The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1889-02-08
TRAPPING TURKEYS.
\ Hunter Gets Fourteen of Them without
Burning n Grain OF Powder.

~ "uhter Gets Fourteen OF Them Withou
Burning Grain OF Powder.
II didn't have any fun with bears, ,
said Mr. Fletcher, ''but | was deter
mined to get some wild turkeys before
the season closed with the end of the
year and l got 'em. Shooting wild
turkeys is pretty fine work, and If you
happen to get sight of 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 ut him. So
didn't fool away any powder on any
OF these fourteen turkeys, and l got
every one Of 'em without firing a shot.
How did do it7 l caught them alive
i'll 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 are in the habit Of roost-
ing on the mountains, I go to the
place any time in tho forenoon and
rig up number of coops out of sap
llngs and withes. / make them look
as harmless and as much like the sur
Troundlngs as l possibly can, pulling
limbs down over them and partly con-
cealing them. The saplings L use I
cut quite distance from where build
the trap, using the hatchet for that
purpose, and with my jack knife cut
and trim the withes. Then l drive
three stakes into the ground, and build
up a three cornered trap, by laying
one sapllng on top of another, after
the style of log hut building, until
l have got a coop four feet high and
big enough to hold half dozen tur-
keys, binding the corners together
with withes. The end opposite the
sharpest corner is made much mar
rover than tho sides, and 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 | get mat fifteen inches
by thlrty-six, making it SO light that
the push of turkeys head will lift il
as 1t hangs by withe hinges from the
inside of the lower sapling. Thnt is
all there is to the coop. Then dump
about quart of corn in the center nf
1t, pull the brush around carefully to-
ward the entrance, and sprinkle corn
along the ground from the heap in
the trap for Il distance of a couple of
rods or SO.
Wal oiS JuSJ Us iona OF
corn as tame ones 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 boxing
their bills into the little heap Of corn
III tho traps. After they have made |
way with all the corn in sight, and |
6 got their crops full,, they begin to |
think about going to their roost-
ing place, and then they find that
arOuhu Tor u wrfr.~--.l-aftan noe;no
some hole for them to crawl ott 1f, I
they squat down and give their giz-
yards a chance to grind tho corn.
They might pull the witho gate open
if they only knew enough to, but they
don't know enough, and thoy stay
there gobbling and clucking till !
come along the next morning and
wiring their nccks. The most that
ever caught at one time was tom
and two hens, and l got them in the
first trap ! made. The gobbler was q
splendid specimen, and | hated to kill
him. IIo weighed twenty-onc pounds
dressed. never got less than two,
and the whole fourteen didn't cost me
as much as got for pair of them."
Scranton (Pa) Cor. New York Sun.