/jiz/glands on the trap.... when a wee neighbouring dog came along it may smell the stuff and double back, not wanting to risk a confrontation!

 

I was playing safe I suppose! Didnt want to risk not doing a good job as I had a lot riding on my success.

Thanks for the input, its something I will certainly test in the future!