The number of deadfalls and snares that each trapper should construct in his section must largely be determined by himself, depending upon how large a territory he has to trap over without running into other trappers' grounds.
The largest deadfalls can be made to spring easy and catch small game if required.
After you have once found a good trapping section, and built your cabin, deadfalls and snares, you can go there fall after fall with your line of steel traps, resetting your deadfalls with but little repairs for years.
It will thus be seen that a trapper in the North can attend more deadfalls and snares than one in the South or even in the Central States.
The height that deadfalls for marten should be built depends upon how deep the snow gets.
During my trapping experiences I remember of visiting an old trapper's deadfalls and at that time I had never seen or used any trigger other than the figure 4, but this trapper used the prop and spindle.
Will send two illustrations of the stone deadfalls writes a successful deadfall trapper.
A half dozen deadfalls located at the right places, carefully built and properly set, are worth probably as much as fifty carelessly constructed and located at haphazard.
A few inches of snow will not interfere with the workings of deadfalls on the ground, but deep snows will.
To the trapper who traps in the same locality every year, when his deadfalls are once built it is only a few minutes' work to put them in shape, then he has got a trap for the season.
Recently two trappers wrote of their season's catch and added that a good proportion was caught in deadfalls and snares.
Whether the statement is true or not, matters but little, altho one thing is certain and that is that many of the men who have spent years in trapping and have been successful use the deadfalls and snares as well as steel traps.
Some animals may be shy of deadfalls that can be taken in spring poles, snares and steel traps.
I have seen nearly all the different makes of deadfalls and have tried some of them, but the one I here send you the picture of, which can be easily understood, is the one I have had the most success with.
Deadfalls come in handy sometimes and with no cost whatever--unless the cost is building them.
During the next few days Oo-koo-hoo and Amik had also finished setting their traps, snares, and deadfalls for all the furred creatures of the woods, including wolves and bears.
The deadfalls he built for beavers were nearly always made of dead tamarack--never of green poplar--otherwise the beavers would have pulled them to pieces for the sake of the wood.
Also, he built deadfalls much like those he built for bear, but of course much smaller; and again the bait was castorum, but this time it was rubbed on a bit of rabbit skin which was then attached to the bait stick of the deadfall.
In the meantime, Amik had gone upon one of his trapping paths, and the boys were off to a swampy region to examine deadfalls set for mink and fisher.
The pelts of more dead game had been ruined; deadfalls had been broken; and even some of his steel traps had been carried away.
The largest and best deadfalls used by the Indians are those they set for bears.
If, however, the hunter's deadfalls and traps have been set in vain, and if the wolf has been causing trouble and the hunter is determined to secure him, he will sit up for him at night in the hope of getting a shot at him.
Several rabbits were started in the course of the afternoon, giving assurance that the deadfalls would yield sufficient food for their needs, though no results could be expected from them until the following morning.
Skunks may also be taken in box traps, deadfalls and snares, and they seldom become scented when caught in such traps.
Deadfalls are also used and they may be built on the ground or snow, or on the top of a stump, or the side of a tree.
Bears may also be trapped successfully with snares and deadfalls but the objection to these traps is that the animal is killed instantly and if the traps are not visited daily, the skin is likely to spoil.
Lined deadfalls are thoroughfares to woodsmen," she answered, defiantly.
You snare my trout, you cover the streams with set-lines and gang-hooks, you get more partridges with winter grapes and deadfalls than you do with powder and shot.
If trapping season after season in the same locality deadfallsare a great help for mink that are apparently hard to catch in steel traps readily take bait from deadfalls and get caught.
While it is best to construct deadfalls in advance of trapping season, yet the writer has built deadfalls late in November, set and baited and found mink in them the next morning.
In constructing deadfalls for mink care must be taken to have the pen built tight but not too large.
For stone deadfalls the figure 4 must be used as the two piece will not work--going off entirely too hard.
To the trapper who traps in the same locality every year, when his deadfalls are once built it is only a few minutes work to put them in shape, then he has got a trap for the season.
The most successful trapper uses some deadfalls as well as steel traps, especially if trapping for a season at one place.
On the other hand, mink that refuse to take bait from deadfallsare often caught in blind steel trap sets.
It is best to build deadfalls in advance of the active trapping season so that the animals may become accustomed to them, and the trap weather beaten.
Mink are great travelers, so that it is needless to set deadfalls close together.
When deadfalls are built before the trapping season it is well to set them, having the top of the pen covered, just as though the trap was baited and ready for business.
Steel Traps are far superior to Snares or Deadfalls from the fact that they can be used for both land and water trapping while Snares and Deadfalls are adapted to Land Trapping only.
So they made two deadfalls with the carrion half way between them.
The deadfalls yielded two martens, but one of them was spoiled by the warm weather.
You must have frosty weather or the creatures taken in the deadfalls are spoiled before the trapper can get around.
Down the creek they went, still making their deadfalls at likely places and still seeing game tracks at the muddy spots.
They found some old beaver signs but none new; and they left their deadfalls every quarter mile or less.
The Line of Traps Now that they had the cabin for winter, and food for the present, they must set about the serious business of trapping and lay a line of deadfalls for use in the coming cold weather.
Quickly the deadfalls were baited and set; last the Indian threw into the trap chamber a piece of moss on which was a drop of the "smell," and wiped another drop on each of his moccasins.
The Beaver Pond AT THE noon halt they were about ten miles from home and had made fifteen deadfalls for marten, for practice was greatly reducing the time needed for each.
Thirty deadfalls made by Quonab, with the sixty made on the first trip and a dozen steel traps, were surely promise of a good haul.
In setting the deadfalls a little house about 2 feet high is built, in which is placed the bait of meat or blubber.
Foxes are caught in the winter by deadfalls or steel traps (naenori'a), set generally along the beach, where the foxes are wandering about in search of carrion thrown up by the sea.
Under the deadfalls were remnants of fur, and out on the ice of the lakes were picked skeletons of foxes and wolves that had taken the poison baits.
It was midafternoon when they crossed the trail along which Bush McTaggart's traps and deadfalls had been set.
He was determined that she should have it, whether the fifth traps and the fifth deadfalls and fifth poison baits caught the fur or not.
You know, Lerue--he has a hundred and fifty traps and deadfalls set, and a big poison-bait country.
And where once the deadfalls and poison baits of Tusoo had kept the wolves thinned down, there was no longer a menace for these mohekuns of the wilderness.
Nepeese carefully dipped a hundred traps in boiling caribou fat mixed with beaver grease, while Pierrot made fresh deadfalls ready for setting on his trails.
After striking the river, we followed it up past the mouth of the gorge, past three of the deadfalls set near the shore.
Having with the small ones set deadfalls for marten, fisher, and mink, we went on up the river to the carcasses of the bear and the bull elk.
As time passed, we set more and more deadfalls up and down the valley, so many that finally we could not make the round of them all in one day.
If this is so, it explains why it was that our deadfalls held fewer and fewer prizes for us, until finally three or four days would pass without our finding even a marten to reward us for our long, weary tramps.
We kin come up now once a week 'n' tend the deadfalls 'n' not leave the canoe more'n an hour.
In vain he described how deadfalls were built and where they must be placed, how many signs of lynx and wildcat he had seen that summer, and how sure they were to secure some of these valuable furs.
When the deadfalls had been visited and they began gum-gathering again, they watched constantly for an enemy.
I never saw his equal for quickness in setting deadfallsor rabbit snares.
We also built a number more deadfalls for marten on different ridges farther up the stream where I had not set any the fall before.
We fixed up the two deadfalls I had made for bear, as we wished to get all the bear traps out that we could, as we had already seen several signs.
As soon as I had all the deadfalls set I hunted up good places to set the traps that we had.
We built a number of deadfalls along the streams for mink and coon.
In the afternoon on my way to camp I came to the creek some ways below where I had set the mink traps, so I put up two or three more deadfalls for mink.
After we had gone over the streams we built the necessary deadfalls in the dark, heavy timbered sections where we thought likely that there might be marten.
After the small steel traps were set we began building a line of deadfalls for marten and fisher.
After we had all the deadfalls and steel traps out but three or four otter traps, we set one or two at the drift where I caught one the fall before.
We now began to spring all the deadfalls that we had set for marten, mink and coon and take up all of the steel traps as we had written to the man to be there about the fifteenth of the month.
After we had several lines of marten traps built, we went onto the stream and branches and built deadfalls for mink and coon.
I told the boys that the bear were looking up winter quarters, and that if we would all go at it and put up several deadfalls we would stand a fair chance to get a bear or two, but it was no go.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "deadfalls" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
