Trapping: ratio of sets to animals caught.

C

coote

Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
1,465
I've just gone back through my notebooks and scraps of paper that I carry with me on my traplines.

I started keeping records in early March this year. To date I have made 565 sets and I have caught 94 possums (the target animal). On top of that I've caught four feral cats and one small wild pig in my possum sets. The interesting figure is for knocked snares. I classify a knocked snare as one which has been disturbed without catching anything. For these 565 sets there were 183 knocked snares.

If I had steel traps and the freedom to set them anywhere I think my returns would have been much better, and my knocks almost non-existent. But this has not been possible. In many ways my trapping is fairly close to being the same as wilderness survival trapping.

The percentage of successful snares has been about 16% if I've done my math correctly. So it goes to show, in general, that if you want to be sure of eating you have to set plenty of snares. My figures also show that I still have a bit to learn about setting a successful possum snare...I am getting too many knocked sets. I compensate for the knocks a bit by setting more snares, but it would be good to know so much about possum behaviour that I could catch a possum in nearly every snare they visited.
 
Interesting post to me, because I have
no experience with a trap line.

Are possum the most practical animal
for survival trapping, in your area?

Have you targeted other animals,
using different kinds of sets?

Have you run on to other game,
while tending the traps? For example,
would you expect to see 1 deer for every
3 times through your traps?

frank
 
With night vision and filming technology as easily obtainable as it is today it would be interesting to conduct a study by being able to actually observe what happens in real time or later on film.
 
Yes.... possums are by far the best target for survival trapping. They are relatively abundant, particularly in some areas, and they don't seem to be spooked by the smell of a man.

I have tried to target other animals, but I haven't put the same effort into catching them as I have with possums. I trap the possums for the fur which gives me a project and a bit of pocket money.

I've trapped about five feral pigs.... three in snares and two in a home-made cage trap with a swinging door. Given enough time and a good area to trap, I am confident that I could catch more pigs...but I could never guarantee a catch on a certain day.

I have also trapped a few rabbits.... and one feral goat.

It is a matter of persistence and being prepared to invest the time. Most people should be able to trap something if they do some basic research and then just go out and do a lot of trap setting.

Do I run into other game when setting my traps? Well...yes... I guess I do. The area where I have done most of my possum trapping is farmland, not hunting country so I don't expect to see much there. But I have seen the odd rabbit or hare.... and I have often heard feral pigs and goats in the bordering scrubby hills. And I see quite a few Californian Quail and some ducks. There are other places where I could go and be more certain of seeing feral deer and pigs. So if you want figures, I'd say that I could hear pigs or goats in the scrub (which I could pursue) maybe every fourth or fifth trip into the farmland trapping area. If I were to go to my spot in the Marlborough Sounds where I might target pigs, I could just about see a deer or a pig every time I went out if it were near dawn or dusk (or maybe even in the middle of the day).

It is just a matter of putting in the time.

Yes.... it would be great to have some video technology that would enable me to study the movements of the possums around the traps. I have a 'still' game camera, but of course this fires as soon as movement is detected and this would nearly always be at the wrong time. I also have an infra-red game counter from Leaf River which can evidently plug into a video camera to switch it on for a fixed period when movement is detected....but I would need to consult an expert as to how to make the connections into the camera... and I would need to have some sort of lighting...preferably infra red. I have borrowed a night vision viewer, but have not yet managed to spot a possum moving around a snare.

Meanwhile I try different sets, and I form theories as to how a possum might be moving and test it with the various sets at different heights and positions etc. I guess I might lose some interest if the challenge wasn't there.

I suppose I could also bring some live possums home and cage them to watch how they like to move around.

There is no doubt in my mind that the best trapping knowledge to have is knowledge of the habits of the target animal. A man can have a repetoire of several cunning trap triggers and some irresistable baits and a great area to hunt, but if you don't know much about the animals your efforts will be fairly 'hit and miss'.

The traps I mostly use are just plain snares made from braided cord.
 
Just a thought Coote, if they aren't spooked by scent could you prepare the ground in such away that he would leave tracks that could be interpreted later? If you got a knocked snare then you might be able to tell how he was standing or how he approached. Mac
 
Good idea pict. I leave "tells" on deer trails to pattern then. Not as hi-tech as infrared cameras, but it only costs me a couple of spools of black cotton sewing thread. Set them at different heights to determine the size of the critter. A broken or missing thread is a pretty good sign of an animal's passage and direction of travel too.
 
Good thinking Mac and Codger.

Unfortunately I don't get to set many ground snares where these cunning methods would apply. I would love to set more ground snares, but I don't...mainly because of livestock and dogs. I believe that I would have much better success with ground snares....the success rate seems particularly high on the ground... I've even caught a few possums in big rope snares that I have set for hogs (round the body rather than the neck generally).

Nearly all my snares are set on poles or in trees. Possums climb trees...fortunately dogs, sheep and cattle generally don't. On the ground a snare can be made to blend in with the surroundings pretty well...especially compared to a snare set on a pole or a branch where it easy to see and hard to disguise.

Sometimes the possums are very obliging. They seem to climb any old branch and willingly stick their head through an obvious noose. Other times they seem intent on crawling through the noose without touching the sides... or maybe they push it aside or try to clamber over it. I've tried all sorts of things. For my next trick I am going to try setting a good number of snares on particularly steep branches where the possum will be hugging the branch rather that walking along it.

Here is a picture of the countryside that I've done quite a bit of trapping on. I generally set my snares on the edge of the scrubby areas.

TrapCountry.jpg
 
That cotton stretched across the trail is a good idea Codger. It would be neat to think of some simple device that would give an indication of the time of the day that the cotton was disturbed. I have an infrared counter, but I think some cotton tied to something like a big home-made hourglass that got tipped over at the time of impact would be much more fun. That idea might sound a bit far-fetched... but I am serious. Surely there is something simple or natural that changes over time that could be interrupted or started when the thread got pulled. Accuracy to the nearest half-hour would be good enough.
 
You've got had a lot more success than I have. I'm using just plain old brass snares and its more like 5-10% effective. I'm willing to bet I need to change my bait again. I havent found anything that works well. I should pick up my log again.
 
What sort of animal are you trying to snare LHD?

Baits are another good topic. Our possums are mainly vegetarian I think, although it is said that they will eat meat, birds eggs and young birds. Oil of aniseed has been a long-standing favourite among possum trappers here.

I have used apples quite a bit...generally in conjunction with a flour, sugar and essence mix.

A mix of flour, icing sugar and vanilla is a simple mix that works for possums.

I was looking at 'the bucket of guts' site the other day, and there was a guy there who reckoned that maple syrup was a good lure for coons. It seems like he was using imitation syrup because it was so cheap. I think anything with an enduring smell is worth a try.

I think I've read of some guys that use Gatorade powder in their bait mixtures for pigs. I'd be inclined to try anything 'smelly' that I can get from the food section of the supermarket. I noted some cheap ice cream topping today that I might try some time. If I can rub some on a tree one afternoon, and then still smell it the next morning then it should be good.

I find that aniseed loses its smell overnight (to my human nostrils anyway) when applied as a lure....whereas I've noticed that curry powder is still detectable the next morning.

If I were using ground snares, I would not necessarily need bait. But if I couldn't find any well used possum runs on the ground I would place a bit of lure on either side of the snare to try to attract the animals. I think it may be important to consider the effect of placing lure too close to a snare...this may cause the animal to have its nose virtually on the ground...thus it may not have its head in the 'normal' position that you've set the snare for.

Urine lures are something I would like to know more about. I am sure I could handle the urine harvesting part...but I am not so sure about what additives I should use to preserve it. I have heard that Sodium benzoate is something that is used, but I don't know what percentage of this is required.

I know very little about trapping in your country....but from what I've read, 5 or 10% might not be too bad. I have a feeling that our possums are quite a bit easier to trap than many other animals. If I could guarantee 5% success with deer or pig snares I would be very satisfied.

Some Englishmen seem to get outstanding results with simple multi-stranded brass snares when they are trapping rabbits. I have been amazed with some of the posts and pictures that I've looked at here:
http://www.thehuntinglife.com/forums/index.php?showforum=14
 
Given your tendency to use the same lures as other trappers in the area and the high number of knocked snares I would guess that you're dealing with educated possums by now. I'm sure that they will start associating the smell of anise seed with "those things that go whoosh" and might approach with caution. A radical change in lure might put their guard down. You might be dealing with professional bait raiders.

We had to deal with very trap-wary red fox. They are smart animals, known to dig out traps before investigating the bait. We once caught a fox using a well concealed jump trap buried under/next to a #2 in a bad set. The top trap was actually the bait. Mac
 
I've tried everything from mixed seeds, peanutbutter to rotten bacon. The bacon seems to work best and I'm willing to bet its because its so pungent. I was looking to get whatever would be stupid enough to go for the bait. Many times I found my snares knocked but the bait undisturbed.
 
With bird season coming up if it's legal where you live use the guts.If not as Codger said sardines.I caught 25 foxes one season on rotten shrimp.They loved it and so did the bobcats.Made good money that season.Just found my last trap the other day.I thought they were all gone.Victor #1.Probably 60 years old.Arnold
 
I set 29 snares yesterday. Inspired by what Mac said I figured it wouldn't hurt to change my bait. Unfortunately it rained on me while I was setting...and it made everything damp. The moisture probably killed the scent of the bait to a certain extent as well. But I didn't catch a thing...and although some snares had 'moved' overnight, I didn't see any evidence to show that it was an animal that had done the moving...the wind was quite strong and that was probably the reason. So I walked maybe five kilometres and didn't bring home anything...except the knowledge that the type of set I used is quite susceptible to being moved by the wind (which is good to know).

Oh well.... I may get out on Thursday afternoon for another try. My professional trapper buddy gave me some commercially made possum lure. It looks like a block of licorice... and it smell like it too. I suspect that it is based on the same recipe. I will see if that does anything.
 
I love snares & they are easy to set, I had a problem with a snare set once,it was getting knocked out of the trail every day ,so I kept making the loop bigger & on the third day I caught a coyote, I had been targeting feral cats & possums,the coyote was too big for the loop so he kept knocking it out of the way,when I made the loop bigger I caught the animal that was knocking my snares!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top