I posted this on the Alaska Trapping Association’s page but know a few of you don’t frequent that page so anyway here it is Todd screwed up and it got a little scary but Im alive and well and still checking traps

This is an important post sorry no catch pictures but please read.
Last week I did like most of us do sooner or later and like I have done many times I pinched myself in a trap. The problem with this one was first off I was alone. Second It was a big trap a newer Bridger #4 DL I got my right thumb all the way below the knuckle.
I couldn’t move the thumb in any manner. I was stuck because of the way my hand was situated I couldn’t get at one spring. I was in quite the fix. My in reach was in my coat however my coat was 20-30yrds away on my machine. After the intial attempts to remove the trap I began working the double furrel on the cable attachment in attempt to get me and the trap to the snogo where I had tools to help, in doing this I turned my wrist just right and saw an opportunity to get my left hand on the spring that was previously hidden by my forearm.
I got it compressed and then was finally able to kneel on the other spring and pop my thumb free
Time in trap seemed like 5 minutes more realistically was a solid 2-3 minutes when I pulled my glove off my thumb at the jaw contact point was only as thick as the bone and a layer of skin. The thumb today a week later is still slighlty numb. Ok so to the point the first thing I did when I got back to my machine was take the in reach out of my coat and put it in my bibs so it is really always on me. I have been rethinking more how I can carefully handle things Im no greenhorn Ive been at this for over 40 yrs in Alaska and have never felt like I was in real trouble because I was in a trap until now this time I actually was a little scared . As a warning keep the inreach on yourself at all time and think about what extraction tools you may also want in your pockets to help from becoming a statistic or loosing a digit just something for all you guys that travel alone like me doing what we love to think about be careful out there

I don't want to take away from this important thread. I have been in a #9 2 times and before InReach. The first time was 1/2 the way between the 2 joints in my index finger. I was able to get my knee on one spring and the other with my free hand. I waited until I got to my truck, machine loaded and truck started before I removed my glove. My finger was flat but not broken thankfully. The snap from a set off trap in the silence of our trade is something to behold.

I am glad your okay and were able to bring this important message up, thank you!

I believe one of our members got his hand or arm in a 330 in such a manner that he had a difficult time getting the trap off. Same scenario. Tools, rope, etc. out of reach. He got it off e eventually. Member was wolverine bait, down around copper center.
Read another one somewhere about getting a hand stuck in a 330 set for beaver under the ice.

I heard a story when I first started trapping around the Ketchikan area about a guy who got his arm stuck deep in a 330 that was wired off to a tree. He was stuck there for 24-48 hours before a friend found him. I dont know why the person who told me would lie, but it really drove home the lesson of telling people where you're going and when you plan to be home.

Glad you're ok!

Otterman thats great advice and quite the learning experience. After putting a sled through the ice with my inreach in a bag on the handlebars I have started having it in a coat pocket ever since. But never thought about the times I take my coat off while making sets and the inreach is still in my coat pocket now sitting on the sled seat.

Glad you managed to escape Todd. I have to guess that you couldn't get your teeth under the jaws

Snowmachines can be equally as dangerous. I knew a guy from Aniak who was out hunting caribou alone.Temps were 35-40 below. Parked his machine to chase some animals and when he got back the engine fired up but the track wouldn't move. He tipped the machine and revved the throttle while pulling on the track. It grabbed his coat sleeve and pulled his arm into the tunnel.

He ended up chopping his hand off above his wrist.... once it froze and then rode back to Aniak.
Be careful out there

WOW Ken thats horrible.

It sure was. He said he was lucky it was so cold. Otherwise he would have bled to death. I saw him a couple winters later and he was still trapping............with a partner.

Many years ago in the Pointe au Baril area the remains of a trapper were found still in his bear trap.
4 wheelers can be dangerous.A couple years ago my neighbors father got pinned under his flipped 4 wheeler when driving alone and drowned in a foot of water.
I have had my hand caught in a belisle 330 but was able to pull out luckily I was wearing heavy moosehide mitts with thick duffle liners.

Bad stuff can happen in the blink of an eye.

Glad youre OK otterman.

couple things pop into mind reading this one.
Ive heard it said before never anchor your trap until it is set and bedded. second, I have considered bolting a hacksaw upside down on my sled in case i was to ever catch both hands.

Dean Wilson told a story of his trapping partner that had both hands in a 114! Wondered where he was and backtracked and found why he wasn't coming.

Glad you're ok, I've caught myself quite a few times. Most times it is no big deal, but this winter I got myself in a modified TS85 wolf trap. Like you I got my thumb, only I got it clear above the second knuckle, and in the corner of the jaws next to the lever, so that hand was in the way and there was no way for me to get the setters on that side, (which I did have within reach) nor a foot easily. After a lot of finagling I finally got the edge of a toe on that lever and was able to depress it enough to get my thumb pulled out. I was probably in the trap about as long as you, sure seemed like a long time though! Of course it was my throttle thumb, and with about a twenty mile ride back to the truck I turned the throttle on my snowmachine around so I could operate it with my fingers. That thumb was pretty sore for a couple days.

I don't care an In Reach or anything with me, and am alone at least nine times out of ten. A guy should really be more careful than most of us are out there.

For years we never had any source of communication and we practiced a little more common sense. I have carried a Sat Phone for a few years and now carry an InReach. I carry it on me on a neck strap inside my shirt. I also carry a pistol on my belt at all times. Too many times you walk away from you sled and find yourself in a predicament or if you loose your sled in the drink. I remember many years ago taking the Airboat down the Copper River with Dean Wilson Jr to go spring bear hunting. It is the only trip I've ever been so scared to go that I almost canceled. Respect the river but still scared of it not spending much time on it. Dean Sr. told me to make sure Dean Jr had this goofy blue fanny pack on at all times when we were on the river. It contained some survival gear and the Sat Phone. He brought it up to Dean Jr many times while getting loaded and insisted that I made sure he wore it too. I often think of that when going out. Dean Sr like most of the old timers never had any sorts of communication when he was on the line and had a few hiccups but the father in him made sure Dean Jr had a backup. For the first few years I was on my line without any communication, I just wouldn't do things or go certain places by myself.
As for getting caught in your own traps, at our General Trapping Schools, I always preach to secure your trap being the last thing you do.... Stay safe guys.. We've all got catching ourselves stories and if you don't, be patient, you will....

I guess my lower 48 upbringing failed to consider anchoring traps after setting. In 1980 I found myself with my thumb firmly clamped in a #4 Newhouse attached to a 24” rebar stake hammered into frozen ground. Fairly light gloves and -20 made it sting just a little! Managed to get foot on one spring and could squeeze the other enough to pull my thumb out. After a few choice words I finished the set and was in my way.

I could live in town. There are worst things than dying in the bush.

Having a trapping partner doesn't always provide all the "safety" one needs.

About 50 years ago I trapped the Beaver Creek/Big Bend area off the Elliot Hwy with the late Gary Thompson. We were staying overnight in the Borealis Cabin.

Early in the morning, I crawled under the cabin to rebait a 330 placed there to catch a wolverine that had been hanging around periodically. At some point one of the safeties slipped off and i found myself with my R arm caught in that 330.

I yelled until I woke Gary up. BUT he was busy "entertaining" a "young lovely" that he had met the day before in the bar at Pike's and had dragged into the cabin with us in a sled behind his machine!

He took his own sweet time getting dressed, climbing down out of the loft, crawling under the cabin and helping me out of that 330!

Pete

You are 100% correct. A little of me dies every day.

Pete your trapping partner sounds like quite the character! Cant be many guys that are able to meet a woman at the bar for the first time and talk them into riding in a cargo sled out to a remote trapping cabin with two guys for the weekend.

"Hotdog" Thompson was a man of many talents! He worked as a snowgo mechanic in the shop at Compeau's. And that right there made him a great trapping buddy. One time we met some people on the Winter Trail back to Beaver Creek with a broke down Elan. Blown head gasket. After dark. About -20 degrees. He diagnosed the problem, pulled the head, fashioned a gasket out of aluminum foil and put it back together!

That machine ran good enough to get back out to the road (about 15 miles) under its own power after his emergency fix. He was an amazing mechanic.

Now THAT is the kind of guy you want for a trapping partner! As far as I was concerned, he could have picked up a goat at Pike's and brought her along.....! I did ALL the skinning and handling of fur in that partnership and was happy to do so. I should add that one year (about 1975-76 maybe?) we caught over 200 marten and 4 or 5 wolverines back in there. (I was a LOT younger then!)

Todd: Sorry to derail your thread!

Pete

And yet another story illustrating how wise it is to carry aluminum foil with you on the trapline.