Fox Trapping Part 4

Another good place is a brush fence. Find holes under it where the fox will be going through, put your snare there, and if there are any going you will have some of them. Next find a good stream in the woods or anywhere frequented by foxes, and if you find good trees that fall across the stream have a good sharp axe and give a good slash or two of the axe about the middle of the tree, or at least above the middle of the brook. As I was going to say, give a good slash or two of the axe lengthwise of the tree and make a wedge shape stake and drive it into the tree, and then fasten your snare to a spring pole. If you prefer, you could bore an auger hole in the log and drive your pin in that way, and fasten the snare to the pin about 10 or 12 inches from the log so that the snare will hang downwards, it will do better. Be sure and have the lower side of snare 7 or 8 inches from the log.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WIRE LOOP.]

Now there is another kind of bra.s.s or copper wire that one strand will be enough to hold a fox. If you find that they are cutting your snares put little rollers of wood in the snare boring a hole lengthwise with a 3/8 bit, and have the roller almost 5 inches long and say an inch in diameter. Put that on snare so it will run down to the side of his neck, and he will keep biting at it.

I get No. 14 bra.s.s wire (mind, you must temper the wire) that I find the hardest part of the game. Cut your wire about 34 or 36 inches long, make it into rings round, put in a good hot fire for three or four minutes, or until red. Be very careful and not let it lie on coal, handle very carefully; don't strike against anything while hot, as it will break like gla.s.s, but if you have it tempered you cannot break it. I have caught three foxes in the same snare, says Larry Burns, of Canada.

You must make your snare just the same as a rabbit snare, only make a loop about six inches around. Find when the fox pa.s.ses under a fence or on a cow path, in winter, find where they make a habit of going.

Set your snare in such places or around old carrion in bushes, cedar is best, use weeds rolled round your snare, don't use too many as they will notice. Use a green stick to hold your snare fast, You wire about a foot from large end. Always stand up the stick just the same as growing. The stick should be 1 1/2 inches thick. Be careful and make as few foot marks as possible and stand on one side of your snare. While setting don't spit tobacco juice near snare.

A great many foxes have been caught in this country by the plan of the drawing outlined, writes J. C. Hunter, of Canada. A--the snare, should be made of rabbit wire, four or five strands twisted together.

Should be long enough to make a loop about seven inches in diameter when set. Bottom side of snare should be about six inches from the ground. E--is a little stick, sharp at one end and split at the other, to stick in the ground and slip bottom of snare in split end, to hold snare steady.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPRING POLE SNARE.]

B--is catch to hold down spring pole. C--is stake. D--is spring pole.

Some bend down a sapling for a spring pole, but we think the best way is to cut and trim up a small pole about ten feet long; fasten the big end under a root and bend it down over a crotch, stake or small tree. Snare should be set on a summer sheep path, where it goes through the bushes.

Stake might be driven down a foot or more back from the path, where a branch of an evergreen bush would hang over it so as to hide it and a string long enough from stake or trigger to snare to allow snare to rest over path.

Of course, in making this set you will have to use care and your own ingenuity to a great extent, to suit the requirements of the surroundings. Another way is to find a log, tree or pole that lies across a brook that is too wide for a fox to jump from one bank to the other. Set snare on log, but in this case, bottom side of snare should be only about four inches from log, as a fox will carry his nose lower while crossing a stream on a log. If the log is near the water, a spring pole should be used; if the log is high up from the water, fasten snare to log by driving in a wooden pin in the side of the log, and when the fox gets in snare he will tear around, fall off of log and hang all right.

The following is said to be the manner in which they snare foxes in New Brunswick: Early in the season they go into the woods in some favorable locality and build a fence. This place is similar to what would be constructed for partridge snaring, only of course with layer brush, leaving a narrow opening sufficiently wide for the pa.s.sage of a fox, fixing everything just as they wish it to be later on when ready for business, and having a spring pole at such a distance that it can be utilized when wanted.

Take a dead hen or some kind of meat, place it in a jar, so that it gets well tainted; that when the right time comes place the noose in place at the opening made in the fence, fasten to the spring pole, sprinkle a little of this tainted bait about, and await results.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RUNAWAY SNARE SET.]

In going and coming, wooden shoes or clogs are worn, so that the fox will not get the scent of the party setting the trap.

An animal in coming down the path pa.s.ses its body or neck through the loop made of stout insulated wire; in pa.s.sing it steps on the trip stick which settles with the animal's weight, releasing the trigger, which in turn releases the stay-wire and jerks the loop around the animal; the spring pole onto which the stay-wire is attached lifts your game up into the air, choking it to death and placing it out of reach of other animals that would otherwise destroy your fur. A small notch cut in the stay crotch where the end of the trip stick rests will insure the trigger to be released. This will hold the trip stick firm at the end, making it move only at the end where the animal stops.

New and valuable methods are continually being published in the Hunter-Trader-Trapper, an ill.u.s.trated monthly magazine, of Columbus, Ohio.

CHAPTER XI.

TRAP, SNARE, SHOOTING AND POISON.

Some say that scent is no good, and that they can trap more without it, and they even go so far as to offer to match their craft with those using it. I don't call myself a trapper, says E. R. Lafleche, of Canada, as I never spend much time at hunting or trapping. When I go in the woods it is only for a little recreation, and not being an old hunter, I do not know it all yet, but will say that I can get more than my share of foxes in any place here in Canada.

For the benefit of the young as well as many old trappers I will give here my methods of trapping, snaring, shooting and poisoning the fox, which is as good, if not better, than any I have seen. I can clean the foxes out of any section of the country without having to purchase any of the so-called famous scent.

To take away the human scent from whatever I do, I make a bath as follows: First, take 2 lbs. of male cedar branches, 2 lbs. balsam branches, and 1 lb. good hen manure; chop the branches fine and place the whole in a pot in 2 gallons of soft water, "fresh rain water is the best" and boil until reduced to 1 1/2 gallon. Second, take a clean pail or tub, smoke it with birch or balsam bark, then place solution, cover and keep in a temperate place. To make the scent, take equal parts of the following: Fresh eel, honey in comb, chicken, pig liver, mice; chop the whole together like mince meat and bottle, cork and place the bottle in a pail or tub of water so that it will float and in a warm place. A good way is to place the bottle in some shallow part of a lake, creek or river much exposed to the sun, and where the water is warm; use a strong bottle and fill about three-fourths of it, and remove the cork from time to time for fear the fermentation smashes the bottle, and as soon as it has settled, cork well and keep in a temperate place for a week or so, and it is ready for use.

Smear your snowshoes and go where you like, and there will not be a single fox that will come to your trail that will not follow it to the end.

To take the iron smell from traps, first clean them well in warm water. Second, put them in the bath for 10 or 12 hours. Third, smoke them with birch and balsam bark; then they are ready to set, Place the trap 18 inches from the bait and put a few drops of the medicine under the pan of the trap, get a small shovel made of sieve wire, and sieve some snow over the trap and over your signs up to three feet or more from your bait. Don't spit or monkey with pipe and tobacco.

Place your bait near a large stone, stump, fence or tree, and in such a way that the fox will be able to approach the bait from side where the trap is; always set the trap so that the loose jaw will be at the far end from the bait.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME CANADIAN REDS.]

It is a good thing to place some clean white cotton wool under the pan with a few drops of the scent. As soon as a fox is caught save a front leg and with it print some signs such as a live fox would do, all over the place where the trap is set; also save the urine from the bladder of the fox and when it becomes rancid, sprinkle a few drops on the weeds near the trap and the first fox that will come will be yours.

To poison them strychnine is required. First, use fresh beef suet and make pills the size of a big pea. Second, put the size of a large grain of wheat of strychnine and stick these pills in your bait the same way as garlic in a roast. Third, take a fresh cow head, stick your pills in the fleshy parts of the head, but do not place them too close to each other, then hang the head out of the reach of the hens, etc., in a stable where there is cattle for one night, then take it to the place you wish to leave it and there throw away like a lost head. A good way to place such bait is on a good sized lake. Place the head in the center of it and you will find your fox every time.

Of course when you are using poison you must visit your bait every morning at daylight, so that the drifting snow, etc., will not cover the fox's tracks. While visiting the bait, keep to one side and from three to five feet from it; don't monkey around it, and if Mr. Fox came to the bait and if you have reason to think he has taken a pill, make a circuit of a 100 yards or more until you come to the trail of a fox going away from the bait. As soon as a fox feels the effect of the poison he will make several long jumps and then start to walk.

Follow his tracks, and the moment you notice zigzags in the tracks, or that the fox is looking for an easy place to go through a fence, etc., this is a sure sign that the fox is sick, and you can follow that track and find the fox. Sometimes you will find them not 50 yards from the bait, and other times a half or three-quarters of a mile from the bait. This depends upon the time spent at the bait and is also due to other causes.

A good way to poison them is to place a pill in a mouse or a small piece of liver, but I prefer to make pills with lard, about a square inch, and I insert the poison in the middle of the bullet. To do this, I bore a small hole with a stick, and then place the strychnine and cover the hole with the lard taken from it. To do this with ease, the lard must be partly frozen, smear with honey and keep frozen; then take some frozen liver (any kind will do) and chop it in fine pieces and mix with honey and keep in a small wood box. Smoke the box the same as the traps and smear inside with honey and add a few drops of the medicine. The kind of box I recommend is one 4"x12" made of either cedar or ba.s.s wood 1/4 inch thick, with two compartments, one 4"x8" for the liver pieces and the other 4"x4" for the bullets, with a sliding door at each end, and a piece of leather held by small screws on the top for the hand.

When ready, take your ammunition and once on fox land, smear your snow shoes with the scent and at every hundred yards drop a few bits of liver, and at every 500 yards or so, a few more with a pill, and in the pill stick a four inch black feather, and two feet to the right stick a strong weed, and in such a way that the wind will not throw it down. This will enable you to find the pill in case of a snow storm, and by brushing the snow lightly with your mit, the pill can be found at once, unless a fox took it. If the bullet has not been touched you can tell without having to remove the snow, as the feather will stand straight up, and this is a sure sign that the poison is still there. If no feather can be seen and if it has been stormy, brush the snow away, the lard is not as white as the snow and is easily found. Should it be gone, look carefully around the place; sometimes you will see the feather 10 or 20 feet from the place you have placed the pill, and there or elsewhere you should see a place where the fox has been digging a hole. Examine the hole carefully and you may find the poison, as often when not hungry he will hide it for some other time, or for his friend. If you have reason to believe that a fox took the pill, and owing to stormy weather you cannot find him, you must survey the grounds as soon as the snow commences to melt, and by looking carefully along the fences you will often find them. Always keep trace of your pills; the best places to put these is in the middle of a lake or field; the black feather will attract the attention of the foxes at once, and they will make immediately for any black spots they see in a field or on a lake.

To shoot them in winter: Get a complete suit made of white cotton, including cap, smear your suit with scent, or have some b.a.l.l.s of cotton wool smeared with it and tie these around your belt with a good string in such a way that you can remove them at will. In a fine moonlight, take your snow shoes and go where the foxes are traveling, and the moment you see one or hear one bark, circle around him so that the wind will carry the scent. He will come towards you and will stop at a certain distance from you, and as you notice him on the alert, stop moving. The fox will put his head up and will look in all directions in order to locate where the nest of the plump mice are, and as you notice this sound the squeal of the field mouse; the fox will at once run toward you; then shoot him. I use BB shot for foxes.

Where foxes are plentiful, a hunter of some experience can bag several in three or four hours. I have killed as many as four in three hours. A good wind, fine moonlight, and lots of foxes, a fellow will have fine sport. In shooting foxes, keep as much as possible on the small hills so as to survey more land. While I was living in the country I had good sport shooting them in the spring, in the high snow banks along the fences.

Foxes are fond of playing at such places, especially when there is a crust to carry them. This generally comes in Canada at the latter end of February and during the month of March. I have often killed them at bait. Horse meat is fine bait for them. I once killed two big foxes at one shot. A hunter can always approach a fox when he is feeding, providing he knows how.

When I trap fox I do it on a large scale. I always set a combination of traps and snares. I carry a good supply of wire snares. The twine must be of dark color. In making a trail for fox, I take advantage of every good place I find either for trap or snares, either between bunches of weeds, trees, stones, stumps, roots, logs, fences, etc., where Mr. Fox will have to pa.s.s to follow my trail. On the rail or other board fences I use the twine snare, and on a barbed wire fence, the wire snare. In setting a twine snare, I always use a drop log or stone, and so fixed that as soon as the fox pulls the weight drops, and he is lifted and hung at once. I use ordinary wire fence staples and two to each set, one placed so that when the weight falls the neck of the fox is carried close to the staple and held there, and the other staple close to the drop. The drop must be placed so that it cannot reach the ground, and must weigh about three times as much as any fox.

Any fox that puts his head in the loop is sure to stay there. In the bush, I take advantage of all shanty roads, and I use spring poles when I find a suitable tree. I just trim the head and use a wire snare so that the squirrels, etc., will not bother it.

I set traps at the baits and in the middle of the fields in the same way as poison, with bits of liver around it, and I cover the trap with a light coat of snow with the same little shovel, and under the pan I place some cotton wool with a few drops of scent, and should, while the fox is picking up the pieces of liver, not step on the trap, he is sure to scratch for the mouse under the pan, and the trap will mouse him.

CHAPTER XII.

MY FIRST FOX.

I presume that almost every boy trapper in North America has an ardent wish to trap one of these cunning sharp witted animals, and I remember I thought when a boy if I could only catch a fox in a trap my reputation as a trapper would be made, says F. W. Howard, of Wisconsin.

Boys, you must not be discouraged if, after following the methods you hear, you fail to take a fox, for probably most of you have only traps enough to make one set; any of us older trappers I think will admit that it is rather a difficult feat to make one set and take a fox in a reasonably short time. Most of the trappers who use these sets have likely from a dozen to fifty traps out for fox at one time.

I have sometimes taken foxes in traps set for skunk, c.o.o.n and mink, so that one may say that with a large number of traps out, even though not set with the care and precautions usually taken to catch a fox, the large number of chances open enable one to take here and there a blundering and unwary fellow. I trapped my first fox when about twelve years old, by following a method given me by my grandfather, who was, in his day, a famous New England fox hunter. He was a very old man at that time, but when I expressed to him my heart's desire, asking him how and where to set the trap (I had but one suitable for fox) he told me to get my father to let me take the oxen and plow, to make a couple of furrows in our back pasture.

Following his instructions I boiled the trap in weak lye and then daubed it over with fresh cow manure. The back pasture spoken of was a place where foxes traveled, and I presume that there was no week in the year that at least two or three foxes did not cross there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAUGHT IN A NO 1.]

Now, this is a very important point, if you are making but one set especially, be sure and find a location for the set near some den or ledge where foxes live, or at some point where you know they are in the habit of crossing. But to continue, under my aged instructor's direction I plowed two furrows across the pasture in the form of an X. "Now," said he, "any fox that comes along will get down and run in the furrows. Set your traps where they cross, and I shouldn't wonder if you found one up here some fine morning." I scooped out a shallow hole of a size to hold the trap and clog, put a bunch of wool under the pan so it would spring easily, and covered all slightly and smoothly with dirt; Granddad then placed some lumps of dirt in such a way that a fox would be apt to step over them into the trap, if coming from any direction. He cautioned me in visiting the trap to walk by it some distance away.

"How long do you think it will be before we catch a fox?", I asked.