Wolf and Coyote Trapping Part 12

It is a good idea to have some small traps, No. 1, with which to catch prairie dogs for bait. The animals are rather wary, however, and care must be used in setting and covering. A 22 caliber rifle is also useful for procuring bait.

When tending the traps, one should carry a long range rifle as he will get shots at coyote, wolf or badger nearly every day. The animals killed in that way add considerable to the income of some of the western wolfers.

There will be but little chance of making a catch as long as any human scent or signs remains about the setting. The scent will pa.s.s away within a few days, but one should always guard against leaving signs. A rain, or a fresh fall of snow will sometimes help the trapper out, as it removes or covers all signs of human presence.

Some broken weeds or a freshly crushed lump of ground will alarm the animal, and through such apparently trifling causes, one may fail to make a catch.

When looking at the traps go on horseback and do not dismount unless it is absolutely necessary. On horseback, one may ride up quite close to the trap and the wolves will not be alarmed. If, however, it is necessary to go on foot, do not approach the traps nearer than necessary to see if you have made a catch, also do not go oftener than need be.

Sometimes a coyote will uncover a trap, or dig it up from its bed.

There is no way to prevent this and the only hope of catching the animal, is in having other different sets in the same locality. Some other method may catch him. For the same reason we would advise the trapper to make use of different sets when putting out the traps, for the method that will catch one would not be successful with another.

Do not depend on a few traps alone. Have all that you can look after.

If one chance is good, two are better, and those who make the largest catches are the diligent workers, who run long lines.

Wolves, like all other wandering animals, have a regular route of travel. While they may vary somewhat from this course, they are sure to continue in the same general line so that when you see tracks in any locality, you may be certain that the animal will travel somewhere near there again.

When setting a trap, never leave it until you are satisfied that it is as near a perfect set as can be made. If you do that way, you are sure to be successful.

Whenever possible, make the set on the windward side of the wolfs route, that is, on the side from which the prevailing winds blow. In that way the animal is more certain to scent the bait, and will easily follow it up wind to the trap.

Some wolfers make it a practice to burn bones and other animal matter near the camp at night, believing that it will draw wolves into the vicinity.

All of the foregoing rules will help, and should be kept in mind, but what is more important than any of them is that one be industrious and observing, always endeavoring to learn more of the habits and nature of the animals he seeks for. Such a one is bound to make a success of wolfing.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE TREACHEROUS GREY WOLF.

By Perry Davis.

The accompanying photo shows the writer holding up the skins of two mighty greys; either wolf would have weighed a hundred pounds, and measured six feet from tip to tip. Little does the average person know of the great damage done by these destructive and blood thirsty desperadoes of the western stock range. Cowardly and evasive, when coming in contact with men, yet when these two blood thirsty companions were running at large, were capable of torturing a full grown cow to death; sometimes a bunch of them will destroy good sized horses. The swift footed and aggressive range steer, equipped with nature's weapons, his long sharp horns, falls an easy victim to the powerful jaws, sharp teeth, and the wise generalship of these terrible brutes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Davis With the Big Wolf Skins.]

Five wolves have been killed in this community last winter, and there is but little sign of others, and no complaints from the stockmen.

Billy Clanton claims to have lost about 40 head of cattle, mostly calves and yearlings in the last eighteen months and he blames this small bunch of wolves for that loss. The great state of South Dakota pays the miserable sum of $5.00 bounty on grey wolves and $2.00 on coyotes. Last year the bounty claims were paid 80 cents on the dollar, as the claims were in excess of the fund appropriated for bounty purposes.

I have heard of wolves attacking persons in the woods of the Northeastern States; I have no reason to doubt this--they may be a different wolf from our grey wolf, or buffalo wolf, as they are often called. I have seen them in the Panhandle country of Northwest Texas, in Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana and Canada and they are all the same, as far as I could see, in looks, size and habits, and I have never heard of them molesting anyone in the above mentioned places. Of course, there is the coyote, he is everywhere I have ever been and some call him a wolf. Fur dealers call him prairie wolf; frequently some fellow will tell me about a black wolf, or a big white one, but I just let him run it over me; I don't tell him he is a prevaricator, neither do I get angry and try to kill him. I permit him to think he is telling me something and try to look unconcerned and solemn, but I think he has looked down on the back of a grey wolf from high ground and he looked dark and the more he thought about it, the darker it became, until he became almost too black for anything.

The same wolf standing on a hill above you, will show the white and yellow on his breast and belly and that always looks so much like that big white wolf. I do not doubt but that there is an occasional black wolf, but I have never seen one.

I want to see every wolf and coyote in the country with his hide nailed up to dry. I did not encourage others to trap when I was wolfing, as I wanted to know how to work my range to the best advantage, and beginners often make them hard to catch; their work is too coa.r.s.e and the wolves get wise. To the boys who inquired in the July number about methods of setting and baiting for wolves, I will say I will give you the best I've got. While an experienced wolfer can give you some good pointers, he can do you no good, unless you are an early riser and an energetic worker with lots of patience, for successful wolfing is not a lazy man's job. Of course, I do not know anything about trapping in the woods or in the country east of the Missouri. No. 4 Newhouse traps are the best where you are trapping wolves and coyotes both.

A prairie dog town is a good place, especially if the country is rough around it, as wolves come to catch the dogs. Make a blind set on some smooth mound, set about three traps close together. Kinsey stakes all three to one pin, probably to save time, but I always stake them so that they can't quite pull them together but it takes more work. The wind generally blows from the northwest and wolves generally come to a setting facing the wind, and you will see the advantage in having your traps set on the "windward" side or set them in a triangle with bait in center--a prairie dog cut in several pieces and then put together to look natural. In picking the pieces up, he is liable to step around some. If the dog is whole, he may carry it away without being caught. It is not always necessary to bait after you have caught one, as he leaves scent that will attract others. Get traps in bare ground, don't chop out places in the gra.s.s.

In trapping along trails and creeks always remember the wind; this is important. Roll up a bunch of wool to put under the pan and cover the whole trap with dry dirt, especially in winter.

If you have been covering your traps with paper, cut it out--wool is more convenient and the mice do not uncover your trap and the wind does not uncover it so much. If you are bothered by having cattle spring your traps at a carca.s.s, set your trap under the edge of the carca.s.s where stock will miss them but when the coyote rears back to pull off a bite, it is right where he will put his front feet. I have often killed "Big Jaws," old horses and cripples and then set traps on the trails they follow to feed on the carca.s.s, but seldom set the trap at the carca.s.s. Good strychnine is good if one knows how to use it. If you want to make drop baits, cut up small pieces of the paunch and roll the poison up in it. They like that part of an animal and if they swallow it while it is frozen, it will unroll in the stomach and give the poison a chance to act quickly.

I often use a light wagon in setting traps and sometimes carry dirt to cover with. I throw a wagon sheet out to stand on and do all the work without stepping on the ground, as one should always leave as little scent as possible. I think that most kinds of scent are good or anything that smells rotten enough, but the old grey is certainly cunning and hard to trap, especially if he has lost a few toes. There are grey wolves that do not kill cattle; when I commenced to hunt wolves, I studied them very carefully. I opened and examined the stomach of all I caught and instead of finding them loaded with fresh meat, I found over half without anything in the stomach at all; others had pieces of bones, gra.s.s and old pieces of hide stripped from old dry carca.s.ses and I found rabbits, mice and gophers and this was in the lower Musselsh.e.l.l Country where there were thousands of cattle.

I have tried hounds, and have had some of the best that I could get but they were never successful. I never had hounds that would kill a grown wolf, but they often stopped the wolf until I could shoot it and I never knew them to make a good fight more than once, besides dogs knock their toe nails off on rocks and get crippled up with cactus and often a whole pack will almost ruin themselves by killing porcupines, the quills getting in the throat and sometimes will work through the head and into the eyes and blind them. I can take traps and beat any bunch of dogs I ever tried for both wolves and coyotes.

A wolf hound is often very stupid and does some very laughable things. I had six good ones on a trip in Canada. I was going down the Medicine Lodge Valley, had team and the hounds; on each side of the road about three hundred yards ahead were a bunch of cattle, near each bunch there was a coyote. I tried to send the dogs after them but they could not see them, as they were sitting still. Just then the dogs saw a badger about a quarter of a mile down the road, and they were not long getting there. As they pa.s.sed the cattle, both coyotes started after the dogs and followed them to within a few steps of the scene of battle, where the six dogs were tearing at the tough skin of the badger. The coyotes seemed to think it was "heap fun" and then one coyote jumped into the fight and out again and then the other and they repeated it several times, when at last a young dog discovered one of the coyotes and started him over a hill and the other coyote following at the heels of the dog.

Finally the hound found that he was out-numbered and went back; the other five never knew that there had been a coyote in the valley, but were still tearing away at the dead badger as I drove up. Well, I felt like saying something, but I didn't.

CHAPTER XIX.

WOLF CATCHING.

This article by R. H. Winslow was originally contributed to the HUNTER-TRADER-TRAPPER, but being of special interest is reprinted here:

"It was my misfortune sometime ago to contract a nervous disorder, which quite incapacitated me. After securing the medical advice of one of the world's best specialists, it was apparent that I would find health, if at all, only in a 'journey to nature.' Accordingly I decided to leave New York and spend a year in the West, there to hunt quail, prairie chicken, wild turkey, rabbits, bob cats, wolves, deer and bear.

"At first I went to Oklahoma and from there traveled by easy stages to the Mill Iron Ranch in Northwest Texas, which I have thus far made my headquarters.

"The feathered tribe, rabbits, prairie dogs and bob cats interested me for a while, but soon my thoughts became centered on wolves.

Indeed, they are extremely interesting, and I was not long in discovering that it would be necessary to cope with animals of almost human intelligence. Too, they were quite plentiful--could be seen any day while riding over the plains--and night they made hideous with their howls. Would I hunt them with horse an gun, horse an dogs, or attempt to trap them? That was the question confronting me.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Texas Specimen.]

"My first experience with horse and gun came about in this way: Two young cowboys, Ernest Edwards and Robert Russell, were with me hunting prairie chicken; we saw a wolf lying in the sage gra.s.s about five hundred yards away, and decided that although we had shot guns, we would endeavor to ride up sufficiently close to get a shot.

Edwards and I were within about eighty yards of the wolf when he started; both fired, and Russell started immediately in pursuit.

Russell ran after him for about three miles, when the chase was taken up by Edwards, who, upon his famous sorrel, 'Playmate,' was soon within a few yards of him and fired with his shot gun. Three shots brought him to the ground.

"After this I saw cowboys try to rope wolves, but seldom with success; and frequently they would attempt to kill them from their mounts with carbine or revolver, but were likewise seldom successful.