mercer lawing
New member
This past season I got out of my comfort zone and did some trapping in CO. and above 6K ft in AZ.
I had a great time but had to prepare for more weather than I normally deal with.
One thing I did was waxed my cage doors and rails (guilotine cage traps). This seemed to help with freeze up from moisture in the the rails. The issue is that with the light weight of the doors, freeze-thaw conditions can stick your door in the rail. You may get there and find tracks in and out of your trap and even onto the pan and the door still up. If the sun is shining onto your cage you may find your door down and the cage empty because the frost thawed and allowed the depressed pan to set of the trap.
To wax the traps I actually built a pan large enough to dunk the entire front of my traps into the molten wax. This takes a lot of wax and expense building the tub. An alternate method would be to use a propane torch to pre-heat the cage parts and then drip the wax onto them by applying the flame to the block of wax. If you do it correctly it will look like you poured water on the part. You can "chase" any white thick wax away with the torch. A trapper from Reno Nevada who utilizes cage traps to work close to town shared this tip with me.
Are there many cage trappers on here?
ML
I had a great time but had to prepare for more weather than I normally deal with.
One thing I did was waxed my cage doors and rails (guilotine cage traps). This seemed to help with freeze up from moisture in the the rails. The issue is that with the light weight of the doors, freeze-thaw conditions can stick your door in the rail. You may get there and find tracks in and out of your trap and even onto the pan and the door still up. If the sun is shining onto your cage you may find your door down and the cage empty because the frost thawed and allowed the depressed pan to set of the trap.
To wax the traps I actually built a pan large enough to dunk the entire front of my traps into the molten wax. This takes a lot of wax and expense building the tub. An alternate method would be to use a propane torch to pre-heat the cage parts and then drip the wax onto them by applying the flame to the block of wax. If you do it correctly it will look like you poured water on the part. You can "chase" any white thick wax away with the torch. A trapper from Reno Nevada who utilizes cage traps to work close to town shared this tip with me.
Are there many cage trappers on here?
ML