Letter Re: Let’s Talk About Trapping: North American Furbearer
As a fellow trapper I enthusiastically read the article on trapping and although I have never eaten Raccoon. I can vouch that beaver and muskrat are good meat sources. Muskrat, I do not eat regularly, but beaver is more substantial and I do regularly take the meat and the skin is durable enough to be used for hats, mittens, coats, etc. When skinning beaver take care not to cut the castor glands, first these smell awful and would taint the meat, second you can sell them, and third you can use these to make your own lure for predators. Here is a link to a nice diagram showing where the castor glands are I often harvest part of the beaver for cooking, the skin for tanning and use the remaining parts for bait for predators. It seems to be a universal bait good for lynx, fox, wolves and wolverines.
For a novice trapper, there are three basic ways to trap critters two of which are lethal and the third is not. First there are snares, which can be made with a variety of gauges of wire and can catch anything from squirrels to wolves, well, bears actually, but I haven’t had the pleasure of that, yet. Then there are lethal traps such as the connibear that was mentioned in the article, and finally foot holds which leave you with a live critter, meaning, you have to dispatch it, you have to check your foot hold traps more frequently and the area disturbed by the animal once it is caught is going to probably be a bigger area. There are countless pros and cons to each method. Snares can be made in quantity and are relatively cheap, but often can not be reused. Traps are more expensive up front, but can be reused with minimal repairs for many years. I would recommend for preparedness sake to put in a stock of each of these three types in a variety of sizes.
As far as trapping for food I would recommend snares and lots of them, they are small, inexpensive, easier to transport and can be used in quantity. In my area rabbits are easy to snare, but if you do not check them frequently you lose your catch to predators such as fox. Squirrels can also be caught in quantity with snares and bait such as peanut butter, the military teaches the making of squirrel poles for survival situations. These are poles (trees leaning at a 45 degree angle. You place bait at the top, or middle and then snares on the top and sides up and down the pole. I haven’t tried this but am sure it would work and is somewhat similar to bait poles used for martin.
My personal preference for muskrats are fish traps (Dyke traps), these can be made of netting material or chicken wire. I would recommend having some of these for catching fish, muskrats, and other small critters, here are some examples.
Anyway, this is a topic near and dear to me and an often neglected area for preparedness minded individuals. There is too much to put in a short note, but please do post more on this topic.
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