Tools from the past.

[Ladobe]

So how many of you are old enough to remember using these?     



Was unpacking more boxes from a recent move and found something I forgot I even still had from my trap line days back in the 50's/60's.   Thought the younger gents might like seeing the picture at least.

Ladobe

[studabaka]

I never saw one of them.....what is it?

It ain't that I'm a spring chicken, just that there were no yotes in my neck of the woods when I was growing up.

[Bopeye]

That's an interesting contraption Ladobe...........what is it? 

[FinsnFur]

It's a safety coyote killer.... ...either that or they mispelled something on the box

Tell us how that puppy worked Ladobe...looks interesting 

[Bopeye]

Just cause I'm in the south........it don't mean I can't read Jimbo. 

I read that part..........just wondering what it did? 

[FinsnFur]

...........what is it? 

My fault..

[Bopeye]

You are such a .......... ............awww nevermind....

[bowjunkie]

looks like a cyanide gun ta me bait the top and bury the rest in the dirt when the coyote pulls the bait it fires a capsule into its mouth usually fired by a .44 round

[nailbender]

 Looks like a knocker? 22 blank cartridge drives the pin into the brain.

[Ladobe]

bowjunkie got it.   

It's a coyote set gun.   As BJ noted, it's loaded with a cartridge (many different calibers - this ones 32 caliber), cyanide capsules and bait plug, buried in the ground standing on end with just the bait exposed and when a predator tries to lift the bait it fires the cyanide right down their throat.   They were very effective on trap/snare shy predators and did no damage to pelts.   They were also unpopular with dog owners who let their mutts run free in the woods, and other folks who happened upon and stepped on them.   Very tricky to set, and many tappers got a finger blown off or a dose of their own cyanide trying to set them.   The small box on the left is full of bait plugs still, but I don't have the cyanide or cartridges for it anymore.   Unlike some trappers, I only used them for individual problem predators that had busted my sets a few times.

Both the set guns and using 10-80 in them (popular poison replacement for cyanide in the 50's/60's) were banned in the early 70's if I remember right because of the collateral damage they caused to any scavengers on down the food chain.   Probably it happened then mostly because of the federal protection of the raptors/corvids which fell under the Bird Protection Act (1972).   Early day bleeding hearts had been complaining about them for years though.   I think 10-80 can still be used by stockmen, but it has to be in radio collars on their livestock so their dead carcasses can be immediately retrieved after being preyed on.

L.

[Ladobe]

Maybe I should have added the procedure for using a set gun... if for nothing else just in case any of you have interest.   They are tricky to use and it's not likely any of you will ever see one again, and for sure none of us will be able to legally use one again.

In my picture, the bottom left cylinder is the set gun.   Barrel on the right, trigger pin on the left.   The right slotted cylinder is the cocking and safe setter tool, and the black stake behind that is actually the release for the trigger.

So to try to put this into words... you dig a 5-6" deep hole about 6" in diameter just off a known used trail or other appropriate area, then drive the stake in near one side of the hole until the trigger catch plate is just above the bottom of your hole and toward the center of it.   The barrel screws off the set gun, then you use the spike on the end of the cocking/safety tool to fully depress the firing pin to where you can push the trigger in until it engages the sear.   They have a very strong spring and are not easy even on a good day - almost a 3 handed operation.   Next you load a bait plug, cyanide capsule and cartridge into the barrel, slide the safety tool over the barrel, engage the slots and thread the set gun back together.    It's armed, so don't breathe too hard now.  Takes a 90 degree turn and twist to hook the trigger pin into the stake plate, and you have to hold it all vertical barrel up with enough pressure up to keep the trigger engaged without setting it off while you carefully back fill the hole up about half way on the tool.   Slide the tool off the barrel, a little more dirt and debris to leave only the bait exposed and maybe a little mask scent and you are done.   Old Wiley comes along, smells the bait and tries to pick it up with his teeth, a slight pull on the bait also pulls the whole set gun slightly and trips the sear.   Bang!   Clear as mud, right?

Tricky part is not releasing the trigger while you do all the fussing around with getting it engaged in the stake, and burying the gun.   Lost fingers or cyanide for lunch highly likely if you don't use the safety tool once armed, although that tool in the face wouldn't be too much fun either.   Much easier to control once armed without the tool loosely flopping around, so I guess that's why so many got bit by these guns.    Another rude awakening is possible if you lay the armed set gun down because you forget to drive the stake in before you loaded it, and you snag the trigger when you pick it back up (don't ask me how I know about that one).   

Well, I reread what I just wrote... doesn't look too muddy.   But it's near 3 AM and I need another barley pop....    OK, so just in case, I took a couple of very quick pictures while picking up Barley.  Probably not too clear, can't say for sure right now.   But on the right is how the set gun is assemble when ready to go and buried, with everything below the line (I tried to draw straight) underground.   On the left, with the safety set tool still on.

Cheers...

[FinsnFur]

I have heard about them but never with this much detail. Very interesting.
So what happen when one got stepped on? Did it blow a hole in the guys foot, or just give him a heart attack 

[Ladobe]

Guess it depended on what caliber, if snagged and set off, if just discovered and set off because they tried to dig it up, where they were hit, etc.   There were tales of folks dying, but I only had personal knowledge of a lost finger or two and some close calls to the trapper themselves while setting them.   I never used them myself, but there were also set guns that used full load shotgun shells instead of cyanide, so stepping on one of those could easily be fatal I suppose.

[FinsnFur]

there were also set guns that used full load shotgun shells instead of cyanide, so stepping on one of those could easily be fatal I suppose.

:shck:  It's almost amazing how primitively dangerous some things used to be isn't it? Practically a loaded shot gun, buried muzzle up in the ground. wow!

Now thats landmine

[Bopeye]

That was fantastic Ladobe. 
Thank you so much for the demonstrative history lesson. Like Jimbo said, I had heard a lot about these contraptions, but to have it explained and shown like this has been quite a treat. Thank you again. 

[Ladobe]

Jim -

Primitive and dangerous device maybe, but remember this was 40-50 years ago and things were a bunch different then.   The risk to bystanders was pretty slim.   Outdoor recreation wasn't what it is today.   Alpine skiing was getting popular, but Nordic skiing wasn't yet.   There were no snow mobiles and few folks were into snowshoe trekking.   Politics and civic organizations were not too worried about public safety yet, and in fact the government supported trapping with liberal bounties still.   It was not hard at all for me to spend a few days or few weeks along my high Rocky Mountain trap lines and not see or hear another person or vehicle.   So there just wasn't many people out and about during the winter in the wilderness areas back then.   Only real risks were to the trapper themselves, and most more serious than the set gun was.   A fall and injury, falling through the ice of frozen lakes/rivers, the weather closing in (all hypothermia risks) and a few big furbearers that'd like to sink their teeth/claws into you.    Was a wonderful time to be out alone and one with nature if you loved it as much as I do.

Bopeye -

Really glad my rambling touched on something of interest.   No doubt set guns are a lost part of our trapping hertitage to the generations that followed the old pharts like me.   Wonder how many more of them are still floating around someplace?   Not many I'd guess.

Ladobe

[nailbender]

 Great post Ladobe,  would love to hear some old trapline stories if any happen to come to mind. Often wish I was born to an earlier less crowded world.

[Todd Rahm]

I agree with Nail..................hows about some yarns from the younger years on the line? 

[Ladobe]

Not sure how to go about telling trapping days tales.   Will have to think about that.   

I do feel I was a well experienced "woodsman" at an early age from growing up on a high country ranch where I constantly wandered miles into the mountains alone starting when I was only 4 or 5 with just a jack knife and BB gun.   Didn't take long for me to accept the challenge of learning everything I could about the animals I encountered, and to start making and using snares and dead falls to bring home meat for the pot and fur for projects.   But I was probably 10 before I got my first store bought traps at the Coop.   The lessons learned in my youth built a strong body and logical mind though, and they served me well most of my life.   Too bad the youth of today don't get a chance at the opportunities we did.   America would still be a better place.

Anyway, the trapping itself was a lot of hard work in mostly miserable conditions, and very often quite dangerous.    But it did have it's rewards and I think the danger and challenge was a lot of its appeal for me.   The woods are so very peaceful and quite in the winter, like a totally different world when all shrouded in white and ice than it is during the other seasons, and that was some of the appeal too I guess.   I was mostly after coyote, fox, bobcat, lions, badger, skunk, pine marten and pika, with an occasional beaver or muskrat for pelts.    And since I had to eat what I caught or shot while in the back country, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, porcupine, pine hens and trout for the pot.    There was also one livestock killing bear in particular that was a main target for my entire family for a few years, but we didn't have a bear trap so I hunted him instead along my lines. 

Anyway, I'll see if I can pull up something from so many years ago that you might find interesting.   Maybe particular incidents, particular animals or some of the times I got hurt or stranded and had to hole up for days or weeks and survive the weather until I could get back out.   

Too bad the ex has all my old snapshots - I had some really great black & white pictures from those days I could have scanned for the computer.   

[Brad H]

Very interesting. I'm anxious to hear more about some of that when you get the time, Ladobe.

Brad