The fox is the most cunning animal we have, consequently he is the most difficult one to trap, says C. E. Matheny, of Ohio. But like all other animals he has a weak point, and if you attack him at this point he will, without a doubt, fall into your snares. One of the most important things when about to trap a fox is to have the trap perfectly clean. The word clean, in this sense, does not allude to freedom from rust, but means that the trap should be entirely free from human scent. In order to avoid this, the trap must be thoroughly washed in lye and when dry, well greased and smoked over burning feathers. It has already been said that the fox has a very keen scent, but it is particularly shy and scary at the least odor of the human body. It is therefore necessary when handling the trap to use clean buckskin, or still better, rubber gloves, and unless this important precaution is observed success is very improbable. The next step is to make the bed for the trap, and although there are various ways of doing this, the following, I believe, is the best method.
The bed should be about three and a half feet in diameter, and made of wheat, hay or buckwheat chaff. Some trappers use wood ashes, but any of the above will be found better. The ground upon which the bed is made should be hollowed out in the center so as to admit the trap, and the bed should be made as hard as possible and deep enough to cover the trap, and at the same time be perfectly level with the ground.
When the bed is made as directed, take the trap (which should be a No. 2 and have a chain and clog attached to it) and place it in the hollow in the center of the bed. After setting the trap put some of the chaff inside the jaws as high as the pan. Cover the pan with paper so that the chaff will not prevent its working freely, and then cover the whole with chaff and level it off so that the fox will not suspect a trap to be there; finally bait it with fresh meat, cheese, or better still, cracklings after lard is pressed out. Scatter them liberally over the bed; do not tramp about the bed more than is absolutely necessary, and cover up all foot-tracks as much as possible.
It is a good plan to smear the trap with assafoetida or melted beeswax, with a few drops of the oil of rhodium. These are all good and may be employed for the purpose of deceiving a particularly cunning fellow after all other stratagems fail. Another good plan is to bait the bed several times before setting the trap, until the fox begins to think that this is the best place it ever knew to find a choice morsel ready at all hours. When a proper degree of confidence appears to have been established then put the trap in its place and catch him--if you can.
First take a No. 3 Blake & Lamb trap, and look around over the fields or woods and find where the sand has washed down and is fine as wood ashes, says F. A. Aurand, of Michigan. You will always find if you keep close watch over the fields that a fox likes to get on the fine sand and play or walk over and around on it for some reason, as you will always find their tracks on the sand in the fall and spring. Now take for bait any of the following: dead chicken, or turkey, or beef's hind leg, but I think the best is beef's old head. Now take the old head, dig down in the sand and set the head down in the sand so that the jaws and nose are out of the sand about to the eyes. Now take your traps, about three No. 3 B. & L. traps, take a stake and fasten the rings to the stake, and drive the stake below the surface of the sand and cover it over the top.
Now dig a small trench for the chains, lay the chains in the trenches, a trench for each chain. Spread the traps each way from the old head, and set the trap out away from the head as far as the chains will let them go, by driving the stake right close to the head. Then dig a small place in the sand so the trap will set just level with the surface of the sand, for each trap to set in. Take a small piece of cotton batton and put enough under each pan of the traps to keep the sand from getting under pans so they won't spring. Now take the sand that you took out of the places for the traps and cover them all over, traps, chains and all. Then take a small bush and brush out all your tracks and over the traps. If you have done your work well you can hardly tell where the traps are. You can use some good scent on the sand or on the old head, but I don't think it needs it. Fix the old head in the sand quite a little while before you want to trap. All I ever caught I caught in this way. If you do everything right I am sure of your success.
I have visited hundreds of trappers in Maine and Canada, and have learned many of the secrets of successful trapping from them and also from my own personal experience and observation, writes N. C. Burbank. I have come to the conclusion that the basis of all the most successful secret decoys for catching fox is the substance taken from the glands of the female fox during the running season, mixed with grease of some sort, together with contents of the glands of the skunk, preferably the female taken in the spring or latter part of the winter. I do not pretend to say that every one will be successful who uses that decoy. I am of the opinion, if directions are closely followed in the following method of water trapping for fox, you are reasonably sure to catch them if you use that decoy.
During the month of August or September select some spring or place about a foot and a half from the edge, or in the center of a circular spring that is not over 4 feet wide, a sod 8 or 10 inches across, and arrange a place to set the trap a few inches from the outside. This must be done early in the season, so all evidence of human work and scent will be removed before trapping time.