Arapuca trap: First try

R

Return of the J.D.

Joined
Nov 29, 2005
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Well, in the spirit of the other guy who posted about his figure-4-trap efforts with his kid this past weekend, I'll post about my unsuccessful efforts. And, for starters, I'll say that I'm very glad I did it on a weekend in my suburban home, after lunch, instead of out in the middle of nowhere, shivering from cold and hunger.

No pictures, unfortunately--I'm not set up for that--but you might have a look at some picture on the forums of forum-member Pict's masterful arapuca traps.

We have a mesquite tree in the back yard that has produced quite a number of fairly-uniform twigs of around pencil-thickness to twice as thick. I thought that this would be a great opportunity, and had a go at preparing the trap. Took two sticks, about 15 inches long each, and some paracord, maybe a little longer than 15 inches for each of the two strands. Tied the paracord near the ends of the two sticks, making a roughly-15-inch square, with two sides being sticks, and the other two sides being cord.

I held the sticks in my hands, parallel to each other, then rotated one of the sticks so that the cords now formed an X. This shortened the distance between the sticks significantly--and, since I remember forum-member Pict's arapuca-cages looking more square than rectangular, I started again from scratch, this time using more cord so that after I twisted the sticks and made the X, the length of the sticks was about the same as the distance between the two of them.

I then tried forcing in the additional sticks between the cord X and the two sticks. I found the mesquite twigs were kind of slippery, and were strongly inclined to move inward toward the center of the X. The cage always ended up coming apart after a few levels of sticks, probably because the twigs were too smooth, and, probably more, because I found it hard to maintain tension on the bottom levels of twigs while I added the higher layers. It occurred to me that it might have worked better if I'd used stakes driven into the ground to hold the shape of the bottom layers of sticks as I inserted the upper layers. Any suggestions, Pict? (Or anyone else?)

I'm fascinated by this trap concept--as are my kids--so I really do want to get it right. Incidentally, I recall being told that the really important/hard-to-learn things about an arapuca are what to bait it with, and where to set it. Any ideas on this?

Thanks, guys--it's great to have such a resource of experienced and resourceful outdoorsmen from whom to learn.
 
I've had problems with the sticks slipping like that when I use smooth bamboo. Anything with rougher bark sets up pretty firm. I use very thin #4 waxed line for mine so I don't have much problem with turning it into a rectangle when I twist it. The great part about this trap is that you don't need any tools to make it. It certainly helps to have a knife of some sort to cut the notches but the work can be done by just breaking dry sticks and rubbing the notch into the "Y" part of the trigger with a sharp rock.

The more you play with this with your local materials the quicker and easier it will get.

As for bait try to set out regular bird seed and get birds coming to an area, then lay out a few arapucas and see what happens, just clean up the rest of the bird seed so you only have it under the traps.

Of course this is for informational purposes only; the legality of trapping birds being questionable from one jurisdiction to the next.

Breast and section dove. Brown meat in melted butter with chopped garlic. Add fresh squeezed orange juice, salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste. Reduce sauce over a low heat until it forms a glaze, Enjoy. Mac
 
Thanks! Looking again at the sticks in Pict's/Chrisaloia's pictures, I see that you are indeed using much-coarser-surfaced (and wider) sticks than I was using.
I'll give it another shot--maybe next weekend?--with some coarser wood.
 
. . . And thanks for the reminder about the legality (or not) of bird-trapping. My interest, at this point, is just in learning how to do it, and teaching my kids (who think this kind of know-how and project-building is just way cool.) My thinking is that birds are everywhere, so knowing how to make an easily-constructed trap that will live-trap birds would be a good way to increase the odds that you could get the protein you needed if ever an emergency arose.

Thanks again!
 
pict said:
Breast and section dove. Brown meat in melted butter with chopped garlic. Add fresh squeezed orange juice, salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste. Reduce sauce over a low heat until it forms a glaze, Enjoy. Mac
Click to expand...


Dove, one of my favorite foods.

Breast out the doves and with a thin, razor sharp blade filet the breasts, you should get two bite size filets from one breast. Soak the breast filets in buttermilk for a few hours and then without rinsing, dredge in seasoned flour, then into egg bath and then back into the flour. Deep fry and eat with a dip of equal parts ketchup and tobasco.

If you don't like that then there is no hope.:D Chris
 
Stuff whole dove with grapes and apple chunks. Rub outside with soy and garlic powder, wrap in bacon, cook in a rotisserie oven until crispy and dripping... Serve with liberal portions of wild rice.

Legality - If an arapuca falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it...

The nice part about this trap is that it is a live trap and you can let anything go that you catch, or not, see above posts. Mac
 
Rub entire breast with garlic, place half of a seeded and deveined jalapeno pepper in breast, a slice of smoked cheddar on top and hold everything together by wrapping with a slice of bacon, bake until done.

Pict,
Dove season starts here before to long at all, me and you need to get together.:D
BTW trapping gamebirds here will earn you a spot under the jail. Chris
 
Two bird/fish/game catchers and my favorite food preperation device.;) Chris

Picture896.jpg
 
Chris,

Have you ever heard an arapuca drop? Me neither.

Hunting is banned here in all it's forms.

That said, in a nameless South American country I was once invited to hunt pigeons on a corporate farm. Eight thousand hectares of cut corn. Before dawn you could hear the jungle surrounding the fields was alive with pigeons cooing. When the sun came up they started flying, high and fast. These are very large birds, a third again larger than the ones up there. They are very wary too, they will not fly over you if they spot movement.

I was using a borrowed Berreta 303 and we literally had a grain sack full of shells. I got 34. The days total for five hunters was about 250. The guy next to me with a 20 ga double was nailing about 85%. I was rusty. On the way out we dropped most of the birds off at the barracks where the 50 or so farm workers lived. You never saw such a happy groups of guys.

Living down here I don't get much chance to wingshoot. This winter I did get back to PA for a bit and nailed 4 ringnecks...with four shots. Someone decided to give me a good day. Mac
 
pict said:
Chris,

Have you ever heard an arapuca drop? Me neither.

Hunting is banned here in all it's forms.

That said, in a nameless South American country I was once invited to hunt pigeons on a corporate farm. Eight thousand hectares of cut corn. Before dawn you could hear the jungle surrounding the fields was alive with pigeons cooing. When the sun came up they started flying, high and fast. These are very large birds, a third again larger than the ones up there. They are very wary too, they will not fly over you if they spot movement.

I was using a borrowed Berreta 303 and we literally had a grain sack full of shells. I got 34. The days total for five hunters was about 250. The guy next to me with a 20 ga double was nailing about 85%. I was rusty. On the way out we dropped most of the birds off at the barracks where the 50 or so farm workers lived. You never saw such a happy groups of guys.

Living down here I don't get much chance to wingshoot. This winter I did get back to PA for a bit and nailed 4 ringnecks...with four shots. Someone decided to give me a good day. Mac
Click to expand...

Mac,
I wasn't saying you were doing anything wrong or bad, sometimes stealth is very necessary, the under the jail comment was meant just to emphasize how illegal bird trapping is here.

If you need any help with anymore pigeons give me a holler, me and my son have been trying to save for a trip to Argentina for some marathon wingshooting but I don't know if we are going to make it with college coming up.:( Chris
 
Chris,

I knew you wern't waggin' yer fanger at me. There are very few places where trapping game birds is legal. This is one form of trap that you can practice with without actually harming a bird. You can't really do that with snares and deadfalls and know for certain that they worked.

Down here they used them for trapping songbirds to sell as pets, also highly illegal. If you go to any rural home here they will have a half dozen local birds in cages. There is just something about birds and Brazilians. I've even seen a pet toucan. Big, big fine for keeping such a bird here but the locals don't even blink at it. Mac
 
when I was a kid we would trap birds in our backyard for fun. we would use chicken wire and make as large a cylinder or rectangle as it made and a door about 4 inches at the bottom. we set it in the yard with bread pieces in and around it, after a flock of starlings, sparrows, etc. worked thier way in we would run out the back door yelling and waving our arms causing the birds to fly to the top of the cage and then just close the door.
 
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