Trappers, how do you keep from trapping people?

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Stinger

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As the title says...

I know diddly about trapping. I was wondering what type of precautions were used to make sure that people weren't trapped in your animal traps. Even though most trapping is done off the beaten path, there is a pretty good chance of someone walking along, and perhaps an unfortunate accident as well.

Any info?

Thanks,

Stinger
 
I am not a trapper but from what I have read , You don't just lay a trap on the ground and hope an animal will step in it. They are placed in and under things , in places the type of animal you are after is likely to go if the right bait, scent or lure is used. These are not usually on trails that people would walk on, and the traps are not huge bear traps that are sometimes seen in movies, most traps a man would have trouble getting his whole foot in , but I am sure it would hurt your toe if it just got the tip of the boot. Also must trapping regulations require checking your traps often.
 
A #2 or #3 Victor isn't gonna hurt anybody wearing boots, and won't really do damage to someone in tenny-runners. I don't really know of anybody trapping for bears or cougars, which require larger traps.

But most of the deal is location, anyway. You don't set traps in people-pathways.

Art
 
I have an acquaintance who is a regular trapper, mostly for small fur-bearing and predators.

If asked about how much his traps hurt the animal, he will gladly close one on his hand to demonstrate. A sting, but no serious damage. Anyone wearing shoes wouldn't be hurt much, if at all. And if you're out in the wilderness without wearing shoes, well, you just aint all that bright.
 
I wouldn't want to stick my foot #280 or #330 conibear, but thats never been a problem. The places you put them, people don't generally go.

David
 
I hunt in Northern Maine where you will still find bear trappers and traps in the woods. They are SUPPOSED to be clearly marked in all directions. I've seen a couple that are not so obvious. That always gives me the heebee jeebees. Seems to me that getting stuck in a bear trap makes me the bait. Talk about a situation going from bad to worse.
 
I am an old x-trapper. To show how to keep from catching what you do not want in your trap would take a full article on each species. I will assure you that I trapped in the South for many yrs. I trapped coyotes in areas that farmers let their dogs run loose. I can make a set that a coyote will go to & a dog will ignore. There are skunk trappers that want to extract the musk as well as sell the fur. They make sets that skunks will come to but a possum will not. I didnot want skunks so you can set for a fox, coon, mink, and a skunk will not get in it.

Only1asterisk is very correct about a 330 conibear. That one is big enough to hurt a foot, or leg & shin if you stepped in the middle of it. It will instantly break an arm. You have no business sticking a hand in a hollow log or a large hole in the ground where one would be set.
If you are a hunter, hiker, bird watcher, or naturalist, getting accidently caught in a trapppers set is just not going to happen.

Never trapped bears, wolverines, MT lions. These are the only North American animals large enough to require a leg hold trap that would accept the booted foot of a mature human. These traps are going to be set in a place that you are going to move the animal where you want him to be & it will not be in a place people are going to go.

I assure you the media is far more ignorant & twisted about the horrors of people in traps than they are over guns killing people.
A good question though.
LT
 
About 20 years ago, friend of mine from Minn. was coon hunting. He steped in a hole in in a tamerack bog he was walking on, right into a 330 connibear trap set for beaver. Luckly for him he was waring chest waders, as he was stuck with one leg in the hole and the other up on the bog. He couldn't reach the trap, he couldn't move, there he was stuck. He said that when he figured out he was stuck, he was mad as he** at who ever set it, and vowed to hill the SOB when he arrived. After several hours in the swamp, cold & wet, he started thinking that maybe he'd just give the guy hell instead of killing him. By sun up, he was hopping someone would hurry up and get him out. When the fellow showed up, about 3 PM, my friend was so happy to see someone and get out, he didn't care about anything else. Yes, it can happen.
 
I only trapped muskrats when I was a kid; soooooo, if a human were to slide face first down a rat slide and I had a set there he might get his nose in the trap. Then, if his instinct was to swim to deep water to escape he would wrap the chain around the stake and drown unless he could figure out how to chew off his nose first. Otherwise not much chance of a human getting in a rat set unless he liked to wade in cold muddy water in the winter.
 
Short of bear traps and perhaps some beaver traps, the traps are too small to cause much of a problem with people. I've never trapped beaver, but I wouldn't look forward to putting my arm into a 330 Conibear, but it would require some effort to do so. I have however stuck my hand and arm into 110 conibears while trapping. It's a bit of a surprise, but not particularly dangerous to humans. Of course it that proposed law makes it way through Congress, you won't have to worry about it. No more steel traps.
 
Thanks for the info. Trapping is not really used in my neck of the woods, so I have zero experience with traps or trappers.

In my mind, I guess I just had pictures of razor-sharp metal teeth slamming shut with umpteen-jillion pounds of force.

I assumed that trappers had tactics developed for their particular quarry, but had no idea that they could be so specialized (ie 'yotes and not dogs).

Cool!

ps
You'll catch one every now and then, but they're mostly PETA sympathizers, so just grind em' up for dog food.
Click to expand...
With the current problems with the K9 food supply, it might not be a terrible idea ;)
 
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The only person I ever heard of getting caught in a trap was me in a trap I was setting myself. I don't remember the # but is was the connibear that you usually use for coons. Back in the days when pickup spotlighting was legal and coons were $40+, I saw one run in a culvert, we used to just set a connibear on each end and leave for 20 mins or so. Well as I was setting it, something slipped and it was coming down on my hands I tried to stop it which managed to keep it from slamming but I still ended up with both thumbs in there. It didn't hurt much unless I tried slipping or prying or escapeing any way. By the time I figuered this out my thumbs were getting pretty sore. I ended up driving about 40 miles home in stick shift Jeep and walking into my parents house with my purple thumbs still stuck. My dad laughed and compressed the springs on the end that I couldn't reach and everything was fine. I had forgotten all about this till I read this thread it makes me chuckle now but I remember it wasn't too funny at the time. Nor was it that amusing when my folks told everybody that came by for a long time. Where I live people are pretty scarce. Once I left my Rapala Knife stuck in the sand on the bank of my favorite fishing creek right by the best parking place around, right where if you parked there, you would clean your fish and it was still there two years later--I used to trap in more remote places than that and not in people paths either. But in the unlikeky event that a person were caught, and it wasn't a bear trap, and they didn't have both hands tied up, And they didn't have a friend or couldn't unfasten the stake or open the trap themselves, very very very unlikely I guess they'd be pretty mad when you come and let them out. More than likely they'll be out in a minute anyway and they may have a sore toe and your name and address from the tag that should, by law, be attatched to each trap. I don't know about trapping bears though never done it or knew anybody that did either. Are these even legal anymore I don't think so but I'm not sure? If so they must be marked very well? I really don't think bear trapping is legal anywhere any more. I've heard of old timers cutting crosses in the tops of old barrels and bending the tabs in and baiting the bottom so that when a bear stuck his head in he'd cut his own throught trying to get out, but I don't know of anyone who ever actually did this. I can't picture anybody (except maybe a Cornhusker lol) putting thier head in a deal like this.
 
By the way, How do you make a set for a coyote that won't catch a dog? I've never caught a dog probably because where I used to trap dogs are scarcer than people unless they came with a person. I know it's not urine because my dogs go nuts sniffing where coyotes have peed. Food would attract them all, aren't coyotes dogs? You must use Acme blueprints I never seen a dog that was interested in those.
 
well sometimes you catch animals you dont want you just release them ;)

unless you are setting traps for bears you really dont have to worry about catching a human, most places its illegale to set a conibear over 8" in size on land, and if it was legal unless you where blind and didnt notice the 10x10 cold roll steel in your pathway you deserve to be caught :D

about 99% of foothold traps will do nothing to a human or small child if stepped on. now land mines on the other hand....
 
I personally like using live traps. I have tried releasing a ferral cat from a leg set before, never again. I don't trap often, but when I do, I use live traps here on the farm. I coon hunt alot and have had several run ins with my dogs in leg traps. For coyote trapping, the best thing out there right now is the collarum trap. Have caught my own house dogs in them to no ill effect. I use it when the coyotes start venturing in this way from time to time. It is absolutely amazing.

www.collarum.com
 
I kill feral cats as a matter of course. Even if I didn't I'd never try to release one from a trap. Thankfully, I've never caught a housecat.

David
 
The vast majority of traplines in Alaska are accessable by snowmachines only and inaccessible to someone out for a stroll. Traps are not placed where humans would normally go.

By law, the lines have to be clearly marked at both ends and a lot of trappers also have tags attached to their trap chains.

If you are caught out on a marked trapline, getting pinched in a trap is going to be the least of your worries.:scrutiny:

The methods used for trapping the various species pretty much precludes a human from accidentally springing a trap and getting pinched.

As another poster stated the methods used for each species would take up a lot of space. In short smaller land species like fox, coyote, lynx and marten are trapped with 1, 1 1/2, and 2 leg hold traps. Larger species such as wolf, coyote and wolverine are taken with snares. Smaller waterborne furbearers are taken with conibears or leg hold, and beavers are taken underwater with snares or large conibears.
 
Yer cain't help bad luck :D

I used to trap rabbits extensively before and after school. Apart form an odd cat (bad luck, ferals shouldn't be huntin native birds, etc) the only thing I caught in the traps apart from rabbits, was me. Treading on one when I was looking for it or having it snap shut once or twice whilst I was setting it. Treading on them didn't hurt as they were pretty small comapred to a big teenager's shoe, but they finger nips sure smarted!

I must get back into it. The traditional traps have been illegal here for sometime as they are considered cruel, but they now make them with neoprene jaws and are back on sale.
 
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