Gents

What kind of scent are you using in your traps to hide the human smell and to make the prey interested enough to venture inside the trap?

For martens I have used bird feathers, hares head, blood-milk-eggyolk-sugar-ham grease liquid that have been fermenting for a few days before beeing poured over the baited piece of the trap.

So far no marten due to late start in the season + some bastard that stole one trap!!!
I had the martens sitting under the trap a few times though, but they never went inside...

So, what do you use, and why?

/Daniel

In my trappimg experience I Never want any scent on the trap!! Boil them, stain them black with log wood crystals and wax them.. I then will hang them outside until needed..All scent and bait is placed near the trap, in a hole on on a tree depending on the set. place the trap where the animal must step to get at the bait..

I think the effect of human scent is way overblown, I set barehanded for coyotes and fox for years and had no trouble catching them.

A dirty trap (blood, skunky, etc) can cause diggers or aversion so that's a bit more important. But I still caught many coyotes in dirty traps.

A guy can wear gloves, rubber boots, etc. but you're still leaving your scent through your breath, which is considerable. You're also flaking off skin cells, hair follicles and clothing fibers as you move along, leaving a trail of your passage.

Most of the human scent dissapates but some will linger regardless. Bloodhounds show us that when they can trail people in a moving vehicle, most likely through their exhaled breath.

Scents/lures for trapping are not to mask human odors, they're too atract the target animal and cause it to work your set till caught.

For the marten you're trying to catch I'd get a nice skunky call lure and use that alone.

Gents
thanks for replies!

I will try to get some mink oil/marten lure to put inside the traps, but as conditions here are mostly below and well below (-30°C) freezing, not much scent/lure would allow the animal to find the traps.
How to prevent the lure from freezing solid and still have it to give away the original scent?

The advice I have been given to make them enter the trap is to have a bait/food inside the trap and make a tunnel for them to go trough the trap and try to reach the bait when they get whacked in the head by the coiled spring bar. Martens are nocturnal and search for food in trees so the baited trap will be put at face level in a tree allowing the marten to climb up and into the trap before it goes off.

For minks I would use fish as a bait. For foxes only a snare for their front paw and a snow-anchor that would allow them to drag the trap to the nearest spruce before beeing too anchored in the snow. Then they just sit tight and wait to get ventilation in their head.

/Daniel

Huglu

It might help if you mention what type of trap you are using and what type of sets you have tried. The standard Marten set here in the U.S. is either the leaning pole set or a conibear type set on a tree. with regard to the scent freezing at 30 below, that is definitely a concern, which is why it is so important to make sets where there is sign that marten are traveling very close to where your sets are, as well as to make the sets have the sort of eye appeal that will make a marten investigate even if he can't smell anything.

I have found a link to the 2 types of traps that are legal here for Martens, unfortunately all is written in SWEDISH, but I hope that images are international....

Swedish Marten Traps

The top trap on the right is the ones that I presently have. Its just like a mouse trap on stereoids.

The trap below was the one that was stolen, and I have not yet replaced it. Stolen trap, blueprint

These traps are placed 4-6 feet above ground in trees, it is a see-through trap with a mesh in the back end where the bait is put. The only way for the marten to reach the bait is to climb through the entry hole and thus step on the trigger plate and get its head and chest area smashed.

The traps are put in trees with easy access for the marten, directly above its crossing points where it wanders. I choose places where it have been wandering 3-5 times in the same path. Traps are covered with spruce and pine twigs, baited with meat, fur, feathers and so on. A couple of grouse/ptarmigan skins, capercallie skins, hare fur, feathers, hare paws and so on is also put around the traps to make it a bit more interesting for the marten to investigate the trap. I use a cotton string and tie the wing of a grouse from a tree limb and let it dangle in the wind to catch the martens attention. It kind of looks like a morbid christmas tree with animal parts instead of jingle-bells and angels....

Sincerely
Daniel

Huglu

You need a dozen Conibears in 110 size and a dozen #1 coilsprings as well.

22wrf
I do not think that the conibears are legal here, unfortunately.
Since Sweden joined the EU, the trapping and hunting have been going down the drain at ever increasing speed.
There are now further restrictions proposed, where the introduction of a new type of trap will have to go through the european bureaocracy and then pay the approval fee of 10-15000€ for that special type and size of the trap. As far as I am informed today, these 2 traps are the only 2 types approved by the swedish EPA. There might also be another type where the trigger, coil, springs and all metal parts can be removed. The next step after forcing all trap making companies cease the production since no one can afford the testing fees, nor sell enough traps to finance the fee, is to make an mandatory trapping test for all european species, regardless if they exist in the particular country or not.
Another example of this madness is that the Raven is totally protected in the entire EU because it is endangered in Greece, there are more Ravens than Crows here, but no one are allowed to shoot a Raven, no matter what...

Huglu

That is unfortunate. However, in the long run, nature will take its course, and man will eventually have to follow.

Why isn't a conibear type trap allowed? It has been determined to be the most humane trap there is.

Is there a good book to Learn to trap. I want to trap a fox later this year when he has his winter coat .I see him often, Has a red coat with a gray Tail.What kind of trap.

quote:

Is there a good book to Learn to trap

Yep, tons of em'. But you'd be better off getting a good instructional video like from Dr. Bob Wendt or John Graham.