# Hunting > Varminting and Small Game Hunting >  Possum Trapping

## scotsman

Hi guys new to the forum.

Been soaking up as much information as I can through the search for possums. I'm looking to start doing it 'hard out' as I cant get a job. I realise I might not get great results to begin with but I'm hoping by the time Winter comes, trail 'n' error and some great advice from my new friends (you guys) will eventually pay off.

I'll set the scene here: I stay on a decent piece of land in a valley (350acres). I'd say 250 acres of it is thick bush. As far as I'm aware nobody has hunted possums on it in the past 15 years. I am willing to work every day of the week if I need to. But will comfortably do 6 day weeks consistently because quite frankly, I'm bored as hell.


I've done a fair bit of research on the web and most of my questions have been answered however I still have a few more if anyone would be willing to help a brother out. Don't feel you have to answer all my q's any help is greatly appreciated! 


1. I understand it's hard to tell because it will always vary but in general, is the land I have big enough to sustain me till the end of winter. Taking into account the fact that the land has been untouched in a long time. I'm looking to eventually have 100 traps going at once. (Would it ever be worth getting more or am I getting carried away here?)

2. What kind of quota should I be aiming for here or realistically expecting to catch? 100 possums a week? More? Less?

3. Should I be plucking or taking the skin when using as many as 100 traps? What would I be getting for a skin and is it worth the extra time/effort?

4. I have heard that some buyers don't like the belly fur or the tail fur in the same bag as your good fur. I have spoke to people that do it recreationally and they normally seem to chuck it all in one bag and get away with it.

5. Do I need to declare my earnings and will I be taxed?

6. Is it worth keeping as much fur as I can until the price's of fur are at its peak for the season? Are the buyers generally ok with that?

7. If the condition is good am I quite safe to be buying second hand ground traps? 

8. Are there any tree species that possums seem to favour over others? 

I'll leave it at that just now don't want to be too much of a pain in the ass with all the q's!! But honestly, any advice/criticism if you have the time, will be super appreciated. 

Going out on Wednesday for the night with a spot light to get a feel for the place and to find places where there may be higher concentrations of possums. Will probably do this a few times, in the daytime as well. Will keep this thread updated with my results for anyone else looking to get into it.

Scotsman

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## bully

Iv always put the first small part of tail fur in the bag, you will see the rest is coarse. You can sell the coarse tail fur as well but keep it seperate, it's worth less.
Belly fur is fine, nobody has moaned about it to me.
There was a picture of a wheel floating around it had which trees the opossums were in, at which time of year. But I understand it to be whatever tree has buds out. Someone else might have a copy of it.
Your probably best to talk to your fur buyer first, let him say what he likes, or what pays the best. I think if you get a nice top grade skin, he should explain the grades, your better to skin that one. It could be the difference between $7 of plucked fur, or $20 of a top grade skin.
My old man used to dry skins on a nail board, but I think you can store them in a freezer now instead, rolled up.
Waiting for the fur price to go up is just business, everyone does it unless they need the money.
If you start making big bucks, yes ird will want some. The buyer will ask your name, I think that's all. I think it's up to you to declare it.

Iv been out of this for a while, I can't remember all the details, but maybe this will help. Good luck.

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## scotsman

Thanks for the advice mate, much appreciated!

Going out tonight with the spotlight and an air rifle, will post my results on here tomorrow. 

Cheers

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## Rushy

Welcome to the forum and good luck to you in this venture.

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## scotsman

Thanks mate

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## Mooseman

It's a hard call on whether there is enough land for you till after winter, if there are high numbers you may be able to stretch it out ok. Depending on how many possums you are catching I think a 100 traps would be more than enough. My brother-in law and I trapped  a few years back and during winter (shorter days)and I found around 50 traps  was a good day and got you back to camp to prepare dinner etc. A younger fit person should be able to do a few more. You should be able to catch in at least 50% of your traps so 50 traps should get 25 + a day once again in high populations 50 traps might catch  40 + possums. Don't lift your traps to soon as some areas will catch for weeks eg on runs or  feed trees, etc At least three fine nights min and if still catching keep them set.
Work the ridges , spurs and gullies to get max coverage, and use plenty of lure to draw the possums onto your lines ( a hand full of flour lure with your flavor should be smeared down the tree where you will set your trap, this acts as a scent and visual attractant. Possums love Totara and Kamahi they are  also suckers for pine when they bud usually July/ August but varies in different areas followed by Willow and poplar. Buy setting on ridges and spur ridges you should have there natural run areas covered.
Good luck it's great trapping possums and it sounds good when you walk up your line and hear that chain rattling ....money in the bank.

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## Boaraxa

do a we test run in june see what the skins are like & what you get for them but July & August would be the pic

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## Woody

Suggest you contact NZ Fur Council for fur buyer contacts and also Google search possum fur and skin buyers. These people will give some advice. Keep your investment to a minimum until you properly evaluate populations and markets. Be prepared to look for additional area.

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## scotsman

Thanks guys for your sound advice. Much appreciated! That's a good shout woody, I've gathered about 20 traps right now free of charge. Think ill use them for a week or 2 to see what returns I get before I buy some.

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## scotsman

UPDATE

Ok so went out last night, maybe a bit earlier than normal for a night session. Was pretty disappointed as I only managed to bag 3 possums and didn't cover as much ground as I'd hoped to of, although probably seen about 10 and could hear many more (I swear the gun was off). Most of the time was spent on the flats or walking along a good path at the edge of the bush. I did manage to persuade my friend to trek into the bush with me and we walked about for about and hour and a half circling an area. Didn't see a single possum in there! It consisted of pretty much the same kind of tree, relatively long and very skinny with bits of bark flaking off and leaves right at the top. But to look on the bright side at least I learnt that there isn't a lot in that spot! 

By about 2am a thick mist had came down and made visibility pretty difficult not to mention our spot light ran out of battery so we started eeling as the land owner asked us to get him a few.
There also wasn't a moon last night not sure if that makes any difference?

I found one area which I marked with a bit of tape where I feel it would be worth setting a line to test at least I seen 3 I think all pretty close together and I could hear some in the background. 

I want to go back out tomorrow during the day to cover as much ground as possible while searching for fresh possum runs and anything else that indicates possums. 

Cheers

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## bully

The air rifle might not be off, there pretty tough critters. I think your a bit under gunned.
It would work OK point blank, if stuck in a trap.

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## nightshooter

some thing to remember when useing traps is they must be checked every 24hr.so you need to think about that when putting out your line,you will be slower checking them with skining and trying to stay on your line etc.i know this from personal experience

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## Boaraxa

> some thing to remember when useing traps is they must be checked every 24hr.so you need to think about that when putting out your line,you will be slower checking them with skining and trying to stay on your line etc.i know this from personal experience


That's easy as your not doing any skinning until the next day pluss dong 1 carry it until you can get a bit of a dead possum party going on , helps u remember whats what as well rather than have coons hanging here n there remember they need to be cold when you skin them in the winter maybe they hang for 3 or 4 days is fine !, spotlighting from inside the bushline is crap especially if they have been spotlighted B4 they go to the tree top game over , but no matter what spotlighting you do make sure ur looking directly overtop of the light like a sight as sometimes they are inside the tree if that makes sense if ur spot light is down by your wast & ur just wanging it round you may not see there eyes..if your serious get your poison licence much easier carrying a tube of past & lure ,  2-3 days latter skin, in-between skinning you can do some prefeed lines , bait stations can be really good only downside is if there are good numbers they can fight over it leave a few windows in there pelts but these days sadly probably not your biggest worry iv found in recent years is a total lack of coons anywhere carnt even remember the last time I ran 1 over  ...good luck

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## Mooseman

We were always taught that night shooting in native bush is about 10% effective due to the canopy cover, if you can get in under the canopy and look up it can be more effective. Bush edges along grassed  areas are good spots to check. I have spent many thousands of hours spot lighting and have found you can get good results but you have to work the area carefully and not to quickly as sometimes it's just a glint of an eye that gives them away.

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## stug

Keep receipts of your expenses and see if you can find a cheap accountant so that you can claim back your expenses.

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## scotsman

Thanks bully, nightshooter, boaraxa, mooseman and stug for your advice. I'm taking it in like a sponge! Priceless knowledge from guys that have been out there and done it.

Going out tomorrow morning ill spend half the day out there I reckon, plan is to cover a decent area and search for any recent signs of possums. Mark out a few spots where it would be worth trapping and maybe ill finally set some down in the next couple of days. Just need to get some extras to add to the huge barrel of flour I got given - its out of date will that make a difference? Is there anything else I can be looking for apart from runs and scratched trees on my walk?






> worry iv found in recent years is a total lack of coons anywhere carnt even remember the last time I ran 1 over  ...good luck


Wow, if I drive on the road near the land at night guaranteed I'll see 6 or 7 in the 15 minute drive!

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## homebrew.357

Hi, Just a heads up, I saw a trapper once with a pile of curry powder packets, he said the posse's love the stuff, so mix a bit in the flour, good luck.

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## Boaraxa

Wow, if I drive on the road near the land at night guaranteed I'll see 6 or 7 in the 15 minute drive! 

That's encouraging my guess would be if you don't get good hits down in that country where there are few coons about is they are trap or poison shy...not saying that they will be at all , just saying if you put the effort in & don't get results don't give up the first time round as it can be a very common problem in handy country..il never forget a place I used to live , a small village called waipori falls it was surrounded by bush , possums all over the show along with blue or red raddle on the trees , rats were a problem to eating my baits no matter what I used , in the end I got some bait stations & some cinnamon prefeed from a mate fed them up for a week by then id go up to top them up & the plastic stations were getting eaten & fur here n there last day id crush up the prefeed in a medium sized pile with 10 or so pea sized blobs of green goo in amongst it that tricked them good & proper one station 15 coons  :Have A Nice Day:  I had around 25 stations they didn't all have that many but the point was proven they where there they just weren't stupid & sometimes they are once I ventured into some new country in nth Canterbury (mid june) for a test run took me a hour walking to get to where I wanted to be started in manuka then into the black beech I did up 1 spur & down another so about 3 hrs , some of the runs I came across in places didn't even have any leaves on them just bare dirt ! so I did my line marking it with toilet paper couldn't believe my luck in the wee hours of the morning the stars disappeared it started pissing down on & off for 2 days day 3 it cleared midday so didn't leave me with much time but off I went ever tried to follow washed in toilet paper lol I don't recommend it ...not good but man there was death possums stacked all over the show I skinned around 100 of the bigger ones & that included dodging the wasps that got me half way around the line & I didn't do anything more than laying poison & lure to get them  :Have A Nice Day:  Good luck

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## scotsman

Thanks for the replies guys. I think I'll look into the poison.

Guess I'll update my thread on how I'm doing like I said I was going to do. 

So basically I knew almost nothing about possums before I started doing this.
 I done my research online, got a lot of help from this forum and asked as many questions as I could think of to people that had experience. Then I got the basic gear and started trapping.
(12 traps)
First day I went out I found a track and thought it looked good so on that bases I laid all my ten traps along it (it was about 100m long lol).
First day nothing, was pretty gutted! 
Second day I got 1!
Third day 0 
Forth day 0
Then it rained. and rained. and rained.

After the rain i moved all my traps and started spending time while i was in the bush looking for signs of possums and good trees etc. I guess just from all the stuff i've read, heard and seen I had started to piece the puzzle together and make more educated decisions on that basis. And its been working I'm still on 12 traps but this is how its went since.
mon 13th- 2
tue 1
wed 2
thur 2
fri 3
mon (today) 4!

For anyone that's getting into this. From my 2 week experience lol

Keep trying, its trial and error, trial and error. Every trap that isn't catching isn't a loss because its information that possums aren't there. Use all the information your given and act on it.
Look for signs on the tree's (scratch marks) they are very easy to spot once you actually study the tree for a few seconds. You'll soon start realising if they are fresh ones or not.
I've found that google earth is a very helpful tool, lets me see the land and mark each of my traps on there and also keep a record of how each one is doing.
Keep moving traps that aren't catching! I've had to move every one of them bar 1 that I put up after the rain (some more than once). You can see how my numbers each night are getting better this is because of this I'm sure. I've got about 7 that I'm happy with now some of them need more reassurance but they are getting kept even if they don't catch tomorrow. The rest of them are getting moved unless they catch tomorrow but even then, I feel like there's better places to be sticking them from the information I'm getting from my other traps deeper in the bush.

I've still barely even scratched the surface of this land , ill need to see what the numbers are like by the end of the week but probably going to get 15 more traps next week. 

Anyway I better stop babbling before I put somebody off, I'm getting right into it maybe even becoming slightly obsessed. Back out in the morning cant wait! 

Scotty

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## stug

Try and track down a book called "Trappers, dogs and deer" pretty sure that it has some very good advice about trapping possums, what to look for when placing traps. Try the library before buying it.

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## Boaraxa

Graham marshal was my favourite books , possum trapping in new zealand

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## nightshooter

don't be afraid to try difrent lure's,some guy's will add thing's like iceing suger or milk powder.in some place's diffrent lure work better good luck mate it will not be easy :Cool:

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## Sparrow

Thanks for taking the time to post this thread Scotsman it's a good follow and some good knowledge coming in which I am taking in also, I've been trapping a few recreationally and messing about learning to tan the skins for a wee home project which was coming along nicely til the pup got hold of it...... Any way I digress.

For those in the know, if you are just plucking the possums you get in small numbers how long can you hang on to the fur to accumulate a decent weight to sell or does it have a use by ?and a best way to store it ,cheers again Scotsman and every one else good luck!

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## FatLabrador

Ha reading this thread while a possum is screaking in the garden. Think he's chowing down on acorns.

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## Dundee

ground cloves cinaman and flour worked for me when i was trapping

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## bully

> Thanks for taking the time to post this thread Scotsman it's a good follow and some good knowledge coming in which I am taking in also, I've been trapping a few recreationally and messing about learning to tan the skins for a wee home project which was coming along nicely til the pup got hold of it...... Any way I digress.
> 
> For those in the know, if you are just plucking the possums you get in small numbers how long can you hang on to the fur to accumulate a decent weight to sell or does it have a use by ?and a best way to store it ,cheers again Scotsman and every one else good luck!


Some say they get weavels in the fur bag.
Iv always hung the bag and never got them. And kept it for quite a while. 
Make sure the hair is dry too. No doubt mold etc.
So yeah, you could get weavels after some time, look into that. I never have. But apparently you see the likes of dust or something in the bottom of the bag, they eat the fur I think they say. Maybe storing in a freezer would be OK?

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## Dundee

I lost a pay out with weavles,mine got binned both my lads thought it was funny when they got paid and I didn't :Sad:

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## PillowDribbler

Freezer :Sick:

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## nightshooter

> Thanks for taking the time to post this thread Scotsman it's a good follow and some good knowledge coming in which I am taking in also, I've been trapping a few recreationally and messing about learning to tan the skins for a wee home project which was coming along nicely til the pup got hold of it...... Any way I digress.
> 
> For those in the know, if you are just plucking the possums you get in small numbers how long can you hang on to the fur to accumulate a decent weight to sell or does it have a use by ?and a best way to store it ,cheers again Scotsman and every one else good luck!


i keep my fur for up to a year,paper rubbish bags help with mould and a spray on the outside to help with weavel's

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## bully

> Freezer


What does this mean?
Can you use a few more words, so myself and maybe others can understand what your trying to say?

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## scotsman

Cheers for the advice guys.
I'm using cinnamon, icing sugar and flour in one mix then rubbing it on the tree. Does anyone mix there bait with water as well for a different consitancy? 

No problem at all sparrow, I'm glad I can give something back. 

Anyway... (10 traps)
tue 1
wed 5
thur 1
fri 0
sat (today)6

Couple days were pretty poor, didnt set traps for the fri morning. Been finding a lot of set off but empty traps this week sadly, any tips on getting a better conversion rate? 

Carrying possums by the tails in my hands is what I've been doing but can see it getting a bit much if I start getting more than six lol anyone have any genius ideas?

Thinking of maybe investing in a farm bike once I have a decent amount of traps out there.
And is there any quicker alternative to using your hands to pluck I heard there's a machine but can I just use a cordless pair of sheers or something like that?

Cheers
Scotty

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## bully

Why are you carrying them? Give it the sleepy stick the probably carry it to the next trap to give it time to "relax" then pluck while still warm. You need a plucker machine to pluck when cold. Often hand plucked is worth more.
I think you will find they won't take fur that's been cut.

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## scotsman

I bring them back down for the pigs, suppose the guy should understand I cant carry them all if I start getting more. Think 6 is my max after this morning. What should I do with the ones I kill and don't take back down with me?
Hmm guess ill just pluck then 
Cheers mate

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## nightshooter

> I bring them back down for the pigs, suppose the guy should understand I cant carry them all if I start getting more. Think 6 is my max after this morning. What should I do with the ones I kill and don't take back down with me?
> Hmm guess ill just pluck then 
> Cheers mate


for one's you have plucked a big throw if you want to skin them hang them near the trap and skin them the next day then throw

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## Mooseman

If you are having the traps go off and no possum you possibly are setting to far from tree, I set a hand width from the trunk, another possible cause could be not having the trap stable and the possum stands on the edge of the trap and it tilts and goes off. It pays to use your hammer and dig a little out and place trap so it sits nice and stable, also I set the trap with the dog closest to the tree. There is a chance that when the trap is sprung the Dog ( bit that holds jaws open and is set on plate) could hit the possums foot and throw it away from the jaws, not often but can happen.
An unstable trap is more likely to be the problem of sprung traps and no possum.

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## scotsman

> If you are having the traps go off and no possum you possibly are setting to far from tree, I set a hand width from the trunk, another possible cause could be not having the trap stable and the possum stands on the edge of the trap and it tilts and goes off. It pays to use your hammer and dig a little out and place trap so it sits nice and stable, also I set the trap with the dog closest to the tree. There is a chance that when the trap is sprung the Dog ( bit that holds jaws open and is set on plate) could hit the possums foot and throw it away from the jaws, not often but can happen.
> An unstable trap is more likely to be the problem of sprung traps and no possum.



 :Thumbsup:  :Thumbsup:  Took your advice mate and haven't found an empty set off trap since 


Update: 27/3-31/3 (13 traps)

Mon- 2
tue-3
wed-3
thur-1
fri (today)-2

Pulled all my traps out today going to go set them in a new area this weekend. 

I've caught 40 possums since I started on the 7th of march and I've filled about 3/4 of a black bag with fur. Still to sell it, probably will soon, all that talk about weavels in the fur bag has got me paranoid 

cheers
scotty

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## nightshooter

good to see your getting a few scotsman, don't worry about the weavels they take some time to do any damage

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## scotsman

Been a while since I updated this..

I've got just over 30 traps at the moment.

Probably averaging about 6 a day right now taking into account the bad days. My records 9. I've hit it a few times, still not got those double figure numbers! 
Bagged a quad as well which is great lol 
Have learned a ton since I started but still got a lot to learn. I spend more time in the bush than I used to due to having more traps, taking more time setting them properly and scouting new trapping spots. It probably takes me 3-4 hours sometimes more, depends how good a day it is and where my traps are etc. Feeling pretty fit as well I might add. Really need to invest in a quality pair of waterproof boots though...like really lol
Caught a black one the other day, I skinned it but not sure what to do with it now. I've only caught 2 so far and a few in-betweens. 
Also I swapped the cinnamon in my bait mix for vanilla essence which has been working nicely for me although I have problems finding the right consistency of my bait I prefer it to be powder but cant really get that with the essence?? Got a little box of ginger as well I assume its in powder form, might try that next week to see what its like.

Scotsman

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## nightshooter

thank's for the update scotsman,i have been wondering how you where getting on.what do you want to do with the black ones i.e keep or sell?

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## scotsman

No problem mate. Do you know how much are they worth for just the skin? I seen a possum skin rug with a pretty hefty price tag, think it was 60 skins but that would take a while to get so maybe like gloves or a hat haha

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## nightshooter

@scotsman i have no idea what you get for skin's i just pluck them when i'm working,if you want to make something with skin's freeze them until you have what you need and use a tanning kit,a hat sound's nice and a good place to start :Thumbsup:  pics when done please

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## Mooseman

Nice to hear you are catching a few and that the advice has helped you out, keep it up.

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## scotsman

Sweet, I've got that one in the freezer just now. Would be pretty cool to make something out of a few skins. I'll need to start learning about it, soon as well cause its getting cold and a warm hat wouldn't go a miss!

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## Husky1600

Sounds to me like you've got it sussed, well done for getting out there and making a decent go of it. When I'm trapping down here in the mainland I can run about 100 - 120 traps comfortably for a week or 2. Nearly all my traps are set in strings of 10, makes it easy to keep a track of them and if I have a long continuous line I put a piece of different coloured flagging tape at each 10th one. I try to set about half of them where I can get to them on a bike or in the truck, like fencelines or 4WD tracks etc. And then I set the other half by walking them in. Then I check all the drive by ones after dinner at night, spotlighting as I go, and resetting them. Next morning I do the walk in ones. Then I do the drive by ones to the end of the lines, wait until an hour after dark and check them again on my way back to the hut. This way I'm catching on half of the traps at least twice a night, and shooting any others in the spotlight as I go. I aim to get better than 30% or 30 possums per day from 100 traps, for 6 or seven nights. Plucking I can average just over $8 per possum, so thats $1600 for the week minus expenses. If I get more than 30% then I'm making pretty good money. The best line I have plucked so far averaged $12.51 per possum, prime winter fur, on big mountain possums. 
And I try to spend just a bit more time on each set to make sure its in a good place and is bedded well - after all if you are gonna put in all that effort you might as well make it catch as many as possible.

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## scotsman

Thanks for the advice mate! I like these ideas, they sound very efficient. How far apart would you say you put your trapping lines between each other like do you have a minimum distance you'd like to keep? 
And to yourself or anyone else, what are the main things your looking for when picking a tree to put your trap on, is being right on possum run way better than a tree that's covered in scratch marks for instance. Now that I've started noticing possum runs more I've being following them either up or down and setting maybe 3 traps on them. Normally ill always get 1,  but rarely 2. Varies each night which one its on. Is this a thing I should be doing or am I wasting a trap or 2 on it?

Cheers

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## Husky1600

I tend to look for trees that are good for setting traps on rather than specific species of tree, not to steep, good solid pad for the trap, and a nice rough trunk to put my lure on from boot top to knee. But I always trap broadleaf trees heavily. Change your lure flavour every few weeks, and make up a 20lt pail of 3 parts flour, 1 part icing sugar, and your lure flavour sprinkled through it as you go. Give it a good mix up and then leave it for a week or 2 with the lid on to allow the lure smell to go through it good and proper. Have one cooking while you use up the first one.
Sometimes I run lines for 40-50 traps if the going is good, sometimes only 10, but in the prime spots, all depends on your location and terrain. Usually spaced about 40-50 metres apart if in reasonable country, closer if the possum sign is there. 
When trapping runs, put you trap a few metres away from the run so other possums can use the run without bumping in to a rattling angry mess. most runs are good for a few nights. 
Fence posts on the bush pasture margin are excellent. and most of my line tend to run across runs rather than along them, so I only use the one trap.
If you are flagging your traps so you dont lose them, put the flagging tape directly above your set so the tape flutters in the breeze, possums are very visual and inquisitive so will often go to check out what it is.
And i only pluck them as I dont have access to a freezer for days. I have 3 or 4 big mesh bags, the size of a big rubbish bag, and i have a square bucket with the bottom cut out of it. I then put a big rubber band from an inner tube over the bottom of the bucket and use this to hold the mesh bag on to the bucket. Then I just lay it out on the ground by the possum, bucket lying on the side, wind blowing in to the bucket, and i pluck in to the bucket. Saves having to open the bag all the time. Then when the bag is full I hang it for a week or 2 or until i need it again and let the air flow through it so it dont go mouldy.

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## scotsman

Thanks for the sound advice husky. I'm not sure if i've seen any of those trees here I just googled it. A lot of my traps are on totora's as they almost always have scratch marks on them, theres another one I like just because it has an awesome truck to set your trap and bait, it comes up from the ground very straight and one side is always completely flat. I just reverted back to the cinnamon icing flour today. Looking forward to seeing some of the results from certain trees which nailed possums every day for a week then went stone cold. If it doesn't work then ill just move the trap but ill find out in the next couple of days. This happens quite a lot, is it the possums getting wiser rather than me wiping them out in that area? A few times ive reluctantly moved a good trap that's went cold to a tree very close and started hitting them again.  I heard that possums travel 1km-5km a night but that doesn't really make sense as new ones would just keep coming in being non the wiser to my bait or trapped trees. 
Thanks mate

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## Husky1600

Possums have a "territory " of approx 12 km, and will often do a circuit over 3 or 4 days, thats why it pays to leave your trap at least 3 nights. And they often overlap their terittories, so its not just the resident 1 or 2 possums. They only have to eat once every 3 nights, and if its raining will just hole up until its over. But traps catch in the rain, poison not nearly so much. Best night I had was 19 possums off 20 traps on a miserable NW night when it absolutely pissed down.

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## scotsman

Cheers mate, that's good to know!

Ended up trying the powdered ginger the other night and I got 8 the next day, wasn't the smelliest of stuff but it worked. Not sure how much was down to the bait though I was feeling good about my traps, I'd just moved most of them into new territory and had a day in there already to make adjustments.
Weather permitting I'm going to camp out in the bush for a couple of nights and go hard on the possums. Maybe next week. I've been wanting to do it for a while. I'll be going by myself and taking the dog,  I've got a semi waterproof tent so will buy a tarpaulin and make a canopy for it hopefully that'll keep me dry incase it rains. 
Scotsman

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## scotsman

UPDATE!! 

ok so i just want to confess i gave up for 2 months. Started trapping again late july. Spoke to the neighbor and got onto his land. i think i had 15 traps.. He asked me to set them up the tree because of the kiwis, it took me about a week of trial and error to get a working technique so didnt catch much but did have a lot of set off trap. I found the top of the hills were by far the best, was a tough hike but worth it. I was averaging 8 once i found them caught a lot of black possums too. After a couple of weeks i scouted ahead of my trap lines and came across a load of pine trees. Couldnt quite believe my eyes there was literally possum shit everywhere, went up for a spotlighting session that night and slaughtered them, i was spending more time plucking than anything else. This would of been mid august, moved all my traps to the pines and almost all my traps would go off every night for a couple weeks, a few nights they all went off. Just wish i had more traps!!!! The pines started to die down and i pulled my traps and went to the next piece of land id secured at the end of the road. Word seems to get around quickly, im not far off having every acre in the valley to trap on. Anyway i got a bunch more traps by this time, probably start of september. So 30 traps, went to the new bit of land trapped it for about a week had just started to find them but there was another peice of land opposite the one i was on. This one had a ton of pines with native bush right next to it on the side of a big hill. I couldnt help but think if they pines were stuffed with possums a few weeks ago surely they will now all be in the bush right next to it. So took the gamble pulled all my traps and went up there. I walked up the pines and trapped in there for the first week, maybe got 20 possums i mde the mistake of putting too many traps too close together thinking it still might work. Ended up pulling all but 4 traps and started laying them right at the very top of the native, near the bush edge. Didnt put them all out at once as was scared to loose them, the information i got from the ones that were out up there told me that there was alot of possums so banged them all out pretty close together. I think i went 10, 18, 16 15 then 2 (rained all night long) then 8 and out of those last 8, 6 of them were babies either just off the mothers back or maybe id killed all theyre mothers i dont know?? 3 the next day then I pulled my traps after that, not sure if it was a mistake or not. I might go back to the same bush a km away or something it was like they got trap shy pretty quick i doubt i wiped them out. Kind of got my sights set on some different land tho spent a while on google earth trying to decide where to go. one that doesnt involve a 6km hike everyday. Just need to go see the land owner and introduce myself will probably do that tomorrow along with some maintenence on my traps. Then spend a day walking around it to gather some intel. 

Ive almost been in the country a year. I came over myself from scotland on a working holiday visa, never imagined id be doing this haha wasn't too bothered about travelling in campervans and picking fruit i was keen to live more like the locals. Been trapping since march i think,took a couple months off. Im pretty confident now, obviously still got so much to learn and every day up the bush im learning more and more. Sadly i might be leaving the country next month, have had a blast tho 

Scotty

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## R93

> UPDATE!! 
> 
> ok so i just want to confess i gave up for 2 months. Started trapping again late july. Spoke to the neighbor and got onto his land. i think i had 15 traps.. He asked me to set them up the tree because of the kiwis, it took me about a week of trial and error to get a working technique so didnt catch much but did have a lot of set off trap. I found the top of the hills were by far the best, was a tough hike but worth it. I was averaging 8 once i found them caught a lot of black possums too. After a couple of weeks i scouted ahead of my trap lines and came across a load of pine trees. Couldnt quite believe my eyes there was literally possum shit everywhere, went up for a spotlighting session that night and slaughtered them, i was spending more time plucking than anything else. This would of been mid august, moved all my traps to the pines and almost all my traps would go off every night for a couple weeks, a few nights they all went off. Just wish i had more traps!!!! The pines started to die down and i pulled my traps and went to the next piece of land id secured at the end of the road. Word seems to get around quickly, im not far off having every acre in the valley to trap on. Anyway i got a bunch more traps by this time, probably start of september. So 30 traps, went to the new bit of land trapped it for about a week had just started to find them but there was another peice of land opposite the one i was on. This one had a ton of pines with native bush right next to it on the side of a big hill. I couldnt help but think if they pines were stuffed with possums a few weeks ago surely they will now all be in the bush right next to it. So took the gamble pulled all my traps and went up there. I walked up the pines and trapped in there for the first week, maybe got 20 possums i mde the mistake of putting too many traps too close together thinking it still might work. Ended up pulling all but 4 traps and started laying them right at the very top of the native, near the bush edge. Didnt put them all out at once as was scared to loose them, the information i got from the ones that were out up there told me that there was alot of possums so banged them all out pretty close together. I think i went 10, 18, 16 15 then 2 (rained all night long) then 8 and out of those last 8, 6 of them were babies either just off the mothers back or maybe id killed all theyre mothers i dont know?? 3 the next day then I pulled my traps after that, not sure if it was a mistake or not. I might go back to the same bush a km away or something it was like they got trap shy pretty quick i doubt i wiped them out. Kind of got my sights set on some different land tho spent a while on google earth trying to decide where to go. one that doesnt involve a 6km hike everyday. Just need to go see the land owner and introduce myself will probably do that tomorrow along with some maintenence on my traps. Then spend a day walking around it to gather some intel. 
> 
> Ive almost been in the country a year. I came over myself from scotland on a working holiday visa, never imagined id be doing this haha wasn't too bothered about travelling in campervans and picking fruit i was keen to live more like the locals. Been trapping since march i think,took a couple months off. Im pretty confident now, obviously still got so much to learn and every day up the bush im learning more and more. Sadly i might be leaving the country next month, have had a blast tho 
> 
> Scotty


Be careful not to trap and shoot them out mate. 
Farm it sort of speak, if you plan to do another season there. 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

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## Mooseman

Well Scotsman you have been busy and doing very well. Trapping and shooting around those pine blocks when the catkins are out is a productive time, possums travel miles for the new buds.
The catkins are protein rich and will cause the hair to start to slip but that's not a problem when plucking, it was when we skinned them as it down graded the pelt.
Well it was good hearing your update and all the best for the future.

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## scotsman

Cheers for all the input mooseman.

Small update: 

Recently went into new bush. 
Day 1: went up and had a scout about for signs of possums and made made some mental notes. 
Day 2: laid 15 traps and done a bit more scouting
Day 3: plucked 10 possums laid 8 more traps 
Day 4: plucked 14 possums and killed a rat. Seen some goats. Laid 11 more traps.
Day 5: is tomorrow, I've got 34 traps set.

Out of the 11 I set day Ive been really taking one thing into account which is a mistake I think ive been making. A lot of times if I find a run ill stick the trap in a place on it where every possum will see, the trap tends to be very successful but only for a few nights sometimes less then it goes stone cold. I feel like im giving every possum in the area a lesson on what happens if you step on a trap. Im hoping trapping off the runs and motorways ill be able to take possums from them for longer without giving the game away. Just not too sure yet what kind of distance is best to go from run to trap, or is it just about being out of sight? 

How much would a large or x large possum skin be worth? Bearing in mind the majority of them have lost their winter fur.

Cheers
Scotsman

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## scotsman

Day 5: Caught 12 today from 34 traps. I think I missed 6 too which is a bit disappointing. Moved a couple around and will be moving a good few tomorrow I imagine. 

Scotsman

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## scotsman

Day 6: 10 
Day 7: 14
Day 8: 11

2 things i think would be handy to have would be a gps and a plucker

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## Wildman

You're doing well. 

I don't think you're scaring the possums off,  more like trapping the local area out for a short time. They have fairly distinct home ranges and they can take a few days to move on if they find their neighbours have moved out... 

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk

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## scotsman

Cheers wildman. 

Day 9: 7

Going to pull them all tomorrow and move. Cant decide where is best to go but got a few options. Tree's along the creek, i think they are willows i could be wrong tho. the flat land next to them has only just started to dry out. Have taken a couple walks down them to look for signs didnt see much but it was still pretty boggy at the time. 
Theres about 60 trees right next to the house, tall skinny planted very close together and im sure somebody told me they are a weed (also next to the creek) Well they have literally just started shooting leaves as of 2 days ago.

Trapping the trees above is kind of what i want to do with all my traps little bit worried im too late for the willows and too early on the tall skinny ones but ill find out soon haha ill try and take a walk down tomorrow once i get back from the bush. Hopefully theres some nice runs carved into the ground and shit everywhere. 

Any feedback on my plans would be appreciated. 
Cheers

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## scotsman

Update..

Day 10- 11
Pulled all my traps from that Bush.

After that I took a couple days off then headed on to another guys land. (I did try the trees by the creek but it wasn't worth my time from the result I got)

Day 1- set 25 traps
Day 2- 14 possies and set another 10 traps
Day 3- 20 (new personal best, made me feel good haha)
Day 4- 12 
Set them off as I'm on holiday for 2 weeks, my family have came over to visit me.

When I get back to it I'll probably move about 8 of them and I need to tweak the trigger tension as its far too loose after watching a video about it. Probably explains why I'm coming up to a lot of empty set of traps which is always a bit frustrating.

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## scotsman

Went back to it a couple days ago. Traps pretty much in the same place apart from 6 I moved to the bush edge at the end of my line. 35 traps
Day 1: 17
Day 2: 19

I tightened the trigger plates on my traps, definitely made a huge difference. 
Cheers

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## scotsman

Day 3: 14

Not trapped last 2 days. Think the possums are starting to get wise in some of the areas that were doing extreamly well before hand. So will move a bunch of them n see what the results are like.  But if i keep having to move lots of traps every day i'll pull them all and move. 

The trees along the creek i mentioned before, I seen a really really thick run coming down off a ridge heading straight for them, and theres signs of them running inbetween them. Could well be my next place to go. This is on the land i first started on back in march. Do i just take the gamble and hit them now or is it safe to leave it another week. If theres a window i wanna be in it and not just catch half of it like i did at the pines. Thinking about it is making me wanna go there asap. Ill walk the track on the bush edge then come back along the creek for one big loop of traps.

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## stingray

I think your putting the heat on them and have thinned them out, so would suggest trapping known trees ones that you have regular success. Some trees/ runs are just the one every possom likes. So target these ones which catch regualry which will mean more miles but better to put traps where you catch rather than just going round checking empties. That and /or try a differnt flavour of lure to break up your patterns. Perhaps they were in the pines eating pollen and now that season is over they have moved to a new tucker source .

 up here this time of year until Feb we shoot a heap of possoms in paddocks grazing grass like sheep out in the open without a tree in 300 yards. So perhaps they have changed there foraging habbits also. 

Thanks for the updates enjoy your yarns a great deal!

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## scotsman

Thanks for the advice stingray and good to know your enjoying my updates! 

That's interesting about them grazing heavily on grass, Ill keep that in mind. They have to cross a grassy paddock to get to the creek side trees im eyeing up right now. 

My strategy as of recently on the farms is to go in and hit it hard, traps normally close together in bunches of various amounts- depending on a few factors like the size of the bit of bush and possum signs like runs, shit, scratch marks and sometimes smell. I'll leave once it all dies down and things start becoming more complicated. I definitely could be staying longer but ive found it involves a lot more work if i really want to milk an area like moving multiple traps daily, really going to town with trap site camouflaging, changing bait and like you said, longer hikes. Purely because I'm fortunate enough to have a few farms at my disposal its easier for me to head to new bush to target fresh un-educated possums, thicker in numbers. Switching locations keeps things interesting too. And I've gotta try keep all the farmers happy.

Something I've incorporated into my game recently has been leaving bait trails to my traps from nearby runs. Sometimes trails in a few directions heading to my trap tree. I go through a shit load more bait doing this but I believe it's making a slight difference, it definitely makes me feel like a trap would be more likely to catch. So for confidence its good and tbh even if it gets you 1 more possie a day your in profit from the extra bait used.

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## rockland

Hi @scotsman
been watching your posts on this thread this year, I'm not a trapper but do a lot of animal control work.
Dunno if you've noticed but you're sounding like a pro trapper now, identifying all the little things that could improve your trap catch rate 
which is good anyway!
I reckon you have found your niche and could continue as a part/fulltime trapper 
or work for an outfit that contracts to AHB or DoC or any private conservation group.
NZ needs guys like you!

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## scotsman

Haha thanks mate!! im getting there! I'm glad I've percivered with this venture.

Ive been putting thought into talking to DOC for a while actually. I was planning to put together a case to put to them for what its worth. I just wasn't sure what i wanted from them. Or if id even be sombody they would be interested in as i only trap. If they could give me access to more bush that would be a bonus. Would they ever pay me on top of what i earn from the fur?

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## rockland

> Haha thanks mate!! im getting there! I'm glad I've percivered with this venture.
> 
> Ive been putting thought into talking to DOC for a while actually. I was planning to put together a case to put to them for what its worth. I just wasn't sure what i wanted from them. Or if id even be sombody they would be interested in as i only trap. If they could give me access to more bush that would be a bonus. Would they ever pay me on top of what i earn from the fur?


 @scotsman
If you like just working for yourself and selling fur then you are on the right track now, trapping private land or getting a permit for DoC land.  No DoC won't pay you unless you are actually working for them as a contractor on a specific conservation project.

If you would like to work as a contractor/subcontractor to a government agency (eg. DoC, TB Free NZ, regional council) or private organisation (eg. QE2 National Trust, forestry company, Maori trust, rich private landowner) you could certainly get a job doing ground control which could involve trapping, monitoring or hand-laying poison. You might not get to keep the fur... but you get a regular paycheck for doing what you love in the outdoors. If this appeals to you, ask around and you'll soon hear who are the main players in your area.

Professional pest control is big business in NZ these days with the need for brands to be seen as "sustainable" and "environmentally conscious". You can find a contractor in your area in the Yellow Pages, look up "Animal Control Consultants" or "Pest Control". The skills you have and willingness to live in a hut, woolshed or tent camp are really sought after. Don't under-estimate this! The pest-control scene in NZ is pretty tightly-knit, so once you're in...you're in.

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## scotsman

Thanks very much for the advice rockland. I'll definately pursue this and send a few emails around. Much appreciated!!

Update:

So i went back to my traps a while ago reset them all but it rained really heavy that afternoon and through the night. Only got 1 the next day. Ended up pulling all my traps out. I returned there for a night shot and got 15 a few days ago. The possums were just past where i had a bunch of my traps set before, almost all of them where on manuka/tea tree (i dont know the difference). So thats something to note. It was right on the boundary of another farm i have so i might go there soon.

I did a maintenance day on my traps yesterday and set them all out today. I went a head with my original plan to set them on the trees by the creek and along the dirt track - some are just off the path up in the bush. That run heading the the creek trees from the ridge is still looking good. I followed it up the steep bank and into the bush and theres a ton of other runs too. I set a few traps up there, careful not to put them right on the runs but still close enough to catch from them. I did wonder what reslults id get if i set say 10/15 traps all on those runs for 1 or 2 nights but i was a bit worried it would end up having a negative effect on my other traps along the creek which is where all those runs are headed. 

Looking forward to seeing the results anyway. Its the same land i first started on so was nice to be back there with a bit more knowledge.

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## scotsman

33 traps set last night. Ive got 5 along the first stretch of creek trees and 7 about a km down stream. The rest are either at the edge of the track or just inside the bush. First 5 creek trees i got 3. Missed one too. Theyre pretty close together, theres a few more trees i can trap on further down i think ill maybe fit 8 alltogether comfortably. Side of the dirt road was pretty deadly and probably the easiest money ive ever made since i started haha. Chucked a couple in amongst some makuka and they both caught will probably stick a few more traps in there. The 3 up that ridge all went off i only caught 1 though. Stuck one on a tobacco tree but it never caught. And then finally the trees at the back the first 4 in a row all caught. Not too far away from each other. The next 3 same distance inbetween never got touched. Maybe theyre climbing the trees closest to where they first come in and climb along up above ground. Tally for the day was 15. Back out to tomorrow and ill be moving a few traps.

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## scotsman

Day 2: 14
I moved a good few. Road side not quite as good, creek trees at back were pretty poor.  
Day 3: 9
Road side very poor, creek trees I got 2/13 traps. 
On the other hand, that ridge and the manuka bit is doing good. Got 3 traps in each and they all are going off each night.

 I think ill move all but one creek trap. Stuff that ridge full of traps for a night, up and along all the runs. I'm curious to see what the results look like. I'll stick more in the manuka section as well. I reckon I'll only be in there for 1 or 2 nights but we will see. 
If I can find my vanilla essence bottle I'll switch it with the cinnamon when I go back out just to mix it up. 

Getting myself one of those trail cameras to do a bit of research on the possums. Hoping to learn a lot from this. Will be looking to test different things and seeing what seems to work best. Plastic bags above traps, different lure etc etc. Also I want to see what trap shy possums will be like when they notice one.  I'll probably stick camara on runs for best results will also be able to find out how many possums are using a run each night on average. I could go on all day about the things I want to do with this but hopefully its going to do what I hope it can....could be good for pigs too  :Grin:

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## Sarvo

What Trail Camera are you going to get
Be careful there is alot of crap out there.

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## scotsman

Oh shit.. here's the link: https://m.tomtop.com/p-y5199.html?cu...SABEgKF5_D_BwE

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## Sarvo

> Oh shit.. here's the link: https://m.tomtop.com/p-y5199.html?cu...SABEgKF5_D_BwE


Well I don't know anything about that breed - but it will be a copy of something I imagine
I see it comes with tree mout that screws into the back of it
Do NOT use it
Reason - Possums tip them over and when it rains - if upside down when it rains it ruined.

I have some Browning BTC-5 Strike Force 10MP and Browning DARK OPS HD Sub Micro Trail Camera (10MP) | BTC6HD used cameras that you can have for $100 - they will have a SD 8G card in them already - just need batteries 
They still sell for near on $200NZ (thats EBay price - so + freight to NZ)

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## scotsman

Thanks for the heads up mate. 
My folks asked me what i wanted for Christmas and thats what i asked for. They had already purchased it sadly or i would of taken up your offer. Thanks anyway!! 

Did you ever use them for possums?

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## scotsman

Small update: reset traps 2 days ago picked up most of creek ones and stuck them all up that ridge. 10 traps in there.
Day 1: 5. Wet night
Day 2: 8. Creek trees 0, manuka ok, side of road very good, ridge 0. Found a really steep bank, got 3 traps coming down it close together they all went off last 2 nights.

Have lifted half my traps, going to run them along the bush edge further down. Hopefully get the numbers back up

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## Sarvo

> Thanks for the heads up mate. 
> My folks asked me what i wanted for Christmas and thats what i asked for. They had already purchased it sadly or i would of taken up your offer. Thanks anyway!! 
> 
> Did you ever use them for possums?


No problem
They wont go rotten :-)

Re Possum observation - yes - I used them on those Goodnature A12 Kill traps - noted the smaller Possums would not put their head in - I put this down to they younger ones have longer whiskers and as we all know a cat or a Possum wont put it head in something that is narrower than its whiskers
Wasn't overly impressed to be honest - hence I now not using them.
You will note that Possums are very repetitive at same times with their movements.
Like - 11.30pm you sill see Possum A moving past at roughly same time every night - weather permitting.

Enjoy your "observing" keep us posted - good luck

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## scotsman

Thats interesting... Would they take videos too for you? 

Posted this on the marketplace too... Im looking for possum boards. Im not sure what my best option is.  I've been told to get 300x25 planks and 250x25 and also 200x25. Cut them to 600mm lengths. Nails up each side and some at top and bottom for tail and head. Struggling to find anyone who even stocks the 300x25. This option looks to be pretty expensive. 

Somebody is selling 70 boards on trade me for $180. They are only like 150mm wide. No nails on them either. With this method im guessing you would wrap the skin around the plank of wood? And use a staple gun to tac down?..... Is this a good method? 

if i was to buy plywood and cut myself would this be an alright option? Id probably use a staple gun instead of nails, not sure how well they would stick in the timber long term. 

Ive never used the staple gun for boarding before but i like the sound of it. im using nails right now on chipboard. The nails get in the way when im scraping the skin so i end up having to cut off along the edges. The chipboard is pretty shit too, but it was good to get me started. 

If anybody happens to have boards they no longer want anymore id be interested...

Thanks in advance
scotty

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## nightshooter

@scotsman,i normally used 100mm x 25mm boards off old pallet's,i was leaving the belly uncut and nails at the head,tail and pull the leg's tight. I used 7 nails at each end and 6 along the leg's/ belly,hope this help's  :Thumbsup:

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## Husky1600

Just like night shooter said, all very simple. My mate bought his first house with possum skins and venison and he used both wire and wooden frames. The wire ones were spot welded together, same shape as the wooden ones, only slightly more across cos wires thinner than a 25mm board and its the overall width you are after. The end that was spot welded together had a short spike left proud for the nose to catch on, and he used pegs to peg out the skin. One quick slice with a Stanley knife and the skin was off.

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## bazz61

best results I ever had shooting was on flowering Manuka in Taranaki ,next were poplars & pines .

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## 308

300x25 in boxing grade timber should be the cheapest you can get cos it's untreated - 250x25 might be more common and you may have to call around a few merchants first

Hand pick it as it is full of knots and warps

100x25 boxing is only $1 a metre here from memory so it shouldn't cost too much??

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## kotuku

> We were always taught that night shooting in native bush is about 10% effective due to the canopy cover, if you can get in under the canopy and look up it can be more effective. Bush edges along grassed  areas are good spots to check. I have spent many thousands of hours spot lighting and have found you can get good results but you have to work the area carefully and not to quickly as sometimes it's just a glint of an eye that gives them away.


yup mooseman is right.also if theres a breeding doe round and shes randy ,the bucks will go stir crazy like stags and the noise of snarls or scraps is a dead friggin giveaway-I had a 3 cell torch clamped to my stirling.22 and it was spot on .more than one buck fell outof a tree after sitting up screaming at me ,and getting a terminal.22 blowjob that curbed his sex drive permanently.
look for abandoned fruit trees -the jackos love that fruit ,and looking through my photos im bloody sure i nailed more than one who may have been a tad pissed from gutsing out on fermenting /rotten fruit.vegetable peelings is good bait too-my late dad shot many a jacko who d paid a visit to mums peelings bucket (intended for our xmas porker)in the old family home on the coast.he also dealt with a few who got into his shed rafters and tried to tell him how to chop kindling wood.
 brother and i trapped as kids-flour with aniseed was the bait ,and the back of a tomahawk or our leadhead studded lenght of rimu applied btween the eyes stopped em dead -trapline -check before schoolin mornings -leave dead to cooloff during day -jacket skinand takc out after school.we bought our 1st watches -alphas &6.13s.6d from our possum skin money (1966).
  dont see many these days-im dying to get a screamer buck lined up for a 3"no2 steel 12g blowjob-itll come!

all the best.

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## scotsman

Thanks for the advice guys. Did end up buying a stapler too it's alright but you need to put a good few on to get the same stretch as a nail board. Also I'd advise getting the bigger sized staples. 20 bux for 2000.

If anybody in Northland has any possum traps they would be willing to sell pm me. Looking for about 80. Not overly fussy about condition as long as they work. Much appreciated 

Scotsman

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## akaroa1

Ran my first trap line of the season last night.

30 traps
14 caught
4 more sprung
950 grams of fur from the 14

Possums were in very good condition after a very good summer in Canterbury.
Will get another line out in another couple of weeks and hope to set them both at least once a week as time, work and weather allows.

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## BeeMan

Interesting @akaroa1, I'm averaging 12 possums to the kg, n its just starting to get cool here. Come on winter, only gets better for the next 3 months.

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## akaroa1

@BeeMan I'm on Banks Peninsula and the conditions are always pretty mild here.
This line is at around 100m ASL and within 1km of the harbor. So practically winter less.
Haven't had a frost yet this year.

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## Sarvo

> Interesting @akaroa1, I'm averaging 12 possums to the kg, n its just starting to get cool here. Come on winter, only gets better for the next 3 months.


 @BeeMan
What is the price this year per KG
12 per Kg 
That good going - all Brown's to no doubt

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## kukuwai

> @BeeMan
> What is the price this year per KG
> 12 per Kg 
> That good going - all Brown's to no doubt


Hey Sarvo,

Here is a copy of a txt i got from basically bush on 20th march.

Hi we are in Nelson buying fur, 12noon at Richmond A&P show grounds today. $105kg. Cheers Lisa 

Will probably go up next few months as fur is longer, less shorts rejected. Was getting $120 Aug last year 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

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## BeeMan

I sell to Dawson furs $105 kg. Still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.   :Psychotic:   @Sarvo yep mostly darks but the silver greys are big huas here aswell

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## Sarvo

> I sell to Dawson furs $105 kg. Still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.    @Sarvo yep mostly darks but the silver greys are big huas here aswell


Say hi to Dink (Bruce Dawson)  from Peter Milne
Sold most of my skins to him 80's

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## csmiffy

> Hey Sarvo,
> 
> Here is a copy of a txt i got from basically bush on 20th march.
> 
> Hi we are in Nelson buying fur, 12noon at Richmond A&P show grounds today. $105kg. Cheers Lisa 
> 
> Will probably go up next few months as fur is longer, less shorts rejected. Was getting $120 Aug last year 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Interesting- I only trapped a little in the early 80's and didn't get many skins. didn't get a lot for them and I think it wasn't long after that the price dropped out. Wasn't worth the hassle. just shot them for shits and giggles. 
I was talking to someone just yesterday about trying to short the odd one and whether it was worth it for the fur. Cant be shagged skinning but if it was 12- 15 odd jackos for 100 bucks I'd definitely have a crack at that if I can find some easy local ones.

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## Sarvo

> Interesting- I only trapped a little in the early 80's and didn't get many skins. didn't get a lot for them and I think it wasn't long after that the price dropped out. Wasn't worth the hassle. just shot them for shits and giggles. 
> I was talking to someone just yesterday about trying to short the odd one and whether it was worth it for the fur. Cant be shagged skinning but if it was 12- 15 odd jackos for 100 bucks I'd definitely have a crack at that if I can find some easy local ones.


I hate plucking them - I can skin 3 to 1 plucked in time
Prices in 80's were minipulated by Korea mostly - it was up and down 
1989 I averaged just on $10 on a line I sent to Dunedin
Mid 86-87 Bruce Dawson and Machouse Furs were paying average 5-7$ "cash" 
Pureora coons were not the greatest size or quality 
I would drool over the Urewera Darks that Dawson always had pleasure in showing us - that was usually just before price was given on my line

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## madjon_

Urewera posums like Corgis :Grin:

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## R93

Dont think I have even tried skinning a possum since the 80's

I was never fast at skinning anyway but I can pluck them reasonably fast. 
I was averaging 10 to a kilo early in the winter last year. Big blacks and reds down Haast ways. I have one spot I hit once a year where I can with my sons help make over 500 bucks in a nights shooting even with fuel and stuff taken into account. 
Always try to do a few runs on the possums and put the money towards other hunting related stuff.

Have to travel now to get to them as locally it is a very rare event to see a possum due to all the dairy farming. All the handy country is poisoned heavily. 





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## kukuwai

> Interesting- I only trapped a little in the early 80's and didn't get many skins. didn't get a lot for them and I think it wasn't long after that the price dropped out. Wasn't worth the hassle. just shot them for shits and giggles. 
> I was talking to someone just yesterday about trying to short the odd one and whether it was worth it for the fur. Cant be shagged skinning but if it was 12- 15 odd jackos for 100 bucks I'd definitely have a crack at that if I can find some easy local ones.


Yep the price for plucked fur has remained over a 100 bucks per kilo for a while now so get stuck into them @csmiffy

All you need to do is find someone to sell too. Give a local wool buyer a call or basically bush has a list of buyers on their website. 

http://www.possumhunters.co.nz/agents.html

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## csmiffy

on the outskirts of chch so not sure if there are any easy ones out here. If its like back on the coast any easy ones shot already or poisoned. More worried about cocking it up and shooting in the wrong place and having coppers after me.

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## samoylanna

Hi, my name is Anna I live on 120-acre farm in Tauranga, most of the property is surrounded by bush, with possums everywhere. If you are interested to hunt on our property for possums please send me a message.

Cheers,

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## Rushy

> Hi, my name is Anna I live on 120-acre farm in Tauranga, most of the property is surrounded by bush, with possums everywhere. If you are interested to hunt on our property for possums please send me a message.
> 
> Cheers,


Welcome Anna.  That is a great offer.

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## scotsman

Not sure if anyone will remember me. Just wanted to update this with a-bit more about what I ended up doing regarding possums. Its been almost 3.5 years since I had to leave NZ and im back home in Scotland now. I did spend a couple years in Aus learning then working as a shearer in that time but thats another story. 

Ive not really got great dates etc written down but ill try piece together another 6 months of updates without boring people. 

So to take it back to my last update which was late 2017 I believe this is what followed.

I pulled all my traps from the bottom of the land i was on and went to the top of a big hill. I was there for about 2 weeks and I done really well. 

 I had started skinning any skin i thought was good for it. When i went on hols with my family when they came to visit I went into a good few shops that sold products made from possum fur and skins and seen all what they making and doing with the fur. And i also seen the price tag. Cushions 2 skins 200. 4 skins 350, moccasins 1/2 skins 100+. 
Meanwhile i was getting $10 on a good day from 2 plucked possums. And honestly it hurt seeing that. 

When i came back I ordered my first tanning kit and picked out 6 skins. Used a 20l bucket. It was chrome and something sulphate tanning. Made some boards with nails. And made a wee workshop for it all in this old building. 

Took about 20 days for the process. And they turned out alright tbh. Nowhere near the  quality from the pros but it did tan them. Played about with them a-bit and asked a few folks opinions. Then started another cycle of 6.
This time they came out quite a bit better still along way to go but definite progress from the first batch. 

In the mean time of doing the tanning i was still trapping and tbh I was skinning alot of possums i caught and rolling them in the freezer. (This was a mistake as alot of them were reds and had rubbish skins) But i had my sites set on making more money im not gonna lie so i focused more on this than selling the wool. At some stage I ended up trapping with a mate we bought more traps and he used his truck which was really good. Although i wouldnt recommend trapping with someone it is much funner but the spoils are way less. I think we had 80 traps. Best night was between 35-40 possums in a night. Id gotten fairly decent at trapping but had defo realised there wasnt a great future in trapping youve gotta move a lot and set a lot of traps to make end meet from that solely. Although poison i think you could wipe out areas much quicker than traps but you need land available and a good set of wheels. 

Back to the tanning id been really thinking hard about what to make and i know my skills are really poor in arts and crafts. So I went for something easy. And something i never had to spend much capitol on as i was broke.
So I tried to make Insoles for your shoes. 

Printed off shoe sizes done a bunch of research on what type of backing to use and which glue/adhesive. And bought the basic tools. 
Also researched prices of people selling them. And checked out their quality.

must of taken me 1.5hrs to do my first one. The glue process was a pain in the backside i remember that. Ended up making a few pairs gave them all away to people close to me they weren't good enough to sell. And i was getting feedback on them. The whole process was much harder than i thought it would be and took longer. 

My third tanning cycle i ramped up the production a bit bought a 100l odd bin and tanned 30 skins. Before doing this i bought probably my best ever purchases. It was a water blaster and a staple gun. Scrapping the skins etc and using possum boards were gonna be difficult with too many possums at once. The waterblaster took everything off in under a minute and you could stretch the possums out quicker with a staple gun.

 I made many sets of insoles out of the 30 hides,  it took ages to put them together and I still hadn't found a good adhesive but I was getting a bit neater and i managed to sell a good few pairs between $20 and $40. 

Memory's abit hazy but Somewhere around this time a brother from the rugby team asked me if i wanted to come try penning up in the shearing sheds and i went for the day. Ill never forget the first time i walked in the shed i honestly fell in love with it right there and then. Id never seen anything like it before and i really enjoyed the hard work. Had a great day out and he asked me if i wanted to be his presser for the up coming season that was starting in 4 or so weeks.
For the next few weeks i carried on trapping and was keeping alot of skins. I also bought alot more tanning gear and ended up tanning 100 skins at once which was way too much i wasnt ready for it and they basically went to waste I couldnt work with them. 

I also had my final year of a working holiday visa coming to and end. And much to my disappointment I couldnt get a visa that would allow me to continue trapping and my vision of building a business selling products. I also for sure needed more capitol to make it. If i could of found someone to make better quality items for me and if i was in a position to pay them upfront id of liked to of seen where i could of taken this. My short term goal was to get enough products to have a stall at a market where the cruise ships come in then see where that took me from there. But sadly and always regrettably I didn't and my possum journey basically end there. Maybe it will start again one day I do miss it the hunting side of it. 

 I always plan on going back to new zealand its a special place theres nothing quite like it that ive seen. 

I wanna thank again the people in this thread for their advise and I hope that my story helps someone looking to get into trapping and can show what can potentially become of that. 

Scotsman

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## Mooseman

That's a cool story, glad you sorted the trapping out, it's a great lifestyle even if you don't make a fortune. It's a crazy world we live in at the moment with Covid so I suppose it's nice to be back in your home land. Possums will still be here if you decide to have another go in the future, all the best.

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## scotsman

Thanks Mooseman great to see your still on here I was hoping youd see this. Your inputs where priceless throughout my journey. Many thanks for all the advice it really was top quality knowledge you were dishing out on this thread, you could write a book. 
Scotsman

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## Ranger 888

When you look at the tallies Scotsman was getting, it makes "NZ- Pestfree by 2050" look like a Tui ad.

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## scotsman

Could of sworn the target was 2025 back when I was in NZ. Either way I do not see how it is possible to completely kill them off. Is there a plan on how to do it? I remember they dropped a bunch of 1080 when I was there. 

I wish the government would try a different approach and invest in young people teaching them to trap in the masses, discount traps for them, give people extra dollar incentives for catching possums maybe through a tafe course or something...give them an easier route to make something out of possums. Then maybe they stay in the industry, move on to poisoning etc. It wouldn't eradicate them but if you had 10x more people killing possums that's 10x more possums leaving your country (once all these people get good at it). Its a win win for the government and the people who could do with opportunities and help. 
There was so much poverty where I was living and people were stuck in holes without vehicles and too far from any jobs (me included.) I tried helping one younger guy to get into trapping that was in a similar situation as me but he just wasn't keen and he was probably thinking whats the effin point, its gonna take me ages to learn and I've no money for traps bait etc. 
It was extremely hard for me to acquire traps while scraping a poor quality life from what I was making, let alone get a proper road legal vehicle. Although it was an AMAZING experience, surviving NZ from trapping  was the most difficult thing mentally I've ever done. I'm not ashamed to admit i broke down a few times. And it tops the mental struggles of learning to shear merinos in the Australian outback!!!!! I'd like to believe I would of got there eventually but its next to impossible to go from having nothing to have decent accommodation, a vehicle, all the trapping gear and to be able to eat well enough from trapping on foot self employed in your local area. So I can see why no-one bothers doing it full time starting from the bottom...may as well stay on the dole - I'm not talking about people with vehicles and capital prior but people without this to start off with and are trying to get to that stage through hunting possums.

Sorry for going off topic a bit, never really shared what it was like behind the scenes in my situation and what I thought about it.

Also I have a lot of photo's and video's from my time in the bush. If people are interested I will try to put a few on this thread to give the story some more life.

Scotsman

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## Mooseman

There is a huge difference between controlling a population and eradicating it. With current methods eradication is not an option.
When I was still in the pest control we were trying to eradicate wallabies from the BOP, that was 12 years ago, at best they are still trying to eradicate new populations which have established . Back when I was doing it eradication meant an area that had been controlled or worked had to have three clear runs using trained wallaby indicator dogs before it could be called wallaby free.
Using this method for monitoring the control for all pests in NZ will be basically impossible to achieve . Can you imagine three clear monitors over the whole of NZ using trained dogs for ever species of pest? The cost will be prohibitive for one thing.
Unless the Government has some silver bullet up there sleeve the 2050 deadline is impossible. Just take rats for an example all around the world they have been tapped , poisoned , hunted and still there is just as many about, imagine the nightmare of trapping/ poisoning cities like Auckland then going through and having three clear monitors using trained dogs .
The whole Pest Free Government pledge for 2050 is nothing but a vote grab, idiot greenies will think what a marvellous idea and vote them in only to find it is a pipe dream.

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## kukuwai

Definitely remember you scotsman.
Glad you had a good time in NZ and would love to see some photos 

Post them up 

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## scotsman

Just need to locate my hard drive then I’ll post some up! Tried finding it last night but to no avail. 

Have found a few from Facebook while I keep yous waiting!

Walking my trap line, I believe it was on the way to when i was in the pines…one of my furthest hikes but it was defo worth it

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## scotsman

Some of the insoles I made 



Brought a girl down to my wee workshop to help me with ideas of what else I could be making from the skins as I was clueless lol




Got right into pig hunting from the first time I ever went. Couple pigs from the land I started my trapping journey on, knew it like the back of my hand so always got invited out when hunters came to go pigging

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## scotsman

Struggled to get them to post on here so i've put them on imgur... will add more to it later 

link below  :Have A Nice Day: 

these traps were the beginning of my journey it all started with these
various pics 
https://imgur.com/a/GA46QQ0

a vid of when i tanned 100 skins 

https://imgur.com/a/EcafIWD

Scotty

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## 55six

As a kid I used to snare them. Put a branch against a tree. Aniseed oil and flour and a steel wire snare.

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