, 1889-02-03
TRAPPING
A Hunter Gets Fourteen of Them
Burning a Grain of Powder.


81 didn't have any fun with bears"
said Mr. Fletcher, e'but / was deter
mined to get some wild turkeys before
the season closed with the end of the
year, and l got EN-. Shooting wild
turkeys is pretty fine work, and if you
happen TO get sight of a gobbler's fiery
red wattles in the woods, the chances
are about twenty to one that you won't
get the gobbler if you fire at him. So
l didn't fool away any powder on any
of these fourteen turkeys, and / got
every one of EN- without firing u shot.
How did l do it2 i caught them alive
in rustic coops and then wrung their
necks. All they cost me was a little
labor with a hatchet and jack knife
and about a bushel of corn.
when l find where the wild tur-
keys room or arc in the habit of roost-
ing on the mountains, | 60 to the
place any time in the forenoon and
rig up a number of coops out of sap
lings and withes. / make them look
as harmless and as much like the sur
roundings as l possibly can, pulling
limbs down over them and partly con-
cealing them. The saplings / use l
cut quite a distance from whereI build
the trap, using the hatchet for that
purpose, and with my jack knife l cut
and trim the withes. Then l drive
three stakes into the ground, and build
up n three cornered trap, by laying
one sapling on top of another, after
the style of log hut building, until
L have got n coop four feet high and
big enough to hold half a dozen tur-
keys, binding the together
with withes. The end opposite the
sharpest corner is made much nar-
rover than the sides, and 1 leave that
entirely open fifteen inches from the
ground until | get the trap made and
covered with brush. The front is about
three feet wide. Then l weave withes
together till l get a mat fifteen inches
by thirty-six, making it so light that
the push of q turkeys head will lift it
as it hangs by withe hinges from the
inside of the lower sapling. That is
all there is to the coop. Then l dump
about a quart of corn in the center of
it, pull the brush around carefully to-
ward the entrance, and sprinkle corn
along the ground from the heap in
the trap for n distance of a couple of
rods or SO.
wild turkeys are just as fond of
corn as tame one are. Just so sure as
they run across that row OF kernels,
just so sure will they pick and gobble
them till they find themselves poking
their bills into the little heap of corn
in the traps. After they have made
way with all the corr in sight, and
got their crops full, they begin to
think about going to their roost-
ing place, and then they find that
they are Gagged, and, after nosing
around for a while to see if there isn't
some hole for them to crawl out of,
they squat down and give their giz-
Yards a chance TO grind the corn.
They might pull the withe gate open
if they only knew enough to, but they
don't know enough, and they stay
there gobbling and clucking till l
come along the next morning and
wiring their necks. The most that l
ever caught at one time was a tom
and two hens, and l got them in the
first trap l made. The gobbler was a
splendid specimen, and l hated to kill
him. He weighed twenty-one pounds
dressed. 1never got less than two,
and the whole fourteen didn't cost me
as much as l got for a pair of them"
Scranton Pa.) Cor. New York Sun.