Made me think

[Gerald Schmitt]

Awhile back there waa a thread on another forum, the gist of the question was that a guy was going to buy a lot of traps and go out and hit it hard. I was surprised when many of the replies told the guy to cut back his purchases and just set a few traps for one or two species and try to gain some experience before he traps harder. What do you guys think, and how did your learn?

Personally I have always felt that you are better off hitting it hard and making adjustments as you learn what works and what doesn't work. If you have a lot of sets out, it won't take long to figure out what works and what doesn't and you can make adjustments along the way. You also have the benefit of having a large enough sample size to know that what is working is not just random luck, but something that you are doing right. Conversely, if all your sets are empty, you know real fast that you need to adjust your methods. I have done some things that worked rally well and built on it, but I also have done things that look like it should work (mink boxes for example) and have had it be a spectacular failure.

You show me a guy that never fails at anything, and I will show you someone who has not tried much either.

[trappnman]

I'd tend to agree. a good example is dryl and coon. Never wasted time on them as a kid with them bringing less than todays possum, but when I first went seasonal trapping coon had increased in valve, and I bought, begged, borrowed every trap I could (one found out quick what traps were coon traps, what traps were not)and set up everywhere I could think to set, where I might catch coon far from water.

coon are coon, and with the large number of traps I had out, I caught coon- but I did come to learn many things about coon- how they acted in all types of weather, how they travelled, what appealed to the most coon, most of the time etc. If I had been using only a few traps, what I learned over a couple seasons, would have taken me far longer

[blackhammer]

If you got the trapping bug go for it and set every trap you can. When I weas younger I would sell fur and take the money and buy more traps. It's always been an obsession for me sometimes I guess a vice. The more you set, the more your out there the more you learn. One thing that many guys don't have is great knowledge of the animals either. I have always been just fasinated with animals and their habits and that has made me a much better trapper. And some of that comes from making all kinds of stupid sets and seeing what catchs fur and what doesn't. How animals react.

[Griz]

It depends a lot on the knowledge of the individual, time of the individual, and the area being trapped. If the individual has little knowledge of animal behavior and a small amount of time to trap, that person might well be better off focusing on one or two species at first and expanding as their knowledge and time allows rather than flounder with all species, get disappointed, and give up trapping all together. A hound that chases two rabbits catches neither.

[trappnman]

I agree on concentrating on 1 or 2 animals- but the question comes down to would such an individual learn more, quicker using lots of traps rather than a few to further his learning curve?

[Possum]

I agree with T-man. Concentrate on 2 or 3 species that are abundant, then go balls out on those.