Tip for low income trappers and all trappers

Trappers,

Below you will see a spaghetti sauce jar, a jam jar and a yeast jar. Most of my young adult life I was extremely wasteful in terms of repurposing things like the jars. I always wondered why we made so much trash and it was because we were living wrong. We have kept our jars for years now and they have come in great use. The 2nd picture shows wool that I took from our wall insulation just to show how you could use them. You could put lure, bait, pencils, trap rings, j hooks, swivels, fish hooks, whatever you want in there for all your trapping needs. It has saved us a ton of money over the years and helps your dollar go further for you and your family. If anybody else other tips or tricks like this, I would love to hear them as Im sure other trappers would too.

You can put all your sticks to jam under your pan in them.

Turd furgeson

I eat a lot of sardines to keep my cholesterol in check
I save all the oil from the sardines i eat every day and keep it in the freezer.
By trapping season I have 5 or 6 coffee jars full of prime smelling fish oil for use as is or for a base for other lure formulae.

I also do the same with the oil from canned salmon,and keep a separate container in the freezer for oil that I fry fish in.
I like it to have that strong fishy smell,I dont like it to go rancid over the summer-that is the reason I keep it in the freezer.

Dollar general is a great place to look for cheap DP bait. (Cat food, molasses, sardines, jello). Save old containers to mix and store your bait. I make all my own DP bait and don’t have more than $10 in to make about 2 gallons,



I buy a roll of waxed paper there also, cut it into seactions appropriate size for trap covers. Put a bunch of precut sections into a single ziplock bag.
Get other fur stuff there too like cheap dish soap for washing coyotes, back in laundry section they have cheap wooden clothes pins. I use those a lot on my wire stretchers to keep the edges and ends nest and tidy while drying.
Grab a box of twenty mule team borax while you are there too. Keep coyote and cat bellies nice and white.
I save and rinse out all of my empty plastic milk jugs. Store a gallon of sifted waxed dirt in each and east to carry.
Save bacon grease. Boco mentioned saving sardine oil. Save tuna oil too.
Garage sales are good places to find old carbon steel knives. Much easier to sharpen for skinning than stainless knives. Look for sharpeners and eve meat grinders too. Don’t forget hair combs that can work as fur combs to get burrs out. Get em for a bargain.
Pick up every free washer I find on road. Lots of those turned into beaver snare locks over the years for my line.
Jim

Hoping this thread keeps going.

Garage sales can be a gold mind. Knives, garden tools, kneeling pads, life jackets and warm winter clothing can be had for pennies on the dollar. With a little imagination you can convert one tool to make others.

I use peanut butter jars for dry bait and ketchup or any other squirt bottle for fish and shellfish oil.

If you start making your own baits and lures, or wine lol, you become a jar hoarding junkie lol. Ive got jars, wine bottles, milk jugs, basically anything that will hold liquid squirreled away all over the place. Only thing I dont save is skinny mouth lure bottles. Just hate fooling with them trying to put lure in.

Hey MattLA, you ever tried pressure canned possum meat in a leftover Smuckers jar?? Poor mans filet mignon

Pick up coyote or bobcat scat and put in a container with glycerin. Mix it up to a paste. When you have about a pint of this paste add 4 oz of your favorite gland lure or call lure.

Makes your lure go further. You now have 1.25 pints of a very good lure with an odor that can't be bought.

I like it, thanks.

Have found that the 16 oz PB jars are pretty good for holding the smaller 2 & 4 oz jars for both using on the line and when sending out via USPS run the tape around your lure andcthe PB jar double sealed no odor escapes

I clean out mayo and m whip containers for homemade bait, and/or anything else. I trap using a backpack, I thought about putting some cover dirt in some and other things that I use in small quantities to get just a few sets done on a walk.

A square plastic 2# salted peanut jar holds the perfect amount of waxed dirt for a K9 set...under and over the trap. I keep 4 of them filled up, and refill them out of a 5gal bucket with a lid. Wide mouth, and easy to use.

Yukonal I used some of those peanut containers for dry waxed dirt this season. Couple in this picture on left. Rest are an assortment of milk and unsweetened tea containers, plus a couple ice cream buckets too. All washed and filled with waxed dirt and ready to go.

There are also old bleached cow bones in here for visuals at coyote sets. Picked those up from a friend, who picked them up from a pasture. Good stuff and can be reused if not too badly chewed up after catches.

Another tip for skimper and savers. I was tired of stuff sliding all over in bed of my truck so I made this divider setup from old 2x6 deck boards we had in pile out back. Cut the cross members to fit the grooves in bed of the truck, and a couple runners down middle set just wide enough to hold buckets from sliding around. Boards were old and used, and only eight screw holding this together so I can take it apart and remove it after season.

Old carpenter aprons bolted to a bucket make a rice way to keep bait and lure on outside, traps and tools clean on inside.

A clean ice cream or similar low square pail will hold urine and oil containers well. Note the small plastic peanut butter jar of homemade bait in there too.

Off to right that year I made a wood box from scrap lumber to hold rebar stakes and snare wire supports.

I make earth anchors out of 1/2" pipe with a curly q welded to it made of #9 wire.

Sorry guys, low cost trapping stuff is a passion of mine. Whoever got this thread started, got me all fired up to share.

Carp. Fun to catch in summer. I can’t tell you how many coon, mink, fox, cats, badger, and coyotes I’ve caught off of chopped up frozen carp. Very low cost bait.

Can salt it to preserve it or freeze it fresh.
Old ice cream pails hold a nice amount for thawing and setting as you go.

Old hoes at garage sales for a dollar or two can be cut down and shaped for your new trappers trowel or hook. Handles on any old broken shovel for fifty cents can be your new "nose tapper" ot walking stick

This pic shows three very important trapping items that I don’t have more than $10 in combined.
From left to right…crockpot, smart cooker crockpot, and a large canner.




The small crockpot I got cheap at a garage sale and I make small batches of waxed dirt in that. Can process several gallons in garage while I am doing other stuff in there during off season.

The smart cooker crockpot also a garage sale find. It is my trap waxer. No flame, melts wax well at a safe temp, and holds a couple #3 bridgers or 3-4 DPs at a time. Does an awesome job of waxing traps.

The old canner is for boiling and dying over an open wood fire. Walnut hulls are natural, free for the picking, and make a great trap dye. This was a garage sale find too.

Other inexpensive items to consider…
When I blew my shoulder out skinning coyotes the hard way, my wife said no more and we went to harbor freight and got an inexpensive electric hoist. A little engineering and I was able to bolt it to the ceiling near my garage door opener so I could plug it into the ceiling outlet.
Add a chain gambrel and viola, push button easing coyotes and coons up, easy peasy.
But what about the bottom end, how to make it a hide puller? How to anchor the other end of animal/hide down? Didn’t want to drill my floor and add a connection, but you could do that.
I made a “movable” weight instead from an old moving dolly, cheap sand bags. And to connect hides I added two threaded hooks and some trap chain with inexpensive locking pliers on end to clamp onto legs of hides. Those pliers were only about $10 in cheap tool bins at tractor supply store. Viola! Nice lower anchor that’s adjustable for skinning.

I don’t own a welder. Made all of my own rebar stakes with rebar on sale or scrap lengths. An appropriately sized nut slipped over one end and beat it to flatten it to hold securely to the rebar. These are my trap stakes. Cross stake for coyotes.
I made about a hundred of these but didn’t crank them out or buy materials all at once. A little here, a little there, and some patience and persistence you can accumulate quite a few over time to save $.




Cross stake for coyotes. The nuts have never failed and I have about a hundred of these made up.

I use plastic PB jars to freeze mice I catch in the house/barn to use on the trap line and for catfishing.

You can scrounge pieces of rebar for stakes etc from construction sites and road work.

An old paint roller frame can be modified into a trapping hook that screws onto an extension handle.

Those super thin plastic bags from the produce dept are excellent for trap covers to keep crud out from under the pans.

Save ALL bladder urine when skinning. Most bobcats have a full bladder. Many foxes do too.

I use wide mouth Mayo jugs from local Diner or Hogie Shop to carry peat moss, dry dirt, haylage & mulched leaves, for trap covering. Very durable.




25 cent yard sale Garden Hoe made into a Hook for pickup bed to reach things, hook for dying traps, a hook for trapping.

jabJE. Neat idea. How much total weight in bags.?
Thanks

Great thread. Those of you close to the Great Lakes or Ocean - stop by the marina when the fish are hammering and go to the cleaning station. You can easily get a hundred pounds of salmon heads (or ocean fish) and skeletons in a couple of hours. One day would usually be enough bait to get me through an entire season.

Those are #75 each sand bags for traction I think for back of a truck. Put on as many as you need to the sled. When I’m done skinning I just kick it over out of the way and raise the hoist gambrel up high out of way and back my truck in for the night.

Thanks

This is good stuff. Thought I would contribute as a cash-poor trapper::

Pretty sure most of us have made a few sifters. I used to make them out of wood but I like using these cans more nowadays.. The higher edges are less apt to spill unsifted materials over the sides and this is more compact. I do my traplines on foot so space and weight is critical.





Just split a green chunk of mountain mahogany and used a drill and some wire to attach everything.

Very cool sifter! I think trappers have got to be some of the most creative people I have ever met.
Jim

GOT BAIT?

Go to local Deer/Elk processor and ask for Deer Dust. This is stuff they throw away from band saw. $Free$
As saw dust is to a wood saw, deer dust is to bandsaw.

Ready to use or ready to add your special ingredient(s).

Fry that up for lunch.

Brake rotors make good drowner weights. Almost any auto shop will give them to you.

Between the crock pots and the sandbag dolly base, those are some good posts!

Make patties and deep fry em in your sardine oil, and you have something special. Sardust patties.

As far as cheap DP bait goes, a guy can get a barrel of bear bait for around 70.00-80.00$.

I've found the more financially stable I am through life, the more my trapline benefits.

I call mine the fat guy stick. Way easier than climbing into the truck bed.

Trappers,

Since this is trapping tips and general tips, I would like to help out some of my friends on here that may not be in the position to purchase fruit or coffee at the expensive prices that they are today. I do want to give the general disclaimer that the product below has caffeine in it, so if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure or something else it may not be best for you to do this, make sure to ask somebody qualified who knows your health.

The first picture is a pot of brown looking water, this is what we call Pine Needle Tea. Not all pine needles are safe, so I have taken the liberty to put some of the more common ones below. If you are unsure, please use a tree identification guide, ask your local AG extension before using the pine needles. This is an excellent warm tea that you can add some sugar too, but the most important thing it has in it is vitamin C. This means that you likely have a completely free source of vitamin c right there and you didn't even know it. You will just have to experiment with how many needles per water to see what you personally like, there is too much variety for me to even give you an idea. I just grab a handful, put them in my carafe and put it on the stove to boil.

Pine Trees that are safe for pine needle tea
White
Loblolly
Slash
Longleaf
Shortleaf
Spruce
Eastern Hemlock


Poisonous Pine Trees that you cannot use for pine needle tea:
Ponderosa
Monterey
Lodgepole
Norfolk island pine
Balsam fir
Yew pine







The second thing I would like to talk with you about is another native species to the southern USA. The plant is Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria), which is a native holly and is only 1 of 2 plants in the USA that we know contain caffeine. You cannot eat the beautiful red berries or else you will throw up and get sick. However the leaves, and branches all contain caffeine that is safe for you to make into a tea and consume. If the average coffee bean has 4% caffeine, then Yaupon has right at 2% caffeine, but Yaupon is widespread in the South. You could pick and pick and pick so many leaves and not get anywhere close to hurting a Yaupon tree/bush. We always have pounds and pounds of Yaupon on hand just because it's free and tastes great and has caffeine plus other chemicals that are better than coffee. You need to roast the Yaupon leaves until they are black and put them in a food processor to blend up the now roasted yaupon. Use a tea strainer metal thing if you want, or make tea however you normally do it. It's amazing and everybody should know about it. If you want to know a secret, Yaupon also sells for $20 a lb easy, but be careful the tea juggernauts will crush you and any legit spirited attempt to infiltrate the tea market.

Maybe I read your post wrong but if the ring is on a sapling loose what prevents it coming off as the animal makes an exit?

I edited it for clarity, but you need to wire it on, drive a nail through the sapling, use string to tie it on, use what you have available to ensure it doesn't come off the sapling.

Thanks

The next pictures show just a small portion of what I call my "bone yard". This is the area that I will take all of my bones after I boil them for bone broth, whats left of carcasses, or if there is an animal that spoiled and I cannot consume it, it will go here. Mother nature does work on it, breaks it down and releases the nutrients back into the soil. If you want to know a very real secret, it is 1 component of Terra Preta, I wont tell the rest, but the point here is that we are having 2 things work for us at once. #1 I am maximizing my use of things that I already spent time obtaining, and I am using passive magic to complete tasks that other people might use energy to accomplish aka boiling, bleaching, heat, etc. #2 I am getting a 4x return on just one product because of the multi uses that bones particularly have. Now if you make bone glue, then no you cannot do this because the process consumes the bone which is fine too, it's stronger glue than any other man made glue even in 2022. You could get bone broth, or bone marrow, you are making the best soil that exists on planet earth, you are helping carrion animals get meals and lastly you are getting free set material and WATERPROOF set material that people pay thousands for. If you have bees....you could use the beeswax and dip the bones just to further ensure the hollow cavity is truly waterproof. This is where I put all of my lures, the actual location, and then I will put this maybe right behind the hole on a hole set, I will lodge the bone inside a pocket set, sometimes I will bury the bone if I have a multi trap set, and the last part is that I will use the tree SOMETIMES, but you have to cover it with leaves or raptors will come.

The soil this makes should go to filling whatever garden bed you hopefully have to plant your crops in. If you had the rest of the knowledge and recipe of Terra Preta, you could sell it for over $50/lb. Just something to keep in mind, and I hope it helps you guys.

Here is my water trapping hook I made back in late 1990s. I was trapping coyotes and beaver out of the trunk of my Toyota Tercel. That thing for such a small car got great mileage and had a big trunk. But I couldn’t have a very long water trapping hook, wouldn’t fit most tools I looked at in that trunk. Needed something cheap for retrieving beaver on snares. But to carry in the trunk could only be about 4’ long. Extendable to longer lengths would be ideal.
Then I found this old square tube light aluminum extendable fishing net. The net hoop had broken off and someone discarded the thing in their trash. I dug it out and took it home. Cut the broken net hoop off and inserted an old coon two prong grapple where the net was. Ran a bolt though eye of the grapple and tube so it was solid. On other end I bolted an old plastic D handle from a cheap shovel that was broken.
Viola! A water trapping hook that is super light, strong, rustproof, and when collapsed is less than 4’ long. It extends out to about 6’ long when the tube extends. Has one of those little spring buttons that pops up through hole in outer tube to lock in as extended or as shortest length.
I still use this thing a lot today. Works for retrieving stuff from front of the truck bed too, if I don’t feel like climbing in and out.
This was definitely a low budget but long lived useful trapping tool.
Jim

Here it is collapsed down to about 4’ and fits in most car trunks.


And after extended to full 6’ or so.

And here is one right out of my signed copy of Charlie Dobbins land trapping book. Need bobcat flagging right at the foothold set but live in a state like ours where you can’t hang feathers within 30 feet of footholds? And what about a flagging that shimmers and flutters in the slightest breeze? But also something not too obvious to anyone from a distance?

Old cassette tapes. A wad of tape tied up over the set in an overhead branch. Tie em up them pull out several strands to hang down and snip em so they are just individual strands. Really move in slightest breeze. I use a lot of these for cats. You can find old cassette tapes at lots of garage sales and second hand stores for a very small investment.I have a whole box of them I got for less than $5 and am set for cat flagging for a very long time.

I make little wads from a couple tapes and put them in individual sandwich baggies to load up in my setting bucket or bag.

Jim,

What a great tool and even better repurpose. I really think we should all do a better job at re-using or repurposing whats already made, it really makes a difference in the long term. Speaking of tips, here is another one of mine.

Trappers you see the jars, this is raccoon fat that I am rendering via the sun, so that I don't have to use energy and can accomplish things passively if I so desire. You can do this too, what I would do is every raccoon you trap, save the fat and keep it in your fridge(this is if you want to use it for food), or if you just want some of the best animal oil you can get. Put the raccoon fat in a jar, and keep it outside, or somewhere warm if you already heat that area. You will get separation and the stuff on top is what you want, it works great on traps if you don't have wax, I used it last year and it was a life saver. It works good on all your greasing and lubing needs.

For the food portion, let me tell you something big milk never wanted people to know. They never wanted the general populace to know that rendered fat of any animal can be used where they call for butter. You see everything back in the day was all from animals, we were not awesome by any margin, but we were a lot better stewards of America. There is no taste that transfers as long as you don't try to cook the fat, you just need some heat and it will separate out and you keep the rendered portion that will change from liquid to solid with temp in your fridge. Use it where you use butter and it works amazing. We have used it now for just about everything, sweet, tart, hearty, salty, spicy, soup, muffins, bread, you name it and it's one of the best kept secrets ever, and one of the biggest money savers for kitchen supplies. Raccoon Meat tastes EXACTLY like bear meat, they don't want you to know, but trust me. I have eaten both and it's the same, except we get to get a near infinite supply of the raccoon it seems.




The next picture looks like a bunch of random wood. Two of the rocks are weights on cables, I just wanted to show you one way to do it. The other part you will see some milled lumber, I got all that for free it was on a curb and I think maybe somebody was building something and I asked if they had any scrap they were going to trash. You could use the milled lumber for floating muskrat sets, drags, anything your heart desires. The other thing you see here are my beaver sticks, I take these anytime I'm checking my sets, and I also try to grab atleast 2. What this does is give me free sticks that are so useful for a myraid of things, but it gives me premium conibear staking tools. I don't know why, but the beaver sticks are like perfect size in general and always work for all of the conibears I have. I used one of the beaver sticks and put a conibear holder on it and thats my primary dispatch method for all the animals that I trap. If you have studied enough biology and practiced swinging to hit the same spot, you could even use these to render the animal unconscious and then use the conibear to dispatch it.



This one doesn't fit into low income, but it is another method to tie off your traps. Understand that animals could bite through this and that I would never rely on 550 cord alone without some staking sticks used in conjunction. I use 550 cord which is just a generic term for military style parachute cord, 99% of it out there is not real parachute cord, but it's just what it's called. It also can be purchased far cheaper than chain or cable can and is always reusable, lightweight and blends in well as long as you get the OD green color. I use this a lot to carry my animals back to my vehicle since I am on foot quite a bit, I normally have a backpack, stick, conibear, axe, and so I just tie 2 loops on each side so that I put both animals paws through this and tighten them. I will then sling the animals over my shoulders, and it's very easy to carry.

Putting the top layer of separated coon fat on your traps was a “life saver” for you? Did you put it on traps used for canines?

I put it on every single trap I owned last season, did not get a coyote last year, but I did get some gray foxes.I had some close misses last year, but generally I didn't know what I was doing. Again something is better than nothing, I tried going with no oil and ended up with some severely rusted traps that would not perform at all. The raccoon oil traps even after being in water for 100 days still looked the exact same as when I put them in, obviously a few rust marks but just generally in top notch condition. `

Matt in this circumstance (coyotes and rendered coon oil), something is not better than nothing. Just incase a newbie is reading this, oiling ur land traps, particularly with animal fat, will get your traps dug. Don't do it.

Oh I see what your saying, ok yeah good point. We have to find an alternative then for the land based one....hmmm.

This thread needs to go in archives when complete?

Just disregard using coon fat to oil your traps or using 550 cord to tie off traps...and watch out for big milk

I don’t think paracord is a good way to anchor anchor kind of trap, not even bodygrips.


Good tips in this thread though.

Also MattLA...I'm a bit confused about using your drag set up. If I rig up a drag like that for coyote trapping and a bear gets his toe in my coyote trap. How do I find and get my trap back?

Guess I could use it...we don't have bears!

The old timer used these drags plenty with bear around in Louisiana. We had the highest bear density in the South, maybe Mississippi had more. He didnt mention any issues with bears, so I just dont think its a big enough concern to worry about. However if you do live in bear country and routinely have bear catches in your coyote traps, then I would add a 25lb weight or use the cougar formula.

I was being a little sarcastic. But, a 25lb weight or attaching trap to a large log is simply not practical for coyote & bobcat- sized critters. I realize you can only base your opinions on what you've been told or read, but a bear will take even the heaviest of setups for a ride. I speak from experience, not because I read it somewhere.

Your heavy drag setup may work OK to a degree when only a few traps are set, but not evenly remotely practical when doing commercial predator control or fur trapping on a property or several properties. You can't cut down that may trees...lol....or lug around heavy weights.

Your ideas may have some old time merit but hold zero practicality for serious high production trappers today. Your methods are OK for novice, recreational trappers that set a handful of trap like yourself.

Folks, the thread's theme is for low income trappers, which by default assumes that they do not have a whole bunch of traps to set. The thread has never been about the best or high production trappers and its disappointing that we are letting our privilege come out on this thread of all.

What is privilege? Privilege is where you generally have an advantage due to many circumstances and only look at situations through that privileged lens. For those of you who have made criticisms, what is the alternative that low income trappers can use? Not everybody in our community can afford the things you can, so it might do you some good to keep that in mind not only on here but as you go about everyday life.


Here is coyote I trapped this year that simply shows how great the natural drag works, there is another longer part offscreen from the pic. She was not even 50 yards from the set.

Matt if u catch enough coyotes on drags like that u will lose some. For numerous reasons. Yeah it worked this time and maybe the next 10 times but it's just not a good setup for coyotes. Can u use limbs for coyotes yes. But they better be strong enough u can't break or bend them and heavy enough they can't get out of sight with them. Especially if there isn't 8 feet of chain or cable to wrap up on trees or brush. Money or no money u owe it to any animal and the trapping comunity to do your nest at making sure u recover it.

Thank you for defining privilege to all of us elitist millionaires on trapperman running around with our diamond encrusted rebar stakes and platinum drags. Yes, you can catch coyotes with a natural drag, eventually it will cost you a trap and a coyote will be running around with a trap.

I have used 8 ft of cable extension before on = supper hot holes under high fence when snaring . Drag logs have their place,but I would rather use chain and good drag IF I can

I get what you are saying MattLA about privilege.

Tip. I you are going to use a natural drag ( which is cheap), use a green limb. It will bend by not break. Keep it at least as thick as your arm so the coyote won’t be able to chew though it. Make sure the trap is cabled off or wired off securely.

Sure, you might lose one every once in a while. But if using a natural drag allows you to buy a few more traps, then use natural drags. Then buy some good drags later when you can.

I continually upgrade equipment as money allows. I save, I upgrade. Repeat.

Matt, I don't think using rebar stakes makes me privileged. They can be had for nothing when picking up scraps from jobsites. Nuts to hammer on the top only cost a few cents.

God forbid this post be archived, please no beginners try to use paracord for anchoring anything other than a mouse trap and never cut down saplings to use as drags for a coyote. Also never put animal fat on your traps

"Privilege is where you generally have an advantage due to many circumstances and only look at situations through that privileged lens"

From what I understand you do not have a full time job, do not tell me I am privileged because I work and can afford to buy things that allow for my success on the trapline to be greater. If you feel like people have it better than you it's because they are working harder than you. Do better and you won't have to use coon fat on your traps or paracord to tie them off. I can promise you privilege has never written a paycheck for me

I guess I'm a "privileged " trapper because I learned to use what consistently works and ensures I dont lose expensive gear trying to go too cheap.

You inexperienced trappers need to consider the what-ifs every time you set a trap.

BTW,
I know of only one privileged trapper on here driving an electric F150.

Good thread Matt. Generally speaking just buy good used equipment to get started trapping or almost anything else in life. Unless it is a safety issue? like good tires on the Family Car buy the best!!
When it comes to Coyote Trapping you just cannot cut very many corners or you will start losing coyotes. IMHO, You are far better off having just a few good traps, rebar stakes, earth anchors, cable extensions, drags of any kind would be my last choice for coyotes.

I just prefer coyotes to be staked down whenever possible?

For metal the scrap yard is your friend! Used rebar is pretty cheep for making trap stakes. If a person does enough trapping you can make snares, earth anchors, baits, etc. etc.

This thread is crazy!

Don’t sugar coat it.

A couple of his “tips” aren’t good for anyone!

Thank you, that is exactly the point of this thread. I can easily afford any of the things you listed, but I am coming from the mindset of a low income trapper. I do have a love for drags, but I completely understand what you are saying.



Coondagger, I stopped working at age 32 because I did so well before that I don't have to work for the rest of my life. I can easily afford anything that exists in the form of trapping supplies. Not everybody can afford to have a 2022 F150 Lightning, It would be so incredibly out of touch for me to expect that the majority of trappers could live the lifestyle I do. We all have different situations and when the thread is specifically meant for low income trapper tips, it's expected that anybody reading this fully understands that the methods here may not be ideal, they may not be the best, they might not even be preferred. But guess what coondagger? For some trappers, these tips might be all they can do to try to trap. For some trappers, there is no "affording" anything, they got bottom of the barrel everything for a lot of different reasons and I find it to be part of one's moral responsibility to help those who are not as fortunate as others. If you have a good job that you work hard at and it pays you well enough for you to take care of your family, I am more than happy for you. It's just not realistic to think that everybody has that same situation, because once again there are a lot of factors that you don't know, I don't know, that all play a role. So when I am talking about using beaver sticks, raccoon grease, bone yards, bone broth, etc, I am coming from the mindset of " If I was the legitimately worlds poorest trapper, how would I do this?" For the natural drag thing, I accept the comments as they were given that the setup for a lot more experienced coyote trappers and trappers in general natural drags or drags are not preferred, but short of you guys shelling out money for all the low income trappers, what is your recommendation? One guy was talking about the scrap yard which is an excellent tip and one that is very much appreciated. There was a good point about the raccoon grease, no issues but what is our low cost alternative? What is a either low cost or free method that will help keep the traps lubricated and not seize from rust? Is used motor oil preferred? You see what I'm saying? When we just criticize especially on the low income trapper tip thread from the position of "it's not whats best or preferred" you are assuming that every other trapper can afford the things you can, can live the life you can and i'm here to tell you if you don't already know, there is a huge group of trappers that cannot afford normal trapping supplies. This thread is for them, this thread is for anybody who wants to live a low cost life and to try to maximize the value in everything they get. The $10 bucks that might buy enough trapping supplies is what gets them to the job they do work, they simply cannot afford to use it on trapping supplies.



The tip about getting them from scraps at jobsites is a good one. Lets make sure you understand what I said and if not I will change my phrasing next time to better reflect what I am talking about with the 550 cord. I would NOT use 550 cord as my primary anchoring system, but I would use it to tie my ring onto the natural drag. I would use 550 cord as a tie off when I use conibears, but I have 2-4 beaver sticks pounded 4-5 feet into the ground to ensure the trap is solid, and likely will not go anywhere if a beaver, otter, nutria or anything else goes through it. Remember it's not about you or me, it's about the trapper that cannot afford the things that you or I can. I just use it because I have it, and so far I have no had any issues when using it in those situations. The sapling method also works more than fine and I use it everyday and this year it worked swell on 2 coyotes with zero issues. How many sapling drags have you set in your life that you've trapped? I do want to know because I am quite sure there are many who have never done it and are openly critical because it's not their way and they cannot fathom it working. It does work.

Paracord by the foot is basically the same price as as cable. You can get galvanized 11 or 14guage wire for a bit less.

I use a lot of 550 but never for anything that takes stress. I know a lot of so called survivalists are in love with 550 cord for numerous things but its garbage and most of em couldn't last a week if they ever got into a true survival situation with their 550 cord methods.

I just can't get over being called privileged by you MattLA, a person that claims to not "have to work" at 32 years old.

Peace out!

I think there should be a minimum amount of years trapped or minimum animals caught before you can offer “advice.” You see it all the time on social media or YouTube where someone feels the need to give everyone advice about something they know very little about. Take a few years Matt and catch as many critters animals as you can. Become one of the “legends,” figure out what works the best for you to trap as efficiently as you can on your budget, and then come back and show what you can do. People will probably line up to to ask for advice if you catch enough. Anything can work out a couple times. If you catch 300 coyotes a year on your sapling drags then you can speak with more authority on the matter. I think your heart is in the right place, but get a few more years experience before you try to change the game

I didn't call you out specifically, but you are obviously offended by the fact that I used privileged. When you make a comment that x, y, z is not applicable to the fast trappers or commercial trappers, ok I totally understand what you are saying, but we are on a low income trapper tip thread though, so by default that means low income trappers 99% cannot buy what you and I are able to buy. It's simply not possible for them at this moment and time. Situations do change, but thats a different conversation. That is what I mean by privilege, it was not a slant against your character by any means, I think most of us do it and never intend for it to be that way. Let me put it this way, if we remove the "low income trapper tips", I wouldn't have said privileged at all and would have asked more in depth questions in relation to your comments, does that make sense? Don't be offended, just leave a tip for the low income trapper man, they need us more than ever.

@SniperB, I appreciate that, but you can buy 550 cord from amazon for .07 a foot. Do you have a link for the same cost wire? All the ones I could find were higher price by double, but I don't use amazon a lot nor do I buy a lot of wire.



It's a low income tip thread, not a how to be a great trapper thread. Did you read the thread title? All of the pictures on here are quite literally not "the best methods" but methods that are free, cheap, simple and that get the job done. I completely disagree that people who are low income will ask for advice, because just as many people are showing, privilege prevents people from getting answers that work for people who are indeed.....low income trappers.

Until COVID, 3/32 7x7 was 8 cents a foot for a 100 ft roll. If you buy. In bulk you can get it back down to about 9. FnT has 500 foot for $49. Again 11-14 guage wire local hardware is still a better bet if you're pinching pennies. Paracord has no place around trapping other than for hanging flags or setting up a tent.

Matt, you are right, I should give my tips to low income trappers. Here goes. If you do not have the funds to purchase the proper equipment to ethically and effectively trap the critter you are after, get off your bum and go to work so that you can afford to do so. Until you can afford to purchase a $5 block of wax or a $10 stick of rebar stay at home and do not risk tarnishing the reputation of ethical trappers by attempting to use subpar equipment. I am all for saving a Buck, but I will not cut corners on things that directly relate to how humane my catches are treated. Just think, all those emails you have sent to legislators are null and void when a coyote runs across Karen’s front yard with your tagged trap on its foot dragging a little sapling behind it.

I have caught many raccoons on sapling toggles, I would not call them drags. I have never set a coyote trap with a sapling drag because I do not cut corners on the ethics of my trapping practices. Your statement that it works just fine because you caught 2 coyotes that way is all I need to know. Please stop promoting this method when you have less trapping experience in your life than 70% of members here have in the past week.

I am not against doing things with a money conscience approach, but stop pretending like we have to compromise our ethics as trappers in order to afford to participate in trapping practices. It is not a large investment to properly stake and prepare your equipment to be effective. My advice to low income trappers is to understand the ethics of trapping and never sacrifice that for a savings of less than 1 hours pay of minimum wage. We have too much to lose to be promoting this

I would be curious to know how many truly low income trappers are out there in the current fur market where the only consistent ways to make money are charging for your services or selling live coyotes. If someone is too low income to buy basic equipment they probably should focus their efforts on something that can help them get out of that situation. If you can afford the gas to check your traps then you may want to sit out a season, save that gas money, and buy decent equipment. Yes I read the thread title. I just don’t believe there are a whole lot of people who truly can’t afford equipment but are still trapping. It’s a luxury hobby in my opinion if you are like you and don’t need to charge or do anything to break even

I've used log drags, note I said log... not sapling. Minimum 5-6" diameter and 6+ feet long, the longer the better, unless you specifically want them to go far enough to be out of sight. You use something this size or bigger and it will leave a trail you can track, and no worries about breaking it regardless of what you manage to snag in the trap. Now drags of this size are not handy to pack around, so you will want to cut them close to the site. Time consuming and a lot more work than using a quick link to hook a grapple and eight feet of chain to a trap. (I recommend at least eight feet of chain with a log drag also) But when you don't have a drag with you and find a hot site where you can't stake or chain off to a tree, well you can do it and feel comfortable your quarry will be there when you come back. Also if you are walking in you can do this rather than carry half a dozen grapple drags (mine weigh over 8 lbs with chain attached) or trapping out of a snowmachine or fourwheeler where space to carry stuff is limited.
For the majority of situations a grapple drag, or chaining off to a tree is much more efficient than cutting a log drag, if you can't or it is inadvisable to stake solid.

Obviously I don't know all yalls laws, but snares or cable restraints are the absolute cheapest way to trap animals! Mic drop!

Some of us can’t afford snares…oh wait, some of us aren’t allowed to use snares!!
I’ll be honest, out of all my endeavors, trapping is NOT the cheapest. Buy quality up front and it lasts. Now with that said, my screen name represents me, lol. I trapped as a kid then 35+ years later I started again. I read the archive’s probably twice before ever joining and then read and listened. I’ve PM’ed several on here and got quality advice and instruction.
Matt, no offense, but you joined last year and now 1 year later have learned all this random stuff (probably read) and at 32 live off the grid and have enough money to last you for life. I think a lot of folks wonder why you would use the bare minimum’s to get by if you’re “set” for life?
Now as far as using bare minimum’s, why would you? Trapping unfortunately is not a bare minimum type of hobbie/sport/lifestyle that’s cheap. I’m by no means “rich” I don’t drive a 22 Raptor, I drive a 2000 F150. People laugh in good nature about my truck but I spend “good” money for my “hobbies.” Yes I could by cheaper traps, I could also buy more expensive traps. Same with everything else. All these guys doing mods have to have the equipment and money to do it, I just don’t have equipment so I buy what works for me. I’ve only got 6 years in this but haven’t had an issue with anything I’ve bought yet, besides huge tractors and logging trucks. I spend money on everything quality right down to anchors. I want the best I can afford. I’m my opinion, to trap properly, if you can’t afford quality, then you shouldn’t be trapping.
Same with hunting. People generally buy a nice gun and scope or bow, then they buy the cheapest bullets or shells or broadheads. Heck the gun or bow is only a mechanical device that doesn’t actually kill anything…it’s that projectile that kills. Don’t skimp on the stuff that matters.
Baits, lures, heck even urine can be where you skimp. Plenty of road killed animals to make bait. Skin out save urine and glands from you catches and make your own lures. I’m an opportunist beaver catcher. When I catch one I’m saving meat, oil, and castor.
I could imagine a coyote running around and being seen dragging a stick or worse just a trap, that wouldn’t be good for anyone. Worse yet, what if it’s someone’s pet? That then sheds a real bad light on all these regulations you’re changing in the US.

Lesson here is don’t be cheap on the parts that holds that critter in place. I’ve never beaver trapped before this past year, and spent money on good traps and even how I anchor. I’d be willing to bet good money I could take the most experienced water trappers on here to one of my sets and after they laughed a little or a lot, they’d ask was I planning on holding a tank. I prefer to be safe than sorry.
Things from the past were good, but technology and methods evolve for a reason, to better ourselves and our practice.

...I stand corrected, great insight WannaBe.

Low Income Tips:


Under no circumstances should you use zip ties OR paracord to secure foot traps. Period. There’s no discussion beyond it will fail you and make the situation worse.



Buy rebar from places that sell it in 20 foot pieces. Do not buy it in 24” pieces unless you’re in a bind. When I was buying rebar, a 2 foot piece at Lowe’s was about $2 if I remember correctly. A 20 foot piece was less than $7. I know, because I bought hundreds of feet at that price.


Wire is CHEAP! Cable can be cheap. I’ve paid $0.03 per foot for cable. The awkward, obvious answer in this thread is that sometimes if a person actually shops around, they can save a lot of money. Don’t cut corners on things that need to be quality. For 1x19 snare cable? Only the best. For extensions? Cheap. Don’t buy 100 feet for $15 when you can actually buy 1000 feet for a little more when you know where to look. Shop around. Buy it cheap and stack it deep if it’s something you use a lot of. Buying a single product that you use a lot of at full retail price is silly. Don’t buy (200) single drinks at a convenience store when you can just go to the regional beverage supplier and buy a keg.


Don’t buy ferrules at a retail store for $1 each, unless you only need 1. You can buy 100 from a dealer for $6. Know where to shop.



Use your beaver meat for the table, save the money spent on beef.


Use your beaver meat for bait.


Make your own lure with the castor and oil from beavers. Only predator trap? Great. Still go catch some beavers to use for food or bait anyway.

I'm still trying to get over retired at 32, you didn't work at FTX did ya?

I am brand new to this forum and to trapping so take this for what its worth.

This thread started off on the right foot It seemed but went south In a hurry in my opinion.

Being brand new, I can appreciate saving $ when feasible, things like using a 5 gallon bucket with a bucket boss took skirt for tools and lure, bait, etc.

Using milk jugs or PB jars to store waxed dirt or even making your own stakes, earth anchors, snares or cable restraint, baits and lures etc.

However, I think its also very important to remember 3 things.

1. the animals deserve the best we can give them, whether that's a sturdy anchor that holds, enough swivels to not bind, etc.

2. Trapping is not going to pay the bills like it did in the 70s and 80s. I can't think any of us plan to live on this fur market as a full time job. I think we do it because its fun, it protects other animals from over population, protects the actual animals we seek from diseases or other over population hazards. Most of us don't have to trap to survive. We are doing it either for a hobby or to keep populations in check.

3. In this economy, if you are not truly disabled , its your fault if you don't have the $ you need/want. Practically every place has hiring signs up. If you don't like the pay at your current job, find another that pays more. If you want nicer items in life you need to work in a career that can support that. If you want to use para chord for anything other than to make a coyote carry sling out of, you need to do something that allows you to do something the right way.

To me trapping has must haves, nice to haves, and then the luxury items that are purely for adding more enjoyment.

Good anchors, good traps, and good swivels and good ethics are the must haves. If you can't have these I personally don't think someone should be trapping.

Having higher end tools vs homemade trowels, shovels, sifters pack baskets, etc are all nice to haves. Other things can get the job done ethically, maybe just not as efficiently.

A skinning machine, a high end fleshing knife, etc would fall into the luxury items to me as a newbie. To others they are the must haves due to their volume.

This guy gets it!

Welcome!

It did go south in a hurry. I tried to give some helpful stuff that worked for me.
Jim

Here is another tip for someone trying to save money. You can make a good sifter out of a cake pan, the rectangle ones are like 9"x13" I think. You can pick one up at the thrift store for a quarter, then take it home and drill a bunch of 1/4" holes in it. Not as stout as some of the boughten ones, but as long as you don't try and use it as a cane to push yourself up with when you finish a set, they are plenty stout to last for many years, and will hold quite a lot of dirt. I have one I made as a spare, and find I use it a lot more than my "good" one because I like it better. Actually have been thinking about making another with larger 3/8" holes to try.

I find I mainly use a sifter to put the dirt I dig out of the trap bed in to pack off any more, use waxed dirt on about everything, even early season sets, so I don't have to redo them when the weather turns nasty, and my waxed dirt is presifted (so the sifter gets plenty of work then) so I just scoop it out of the bucket and over the trap. Either sift a little on site dirt over to blend, or more often grass or pine needles, whatever blends best.

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO THIS POST!!! Somebody PLEASE delete the entire 2nd page!

Low income is a subjective situation for most of us. Many posts reference buying bulk rerod, metal, cable cable parts etc. which is all well and good. I doubt that many low income new trappers have welders, materials, bench swaggers etc. as those are investments that demand resources. Getting back to the OP I personally have moved away from glass storage as I had more breakage on items then I liked, most of which may be because I was more careless then many but it still is a mess. There are many plastic forms of storage.
Also moving a bit away from low income. Many on here talk about doing things yourself as the lowest cost option but don't sacrifice quality where needed. If you are new to trapping and have a very good payiing occupation and can and do work a lot of OT your time on the job is valuable so buying items that are ready made and meets your needs may be the lowest cost option for you. Not much value in using a Saturday to save $50 when you could be earning $300.

Bryce

I believe it was Warren Buffet who once said value isn’t what you pay . Value is what you get.

1st pic is a #11 Newhouse Double Jaw, 4 foot of #2 double loop wire chain, and I just wrapped it around a beaver "log" that functions as the drag. This was originally set for raccoons, but when i walked up this morning there was a live 35lb-40lb beaver in the water. It was making funny movements and I thought it was sick, but turns out the #11 double jaw had a great grip on his back foot and my natural drag with chain did it's job of tangling itself around 4 beaver sticks I pounded in around the lodge for a different purpose. I was able to get close enough and talk calmly to the beaver and let him go. Just 15 yards from this beaver, a dead beaver that put her head in a RGB 220, that also had a beaver stick drag, she was 5 yards from where the trap was originally placed. You can see the natural drag applied here again even for beaver.

I will be uploading the video to Youtube just because of how crazy it was to see a beaver as close as I did. I could not film me getting closer or the release though. We will be continuing on with this as originally intended and I will request that one of the mods or admins delete every post after 080808's 4th post down on the 2nd page. Lets keep this going guys, I have to format pictures that I took today to post.

Just to be clear on the intent and vision of this post. We are assuming that the person has a bad paying job, no job, and has 3-5 traps to use to catch fur, meat and supplies with. There is no money to buy stuff with, everything must be scrounged from natural products, gotten for free at places like work sites, scrap yards, dumpsters, and the side of the road. Every recommendation that provides any tip is always welcome, but lets keep to the OG intent here because there is a lot more we can do. We still have so much to cover. Tight lines my friends.

I would like to nominate the moniker, " Big Milk", to supplement MattLA's screen name.

If we can't have coonman, this is a very close second.

My "tip" to qualify my post is: "Para-snaring". Defined as the act of snaring wildlife with paracord. The activity shouldn't even require a license since it is fundamentally catch and release snaring. This is a "cheap" way to snare and makes as much sense as most everything else on this thread. Lol

Let's get this thread back on track...

Many plants and trees have high levels of tannin in their bark which makes good trap dye. I make bows and this is some strips of Big Leaf Maple bark that I saved from a bow build and used to dye my traps.

Oaks (especially the galls), willows, maples among MANY others all have useful amounts of tannins in their bark and can be used for dying your traps.

Just for your information snaring of all animals large and small was done with cordage for thousands of years.

I use alder twigs tips leaves and catkins to dye traps a deep long lasting blue black colour.
High tanning content.

I use walnut hulls.

I like to dye traps with sumac bark.
Even wrapped up in a porous bag I had trouble with the berries leaving lots of stuck little particles on the trap that didn't wash off well. The berries did work nice on a deep penetrating dye job though

I like to use alder bark, I have used walnut hulls also.

I’m not trying to be rude, but the stick in the picture you posted is way too small to be used as a drag in my experience. They’ll haul that thing around like they’re playing fetch. New trappers should not be securing traps to sticks that size unless they want animals disappearing wearing a trap. Use larger logs or appropriate, aggressive drags

I agree too small of a drag. I don't want to maim a beaver or have it hung up where it will die and not be harvested. That is irresponsible to say the least.

Ok so I'm gonna lock this thread because it's becoming.... Yeah ...

Please dont tie off to sticks in sheep country

MattLA, so if a person can't afford/find what supplies are needed to trap furbearers, and trap them RESPONSIBLY AND ETHICALLY, DONT TRAP UNTIL YOU CAN DO IT THE RIGHT WAY!! No bunny hugger here, but you absolutely OWE it to the animal you're targeting to use the right equipment, period!!! So because you can't afford rebar or cable/chain(with SWIVELS)that makes it ok to use whatever you THINK will be "good enough"???! YOU are the exact type of bonehead that peta LOVES!!!! I can't imagine how tickled they'd be to see this thread and then spread your irresponsible and ignorant info around as an example of how all trapper's are and how barbaric we are!! How dare you even call yourself a trapper! Here's a tip for ya from a legend, If you have so much money you can afford anything, GO BUY THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT and quit spreading unethical trapping methods!!

Thank you.

Well said.

On topic low income tip:

I take old steak knives, hundreds at yard sales for 25¢ each.
(usually the cheap serrated kind) Cut them down with an angle grinder and reshape into triangular pelters. Then grind the bevels back and sharpen

Great advice for the poor trapper, except they have to own an angle grinder to grind everything, lol. That’s like all these guys that do mods but can’t afford the good stuff that doesn’t need mods. They have all the equipment already, which cost $$$. I’d just spend it on traps and whatever else is needed.

^^^borrow one from a neighbor lol
Tough thread

It's fairly clear he is a troll that is on tMan to stir people up. He probably is a PETA guy in disguise. Sooner or later others will probably figure him out to be a fraud. By arguing with him it seems you guys are giving him what he wants. That's how agitators operate anyway.
Just my opinion.
Moderators should probably just give a guy like this the boot.

HE IS GONE a PERSON WOULD BE AHEAD IF THEY DISREGARD HIS ADVICE AS MUCH IS illegal OR UNETHICAL.