Another Mystery Animal

As an experiment, I placed a game camera at one of my trap sites. This particular set-up is a dirt hole set meant to target the rich and healthy local population of coyotes. I was curious to see if other critters were visiting the location and/or how many near misses were encountered over the course of the trapping season running from Oct. 17 to Dec. 31. Note this “mystery animal” barely escaping the jaws of a leg hold trap a few inches to the left of were he approached the baited hole. Bring on the guesses . . . bobcat, fisher, coyote, fox?

Dirt Hole Set During the Day Light

Tanning Hides (Part 3)

Several months ago a small box arrived on my door step containing the key elements and directions that would enable me to tan an animal hide. I had started this little adventure with high hopes but now had began to seriously question my abilities and develop reservations that this little experiment would even work. Staring down into the "pickle", reeking of vinegar and putrid coon, I began poking the hide with a yard stick curious if the hair and flesh would vaporize on contact. Seeing that the remains appeared to stay intact, I proceeded to remove the coon hide from the pickle bucket.

Taking the raccoon hide firmly in both hands, I proceeded to squeeze all of the remaining vinegar and salt from the hide. After dumping the pickle down the tub drain, I read further into the directions where it stated, "be sure to reserve pickle for next step". More curse words ensued and yet another unscheduled trip to the store was made. Had I followed the directions, I would not have had to mix another pickle, however, I am running for village idiot this election cycle and really needed to raise my public ratings.

After mixing up a fresh pickle, I proceeded to dump in the kit included tanning solution and raccoon pelt. Everything then received a hearty stir. Lastly, I dropped in a large rock to keep things from floating above the surface and secured the lid.

This mix of 1 gallon of pickle and 9 (22 tablespoons) oz of Rittels Kwik-Tan was allotted to sit a minimum of 24 to 36 hours to give the tanning solution a chance to penetrate and work its magic. I didn't have time available to work with it again until 48 hours had passed and it seemed to have made little difference.

Two days later, I (AGAIN) dumped the pickle and proceeded to squeeze out the coon. I put 1 gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of baking soda in the bucket and thoroughly washed the hide inside and out (perhaps 10 minutes of rinsing). This could have been where I messed up in the process, as the hide still has a slight vinegar scent. So, if anyone is reading and thinking of trying you may want to spend more time on the baking soda wash. (I am going to hang the hide outside for a few days and see if this helps to dissipate the smell. If that doesn't work, I am going to seal the hide in a bag for a few days filled with dry baking soda. IF THAT DOESN'T WORK, I am drowning the whole works in Febreze and hoping for the best!)

So by this stage, you should have a soggy raccoon hide that smells something like a cross between a well aged italian sandwich and New York City taxi cab. The directions instruct you to dry the hide at this point but not over dry. This seemingly contradictory statement is made possible by "damp drying". This is accomplished by turning the skin fur side out to allow the fur to dry but keep the flesh relatively moist. I then tightly wrapped the entire hide in a bathroom towel to absorb additional moisture. After 5-10 minutes of drying, I turned the flesh side back out and proceeded to prepare the oiling mixture.

Mixing 2oz of water and 1oz proplus tanning oil provided more than enough oiling solution to cover the entire hide. A single application was all that seemed necessary and using a small brush it was easily painted on. After a through application, I turned the hide again so that the newly oiled flesh was to the inside. This is done to allow the oil a chance to slowly penetrate over 4-6 hours.

Now once again turn the hide back to flesh side out to allow it to dry. The various sections of the hide will dry at differing rates of speed, so care should be taken to keep a close eye on things. I checked the drying once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. At these points, fold the hide and see if white crease marks are produced. If they are you should pull and stretch these areas working to keep them pliable. This is also a great time to strip the hide of any extra flesh that may have lingered throughout the process. A heavy to medium grade sandpaper works great in removing stubborn areas and also gives the hide that buffed "professional" finished look.

That is the end of the process. I hope I didn't make any of the steps sound to complicated as it is fairly easy. I would highly recommend trying, as the final product makes an impressive wall hanging. Please drop me an e-mail if anyone has questions and I would be happy to assist. Good Luck!

Tanning Hides (Part One)

As a young boy, tanning hides was something the elders of the clan did to us children when we were misbehaving. It usually occurred in the woodshed with a leather belt, random piece of kindling wood or some other close at hand justifiable implement. The entire procedure only took a few minutes and in the “end” always managed to produce a beautifully tanned hide. With the advent of time and perhaps what some would call “advancements” in child rearing, the old methods of tanning hides no longer seems to be an accepted parenting practice. Not to be confused with the barbaric methods of old, I recently decided to try my hand at tanning hides. Perhaps from my previous experiences with getting my hide tanned, I assumed that the process would be rather easy to accomplish, straightforward and quick to complete. I was however wrong.

Of course to begin any tanning process, you must begin with a hide. In order to secure a hide you must first kill an acceptable furbearing critter. Personally, I chose to target fox and coyote because I trapped them as a child. Back then, I sold what I caught and thus was unable to keep any of my original hides. Of course, best made plans never seem to work out quite the way you originally wanted and thus I ended up completing the 2009 trapping season with a single raccoon hide.

Having had much experience with the skinning process from many year of previous practice, I was able to easily separate the masked bandit from his fur coat. For the uninitiated, this is a relatively simple process with the most difficulty occurring around the tail and head. The tail skin can be rolled off the tail bone using a couple of pencils placed one above and one below the tail bone. Held together with your hand a strong downward pull does a quick job of separating the two. To eliminate the chance of spoilage, care must be taken, with a sharp knife, to split the tail all the way to the end. The thin hide around the head, is slowly worked round and round as you cut off the underlying ear cartilage, around the eyeholes and finally off the end of the skull to separate the nose.

The pelt is then placed fur side down and worked with a scraping tool to thoroughly separate the attached fat. It is critical that all meat, fat and membrane be removed, as it will quickly spoil and ruin your hide. With fatty critters like raccoon and beaver this is by far the part of the process I dislike the most, as it is time consuming, hard, messy, nasty work. Of course, the professional trappers have skinning beams and two handed fleshing knives that make this job exponentially easier, however, I did not have access to these tools.

Finally, with the hide cleaned of all fat it was placed on a wooded stretching board with the skin side out, held in place with tacks and left to dry in my cool basement for about a two months, until I was ready to start the initial steps of the tanning process.

Part two of the Tanning Hides Process to be posted soon!

Trapping Season Ends

Despite the fact that I can hear coyotes howling in the distance, trapping season for me is done for the season. It was certainly a learning process this year trying to remember all of the details surrounding the management of a trap line, details that seemed so much clearer in my youth. Time was a critical factor and as I added duck and deer season to the equation, I began to realize that it would be impossible for me to do all tasks well and sadly eventually something was going to fall through the cracks.

Rather than continue to let things slowly deteriorate into chaos, I opted to quit while I was behind and pulled the entire line after only a week and a half of the trapping season had expired. To say I was a little disappointed about the whole thing would be a bit of an understatement. Somehow all of the pieces just didn’t want to line up for me in this endeavor and I am unsure where to go from here. Perhaps a year of mulling over this past seasons mistakes and successes will help me decide if I continue to pursue furbearers.

I hate to end things on a negative note, so I did leave a single trap out in the woods only a few hundred yards from the house. Imagine my surprise, when I checked it the other morning and found that it contained a raccoon. While not a huge specimen at 17 lbs (they max at around 30 lbs) and 31 inches nose to tail I was still fairly excited. Fleshed out and now on the skinning board, it looks great and with the tanning supplies I ordered I hope to have it hanging on the wall before Christmas.

On a side note, I had excellent luck ordering trapping supplies online at http://www.trapandtrail.com. Items came wrapped safely packaged and the order included a hand written note thanking me for my purchase. If anyone needs supplies and are having problems securing items locally I suggest giving them a try.

Trapping Season Begins

The initial traps are in, so now the waiting game begins. I managed to set 6 #2 Bridger traps this morning and plan to add a few more each day until I reach a total of 10. I figure with all my other pursuits, this number is about all I can effectively manage.

Except for the first set, that I had to revisit because I neglected to stake it down . . . sigh . . . everything went fairly well. Pencil that one into the experience notebook!! After that initial fiasco, the old muscle memory kicked in and the remaining sets went well. Once I got a rhythm going, thing got easier and I was able to move faster and with more efficiency through the remaining sets.

Traps were secured with a variety of grapples and staking systems based on the quality of the soil. Areas with a sandy or swampy consistency, where a stake wouldn't hold, I added a two prong grapple about a big as your hand and with approximately four feet of chain.

Obviously very excited about tomorrow morning, as fresh fox tracks and the howling of distant coyotes over the past several evenings have got my blood boiling!!

Trapping

This story starts with the discovery of a water stained box recently rescued from my parents basement. On the outside, scribbled in faded permanent marker, were the words trapping supplies. Within the confines of the slowly disintergrating cardboard, were my old and well rusted leg hold traps.

Upon opening, I was immediately flooded with many happy childhood memories of outwitting fox and coyotes with dirt hole and scent post sets. I started trapping when I was 8, immediately becoming addicted. For me there was something deeply intoxicating about checking the trap line each early Fall morning. The anticipation of a wild animal caught by my "trickery" was an amazing experience for a young sportsman. At some point during my reflection, I determined that this trapping season I would once again try my luck at capturing a few wiley canines.

An examination of my old traps showed that the years had not been kind and only a few were servicable. The logwood dye had blackened and magically somehow managed to save a few #2 Victor coilsprings from certain destruction, wrought from several decades in a damp basement.

Equipped financially much better than I was in middle school, I put the heavily rusted antiques aside and invested in 6 new #2 coil springs by Bridger. Where trap design has changed little in the past 20 years the process for blackening and preserving them against the elements has changed significantly. "Speed Dip" is now the new dyeing method and takes minutes rather than hours. The only drawback is that traps must be aired out for months before they are ready for fox and coyotes. Due to time, I will be airing mine for one month so this year trapping may be an experiment in frutility!?!? I hope it is enough time!

Another major advancement, is the creation of "disposable" stakes. These wonderful creations, eliminate the need to use rebar stakes that were practically impossible to retreive at the end of the season or when it was determined that a set needed to be moved. These new stakes are driven with a special tool and then easily retreived by pulling on a second wire attached to the anchor that reverses the direction of the device and allows it to be easily extracted. Apparently, gone are my days of swearing and herniated disc that occurred with the removal process of the old stake systems.

With traps preped and supplies secured the next step in this process would be securing a trapping licence. I was worried that IFWs records would not include my adult trapping licence but they were able to find it and issue me a new licence in minutes!!

Lastly, if I do in fact manage to actually catch something, I secured a couple handmade stretching boards from an oldtimer at the recent trappers rendezvous in Sidney, ME. Yeah, I could have purchased a couple of those fancy wire stretchers but for me the wooden option was the best fit and reminds me of the ones I used to have as a youngster.

Well off to the wilds to pre-build a few cubby and dirt hole sets! Will keep you posted as the season opens on October 18th!