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By Simon Whitehead, Author and professional ferreter
Sunday, 23 August 2009
(Q) I recently purchased a few cage “bolt” traps while attending a country fair. At the time I thought it would be logical to use them while ferreting, but on reflection I feel unsure how or where to use them. Have you ever seen these contraptions?
M. TAYLOR
By email
(A)Don’t you just love game and country fairs with hundreds of folk buying equipment on the spur of the moment and then realising, a few weeks later, that all may not be well?
Yes, I have seen and used these bolt traps for a number of years. They are modelled on an Australian trap. The trap is placed inside an entrance hole in a bury and removes the need for a net. The traps are cumbersome and will never replace the traditional net, but they do have a place in the kitbag. They are handy in hedges into which you cannot easily get with a net, by roadsides and in places where you do not want a ferret wandering about. Once the rabbit has bolted into the trap, it is placed on end and you reach in to extract the rabbit, or rabbits, which can then be humanely despatched.
I use my traps only on rare occasions and usually when I am ferreting by a roadside where I don’t want a vehicle to meet my ferrets. These traps do catch rabbits and also prevent ferrets from wandering away.
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