Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1889-02-15
TRAPPING TURKEYS.
Hunter Gets Fourteen OF Them without
Burning q Grain Of Powder.

Hunter Gets Fourteen OF Them withoss
Burning q Grain Of Powder.
II didn't have any fun with bears, I"
said Mr.. Fletcher, 'but | was deter
mined TO get some wild turkeys before
the season closed with the 1id Of the
year, and | got EN- Shooting wild
turkeys is pretty fine work, and If you
happen TO get sight Of a gobbler's 6ery
red wattles in the woods, the chances
are about twenty TO one that you won't
get the gobhler il you fire at him. So
didn't fool away any powder on any
OF these fourteen turkeys. and | got
every one Of 'era without firing a shot.
How did ! dc-1tf caught them alive
in rustic coops and then wrung their
necks. All they cost me was little
labor with a hatchet and jack knife
and about bushel OF corn.
when | find where the wild tur-
keys room or are 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 ! possibly can. pulling
limbs down over them and partly con-
cealing them. The saplings | use I
cut quite distance from where build
the trap, using the hatchet for that
purpose. and with my jack knife l cut
and trim the withes. Then | drive
three stakes into the ground, and build
up three eornered trap. by laying
one sapling on top Of another, after
the style OF log hut building, until
i 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 the 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 weave withes
together till ! get mat fifteen inches
by thirty y-six. making il SO light that
the push Of turkeys bead will lift it
as il hangs by withe hinges from the
inside OF the lower sapling That is
all there is 10 the coop. Then l dump
about quart OF corn in the center of
il, pull the brush around carefully TO-
ward the entrance. and sprinkle corn
along the ground from the heap in
the trap for a distance Of a couple Of
rods or so.
"Wild turkeys are just as fond Of
A 81.
they run across that row Of kernels,
just so sure will they pick and gobble
them ill they find themselves poking'
their bills into the little heap Of corn
In the traps After they have made
way with all the corn in sight, and
got their crops full, they begin 70
think about going TO their roostr
ing place, and then they find th.a
they Are Gagged, and. after nosi z
around for while 10 see IL there isl :
some hole for them tc crawl OUT q,
they squat down and give their gis-
Yards chance 10 grind the corr
They might pull the witbe 8 e open
Il they only knew enough 10, sul lhey
don't know enough, and they stay
there gobbling and ciucling till ]
come along the next morning and
wiring their nccks. The most thai I
ever caught at one time was tom
and two hens. and | got them In The
first trap made. The gobblcr was .
splendid specimen, aud | hated 70 kill
him. Ilc weighed twenty one pounda
drcHEd ! never got less than too.
and tho whole fourteen didn't cost nnf|
- much as I got for pair Of them.
Scranton ua) Cor. New York Hun.