A rusty trap that still works found by John Arizona and I on our last outing.

[elgatodelnoche]

This was right next to a trail. When we go back I am going to look for more. I have posed it next to my Russel Green River pattern knife.

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Somebody is going to be looking for that. Did it have a tag?

 

[AU_Solitude]

Agree, that's probably someones trap, looks newer.

 

[UnderMiner]

Don't get your fingers stuck in that one. Double spring, very hard to get off.

 

[worldtalker]

I like those Green River Knives,made a few of them.


GOD Bless

Chris

 

[Gold Maven]

When I was trapping, I often had people "find" my traps, usually with a nice red fox in them.

Never caught anyone red-handed, lucky for them.

 

[pa plateau hiker]

When I was trapping, I often had people "find" my traps, usually with a nice red fox in them.

Never caught anyone red-handed, lucky for them.

i hear ya. I had people steal animals from my traps too. Someone else shot an 18 lb coon I had caught with a shotgun at close range. The hide was ruined.

 

[dirtlooter]

that one looks big enough to be for coyotes and bobcats, even otter

 

[elgatodelnoche]

Nobody was coming back for that. I cleaned it up considerably with a wire wheel before posting it. It was abandoned. No readable tags were on it.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

i hear ya. I had people steal animals from my traps too. Someone else shot an 18 lb coon I had caught with a shotgun at close range. The hide was ruined.

I'm trapper tolerant (raise chickens, turkeys and sheep). Years ago I was out grouse hunting (in NY) and I stepped over a large fallen log. All of the sudden there was snarling and screeching and a flurry of brown. Straddling the log I couldn't go either way. Without thinking I blasted the good sized raccoon with my little 20 ga. I did not realize he was in a leg trap. All I saw were teeth. I left him, and the trap, and there was no tag on the trap or I would have apologized to the trapper. It wasn't the landowner but he figured he knew who the trapper was and would explain what happened.

I guess my heart is strong because it about popped out of my chest when that critter went ballistic.



Now a funny story. My father-in-law was a terrific gardener. But one year the raccoons were wiping out his sweet corn. So I offered to help. I set a Victor leg trap and staked it in the corn and bated it (sardine). Sure enough, the next day I had a HUGE raccoon. But a raccoon stretches about three feet, and the trap has four feet of chain, so there was a 14 foot diameter crop circle in the middle of the 20' x 30' patch of sweetcorn where that raccoon had uprooted all the corn trying to get free and circling the stake.

Sam asked me to never help with his garden again.

 

[Tedyoh]

Nobody was coming back for that. I cleaned it up considerably with a wire wheel before posting it. It was abandoned. No readable tags were on it.

I agree, any trap that was being use for the 2014-15 season would (or should if the trapper knew what they were doing) would have been jet black in color (from being boiled in black walnut shells) and have a layer of bees wax on it. Reason for this process is to hide the scent of the steel trap from the animal being sought. Especially coyote and fox.

 

[Trooper733]

It looks like a No. 3 size from the comparison with the knife. the pan looks home made or modified as it has sharp square corners, most commercial traps from today don't. Without any incused lettering on the pan, its going to be hard to tell without looking at in person, but it looks to me like an older model Victor #3 trap. The jaws aren't offset (with a gap in between) which is required in most states now. Also there are new trap dyes available that a lot of current trappers use that isn't the logwood dye and beeswax, its usually mixed with water or white gas, dipped and hung to dry and de-fumigate. but again like mentioned it would be black or dark brown in color from the trap dye, whichever kind used. I actually use this new type of trap dip now myself. Also, since there isn't a copper trap tag attached anywhere ( I roll mine up around the chain or swivel to keep from being torn off during a catch and subsequent fight) it is either leftover from a while back or again like previously mentioned, by someone who didn't know the proper or legal way to set traps. No professional or caring trapper ever sets traps directly in a trail either. Also, most professional trappers are four coiling their traps now, and like I said, using offset jawed traps for humane catches and to preserve the catch from broken bones etc. I am a licensed, nuisance trapper for the state and do some collecting of antique traps. I really think this is a Victor brand trap or copy of a Victor brand, and is definitely a modern trap. Worth about 15 bucks to a trapper who can easily replace the pan with a correct N.O.S. pan and replace the springs and weld offsets onto the jaws to make it legal to use currently. Mark