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Trapping With My Uncle
By Darren
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Well, for me, trapping all started when I went along with my uncle
to a friend's house to get rid of some 'rats that were making a mess of
their pond. I thought it was so neat the way that one day you'd set a trap
and the next day there's be a critter in it. I would go home with my uncle
at night and watch him skin them. He let me skin one after I watched and
he said I did better than he did on his first try. I got so into trapping
with my uncle that he lent me 3 #110 conibears and 2 #1½
longsprings to go trapping on my own with. He said that all I had to do is
what we had been doing for the past 2 months: set a trap and gather the
prize. Of course, I thought it would be a piece of cake; and, of course,
it wasn't. The first thing I did was to ask my grandpa if I could set some
traps along the creek that ran through some woods he owned. He abided. So
the next day I set out with my meager trap collection in a bucket and
began looking for sign. I found some fresh 'rat droppings and even some
mink tracks. I set 2 110 conibears in pocket sets and 1 over a muskrat
den. I set the longsprings on some drowning sets, which my uncle had
taught me how to make. I left that day with a feeling of pride for the
sets I had made and a great excitement for what I might find the next day.
I was disappointed for the next week as there were no animals in my sets.
On the ninth day of having the sets out it was raining hard and was one of
those days that just makes anyone depressed. I was greatly surprised to
see that I had a large buck mink in a conibear which I had made a pocket
set for with no lure but an apple baited for muskrats. That raised my
spirits. The next day there was a female in another 110 set in front of a
muskrat den. Those mink really get curious when they spot a hole. That
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