By Jerry Long, August 10, 2010 

For a change of pace I attend the National Trapper’s Association Convention in Marshfield, WI and get to spend some time with my father and an old family friend.

Not quite a year ago dad called and said he and long time family friend Harvey King, Harvey King Custom Knives, would be attending the 2010 National Trapper’s Association Convention in Marshfield, WI.  Since dad and Harvey live in Kansas and I live in Wisconsin this would be a great opportunity for us to get together.  Outdoors buddy Seth and I traveled to the Two Brothers’ Cabin on Friday night, partaking of the hot tub, checked out Camp Pug food plots on Saturday morning and then ventured up to the Marshfield fair grounds.  There we met dad and Harvey.

Dad with the shiny head like mine, Seth and Harvey in front of Harvey’s knife table.

Seth is much more of a trapper these days than I, but I grew up trapping and worked in a fur-buyer’s skinning shed for a few years in my teens.  I do love trapping, but it is just one more thing that competes with my available time for bowhunting.  I’m hoping that once I get caught up on my available vacation I can take a combined deer hunting and trapping vacation each fall.

Anyway, as one would expect, there were traps, some big enough to catch me, and accessories every where.  The wafting essence of skunk cover scent was ever present in the air and two days later seems to revisit my nostrils.  While trapping basics remain the same there have been some really neat innovations.

These traps are large enough to catch me.  Note the bow in the background.

One of the greatest new things in my mind is a hydraulic or winch powered skinning hoist that would easily reduce a fur-skinner’s labor by fifty percent in my estimation.  There are clamps at the bottom or at waist height that allow the “opened” flaps of skin from the hind-quarters to be clamped and then hydraulic or winch power is used to pull the hide off with very little need of knife work and no need of “hunching” like I used to do so much of.  Hmmm, deer application?  Also, I am quite impressed with the dog and cat proof “coon cuff” type traps that are species selective by design and seem quite humane.

There were a lot of great everyday people vendors.  Being a sucker for beautiful wood products I was immediately drawn to Kip Feroce of Ferocious Calls out of Lower Burrell, PA.  He had beautiful box calls from quartersawn sycamore, purpleheart, Osage orange, walnut and many more.  The boxes were beautiful, sounded great and were reasonably priced.  I highly recommend them.     

Kip Feroce of Ferocious Calls holds up a beautiful quartersawn sycamore box call.

We also ran into Steve and Tess Greene of Dunn’s Custom Knives.  Originally based in Kansas, now in Florida, I can remember barely being tall enough to look at the founder’s, Melvin Dunn, knives on his display tables.  I’ve always dreamed of owning a Dunn knife, but my custom knives have one thing in common.  Unfortunately, years ago, I lost a beautiful Harvey King Custom Osage orange scaled knife given to me by my father so now they all have orange scales.  When I asked about different scales Steve explained he was just too busy and too old to make custom orders.  Guess I’ll stick with my Harvey King Custom Knives. 

Tess and Steve Greene at their booth.

A Harvey King custom hunting knife of my design and a filet knife of Harvey’s design.  Note that both have handles easily spotted in the woods and grass. 

I was particularly impressed with the offerings at Northern Shire.  Since Mrs. dustyvarmint is a basket maker I have an appreciation for what goes into a fine basket and what they are worth.  I felt Northern Shire’s baskets were outstanding and of extremely reasonable price (maybe too reasonable).  I also have a life-long interest in blacksmithing – yet another hobby that I don’t have time for.   Northern Shire offers iron products for the hearth, campfire and other hardware. 

A sampling of Northern Shire’s baskets with some ironware visible in the background.

Seth and I had great time at the NTA convention.  We both declared it the best outdoors event we’d attended together.  The people were nice, the products were down-to-earth and reasonably priced.  The convention comes to Columbia, MO in 2011 so if you are in the area you might want to consider it.

happy trapping, dv

If you liked this blog you may like the following:  

Feedback, Questions & Comments 

I’d like to hear your tips, feedback, comments or questions.  Please leave them below.   

Subscribe  

Like this blog? Want to be notified of updates? Subscribe via RSS feed by clicking here.

Related Posts