With fur prices as low as they are, the topic of long term fur storage is surfacing more often these days. Items like small and slightly damaged coons are almost impossible to sell right now, but we trappers are nothing if not optimistic. Many are hoping they can store their low value fur for a year or two and bet on being able to sell them during a market … [Read more...]
Antique Trap Collector Guides
Do you collect, or have an interest in antique animal traps? If so, you might want to take a look at Robert Vance's antique trap price guides. Vance is an expert on antique traps and he has put together 15 different books containing information and prices of old collectible traps. Click here to find Vance's trap price guides at Hutzel Traps. … [Read more...]
Walter A. Gibbs: Trapper, Inventor, Entrepeneur
The muskrat fur trade was big business in the early 1900's, and Walter A. Gibbs of Dorchester County, Maryland used ambition and ingenuity to build a legacy in the trapping industry as a result. Not only did he catch thousands of muskrats for the fur market, he also developed innovative traps and techniques and pioneered the trade in live muskrats. W.A. Gibbs was a railroad … [Read more...]
Product Review: The Otter Sled
I've used a lot of sleds over the years. From ice fishing to trapping, shuffling gear to backcountry camps and working around the farm, sleds are critical to getting the job done in the winter months. My first sled was a Shappel Jet Sled - a fine product for the price, but the plastic wore out after just one season of hard use and the sled pretty much fell apart. My buddy … [Read more...]
Trapping Today Product Review: Havalon Piranta Knives
Trappers do a lot of skinning. In order to be productive, safe and efficient, it's always been critical to have a sharp knife at the skinning table, but hasn't always been easy. I still have the skinning knife I used in my early days of trapping. It's a simple, small plastic-handled knife that hardly has any blade left after all of the sharpening it's been through. I spent … [Read more...]
Trapping Magazines: A Review
Like much of the outdoor sporting world, trapping has its fair share of trade publications. A large percentage of trappers subscribe to trapping magazines to keep up with the latest news, techniques and equipment. Like most trappers, I wish I had enough money to subscribe to all of the trapping magazines, but I can’t, and you probably can’t either. So I’d like to help by … [Read more...]
The Trapping Today “Trapper’s Starter Kit”
Are you new to trapping? Do you want to learn how to trap? A good friend of mine recently decided he wanted to get into trapping. As any prospective trapper should do, he's starting off by getting as much advice and trapping knowledge as he can by spending time with other trappers and attending his first major trapping convention. Nate is bound for the National Trappers … [Read more...]
Hoofbeats of a Wolfer: A Review
I just finished reading "Hoof Beats of a Wolfer", a coyote trapping book written by L. Craig O'Gorman, predator trapper from eastern Montana. O'Gorman has been trapping coyotes for decades and has tens of thousands of critters to his name. He traps and hunts coyotes 12 months out of the year. His experience in predator control with both the government and independently for … [Read more...]