Trapper Ron Stuff 2013 - 2014

[TrapperRon]

Trapper Ron Stuff 2013 – 2014

New stuff for this season. Have had a few projects on the go and some to start in October to get ready for the season. So will start to play catch up with some postings. Was hoping for most of October to pre make lynx sets and put up more marten boxes. Not much I can do at the wolf bait stations as the less disturbance the better. Fall cleanup of the grounds at home, finish my trailer, new metal roof for the cabin, Trappers Local Workshop gonna cut into my plans. Have to cut wood for next year for camp as well, like to keep a year ahead. I will be putting together a share making tutorial for both wolf snares and lynx snares. Probably post on their own so they can be archived.
Always look forward to your comments as the postings and the season progresses. Wishing you all a great productive season with good fur prices.

[TrapperRon]

This has been a project I worked on this summer. Just a few bolts left to fasten the deck down and it's ready to go.
Bought a new Rhino end of March and my old trailer I built in 1990 and remodeled again in 1997 I think it was was not suitable for loading or hauling it. So far I drove it from the driveway into the shop and tried it to see if it fit on the remodeled trailer. The trailer will also fit my new Scandic WT Ace 600 once I get it. (can only hope for lots of marten and high prices to pay for this new stuff)

Stripped it right down from a flat deck with 2000 pound Axel to a fendered lower trailer with 3600 pound axle. I have to admit that my welding does not look pretty. Nothing a grinder and some paint can't fix. kept looking at my old welds from 1991 on the frame and asking myself "did I really do this". It did get much better as I progressed.

Here is the bare frame after the sides and deck were stripped off. The old axle is still under it.



To make the trailer wide enough I has to weld pieces of 2" x 3" angle iron down each side. This is the new frame upside down sanded down and painted.



I had to manufacture an axle carriage to fit the new axle, fit under the old main frame , and still have space for the tires. I went from shackle springs to slipper springs also.









After the axle and wheels were fitted under the frame I made steps to support the fender and to protect them also.
I needed this as a place to step after I loaded the Rhino, no room to open the doors or step out except over the side.



The front was screened in also as a better place to step without slipping. There will be some kind of spare tire mount here also. Notice at the corners the tie downs, there are two at the back also. Once the deck is on they well be recessed.



Took the extended hitch off and installed the old hitch from way back as well as a new trailer jack.



The front has two gates for access from the front. (will be sheeted also) The spare tire may be mounted to one gate and the trailer jack stored on the other gate.



Grated tail gate for loading. Yup it was strong enough and did not bend on try out. You can see the mounts for my tail lights and protective bars also.





Here it is with just a few more bolts left to secure the deck and sides. Spare tire holder needed also. Worked for more than half a day to get the lights to work. The problem was the truck receptacle and not the trailer wiring at all. Bout drove me crazy to troubleshoot it.





Ready to roll, scout the trapline, make new sets, and check traps until sled time. The trailer can also hook on to the back of the Rhino to haul wood or whatever.

[slik1]

Nice fab job. I built a few trailers before, lots of work, can almost buy a manufactured one, for the price of an axle, etc, etc.

[TrapperRon]

Yeah but the manufactured ones do not have exactly what you want. Most I looked at were junk also.

[TrapperRon]

A smelly job but it needed to be done. When I moved to Kelowna over twenty years ago I had packed all my commercial lure making ingredients into a big container on wheels. It was time to unseal the vault and see what was in there.

What was in there ? Well about everything you could imagine needed to make scent and lures. There were mink glands, a gallon of ground beaver castor, two gallons of ground oil glands, a gallon of oil gland, a gallon of both marten lure and lynx lure. 6 oz of skunk musk in one ounce bottles, a gallon of wild cherry extract, and a couple of bottles of tinctured ingredients. Many small bottles of raw ingredients, aniseed oil, rhodium, asafedita, oil of sweet birch, to name a few. There were empty 1, 2, and 4 ounce containers with caps. A hand grinder,filters, funnels, barrel spigots, measuring cups and spoons and a blender. Even a full bottle of vodka. Just to name a bit of the stuff. Some, like half a case of mackerel had to go to the dump.
I will be sharing some of this with local trappers as I do not plan on resurrecting Trapper Ron Lures any time soon if ever. Trapper Ron Lures were sold in BC, Alberta, Yukon, NWT, Ontario, and Quebec in the 80's.

[TrapperRon]

Reflector Oven
Early last spring one of the Trappers (Bushman from Alberta) on a wilderness trapping forum site posted some pictures of a reflector oven. A crude but effective one can be made from a few pieces of tin, an old oven or fridge rack, and some haywire. Of course I had to make one out of 1/8 inch and 1/16 inch aluminum complete with piano hinges and a custom made grate. The Alaskans on the site called it the executive model. So what is it good for? Well you can boil a tea pot, make toast, warm up your lunch or what it is intended for is to make bannock. I have always made it in a cast iron frying pan but this turned out to be fun. I made up a bannock recipe, split it in two and flattened both halves out. Brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins went in between the two halves. Camp fire cinnamon bun at its best.

The basic oven, it folds up with removal of a couple of bolts.





There is a metal shop where I test the backflow devices for the city that has plenty of scrap aluminum and other metal. The allow me to help myself to scraps. While I was getting the aluminum for the oven there was a 3 foot piece of scrap iron that had a design punched out on it. It got cut in half and the two halves welded together to make a very good grate.





Tried it out on our fishing trip to Sheridan Lake in June.



Two cinnamon bannock in the oven.



Done just like a downtown restaurant.



Here is the cast iron frying pan version.

There are many recipes for bannock and just about as many ways to cook it. To the basic recipe you can add many ingredients such as blueberries, raisins, cinnamon, brown sugar, grated cheese, bacon bits, or diced ham.
Basic Bannock Recipe
3 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat flour)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine (or butter or shortening)
3/4-1 cup milk (or water)

Directions:
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Work in the margarine using hands until you make a nice crumble.
Gradually mix in enough milk to make soft but not sticky. Knead.
Shape into a ball, place on a greased baking sheet, then flatten into a circle about 1 inch thick.
Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

[trappincoyotes39]

A bannock sounds like a very large biscuit to me? LOL.

[TrapperRon]

Here is a new double ended marten box that nails (screws) directly onto the tree. It has a bait compartment and place for the birds to feed on the bait though the 1" x 1" screen. This I feel is important, as a whiskey jacks (Canada Jay) flying back and forth or two squabbling over the bait is one of the best marten attractants there is. There is a hole on the outer shelf to fasten my quick connect cable. My plans are to make 20 or 25 for trial. As well I will be making more single ones to go where there is only one existing box now.

The idea came to me after seeing the single boxes that Jim Gibb uses, thank you Jim. Being as my preference is a double set I thought why not a double ender of the same idea.

Yes they are big and clumsy to transport. Most of my sets will be made pre season via my 4 x 4 Toyota Tundra or my Rhino side by side. They will stay out on the line along with the quick connect cables for use year after year. There will be more pictures posted once I start setting them out, and hopefully some results once trapping starts.

[thorsmightyhammer]

Thanks ron. I looked forward to your yearly journal like this.

You going to use that trailer to haul the skandic around?

[TrapperRon]

Bit the bullet today. The new Scandic WT ACE 600 is ordered for November 1 and deposit paid.
Got a very good commercial (trapper) discount. Anyone buying a Ski Doo who is a trapper needs to inquire about this.

[TrapperRon]

Wife and I just had a great three weeks. We went to Sheridan Lake in the Cariboo fishing and camping for three weeks. Due to weather and forecast we cut it short after two weeks, came home, reorganized, and went up to the trap camp for the last week. Caught some nice rainbow trout. Not the trophy 15 to 18 pounder I wanted but never the less some good fishing. (next spring maybe) Best I got was 4 pounds 11 ounces. Lots of fish in the 2 to 3 pound range. Sheila got 4 pine needle baskets made and I got some more wolf snares made.

A few nice rainbow:









Some pictures on the lake:











We really rough it out there.



Happy 68th Birthday ! ! Sheila could not get a fire permit so only one candle. ""



Hard to beat a camp breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hot cakes.





Four of Sheila's pine needle baskets created at Sheridan Lake:

[TrapperRon]

So week three was spent at the trapline camp. Mostly we tidied up around the cabin, pruned some trees to help fire proof the area, and gave the inside a good scrubbing as well as cull out some junk no needed. We made a trip out to Nevertouch Lake, just one hunter camped there. Went to an old cedar deck and cut blocks for kindling. Best wood there is for kindling and splits sooooo nice. We cut up three large boxes and have probably ten more boxes to spit up. Will add those pictures after our thanksgiving.

We tried out our new (used) propane stove oven with a bit of camp baking. Sheila made a "scratch" cake. and I made biscuits. I can post the scratch cake recipe if interested, it is the ideal camp cake and the simplest to make, all dry ingredients, no eggs, just water. I cheated on the biscuits and used Bisquick. Our old propane stove burned everything in the oven, was only good as a warming oven.

I did get my wolf snares finished, boiled and bagged complete with the #11 wire for hanging them. (150 made up ready to go). One morning we woke up to 2" of fresh snow.













Winter and trapping season just around the corner now. Time to get out and prepare those new set locations.





Sheila's scratch cake and my muffins. Oops half the cake went missing.





Guess I should have taken my bigger saw. Was a challenge with a 16" bar. Sort of like taking a knife to a gun fight.

[TrapperRon]

New Cabin Roof

My roof has haunted me from the day I built this cabin. Finally I ordered and bought metal roofing. Gathered together a work party and the roof is now on. My brother commented to the crew that now I would be able to sleep as I hadn't slept for three years.

The first year we ran out of time and I used a big tarp to cover the roof. It lasted two years and shattered. It was only really meant to be temporary for the first winter.



The plan was for a metal roof but a good trapper friend had a 9 foot wide roll of farmers roofing called "20 Year Roofing" Simple to put on so we went with that. Seems that it is only 2 year roofing under my conditions. On the south side of the roof from the freeze and thaw of a heavy winter snow it tore when the ice slid. Had major leaks (tears) last spring and this spring, requiring some patching.





Now a new metal roof.

Gathered up the strapping from a neighbor with a band saw mill.



Some of the crew at work. My friend "Tall John" way up on top walked around up there using the roof screw for footing as if he were on the ground. I did not do heights when I had my real knees, let alone with my bionic ones. My other friend there, Dean, who is also a trapper on a wilderness line was quite at home walking around up there on the strapping up there also. My brother in law and his son were a great help as a ground crew.





Finished Roof

[musher]

Nice roof. It will be nice to hear the roar when the snow slides off!

[TrapperRon]

Wife and I and my brother went to camp for the weekend. Planned on getting some more lynx corrals made and a few more marten boxes up to be ready for November. My friend Jon arrived in the morning just as we were finishing breakfast. When we were putting the roof on I told him the story of the big wood log (Douglas fir snag) that someone else felled. Some of you will recall the pictures I posted last fall where someone almost had a bad accident when it went the wrong way. Anyway he arrives with his flat bed truck and winch on the back to go skid it out for me.

When we got there he wanted to haul a load to the cabin for me. The log is 29 inches on the butt and we brought back 6 logs just over 9 feet long. So a long story short I have a log deck in camp to cut up now. Will be split and dry piled for next year. Here are some pictures of our wood logging operation.

[TrapperRon]

A few shots from up at the 6000 foot level on my Nevertouch Lake trapline. Good marten and lynx country but also lots of cut blocks.

I pick up marten in the leave strips between the cut blocks and lynx in the older grown up cut blocks. Some of the logging is now 25 years old and great lynx habitat.



This is Mount Moore and Jubilee Mountain both in the Greystokes Provincial park. There are four traplines bordering each other in the park and we all have Grandfather clauses allowing us to trap there on our respective lines with permits from the Parks Branch.



There is a nice band of old growth timber between the park boundary and the alpine which will not be logged as it is in the park.

[TrapperRon]

Finished up 20 double ender marten boxes today and 10 singles. Still have parts cut for more but with these, some plywood ones at camp, and several behind the shop I'm good to go.



My nephew works in a machine shop and made me up 4 wolf drags to go with my 4 new Bridger Brawn # 9 wolf traps. Just need 12 feet of chain and swivels for each. Then of course treat them. He is making me a set of trap setters for them also.

[TrapperRon]

Got my 4 Bridger Brawn #9 wolf traps boiled up, dipped in white formula 1 and the chain and drags added. I will put a touch of weld on each of the J hooks on the swivels and adjust the pan tensions. The second swivel is at 60 cm (2 feet) in case I want to solid stake them.

It has been snowing up on the line for two days. Not sure what to expect when I head up tomorrow as the snow line is down really low, just above town. Nine big boxes of butcher scraps, beef, moose and deer, in the truck ready to go.

[musher]

What do you think of the F-1 and why don't you treat the chain/drag?

[TrapperRon]

The chain and drag will be buried well below the trap. I'm behind on my getting ready and will treat the whole thing once a slight coat of rust is on it. I really like the F1. Thinned more than recommended is going to really treat the 1 x 19 wire so there is no shine at all. (brown or white). We found that dip, dry over night, then second dip and dry for two days works very well. Those traps are dipped just once. There will be just one set at a bait station and lots of snares out from the station. Hopefully catch a dominant and the rest will run all around the area, hopefully hanging some up in snares.

I will dip those traps again and do the chain and drags at the same time. Probably another couple weeks before I set for wolves.