I stop over to help an old fella out with a raccoon he caught. Now I didn't want to take that havajunk trap, so I go to transfere it into one of mine. An old sow and a mean one at that..jumpin', bitin' at the cage...."aggrevated as all g'it out"

When the door doesn't close all the way and I reach to slam it shut...about the time the sow 'coon jumps straight at my wrist and nails me...only my (almost quick) reaction gets by with nothing more than some teeth scrapes and luckily no broken skin....Now, why did I do that? Surely at this point, after all these years of handling 'coons, I know better than to reach toward a PO-ed one, without protection! Well, it could've been worst!

Ever make a stupid mistake when you should've know better?

Hi LT Just imagine what would have happened if it had boroken out of that Havajunk just as you reached for it. OMG!!!!!!Now I would have sold tickets to that fight. My money is in your corner. HaHaHaHa!!!!!!
Pete

Probably More times than i care to admit. I seem to forget about them when posting on this forum. You need to get over your phobia about those Havajunks. Below is a picture of the last two days catch of armadillos. I think that armadillos are tougher on traps than are raccoons. Some of those traps are over 20 years old!!!



Good post! We do need to be careful when working with some critters. At least armadillos don't bite. And, if they did, they don't have any teeth in the front of the mouth. They might "gum" you to death though.

Ever make a stupid mistake when you should've known better?
Well,let's see. Been bit by two gray squirrels, about a dozen raccoons, a flying squirrel,(he bit me as hard as he could, but never broke the skin) and a woodchuck(they hurt)
The worst was my son. Got bit by a Rottweiler/Shar-Pei mix.
Well, what do you expect from a dog that's mean and ugly?

Lt you are just as rational as the rest of us.:) Dont feel bad. Happens more times then it should. I am kind of a dive in and grab them kind of guy myself.I have been told more times then I like to admit that I am a bit crazy.You try to be careful and I am for the most part, but there are times you just have to get things done, what the heck..... Guess that is the old trapper in me.

Here's a question for you guys more experienced with handling LIVE animals. What's a good kind of glove to wear?

YES but what's worse is when you're doing something wrong and you think to yourself "OK, I know this is gonna end bad" but keep on doing it anyway? I do that.

Had a skunk in a cage today. No holes cut for a skunk pole (new trap). I couldn't get within 6' of that cage. Ended up shooting it from about 15' into the chest in hope of minimizing the chance of spraying.

First 5 shots hit wire. Broke welds. Broke wire. Next 2 shots when into the shoulder area. I guess I didn't like the fact that the animal wasn't going down as easily as other similar size animals when shot there. As he lay on his side, still breathing I sent a 3rd round into it's chest. OOPS! Spined him and like a sprinkler he let loose with both barrels. I couldn't believe the amount of "liquid mustard" that thing sprayed. I was amazed. Anyway, I get what I deserve I suppose.

I'd like a ticket to that fight also. I'll even pay for a manicure for LT just to make sure it is a fair fight!

To answer the first question ahh Duh! yes I do that more often then I actually do something intelligent.

In regards to gloves, I use just plain cheap welding gloves. I have large hands and any of those specially designed designer gloves that cost over a hundred dollars and suposed to protect you from getting bit make me feel like the little brother from a christmas story all dressed up for school.

That being siad a little technique and some deterity and quickness (usually acheived by not thinking twice about what you are about to do) go along way, and when youget tagged it heals and is a part of what we do.

LOL if you do not want to get bitten or scratched do not spend a lifetime working with wildlife, hire me instead that is what I do.

Buck NE, Try welder's gloves. Only they don't bend as easily as I'd like....

Rattie, too funny!

Thats why I carry a chamber in my truck. Just slide the trap in, turn on the gas, and presto, it's done in a few minutes.

Sometimes it works out to scruff a coon when the conditions are right. But I prefer to bare hand them.Gloves dont let me get the grip I need to hold on to them.And Ive earned a few scars in the past perfecting this method.

So since I'm new, and I haven't had a chance to make my mistakes the first time, there's no way for me to know any better.

Like, climbing a tree, in shorts and a t-shirt, with a catch pole... every time I reached up, the chain slid down and yanked the loop shut!
I'd have to get secure, hugging the cherry tree with both legs, and reset the snare pole.

In the end, I'm just glad I'm not the one who fell out of the tree.

Another one, customers can't judge vertical distances... 15 feet was way closer to 50!

Again, in the end I'm glad I wasn't the one who fell out of the tree.

Lastly, when climbing under a raccoon, I don't care how sunny it is, wear a raincoat.

I was really glad, ONE of us, fell out of the tree, and that was the end of that!

I thought I was fairly scratched up from hanging on, but I got it worse getting out of the shower without getting any one me!

A quick scramble to the ground, a short burst of mayhem, including a leap over a four foot tall fence with a stunned and snarling raccoon by the back foot, in one hand, to the open and waiting cage, and I was the client's hero!

I learned a whole lot in five minutes, that's for sure!

Oh yeah... with a huge dose of adrenaline, I can move like a kid again, I can do anything!

Krusty

"COON DIED"! Oh $#(%^#$@#%^@#^@#!!!

Krusty,
I love adrenaline. It makes me run real fast towards a good fight, and even faster away from one.

LT,

The fall didn't do much besides stunning it, and that didn't last long.

I didn't want him to, but he just backed his way right out to and off of the small branches?

And yes, the raccoon died, as required by law, because I dispatched it with a firearm.
I figured, by that point, after a fall, and a knock on the head, it deserved the expedience.

And I had another, bigger, raccoon, still in the tree, to deal with.

Krusty

I was talking about the 'coon that bit me died...I had it, for the 10 day holding period, when it just started vomiting blood and went into convulsions........Should I be nervous???

Lt., Looks like that raccoon got sick from biting you, Or mabe too much of a good time the night before. LOL

LT,

My apologies, your post was tagged as a reply TO ME, so I figured that's who you were talking to.

How am I supposed to know? Half the time you're busting my chops, and half the time offering advise... and it's getting really hard to tell which is which.

But, I thought you were busting my chops... this time!

I guess, I just don't "get you", dude?

Krusty

Does this mean we have to cut off LT's head and send it to the state for testing?!

Anybody got a trap we can catch him in and what do you think is the best set?

hahahaha
Rattie, you're just too much!

LT G: Sounds like parvo-virus. Nasty. Extremely contagious for canines, and other wild animals, airborn virus, and transmissable by body fluids. Bleach will kill it. Not a problem for humans.

Best set: Folgers & donuts!
bob evans

And some of my Wifes Pie...........UMMMMM Yummy...Here Lt lt lt lt........Burp!

" Memories.....like the corners of my mind
Misty, water colored memories,
of the way we were............

Scattered crab shells...of the ones we left behind....
Water melon and some sweetcorn
that's the way we were......." hahahahahaha



Yep Vinke, got me thinkin'!

OK, we got the bait, now the trap. What shall we use?

For LT? Hmmm...I'm thinking a BIG Havahart.


Think it will hold 'em?

Why use a cage trap and have to waste a bullet too. Just make a cubby and set a superbear over the entrance. Quick and humane.

Just kidding LT, you're worth a cheap bullet any day.

Cheap bullet? Don't we need a silver bullet for LT? LOL

Ver-r-r-ry funny!

Yes we have to give LT the dickens. Krusty has to get a brake sometime! LOL

Whitfield,

Truth be told, you pretty much just nailed the reason I finally started posting on this forum.

I had been a T-man member for some time, and LT was taking a beating.

He was the black sheep then, and I figured he was the one who could use a break...

And I've done quite well with that, sheesh!

Krusty

LT take a beating? LOL Surely you jest!

Ha! Really!

I saw a road killed badger, so I pulled over just to look at it.
I didn't take notice of the piece of metal sitting along the curb. Result: Flat tire!

Because of the recent storm last Sunday, I have lost power,water, phone lines and worst of all have freezers filled with fresh frozen ground fish and beaver meat. Might not get power on until Saturday...so either it gets picked up or feeds the local coyote population....I just posted it "Free to a good home" over on Trap Shed!

I walked out of the house this morning...The sun was just coming over the horizen...it was 7 am.I can hear the distant hum of a gas generator at a farm about a quarter mile away. Pretty common this last week. That and a good chainsaw are hard to even find, much less buy, in this area. There aren't any. No ice anywhere close by either. It's been 9 days since the storm hit...lost power, phone line and water preasure...even had a large tree go through the roof and a good bit of damage to many other trees here. The whole area got hammered pretty good. It could have been a lot worst...and I know it. At least it didn't rain much or I'd have had a flooded basement, furnace and all....You can always rebuild. These things can be replaced in time. Some things can not.

Somehow, in the mist of things, the 18th of September passed without me noticing it...

It's been 21 years since she's been gone
She'd be 25 now


Well, I've got muskrat traps to check. At $50. a piece, on a damage complaint, things might be just looking up.

With things a bit slow these days, I decided to work on a box of #2 round jaw Montomerys I hadn't used in a few years. These were all reworked by J.C. Conner back around 1992. All 4 coiled, laminated jaws, base plated etc. Being it was late and with the lighting, my eye sight is not the greatest on small objects, which in this case was the notch I was filing on the pan. After setting it, it misfired catching me across the tip of my finger and had my hand across it so I couldn't reach the lever. Not able to get free, I set it on the ground, flipped it around and used my foot and other hand to open up the trap.
So, in I go to grab an ice pack from the freezer.....Well about then the feeling starts back....and of course this morning, a swollen finger which looks like a tree frog and a blackish nail to match....could have done without that! Maybe I'll just stick to snaring for a while....

OUCH!!!

That's going to hurt awhile.

Yep.... and to make matters worst, I was waxing some traps the other day and slipped, running my hand into a bucket of boiling wax....lucky I had a glove on, but still had a big piece of skin peel off as I jerked the glove off real fast!

I met you and you didn't seem that clumbsy to me. Maybe that coon did give you somethin.

I had been using a "tater rake" on a beaverdam,( the one with the curved claws)....any one who used one knows what a valuable tool they are.
I leaned it up against the bed of my pickup on the passenger side, about the time a customer called about a squirrel caught and I forgot it was there....at least until I went to drive away and it fell, claw side up, RIGHT UNDER THE BACK TIRE! Yep, all 4 tines right through the tire...as if one wouldn't be enough!

...maybe this should have been under "Bad day that doesn't pay"!

I always put Roadside on the Cars in the winter.......

Ha!

Vinke, posting a pic like that is just plain mean,man.

Yes, but also entertaining! LOL

After setting 51 snares yesterday for coyotes, I woke up with high expectations, only to find we had a severe ice storm overnight...Oh well, what's the worst that could happen? A few dozen frozen snares?
So, off I go and check the first snare, just a few hundred yards from the house. No coyote, but they'd been in, feeding on a deer carcas...well, off a few miles to check nine more snares.

Everything was slow, but ok, until I turned off the main road, onto a sheet of solid ice! Suddenly my truck seemed to be swiveled in the middle moving in directions I didn't know it could...even though I was only going 15 mph.

After missing a telephone poll and then a tree which was three times as big, I found myself sliding sideways as I tried to climb a hill. Eventually, I came to a stop, but the truck started sliding sideways again, this time from a stand still.
Trying to keep it under control to no avail, it ended up sideways in the ditch,on top of some brush,( cut from a down tree, no doubt, from the last storm) dispite my best effort to keep it on the road.
After a lot of see-sawing, I managed to get it back on the pavement but not up the hill. After ten minutes or so, I finally did make it and off to check some snares.

As I entered the property, I saw some movement, only to find two free roaming dogs, snared... same two I had caught last year...from a house a quarter mile away. Not wanting to harm the dogs or release them either, I phoned the land owner who wanted to know if I catch any dogs, as he'd had poultry killed off and on. After getting off the phone, I went back towards the house to get a dog crate to put both dogs in, when BAM!, I hit a jagged stump and sliced the sidewall of the front tire!

So, out comes all the trapping gear and the lil' 2-ton jack, which because of the low ground I was on, I couldn't get it high enough to get the tire off. And because I was only on three wheels, I can't go forward or backward. So I keep trying it this way and that way, all the time laying on frozen ground, so by now, I'm good and wet...Well, best check the snares on foot then!

Some two hours later, the landowner shows up, with a heavy duty jack, followed by a van from County Animal Control. So after we got the two dogs cut out of the snares and carted off, we changed the tire and Iwent on my way...which by now over 1/2 the day is shot. I feel like last Sunday's "Mutts cartoon"...

Always tomorrow!

Take 1(maybe more) adult beaverage.
Get into BED cover head wait for morning!
A new day is always better or is that different?
bob

man what a bad day. speaking of tater rakes. where can you get them guys at? my local hardware here don't sell em. we don't grow taters in arkansas.

TSC stores carry them up here?
bob

Have them order one.

Tractor Supply Co. in the spring???

And all those folks from up North talk about us "Southerners" that can't drive on ice and snow. I have lived North, South, and in between. There ain't nobody that can safely drive on hard packed snow or ice. Even chains only help somewhat! The laws of Physics are going to catch up with you!!!

I feel for ya LT! We got the same crap here on this end of the state. Slid the truck side ways several times in the last to storms. Good friend of mine about got us all killed after he hit the ditch last week. Some one in a SUV about took us all out! Then off all things we were diging him out and a slat truck about got us all...lol

Took me 2 hrs to go 11 miles the other eve. Did I say I hate ICE!

Brent

Heres on e that might make you feel better.......
After I pm you i took the 4 wheeler and ran my beaver line.....Got to the end..Frezzn my but off and ready to come home and the stupid thing would not start......I try everything....for about an hour...I was stumped??? until I slide the kill switch to the on position......hahhahh....what a bonehead.......

HA, I have done some idiot things like that before. I have a kill switch foot button on the floor of my toyota must have been factory installed or something. I went to arkansas one winter with a fella whose job was to just go and bring the truck over to load some coyotes in the truck while I was doing something else.Wouldnt you know he hit the floor switch somehow and the truck wouldnt start and he wore the battery down in a remote area.

I didnt know about the kill switch at the time as the truck was relatively new/used purchase and never hit it before. It looks like an old dimmer switch on the floor board.So had to call a tow truck yadda yadda. Then was embarrassed when the mechanic said here is your problem.You have a kill switch on your truck. What a couple of idiots we were on that trip.

But have done the quad on off switch deal too. Son in law has a habit of coming over and riding the grand kids and turning the fuel lever off and the off lever. Things I never do on my own. So naturally the next time I go to use it, it wont start. So thinking it needs service I take it to a repair shop. Spent $175.00 and all it needed was a turn on of a few things.So we all get stupid at times. You know what they say about stupid. You cant fix it.