Me and my dad are considering taking the NY trapping course. Last night, while trying to fall asleep, I thought of a scenario that some trappers might face. Here it goes:

You have mulitiple traps set up in the woods, all of which you check everyday. One morning, you go out to check your traps and notice you have a doe stuck in one of your traps. The doe has 2 fawns with her, both which will not leave her side. Obviously, you can tell that the doe you accidentaly trapped is the mama doe. You go to release the deer from the trap, and all is calm. Then as the deer start walking away, you notice that the deer is limping and cannot move as fast as it normally could. You have your trusty .22 with you, which most use for trapping anyway. What do you do? If you were to put the doe down, it would be ethical but not legal.

I would not shoot the doe. The trap would not hurt the deer. I have put my hand through enough traps to know that they don't hurt. The limp would have had to be caused by something else.

I dont know that much about your trapping laws but what is the trap for? Can you legally set a spring trap in the open?

The trap is for any small game animal that is legal to trap in your state.... ie, coyote , coon, possom, beaver, etc....

I have never seen a deer in a leg hold trap.They seem to just slide right out of the jaws.{on a legal trap.}

A foothold trap won't hold a deer. Don't worry about it.

Oh well, it was worth asking anyway.... so now I know that a foothold trap can't hold a deer.

Note: Me and my dad are going to take our trapping course real soon. darn yotes just won't come in to calls....

I've seen a deer walk into one of my dad's coon sets. what happens is when the deer hits the pan their foot slides right out when they jump up into the air and kick around. I gotten my hand [:-] caught in lots of traps and I really doesn't hurt at all. and there's nothing for the jaws to grab onto. With a coon they have a pad on the bottom of their foot so it give something for the jaws to hold onto.