FINDING FUR

Before you can hunt or trap game, you have to find it. If you can sight the animal, great, but this seldom happens. We find fur by locating game trails, and identify the animals by their tracks, their scat, or the hair they leave on branches, rocks, or barbed wire or woven wire fences.

Let me preface this by saying that I have virtually no experience in wilderness trapping. Most of my experience comes from trapping farmland. Not everyone lives in or plans to trap in this type of country, so much of this may not apply to you. However, many of the principles will serve you well in whatever type of country you set your traps in.

When looking for fur, think edges and corners. This is where animals usually travel.

Raccoons need three things: A woodlot where they will have their den trees, water, and food. In farmland, think corn. Corn is probably their favorite food, and when the corn canopies it gives them cover. If you find a corn field, you are just about guaranteed to find raccoon. A long, thin strip of grove or woodlot is better for finding the bandits that a huge forest or large woodlot, because they like to locate their den trees on the edges of the woodlot.

Raccoon will generally avoid a soybean field once the vines have grown over, because they find it difficult to travel trough the vines. With corn, it's the opposite. Travel is easier, and the overhead canopy gives them protection from aerial predators. They will generally travel parallel to the furrows for the length of the field, because it is easier than traveling across them.

Raccoon, like fox, will usually travel parallel to a fence until they come to a corner, where they will either turn or cross under the fence. You will sometimes see a hollow or crawl-through at other places along the fence, but don't count on it.

While raccoon will travel right along the fence, fox will travel a few yards away from the fence. If the field is plowed, look for their tracks in the dead furrow nearest the fence. Again, fox are drawn to corners so look for their sign there.

Likewise, animals will travel parallel to a hedgerow or weed line until they can find a low area or some sort of bridge or culvert to cross.

About corners, this is pretty difficult to describe. The corner may be square of course, and this is common in woven-wire country. But it doesn't have to be square.

Imagine a pie. Now, cut out a quarter of the pie, and look at what's left. You are looking at two outside corners, and one inside corner. Both of these would be hotspots for finding game. All critters like to travel the edges, and all edges will eventually come to a corner. whenever you see a corner, you will probably find a trail leading away from it. If there is good cover at the corner, it is just about guaranteed.

Look for corners of woodlots that meet a corner of a field or pasture. This is a hotspot for raccoon. Likewise, a clean field that corners into a weedy field, pasture, or for that matter just about anything else, will usually be a hotspot.

Animals, like people, try to find the easiest route to travel. They will climb up a bank to cross a road or some other obstruction, but they would prefer to find a culvert under the road, or a low saddle where they won't have to climb as high. Likewise, they would rather not climb down a steep bank and then back up another one. look where two ridges intersect; I'll bet you will find signs of game there. If they have to cross a stream or dry creek, look for a log the animals will use to cross.

Is there a cattle or hog feeding operation in your area? Look for tracks at the corners, and leading to the feed troughs. Raccoon will take a free meal the same as everyone else.

Fox like thick areas for hunting, since that's usually where the rodents are. Look around hay bales in pastures, since mice and voles like to live around them and foxes have learned this. In the winter, farmers will often store the large round bales in pastures separated by a couple feet, to allow air to circulate. Consider placing a flat set between the bales.

Barns often contain entire families of raccoon that the farmer would like taken out. There is seldom water in these old barns, so they have to travel out at some point. Look for their trails up against the barn, and where they are entering. Some barns and old houses have trees next to them, which the raccoon are using to enter the building.

Finding game is difficult to describe in words. Hopefully what I've written will give you a starting point, but nothing beats actually going out and looking.

Onward and upward,
airforce