My brother has a metal recycling facility open to the public. All kinds of stuff gets dropped off, usable items are put to the side to be re-purposed.
I noticed a good sized Hav-a-Hart trap the other day and asked brother about it. He responded if I had use for it, take it.
Our local police department has an animal control officer, figured she might have use for it.
I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts, got a plain donut and tie-wrapped it to the trigger plate of the trap. Went up to the police department, asked to see the animal control officer. She came down and met me in the lobby, saw the baited trap and doubled over with laughter. Told me she’d put it in the officers’ break room for a while and see what we could catch.
Seriously, the department has an assortment of live traps that get loaned out to folks with nuisance animals.
Kevin G

The last time I used mine, I ended up with a skunk in it. That was fun...

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Been there, done that!

John

Dad bought us one in the 60s for up at camp. Caught a lot of small furry creatures, but never any skunks. Ours was just kinda like a catch and release hobby. (Now days they would call it cruel & inhumane to torture animals by trapping them, thus causing permanent psychological damages to the poor, stupid animals.) He made a journal for up at camp and there's a spot where he'd record all our catches.

Years ago I bought a set of three at TSC that ranged from Chipmunk to German Shepard. In my war with raccoons, every other month or so I would set one in a path behind some shrubs. I would catch one of my barn cats every now and then, they got a pardon! But Raccoons, skunks, and opossums were given a firing squad, sans blindfold and cigarette, and pitched into a blackberry patch that the soil was played out.

The Spring before we moved from the farm, I was picking berries out there, and noticed every time I set my foot down, it crunched, but it was worth the great big beautiful Huckle Berries that grew from that reclaimed patch of land! Good thing CSI never suspected me of anything!

My 2nd son lives about 20 minutes away and he has the two smaller traps now to protect his gardens from chipmunks and city dwelling ground hogs.

Ivan

Peanuts make great squirrel bait.

Used mine to catch raccoons in my Chufa patch........At night I would take them to town and turn them loose.

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S&W Accumulator

Yeah...tell me about it.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

Animal Control in my town has about a dozen of these traps. If a citizen was having critter problems, they'll come out and set one for them.
Here's a trick an old trapper taught me. Raccoons are smart enough to know a trap when they see one. But they're curious enough to investigate any dark hole they may come across. He built wooden boxes just big enough for the trap to slide into to disguise his. You can get the same effect by simply putting the trap in a black garbage bag.

That's a right fine hat sitting there!

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

Second youngest grand daughter used one to trap a feral kitten so we could replace our late barn cat. Getting her (the kitten) into her custom built cat palace so I could try to domesticate her had me bleeding in 7 or 8 places. Vicious for a tiny thing, but canned chicken/tuna sooths the savage beast. That was about 3 years ago, the barn is now the cat palace and I'm her hired help.

The suburban town I used to live in would loan you traps. We had a major racoon problem and plenty were caught in our part of town.

Also caught a few cats, they were safely released by the home owners. Also caught a lot of skunks, then the town animal control got notified and they would remove the trap. Skunks were considered persona non grata and were killed.

The traps were covered easy and gently by a blanket with the officers talking softly to the animal. Most time that worked and no chemical release by the skunk. Traps were put in the truck and driven to a 3' deep spot in the creek up the road from my house.

Trap with wooden floor was gently set on the water and soon it would sink. After a suitable period the officers would retrieve the trap and now quite dead skunk which normally still had not fired off its home made hazmat. The the home owner got the trap back and the skunk went to a large hole in the ground in a fenced off section of town property.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Lost count of how many I caught. I was after feral CATS. Caught lots of these and skunk!
I let the possums go, they don't hurt anything

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Still Running Against the Wind

I gotta give Amazon props for their ad placement.

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If you call animal control in my township and tell them you have a skunk in a trap they will refuse to come out and tell you you're on your own. They might suggest you drown it or throw a tarp over it with a hose from your car's exhaust, but they will not help you in any way shape or form.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

I have Hav-A-Hart captured several skunks,,
My great-nephew told me how to deal with them,,

Walk up to the trap with a small tarp, sheet, etc,,

cover the trap
pick up the tarp and trap

move the trap to a "safe" disposal area.

My great-nephew releases them in a distant field, then has target practice.

I just figured out how to release them to meet my needs,,

Groundhogs do not get released,,

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I was having problems with possums getting under my house so I called animal control and they brought me a Hav-a-hart trap, the kind with the opening at both ends. They said to put and orange in it because they love oranges. I heard the trap catch something late that evening so I waited until morning to check it. I had caught my neighbor's idiot cat. I opening it up and let him out. He ran around me and right back into the other end of the trap and caught himself again. That had to be the dumbest cat I've ever seen.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

Looking for those nasty groundhogs, little Red found my trap.





We became friends shortly after I commuted his sentence.

We used to lease pastures. Besides mowing and checking the horses, did a lot of ground hog shooting. One day I was watching a known den/hole and saw what looked like a couple of Corgi puppies come out. Puzzled the dickens out of me. Then the vixen showed up to baby sit. Got a kick out of watching the kids grow up.

BTW, I'd previously realized I was feeding a fox or 2. If they only heard one shot, they figured dinner was served, they just had to find it. First time I saw a fox running unseen through the grass and then bounding up to look around I was startled. After I watched it collect dinner, I realized what had been going on all along.

I think this groundhog was pregnant so I spared her. I took her 15 miles away, over a divided Highway and the other side of a lake to a nature preserve.
They say GH’s will find their way back, don’t think that one could.

o

We have to thin out the local raccoon population quite often.

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- Change it back -

At one leased pasture I was amazed at how far ground hogs will apparently travel. I was watching a known den/hole when I saw a gh break out of the tree line and motor across the pasture for several hundred yards at surprising speed. Dived right into the hole on the run. However, he apparently did the equivalent of grabbing a beer and going out on the porch after he got home. Bad move.