Trapping...by Riley

First batch to take to the fur buyer...

8 coons and 3 coyotes.

Combing out blood and dirt.

Second trip to the fur buyer...

15 coons.

This was the worst season in the past 4 years. I was trapping in a promising, new area with plenty of coyote signs, but after a week they disappeared. It took a bunch of gas to run the trapline. I caught plenty of raccoons, but they were selling for only $1 this year. The majority of them were accidental catches in coyote and bobcat sets. Coyotes ranged from $2 to $20. Unfortunately, no big cats!

Trapping 2014-2015...by Riley

Right before we left on our Christmas trip I got permission to trap some prime property: over a mile of wooded creek bottom with pasture and farmland around a mile from the house. A couple weeks before season started I began baiting coons with fermented corn in a wooded corner of grassland approximately 1/3 of a mile northeast of our house. When season started I emptied the feeder and set 3 dogproof coon traps baiting them with corn.

I also made a coyote set across the road to the south in a pasture along with a coon set in the dry creek bottom running through the same pasture. During the first 2-3 weeks  I caught 7 coons and 2 coyotes at those 3 places.

After we got home from back east I began trapping solely on the new property around the middle of January. In the remaining 6 weeks of season I caught 1 bobcat, 3 coyotes, and 11 coons all on the half section with the creek running through it. The bobcat was caught at a hollow log cubby set.

2 coyotes were caught at dirt hole sets, 1 was snared,1 fell for a flat set, and another stumbled into a trail set. 

All but 1 of the coons were caught in dogproofs; the other wandered into a coyote flat set.

Overall I had a pretty good season except for having the golf cart engine die towards the end of season. Season total: 1 Bobcat, 5 Coyotes, and 18 Coons!

Trapping Season 2013- 2014...by Riley

The first set I put out in November was a deer carcass staked up the hill from the house with a foothold trap in front of it. It produced a coyote on the 5th night. 

The next set to produce was a dirt hole out on the milo field a 1/4th of a mile from the house by an oil field drive. It caught a coyote a couple weeks after the set was made. 

A few weeks passed, by that time it was the middle of December, and I hadn't caught anything else, so I made a dirt hole behind the shop where Daddy works about 5 miles down the road. It produced a coyote the first night. 

The next catch was the beginning of January: a bobcat in a snare on the edge of a grass field by some trees about a 1/2 mile from the house. 

It went about 2 more weeks and I caught a coyote in a snare a couple hundred feet away from where the bobcat was snared. About three weeks later I caught another coyote in a snare ten feet down the trail from the previous coyote. 

It went a little while... One day I went with Daddy down to Sawyer to work on something at the farm where he used to work, and saw lots of coon tracks. I set three traps. One connected with a coon the first night. There was nothing for a couple more nights, then a coon opened the connector on the trap chain and got away with the trap. Several days later we were back down at Sawyer. I set two more traps to make it three again. About a week later one connected with another coon. During that time on a trip to Sawyer, we picked up a coon that had been hit on the road. That was the day before season ended. 

The next week after season ended we took everything to the fur buyer. I got $125 for the bobcat, $25 each for two coyotes, and $12 for one coyote. As for the other two; I messed one up trying to skin it while it was frozen and had to throw it out, the other one was too mangy to keep. I got $20 for one coon, $14 for one coon, and $7 for one coon. I'm happy with what I got this season. Next season I hope to catch 10 coyotes, 3 bobcats, and 15 coons.

My First Bow Hunting Experience...by Riley

My Second Buck

I got a late start and didn't get on the stand until 4:00 pm. I was hoping to see the big buck that I'd watched the night before chasing a doe. 

There was almost no action. 

At about 5:00pm or so a spike buck and doe went across the road about 100 yards in front of me. 

At 5:30 pm I was watching the road for more deer to cross, when all of a sudden I heard leaves crunch from the opposite direction of where I was looking. I looked over and there he was! He came in and stopped 25 yards up wind from me. He was sniffing around like he smelled something fishy. I could see his back legs tense up like he was getting ready to run. He was looking right at me. I just stared back without moving. Then he started to turn slowly keeping his eyes on me. About the time he got turned around and took a couple steps back the same direction he came, a car drove by on the road. While he was watching it from behind a couple small trees, I raised my bow and centered the cross airs on an open place a few feet in front of him. As soon as the car passed he started walking again. As soon as he walked into the cross airs, I grunted with my mouth. The second he stopped, I pulled the trigger. I heard the twang of the bow as he crashed away at top speed. 

I felt good about the shot. So I climbed down from the stand and went to examine the spot where he had been standing. As I looked around I didn't see anything, so I walked down the trail a little. I still didn't see anything. As I walked back I turned to scan the area again and I saw a big splotch of blood on a tree right by where I'd walked. That was all the evidence I needed to know he was hit hard! So I raced to the 4 wheeler and drove home as fast as I could. 

When I got home I changed out of my hunting clothes. Me and Daddy got some flash lights and drove back over to the field in the pick-up. When we got there we followed the blood trail for about 20 feet and found part of the arrow covered in blood. We followed it all the way into some tall grass where we lost the blood trail. So we came home and got the 4 wheeler. When we got back to the field we found where we'd left off and followed the blood trail farther out into the grass until we found him! 

We took a few pictures and then we hauled him back to the truck on the 4 wheeler and brought him home on the pick-up. Then we gutted him out and hung him up in the hangar.