Mink trapping.

PippaSpaniel

Hi all, i usually start vermin control on mink this time of year i had set four traps early this week. I checked all four this evening and three were empty and one had a male mink in it. I took a few pictures of him and a short video clip the video clip is dark as it was this evening. I dispatched him humanely with a .22 rd to the head.One less pest to deal with!!



VIDEO CLIP OF MINK DISPATCH

daithi55

did ya make the trap im after getting some off cuts of mesh and ive made one with a spring door but i was thinking of making one with a kind of drop trap door
if its made have ya any better pics cheers

PippaSpaniel

Hi daithi, i bought the trap of maceoin in Dingle it was 35 euro. I saw them somewhere else for 28 euro i must look in one of the hunting mags!! Good luck with the trap hope you catch!

patdahat

Had 1 the other day aswell a big dog whatever he was eating he had plenty of it. I have used a lot of different types of trap's and found this 1 works best as to prevent them escaping, some of the double entry one's are not of the quality and have seen mink get out of them.
It has a double locking door and are around €25/28.

PippaSpaniel

The single entry trap are the best alright!! I have tried both double entry and single entry traps.There seems to be alot of mink in my area but not too many trapping them.

palo

Well Done.

Pippaspaniel nice to see them being caught.

doyler56

Good work one less of them there seems to be more males than females ive caught 4 and 3 were males.
The Game Keepa online shop has Mink cage traps single entry for £12 and double entry for £13
Id ring them as i dont think there online Credit Card system Is to secure to place your order i dont know what the traps are like quality wise happy trapping

wildfowler94

doyler56 wrote: »

Good work one less of them there seems to be more males than females ive caught 4 and 3 were males.
The Game Keepa online shop has Mink cage traps single entry for £12 and double entry for £13
Id ring them as i dont think there online Credit Card system Is to secure to place your order i dont know what the traps are like quality wise happy trapping

Caught the first of the year today

Jimy1971

wildfowler94 wrote: »

Caught the first of the year today

Got 3 traps this evening from the GC secretary and am wondering what to bait them with( never trapped before). Also the young lad got a Larson trap too and some advice on using that would be great too

mashedbanana

One of those buggers caught hold of my cat the other night. Poor cat was screaming, we though initially it was a fox...but after a visit to the vet turned out it was a mink. there was a massive amount of blood all over the yard, but only 2 puncture wounds on the cat leg. I think he was lucky to escape! i'm afraid to let him out now, even by day. We live right next to a river, so I supppose thats their food source.

Eddie B

Jimy1971 wrote: »

Got 3 traps this evening from the GC secretary and am wondering what to bait them with( never trapped before). Also the young lad got a Larson trap too and some advice on using that would be great too

If you can get fish heads from your local butcher/fish monger, tie it to the top of the cage with light wire, cover cage with grass and a few flat stones, especially at the back and top!
Tin's of sardines in sunflower oil are also good, there handy, you can keep them in your pockets and the oil is great to leave a trail leading into the entrance of your trap and only cost a few cents in Lidle or Aldi

doyler56

i get my cans of sardines or mackerel in oil and put them in a mixing bowl i get a hand held smoothe blender n add plenty of sunflower oil and mix the whole lot up to increase the bulk of it you are left with a nice fish smelling paste that you can put into a 2 litre milk container as the oil in some cans can be dam all and €1.05 to €1.40 isnt that cheap either .You can leave small lups of it a different spots leading up to your cage and also to see overnight if they are eat before putting down a cage trap.You can keep the cans n use them as feeding bowls for your cage

kfod

Have two mink traps set. Caught first Mink today, a male. Dispatched with the .22. I baited the trap with some old frozen Mackerel caught last summer. Trap was down 4 days. Delighted.

doyler56

well done one less the mink seem to be all male ice got 4 and 3 were male keep up the good work

doyler56

im useing a double entry mink trap and i left a section of Mackrel on the bloody trip plate and the mink just came in took the fish and turned around n went back out again ive caught 4 already but nonesince Feb 7th im a hares breath away of packing this trapping in for good why cant they design a proper cage that works

patdahat

doyler56 wrote: »

im useing a double entry mink trap and i left a section of Mackrel on the bloody trip plate and the mink just came in took the fish and turned around n went back out again ive caught 4 already but nonesince Feb 7th im a hares breath away of packing this trapping in for good why cant they design a proper cage that works

place the bait under the cage;)

kfod

How is yours tripped doyler? I have 2 cages which i've borrowed from other lads in the club. They have modified them to trip using a length of stiff wire going from the treddle plate up to a small hoop of wire hanging down from the top of the cage and from there you put it under the spring loaded door. You can set it as delicate or as hard to spring as you like. Much better job than the original wire operated latch.
I did have bait taken from one without tripping but I had it set stiff. Yesterday I caught a small rat in the other, had it set to trip pretty light. The rat had managed to push itself through the cage as far as its hips and was caught there!
Still only caught one mink so far but the more experienced lads in the club reckon that the trapping slacks of in the dry weather like we are having over the last few weeks.

ace86

Got my 1st mink of the season wednesday and I had only the trap set less then 24hrs. I used the sunflower marckerel you get from lidl and it did the trick. I reset the trap again but nothing since.When I finished baiting the trap near a small stream I washed the tin in the water and I left afew pieces close by along the bank to draw them.

kfod

Got my 2nd mink Small enough female.

2 months between catches isn't great though!

I skinned this one in the hope of tanning it but I think I messed it up when fleshing it, I scraped to deep I think.

alsace royal

my hart is broke with the martin going into mine, im catching mink too quite sucsessfully but the martin in it quite a bit, i tought after him been caught a few times he would cop on to not go back in lol on the up side its nice to see one, and their very calm and chilled out when your releasing (my experiance with them have been any way) any one else have this prob or any ideas on stoping him going in?

Eddie B

kfod wrote: »

Got my 2nd mink Small enough female.

2 months between catches isn't great though!

I skinned this one in the hope of tanning it but I think I messed it up when fleshing it, I scraped to deep I think.

Trust me with this one! To flesh a mink you should make up a board, get the dimensions off the net! All you need is a piece of ply, a jig saw, and some sandpaper!
This just makes it easier to flesh the skin, but can also be used to stretch and dry your skin! Now for your fleshing tool! Never use a knife, the best thing to use to flesh a mink skin is a desert spoon, no sharp edges, just keep scrapping from the head down to close to the tail, and then back up the way so's not to pull the fat over the fur on the tail!
A lot of American trappers use a desert spoon in this way to flesh skin's of small animals!

Eddie B

alsace royal wrote: »

my hart is broke with the martin going into mine, im catching mink too quite successfully but the martin in it quite a bit, i tought after him been caught a few times he would cop on to not go back in lol on the up side its nice to see one, and their very calm and chilled out when your releasing (my experience with them have been any way) any one else have this prob or any ideas on stopping him going in?

I'm having this problem too! Thing is, Martens are easier to catch than mink! I caught and released eight Matens last winter and had to repair two of my cage's after them! The only thing that's worse than a Marten re entering a cage is one that keeps setting them off from the outside! When this happen's night after night it really p***** ya off!:mad:
Maybe narrowing the entrance down by pushing sticks into the ground in front of the trap might keep the bigger one's out but i doubt it!!!

kfod

Eddie B wrote: »

Trust me with this one! To flesh a mink you should make up a board, get the dimensions off the net! All you need is a piece of ply, a jig saw, and some sandpaper!
This just makes it easier to flesh the skin, but can also be used to stretch and dry your skin! Now for your fleshing tool! Never use a knife, the best thing to use to flesh a mink skin is a desert spoon, no sharp edges, just keep scrapping from the head down to close to the tail, and then back up the way so's not to pull the fat over the fur on the tail!
A lot of American trappers use a desert spoon in this way to flesh skin's of small animals!

Cheers Eddie, I'll give the spoon and proper board a go with the next one I catch hopefully before two more months have passed!

This time I skinned the mink then split it and tacked it to some plywood, but only after did I look on youtube and see that they fleshed them in the round.