Following his highly popular book “Secrets of Successful Trapping”, Herb Lenon wrote several other trapping books to cover various details and additional species of interest to trappers. In 1946, he wrote “Raccoon, Oppossum, Skunk and Weasel Trapping”. As you might expect, there’s much less detail to cover on these ‘lesser species’, as Lenon termed them. They are much easier to trap, generally have some of the lowest value, and aren’t pursued nearly as much as other critters. But in the 1940’s, with high fur prices and lots of inexperienced trappers out there, a demand for information on trapping these species was there.
The book is only 16 pages long, but Lenon covered enough basic information to get trappers going, including the species’ habits, set examples, fur handling and lure formulas. Most of the information in the book is pretty basic, but would be quite valuable for someone without much prior experience. There were also some interesting details specific to the era, including the fact that raccoons were open-skinned and stretched square back then. I was also interested to read that Lenon fashioned his own fleshing tool made of wood.
At the end of the book, Lenon shares a lure recipe for each species, which is quite valuable on its own. Just as learning to trap the minor species rounds out a trapper’s repertoire, this book helped round out Lenon’s teachings to fellow trappers.
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