Innehållsförteckning för January 2020 från The Trapper

Selecting a rifle for coyote hunting can be confusing and, depending on your needs, very specialized. Luckily, there are many fine rifles and calibers to choose from. Picking a rifle first requires selecting a suitable caliber. The hunter will need to evaluate the terrain and demographics they will be hunting in. Rifles in .223 Remington and the excellent .22-250 are probably the best choices for general coyote work. There are other in-between calibers and hotter .22-caliber offerings, but the .223 and the .22-250 are ideal for most coyote hunters. The .223 can be found in numerous semiautomatic and bolt-action rifles. The .22-250 is at its best in a bolt action. If the coyote caller is hunting in heavily wooded areas or in the open prairies, the .223 works very well.…

If you hunt coyotes and don’t use decoys — you might be missing out on some of the most exciting hunting action you’ll ever experience. Deer and turkey hunters have long known the benefits of using decoys, and predator hunters have started to follow suit. When January rolls around and the young coyotes have matured a little bit, they begin to think that they can take on other coyotes. That’s when a decoy is the hot ticket to success. Decoys will remain a productive tool on into the month of April. Coyotes may not always come in charging to a fake, always ready for a fight, but they will let themselves be seen, normally circling downwind of the decoy. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION When choosing a location to hunt, begin by…

I’ve seen a few advertisements lately for “clinics” to help train and educate the trapper. I thought I might start one of my own. A less expensive option for the run-of-the-mill trapper: Hal’s Full Bore Possum clinic. I’ve long been a well-established ‘possum trapper, and included in my clinic are some of the top ‘possum men in the country: my buddy Larry, Clarence (from janitorial) and Jim Spencer. As of this writing, there are no other Possum Clinics anywhere else in North America. You should prepare yourself for five days of intense Possumology. We do not provide sleeping accommodations, but we provide space for you to park your sleeping accommodations. The porta-potty is just 50 cents a visit. In less than a week, we can turn you into the ‘possum…

Pigeons are common sights around cities and farms throughout the North America. It’s easy to identify these gray-colored birds from the ring of iridescent pink and green feathers around their necks. A pigeon’s average life span is about three to five years in the wild. In that time frame, they can multiply in a hurry — and before you know it — they will cause a bigger problem than most people could imagine. Throughout the centuries, pigeons have become very comfortable living around humans. They are attracted to farms because of the barns and grain bins that resemble the cliffs that would be their natural habitat. Also, urban areas provide easily available sources of food, either from grain, feed, trash or from people who like to feed birds. Cities also…

Back in the day, there were far more users on the wildlife stage that was my trapline. There was a lot more small-game hunting, and a burgeoning deer population brought extended seasons and many more hunters into the field. Archery deer season extended continuously through trapping season. As I entered this farm, there was a spot up ahead where a low ridgeline, a field lane and a creek converged. Any trapper worth their salt could see that as an ideal location at which to focus a canine set. The problem was that all of the other hunters followed the road to get into the bottoms below. They were going to walk right by any set that I put out there. Like virtually every other trapper, I’ve been the victim of…

Every big-game hunter across North America, wherever he or she pursues white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, mule deer, elk or antelope, cherishes that very special time when fall turns to winter and the snow flies. Suddenly fields, both riparian and tilled, river valleys, hills, mountains and even deserts are covered in a blanket of dazzling, white snow. This not only changes the land, but changes all animals in it in ways that cannot be matched at any other single season of the calendar year. These landscape changes give rifle, shotgun and pistol hunters a decided advantage. And so it is for major predator species who are out hunting game, both large and small, to survive through the long, icy winter. For coyotes, foxes and bobcats, “winter kill” is the season of…

Running a snow-filled trapline can be challenging, well at least it was for me this past winter. Definitely a snowy winter wonderland — and then some. I was in some of the deepest snow of the century in my area whether I wanted it or not. I normally embrace any kind of moisture that comes to the driest state in the nation with open arms. This past year the United States received more moisture as a whole than any other time since record keeping began 120 years ago, according to a Washington Post article I read just the other morning. There’s no doubt that large snowstorms can certainly hamper trapping efforts and spirits. Little things that trappers take for granted every time they run their line, such as easy walking…

Despite their inherent behavioral differences, gray wolves and coyotes share one common dietary interest: venison. Where they coexist, white-tailed deer serve as the primary winter food for both predators. Generally, wolves are more adept at capturing adult deer, whereas coyotes are more proficient at killing newborn fawns. Coyotes also tend to be more omnivorous — meaning they eat vegetables as well as animals — and rely on scavenging deer remains, whereas wolves are more inclined to seek live prey. Even so, under the right conditions, coyotes certainly can kill adult deer. In fact, some biologists contend that coyotes are doing a good job of replacing wolves in certain areas of the Northeast. Needless to say, if they could share the same range, wolves and coyotes would make a deadly deer-killing…