BigGameHoundsmen.com

I am new here but have spent a lot of time reading posts and comments from other members. A few of these posts have been on the topic of traps and snares. My question is this. And maybe I missed it but I have not read anything at all on the method to get a body gripping trap off of a dogs head! Yes it can be done yes your window of opportunity is short but it can be done. If there is some interst I will make a video of how it is done. (Not on actual hound) I am amazed at the amount of knowledge that many on here have and are so willing to share. I have run hounds on coons for years but have recently took interst in running bobcats that it's made a huge difference in my confidence that I can get the results out of my dogs that I desire. But I have yet to see anyone talking about breaking there dogs of traps. This bewilders me I have read some amazing things that some of you have done with your hounds. Hounds that just hang around the yard all day no
Kennel or tie out needed. Pile dream for me. Dogs that know to return to the truck if they get lost or lose the track. Dogs walking in single file thru campgrounds or ranch yards so they are not a disturbance. Do any of you trap break your dogs? I have three ways I use that seem to work well I have yet to lose a dog to a trap. 1# is place a white pale out in yard preferably on edge of cover(white pale) most of these types of sets will be white pale for visual attraction. Place some meat or dog food something that you know your hound is going to want to eat. Free cast your dog in that area be sure you have clear line of site to pale. When dog sticks his head in pale use E-collar repeat until dog will not stick head in white pale no more. The other methods I use involve same set up but with trap. Method #2 you need same pale set up and a 220 bodygripping trap. You need to set trap use safety hooks that are on trap to prevent firing welded in
Place so that this trap can never actually pinch your dogs head ( I will get some pics of how I set this up early next week) some may find this method a little rough but I like it because it doesn't allow a collar smart dog to beat the system. I still use the electric fence system to break my dogs of running deer. So I just place my cubby set back in the woods 100' or so from my kennels were my dogs run when I let them out to stretch and air before putting them in the box to head out to the woods. Hook your fencer up to the trap so that is now hot! I almost forgot you need to wire trap open so that it can not fire!!! I just allow my dogs to find it on there own when they do if temptation gets the better of them(they have all ready been broke of pail. They get hit by the fencer. If the first two methods fail I then use the 3rd method same set up. Get rid of the fencer untie your wires off the top of the trap place trap I. Cubby what I would refer to as backwards meaning the trap dog is towards the back of pail you don't want to risk that flipping g around and smacking dog in the eye. I also put a coupe of peices of JB weld on the tips of trigger to cover the points of the wire. I then slice 2 pieces of 3/8 fuel hose the long way to cover the traps jaws on the front side. Now if you have had the traps safety's welded this trap will fire but not squeeze make your set again and allow dog to find if it is still wants to stick its head in there trap will fire between the smack it will receive and the noise that should do the trick. Sorry for the long read. Just hate hearing of others loosing dogs.

Where I live, body gripping traps have to be at least five feet off the ground, so there's little chance of a dog getting trapped in one. I do have a neighbor who puts sets out for fishers, but he also has hounds, so I trust him not to do anything too tempting to hounds.
Nonetheless, the state of Wisconsin publishes a full page ad in Full Cry most years near the beginning of the season showing how to extract a dog from a conibear trap, and I keep a copy in my wallet. The instructions may be on the Web too--haven't looked recently.

boy hope nobody has to do it. Most body grip traps could be removed with just your hands. You should be able to squeeze one spring and hook the safety on that spring then squeeze the other spring and hold it and let the dog out or hook the safety. Another thought is a hacksaw blade and cut the spring. a rope could be used but takes some time probably as much as cutting the springs. If I had to do it the first method would be my choice. If you think this could happen in your area find a trapper to show you how conibear traps work if you don't already know.

I thought I was clear I know how to do it. My question was why nobody talks about breaking there dogs of traps. Not to offend anybody but I seriously doubt you will be able to compress the springs of a 220 when you also have to deal with a dog that is struggling. I can compress both springs on. 220 or a 330 in less than 20 seconds using a rope. Like I said I was really trying to help out those who maybe don't know how it's done. Like the first thing you do is sit on the dog and turn the trap sideways so the dog can breath it buys you. Lot of time.

I carry a pair of dikes or leatherman most of the time for snares, body grips over a 280 are illegal on ground besides water but I do keep a tight eye for them non the less. The rope idea I would like to see however if you'd make a YouTube video of it.

ok rough neck I was waiting for somebody to post on this but they haven't so I will . in my younger years I lived in nor cal and seems like every body trapped and none would leave the road system or would they post the area for fear of people stealing fur. so needless to say have had dogs hung in traps while roading them. after about the third time a old trapper friend told me to" trap wise my dogs" I made simple sets using baits and scents but I put spacers in the jaws so it wouldn't injure my dogs. it didn't take many times till they would aoid them by smelli guess but it worked for me. hope this helps.

I had a friend that had some really wild sled dogs in Alaska, if they got loose they would hide in the trees. He would feed them normal at their house then set a fox trap by the food, second time he had to conceal the trap and there was no third catch.

I have a 2 yr. old hound that will go off on it's own and will return to where the truck is parked, her sister seems to not remember where the vehicle is and will bark to let me know she is lost.

I have an old hound that will come back and find me every now and then if it's not on a track, he will take hand signals.

Then I hunt a dog that does not want to be in the same canyon as you, she will usually hunt into the wind until she finds a cat. Thank God for Garmin collars, it usually takes hours to get them all back to the truck. Sometimes they act as a team and I don't have to drive into the next county to catch them. They seem to remember where they found a cat before and have returned to the same place later and found another cat. In this case I found two running dog tracks in the snow but no cat tracks. They didn't trail it there and the wind wasn't right. I wonder if anyone else has had their dogs go back to a place they found a cat , or anything else, and find something. This is an interesting hobby.