# Trappers



## moondancer (Dec 21, 2013)

Are there any trappers out there . How is you year going any good stories


----------



## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

I used to run a number of lines when I was younger, but wading around in hip deep snow and knee deep ice water just makes me hurt thinking about it. However, I do remember one incident while running a trap line for Muskrats 2-3 miles from my home.

N.W. Ohio, where I lived at the time, had a lot of drainage ditches which were originally dug when that part of Ohio was settled in order to drain the Black Swamp. Many of those ditches are still in use today and are teeming with Muskrats.
Anyway one early morning while I was running my line, I noticed that the water in the ditch had gone down quite a bit. At that point I needed to get to the other side and not wanting to walk the extra mile or so to the head of the ditch, I decided to wade across the ditch. I had on my knee high muck boots and the water was only about 6" high so what could go wrong, right?
Well I started to wade across, and at about the middle of the ditch(these ditches are about 20' across) I began to sink rapidly into the muck on the bottom until I was stuck in sticky muck up to my waist, and I wasn't going any where.
At this point I began to panic a bit, but my situation only became worse, so I forced myself to calm down and try to think of a way out of my predicament.
I noticed that I could slide my feet up and down inside of my muck boots, so I leaned forward, and lay with my upper body on the surface of the muck and pulled one foot and leg out of my boot, then I reached down and worked my boot loose, pulling it from the muck. I used that boot as a "snowshoe" for my right hand as I worked my left foot and leg out of my boot, and then recovered the left boot. Using the boots as "snowshoes" I slowly worked my way to the safety of the other bank and walked to the head of the ditch, which I should have done in the first place, built a fire stripped and washed and dried myself and my clothing. When I got home my parents didn't know what happened, and I didn't tell them until many years later.


----------



## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Yea, you did the right thing getting yourself calmed down. I broke through the ice in deeper than waist deep water checking out a muskrat mound when I was about 13 (very foolish). Now THAT was scary and miserable, lucky I was only about a mile from home which I made a bee line too.


----------



## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

Apparently I'm not the only one who did dumb things while trapping.

I had muskrat traps set at a small lake about three miles from home. The temperature was well below zero and we had maybe a half inch of fresh snow the night before. I was walking back to my car across the deepest part of the lake when I suddenly dropped through a muskrat breathing hole that had frozen over and was covered by the fresh snow. Luckily, I was carrying my .22 rifle and used it to catch the edges of the hole before I went under, but when I pulled myself out I was soaked to my chest. 

The car was a quarter mile away and by the time I got there my pant legs were like stove pipes. Naturally, the old Chevy had a heater that barely functioned, and by the time I got home, I thought I would freeze to death.


----------



## HardCider (Dec 13, 2013)

It's been a great year for trapping. The fur prices are higher now than they have been in a long time


----------



## timmie (Jan 14, 2012)

i'm not really a trapper, but i met this man who is going to teach me how to trap and tan hides and make leather products. i am so excited about this. my grandparents always told me you are never too old to learn and i think it's true. not a day goes by that i don't learn something.


----------

