Badger
 

Tonight I spoke with one of the landowners I know, and he said he's having trouble with a badger on his place. He asked me if I could come out this weekend and try to remove it for him. He also said he knows roughly where its den site is. I don't have any experience with hunting/trapping badgers. I was thinking about setting up cross wind about 100 yards from it's supposed den site and mouse squeaking a little at first light, and if that doesn't work set a few steel traps. Anyone out there have any advice?

Also are badgers worth skinning? Are they worth anything at all?

RE: Badger
 

I'm going out for this badger in two days. Doesn't anyone know anything about fooling badgers?

RE: Badger
 

They are really not that hard to trap,but be careful they can be very aggressive.Just a standard bait hole set will get them.I know around here it is illegal to shoot them.They back into there dens most of the time so remember that when placing your set.

RE: Badger
 

There have been a few badgers taken by guys while calling, BUT it's not aregular effective method of taking them.

RE: Badger
 

I personally would rahter try andshoot him. Yes Badgers are great to skin. But if your going to do that, the best thing to do is probably trap him, or shoot him with a varmint caliber like a .223 ackley, .204 ruger, .220 swift, .17 rem. Your best bet would be to use either the .223 ackley or the .220 swift against a badger. BE VERY CAREFUL. Those things are very, very, very, very aggresive.So when you go to pick him up be sure he aint getting up. If you were going to trap himI would use a bear trap or some type of heavy duty trap. Wouldnt think of live trapping him. lol

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

RE: Badger
 

Thanks for the replies. I wasn't able to call him up this morning, so I put out a few traps. Hole sets, and cubby sets. I baited the cubbies with fresh cottontail. I'm going back around lunch time tomorrow to check on them.

RE: Badger
 

I checked my traps today, and no badger. However he made a mess of one of my sets. The trap was sprung and buried in about 6" of dirt, the cottontail was gone and he wrecked my wooden box I used for the cubby set. I put it all back together, and put fresh bait in all my sets. We'll see what happens tomorrow. The set he wrecked is the closest to his den, so if it is wrecked again with no badger tomorrow I'm going to put my cuddeback camera to see exactly what he is doing.

RE: Badger
 

Seems like the cottontail is working. :D Good luck

RE: Badger
 

Cottontail is defiantly the ticket. He wrecked the same setlast night without getting caught again. I reset it, and put out my trail cam to see what he is doing. Hopefully there will be pics in the next day or so, more to come.

RE: Badger
 

Keep us posted. This does sound interesting. Be surprised what you might find when you check out the pictures.

RE: Badger
 

The badger is smelling your traps !! You need to keep them scent free.If there is a spot to do it (like a small hump or bank) Punch a 2 in hole at about a 45degree angle, about 6 in deep.(I made a hole shovel out of a piece of 2in pipe about 1ft long,cut the end to make a point)add your bait then make a hole plug out of some grass and put it in the hole.Set a #2 double coil spring about 6 in in front of the bait hole.Dig it in about 1in deep or enough to hide your trap,then sift some clean ant hill dirt over the trap.The ant hill dirt will not freeze cause the ants put wax on it as the make there hill.Dont forget a pan cover,I always use some wax paper.

RE: Badger
 

Possibly the badger was getting caught and pulling out of the trap? Dan had a good idea. I would add to anchor the trap very well, eg cement block. I have caught a few as a kid in my gopher traps with little #1 legholds, they held them there till I could whip home and get the .22.

RE: Badger
 

I personally have never had a badger come to a call. BUT I have had them come out of a hole to see what all the noise is about. The biggest badger I ever killed was doing just this.

For trapping I just use the standard dirt hole set with earth anchors or double staked.

RE: Badger
 

I have a couple of hole sets in the same area where the cubby is. For whatever reason he just wrecks the cubby, and seems to care less about odors. The area that he has been frequenting is well traveled daily by the land owner and his family (and they couldn't be less concerned with scent control). I went a bit outside the normal trapping protocol yesterday. I made a wooden box about 18" long X 8" tall X 10" wide with three sides and one floor. I sprayed it down really well with H.S. Scent Away, and flipped it upside down in a 2" deep hole I dug to the shape of the box. I placed 1/2 a cottontail in the back of the box after I drug it all around the site, and made my trap bed about 2" inside the box with a #2 Montgomery coil. Then I took an old steel wheel from a near by scrap pile and placed it on top of the wooden box, so that it can't be easily overturned. I wore a pair of rubber gloves and boots for the entire operation to try to keep human odor down as much as possible. The land owner said this thing has actually been eating their pet food off of the front porch, so I'm hoping that if he is that bold I can be too. Duty called tonight, and I wasn't able to check my trap or contact the land owner. I'll be there as soon as I can tomorrow, and if there is no badger, hopefully I have some good cuddeback pictures I can share.

RE: Badger
 

I think you guys were right. I either went a little too bold, or I caught him and he freed himself. I went back this morning after two full days of the traps being baited, and no badger or pics. I'm going back this weekend to check for fresh activity around his den, and ask the landowner what he has seen. I knew better; lesson learned. If he is still around I'll start a new line of fresh hole sets and see what happens. Possibly more to come.

RE: Badger
 

Sounds to me like its time for some heavy artillery.lol I told you to set some bear traps,lol no youre doing great this thing is just a beast to handle. What you need to do, is try to get those pics and see what time hes coming out or coming back in. If its at night, if possible........ I would try to get a spotlight and do some late night hunting, not poaching, hunting.

RE: Badger
 

I didn't get a chance to make it out this weekend. Between work and my honey do list; I haven't had time for much. I plan on getting everything reset this weekend to include the cuddeback. This saga isn't over yet.



And bear traps don't sound half bad right now!!

RE: Badger
 

I have a few days off of work, so I thought I get after this badger again. I put out four hole sets yesterday with #3 leaf spring traps. Well I caught a skunk and a jack rabbit last night. The skunk sprayed everything!! Normally after I trap a skunk, I pull that set for at least a few weeks. What do you guys think? Should I pull this set, or do you think that the skunk odor won't affect my set? I have always wondered this.

RE: Badger
 

I'd leave the skunk trap set myself. Might be able to snag a wandering coyote looking for a meal!

If you know where the badger den is, get 5 gallons of water, and a half gallon of gas an a match. Pour the water down the hole, followed by the gas, then throw the match. Be prepared, either he will come storming out, or you will smell a badger filet :D

Or.....Get 10ft of barbed wire fence and twist it down the hole, and once you wrap him up in the wire, drag him out an be prepared for a showdown. :D

RE: Badger
 

why don't you just call in a napalm air strike, rammer?

RE: Badger
 

I did know where he was denning, but he has moved to a new site. The land owners keep seeing him in roughly the same areas, but he defiantly has a new den site. I just waxed 8 more traps, so it's pretty much full scale war now. I think the next step would be to locate his new den, then call out the air strike with a few bunker busters. Napalm just wouldn’t have the right amount of penetration for this subterranean weasel.

RE: Badger
 

Rammer,
you don't think the skunk odor would deter a coyote? I was hoping to catch a coyote/fox or two as a consolation prize while concentrating on the badger, but I thought the skunk odor would have hurt more than it helped. I have trapped coyotes and fox in the past, but when I would catch a skunk I pulled my set because I didn’t think it would be effective there anymore. If I’m wrong please let me know. I would much rather reset my trap than pull it, deskunk it, and set it somewhere else.

RE: Badger
 

Now that is a good idea! :D

RE: Badger
 

Leave the skunk set!! Good medicine for a coyote. Should make it more appealing to a coyote. I never pull a skunked set.

As for the badger. Find his den. They are easy to catch with a blind set at the mouth of the den. You should be able to see where he is walking and just bed a trap at the mouth of the den. I would use a #3, 4 coiled trap for the badger. Put your stake directly under the trap!! Badgers will dig furiously when caught. They pull to the end of the chain and dig as deep as they can all the way around the circle. You will be shocked when you see the mess if you catch him.

RE: Badger
 

Thanks mez. I have a few rebar steaks close to 30" or so long that I'll use if I can locate his den, and I guess I'll be resetting the skunk set.

RE: Badger
 

Good luck!

RE: Badger
 

ive shot a bagder i jumped the fence got with in 3 yrds of his den could see him and my 30-06 ended it