Episode 53: Interview with Alan Probst of North American Trapper
Takeaways:
- Alan Probst emphasizes the importance of quality video and sound in outdoor educational content.
- Patience is crucial for successful trapping, especially when working with coyotes and other canines.
- Bedding traps properly is essential to ensure they function correctly and catch target animals.
- North American Trapper aims to educate the public about responsible and effective trapping methods.
- Alan's philosophy includes being open with his trapping knowledge, contrasting with many secretive trappers.
- Engaging kids in trapping through easy-to-use tools can inspire the next generation of trappers.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- North American Trapper
- Duke
- Sportsman Channel
- NRA
Transcript
Foreign.
John McDaniel:Hello and welcome to the WWIA Podcast.
John McDaniel:We're honored to have you join us in our mission to bring honor, connection and healing to America's combat wounded Purple Heart heroes.
John McDaniel:If this is your first time listening to this podcast, we welcome you if you're a returning listener.
John McDaniel:Thanks for coming back.
John McDaniel:Please be sure to tell others about our podcast and leave us a review if you're enjoying what you're hearing on our latest episode, WWIA founder and CEO John McDaniel is honored to welcome a highly accomplished and well recognized outdoorsman to the program, Mr.
John McDaniel:Alan Probst.
John McDaniel: r, a brand that he started in: John McDaniel:Growing up in a family of hunters, trappers and outdoorsmen, the zest for the outdoors and nature was instilled at a very young age and still still burn strong today.
John McDaniel:After a 10 year professional baseball career, Allen moved back to Pennsylvania to start the brand with a concept that more teaching and instruction regarding the art of trapping was needed.
John McDaniel:The goal of North American Trapper has always been to show the very best responsible environmental and ecological trapping methods, educating landowners, farmers, ranchers and hunters alike to the viability of trapping and predation control to their own specific.
John McDaniel:That's still their mission today as North American Trapper has become the recognized leader in the industry for quality trapping content, Alan and the North American Trapper brand have produced over 40 instructional DVDs on trapping and outdoors related topics.
John McDaniel:Alan's a sought after speaker, mentor and has also done extensive work at the local, regional and national television broadcast level, having produced over 500 air television episodes that include Walker's Game Year, SOS Wild Pennsylvania Wild Sportsman and FT's Freedom Outdoors, including his own North American Trapper series airing on the Sportsman Channel.
John McDaniel:You can learn more about Alan as well as find a plethora of resources and products to assist you at his website, northamericantrapper.com we're excited to share Alan's wealth of knowledge and experiences with you.
John McDaniel:So without further delay, let's listen in on the conversation with John and Alan now.
Speaker C:Hi, I'm John McDaniel, founder and CEO of the Wounded warriors in Action foundation, and this is our podcast Honor, Connect and Heal.
Speaker C:And so today I've got with us a very special person.
Speaker C:Alan Probst is on the program and Alan is a former Major League Baseball player and he's also the proprietor, the chief Cook and bottle washer, if you will, of North American trapper dot com.
Speaker C:And he, he is a trapper and expert.
Speaker C:Trapper's got a YouTube channel, a website.
Speaker C:He is in the business of trapping and.
Speaker C:Welcome to the program.
Alan Probst:Alan, I appreciate you having me on.
Alan Probst:I like your little analogy.
Alan Probst:Dishwasher and all of that.
Alan Probst:That's pretty funny.
Speaker C:Me too, man.
Speaker C:Hey, it's true.
Speaker C:I'm the chief cook and bottle washer of the foundation.
Speaker C:You know, we do it.
Speaker C:That's what entrepreneurs do, right?
Speaker C:I mean, you step in where you.
Alan Probst:Have to re 65, 24, 7.
Speaker C:You got it, man.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:You know, and I'm looking at you and you're looking at me and behind you and are all these great pictures.
Speaker C:I can't see.
Speaker C:You know, I can't see them all, but I did a little reading on you, your, your bio and everything.
Speaker C:I mean, so here's what I'd like to do.
Speaker C:Okay?
Speaker C:We're going to get deep into trapping because that's why.
Speaker C:And I'm really excited about it.
Speaker C:As a trapper, I've, I've been on your YouTube channel and I was amazed.
Speaker C:And in our, you know, pre chat, I said, I mentioned how free freely you are, how free you are with your information about trapping, and your videos are excellent and your, your, your trapping equipment is excellent, your website's excellent.
Speaker C:And I just wanted to say, you know, I thought.
Speaker C:I think that's kind of odd.
Speaker C:You know, as a trapper, most trappers hold their secrets and their tradecraft very close to their vest, where you're out there kind of doing something different, like you're showing what you're actually doing, and it's high quality video and it's high quality education.
Speaker C:I wanted to say thanks and get your thoughts on that.
Alan Probst:I appreciate that.
Alan Probst:You know, when I started this brand, you mentioned the baseball.
Alan Probst:I got done with baseball.
Alan Probst: My last year was: Alan Probst:My body completely broke down.
Alan Probst:I.
Alan Probst:My.
Alan Probst:I was a catcher.
Alan Probst:My arm, my legs, my back, every.
Alan Probst:And I stayed in Orlando, Florida, where I, you know, lived in the off season.
Alan Probst:And I started doing, you know, entrepreneurial stuff.
Alan Probst:I had an ebay business and all that.
Alan Probst: arch of or, I'm sorry, May of: Alan Probst:And I just, I made the decision that day.
Alan Probst:I called my dad that night and I said, hey, I'm coming back to Pennsylvania.
Alan Probst:And he's like, well, what are you gonna do?
Alan Probst:I said, I'm gonna do outdoor videos.
Alan Probst:And he Goes well, how the hell are you gonna make money doing outdoor videos?
Alan Probst:I said, I don't know, I'm gonna figure.
Alan Probst:It gotten me to where I'm at now.
Alan Probst: But even back then in: Alan Probst:But the two things that I wanted to have in place that they could not ever get on me about was sound quality and picture quality.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's excellent.
Alan Probst:And you know, I felt that the, the videos that were on the market at the time, and there were very few because it was when I started we were putting out VHS tapes.
Alan Probst:We weren't even putting out DVDs, VHS.
Alan Probst:But picture quality and sound quality, my main focus.
Alan Probst:If they disagreed with the information, that's fine, but they weren't going to get on me about the production quality.
Alan Probst: han what my philosophy was in: Alan Probst:It's just that we're a little more, you know, well known and we're more advanced and we know exactly, exactly what we want to do to try and, you know, inspire people.
Alan Probst:That's the correct word, inspire people to.
Alan Probst:And try trapping in the tradition.
Alan Probst:I've always been free with my knowledge.
Alan Probst:Not that I know everything.
Alan Probst:I know more now than I did back then, but even back then I was free.
Alan Probst:This is how I catch them.
Alan Probst:This is what I use.
Alan Probst:This is how I do it.
Alan Probst:And you can even go back my whole approach, even to this day.
Alan Probst:I was out filming this morning.
Alan Probst:I caught a red fox this morning, filmed that, you know, caught some coons over the last couple days.
Alan Probst:Some possums got a gray fox yesterday.
Alan Probst:I actually let the gray fox go.
Alan Probst:I don't kill gray fox.
Alan Probst:They're like my spirit animal.
Alan Probst:I just kind of love their disposition.
Alan Probst:Anytime I catch them, they get a free pass.
Alan Probst:But with that, there's not a lot other than me, you know, 20 pounds heavier and 20 years older than the information I'm giving back then to now.
Alan Probst:There might be some nuances within the information, but at the end of the day, I'm just trying to teach people how to do it, show people how they can watch a half hour clip or a 15 minute clip or whatever, they could actually take the knowledge and see what we did and go out in the field and immediately be successful.
Alan Probst:That's what I'm trying to do.
Alan Probst:To elaborate just.
Alan Probst:This is a long answer, I'm sorry, but elaborate just a little further on that.
Alan Probst:Back in the day, in the fur boom, the 70s, 80s and whatever you Know, you could supplement your income back then.
Alan Probst:Yeah, you know, foxes were selling for $70, beavers $50.
Alan Probst:A good raccoon was 40, $50.
Alan Probst:A mink, a male mink was 40, $50.
Alan Probst:Muskrats were $12.
Alan Probst:You could actually supplement your income.
Alan Probst:I know a lot of people back in the day that bought a new truck with their fur check or, you know, actually put a down payment on a house, paid off a house, paid off a truck, all these different things.
Alan Probst:So, you know, keeping things to your chest a little bit more, you know, you're going to do that when you have an opportunity to, to make some money.
Alan Probst:But with the market the way it is today, we have to teach people that, you know, becoming the steward of your own land, taking some of that surplus out of the equation to allow for some easement off of your ground.
Alan Probst:Nesting birds, whether it's turkeys, goes all hand in hand.
Alan Probst:But at the end of the day, I appreciate you saying that because that's truly what we try and do at North American, Trevor.
Alan Probst:Yes, it's my brand and I'm kind of the face of it, but anybody that comes in and does anything with us, that's the one thing we preach.
Alan Probst:It's got to be a learning experience.
Speaker C:Yeah, I noticed, I was watching a video earlier today and you were, you were setting up.
Speaker C:It was a fisher set.
Speaker C:You had the carcass of a beaver, and, and you were using a body gripper on a tree, on a, on a fell tree.
Speaker C:And, and I, I was, I was immediately struck by the quality of the video.
Speaker C:And whoever your cameraman is, you know, or was for that particular video, I was like, well, this, this, this guy knows what he's doing, you know, so I, and I assume that you, that, that you know, you, I'm guessing, but please tell us, you know, do you, you have guests on there, too?
Speaker C:Guest trappers.
Speaker C:And you, and you're a trapper yourself.
Speaker C:It's your company.
Speaker C:But do you invite guest trappers on and that way you get the interaction between you and another, Another trapper?
Speaker C:Is that what some, some of your programming?
Alan Probst:More often than not.
Alan Probst:You know, my father was my main guest.
Alan Probst:He passed away a little over a year ago.
Alan Probst:So, you know, even to this day, even since he's passed, he's still my main guest.
Alan Probst:I, I've been here where I grew up, I've been out filming where I'm telling stories about 40, 50 years ago, following like, you know, so he's still an integral part of, of this brand.
Alan Probst:The.
Alan Probst:What you're referring to is up.
Alan Probst:And I was just in the Adirondacks.
Alan Probst:You're probably watching one of my most recent.
Speaker C:I did watch that one.
Alan Probst:I was with Eddie Dakin, who was the trapping partner of Johnny Thorpe, who I went and became friends with over a 10 year period and filmed 13 different DVDs for him, instructional DVDs.
Alan Probst:And he's a national Trapper's hall of Fame inductee.
Alan Probst:He's a member of the hall of Fame and he was, you know, a big part of, you know, my 10 years when I first started.
Alan Probst:Now with that, I actually just had the opportunity to purchase his lure line from a guy out of Michigan, which I did.
Alan Probst:So I'm now making Johnny Thorpe's lures because it's synonymous with my brand and the relationship I have with him.
Alan Probst:This year, most of the filming I'm doing myself, that was Eddie holding the camera.
Alan Probst: first started Filming back in: Alan Probst:The Canon XL1s, that's what.
Alan Probst:And now we're doing most of the filming on a GoPro.
Alan Probst:And it's better quality.
Alan Probst:It puts it.
Alan Probst:You just put it in your pocket.
Alan Probst:It's the, the technology has really created an opportunity for us to do things much more efficiently and, and not have to lug all that equipment around.
Alan Probst:A friend of mine, Strickland, we have, you know, stories and he's got stories.
Alan Probst:When he started with Mossy Okin back in the day in the 80s, he was carrying around one of those beta cams, which were the equipment and the battery pack and everything else was like 60 pounds.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Alan Probst:And imagine lugging that up a mountainside.
Alan Probst:But the stuff that we're doing this fall, I'm gonna do most of myself.
Alan Probst:I was with Eddie up there in the Adirondacks, and I do have a collaboration set up in Kansas with a couple YouTube guys, Trapper J out of Missouri and Iowa border, and then another guy out of Illinois, Duke Miller.
Alan Probst:So more often than not, I'm doing things on my own.
Alan Probst:I have had cameramen in the past, but with the advent of being able to actually, you know, we're doing most of them.
Alan Probst:Grab it right here.
Alan Probst:We're doing most of our filming on that.
Speaker C:That's crazy.
Alan Probst:And it's, it's.
Alan Probst:Yeah, I got the screen there and I hold the camera like this.
Speaker C:Describe what that, what that is.
Alan Probst:GoPro Model 10.
Alan Probst:There's a couple newer ones out.
Alan Probst:They might be on Model 12 by now.
Alan Probst:But, yeah, it's.
Alan Probst:It, you know, takes about the size.
Speaker C:Of a cigarette carton.
Alan Probst:Yeah, it's that.
Alan Probst:That's.
Alan Probst:That's what we're doing, and that's the quality of video that we're getting that you see on YouTube.
Alan Probst:The sound, the picture.
Alan Probst:The only thing you have to worry about is if the wind's really blowing, that wind will.
Alan Probst:Because you don't have a microphone where you can put a dead cat on it or something like that.
Alan Probst:But that's what we're doing our filming with now.
Alan Probst:And, you know, like I said, the other cameras, we were holding them like this.
Alan Probst:You know, everything's done that way now.
Alan Probst:So, you know, I think when I got that, I got the whole package with an extra battery and a couple.
Alan Probst:I think it was right around a thousand bucks.
Alan Probst:So it's not.
Alan Probst:It's not crazy.
Alan Probst:The hardest part of it is the editing, because you want to make sure that you're doing things right.
Alan Probst:And, you know, I've been doing it 20 years.
Alan Probst:So if I'm talking and I'm doing a segment where, hey, we're here on this riverbank, and, you know, there's some trails down here in the water.
Alan Probst:And I'm going to put my set here, and I'll film my whole segment, and then I'll remember those key points that I talked about, and I'll go down, I'll film the trail by the water.
Alan Probst:I'll film a side shot of the.
Alan Probst:The river.
Alan Probst:I'll film where there's maybe a pile of scat that I talked about when I'm editing.
Alan Probst:I can just overlay those little clips.
Speaker C:So you're doing the chopping, too.
Speaker C:You're doing.
Speaker C:Dude.
Speaker C:He said, you know, chief, cooking bottle, wash.
Speaker C:I had a laugh.
Alan Probst:Cooking bottle.
Speaker C:Me too, man.
Alan Probst:I'm the dryer.
Alan Probst:I get to put them in the dryer, too.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, you know, when I.
Speaker C:When I.
Speaker C:We've done.
Speaker C:We've done some.
Speaker C:The foundation's done some work with some very professional cameramen and.
Speaker C:And production people and all this over the 18 years.
Speaker C:But the way it started was exactly what you just described.
Speaker C:And I wouldn't want to go on there and look at some of my work from, you know, 18 years ago.
Speaker C:But it was all like that.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker C:It was me researching cameras, me buying cameras, me experimenting.
Speaker C:You know, I'm the guy, you know, you know, with the camera in my head, you know.
Speaker C:And then the thing I found most frustrating to Be honest with you, was the editing, you know, because the software was back then was horrible.
Speaker C:Maybe it's better today.
Speaker C:But that, that was the hardest part.
Speaker C:It wasn't, it wasn't what the message I was trying to communicate, it was the editing of.
Speaker C:Okay, stop right there.
Speaker C:Cut this, start that.
Speaker C:You know, that whole process to me was a little maddening.
Alan Probst:Yeah, I'm using the Adobe Premiere Pro system.
Alan Probst:The system that you might have been using was Avid back in the day.
Alan Probst:Avid was a tough system to learn.
Alan Probst:I first started on Final Cut but Adobe has kind of overtaken the industry.
Speaker C:There as the standard.
Alan Probst: the leader back in the early: Alan Probst:So I'm using the Adobe Premiere Pro and the Adobe system actually works good because if I need to manipulate the sound, I can go take it into audition.
Alan Probst:If I need to manipulate a picture, I can take it into Photoshop.
Alan Probst:If I need to manipulate or create something graphic wise, I can go into Illustrator.
Alan Probst:So Adobe's got all those different programs and I'm self taught.
Alan Probst:I, you know, I went to school, I went to Mansfield University.
Alan Probst: science and the one, this is: Alan Probst:92, I got drafted.
Alan Probst:92.
Alan Probst:So it was either 91 or 92.
Alan Probst:I was taking a comp class, English class.
Alan Probst:And the part of the process with your paper, it had to be typed out but not on a typewriter, had to be done on a computer.
Alan Probst:And I remember paying him 50 bucks was a lot of money back in the early 90s college when you can go down to the bar and get a pitcher of beer and dozen wings for three bucks, right.
Alan Probst:I had to pay, I paid this guy 50 bucks to type this paper out, you know, because I had no, I didn't know how to turn a damn computer on.
Alan Probst: And you know, by the early: Alan Probst:So it's kind of full circle.
Speaker C:Cool.
Speaker C:You know, I, I wanted to ask you on the topic of, of trapping, you know, like what's your.
Speaker C:You're in Pennsylvania, right?
Speaker C:So you got all the critters in the world, minus probably wolves, which we have up at Camp Hack.
Speaker C:And I do want to talk about wolves in a little bit.
Speaker C:But of all the fur bearers that are out there, what's your favorite, what's your favorite species to target?
Speaker C:If there is one.
Alan Probst:I love and I think this is A direct correlation to my father.
Alan Probst:He loved beaver trap.
Alan Probst:And to this day, beaver are not hard to catch.
Alan Probst:No, they're easy if you have open water.
Alan Probst:Yeah, they're coming to the scent mound.
Alan Probst:Yeah, you can find the channels.
Alan Probst:You put a 330 body gripper in there.
Alan Probst:They are.
Alan Probst:They are one of the easiest animals.
Alan Probst:Yeah, I still love catching those beaver.
Alan Probst:I just caught one in the Adirondacks on a damn breast and.
Alan Probst:And I still just love going in there and seeing that.
Alan Probst:I also love when I see a bobcat in my draft.
Alan Probst:Okay, half the time, more than half the time, I have to let them go because I'm either catching them out of season or I'm catching them where I don't have a tag in Illinois or whatever.
Alan Probst:You know, I'm able to keep a bobcat when I catch them in Kansas and Mississippi and places.
Alan Probst:But Pennsylvania here, I got one tag.
Alan Probst:And the season only runs from late December or whatever in the little bit of January.
Alan Probst:So any bobcats I would catch at this point in time, I got to let go.
Alan Probst:But beaver and, you know, taking it even one step down, there's nothing better than going in, seeing a muskrat back sticking out of the water from a 110 in a Muskrat call.
Alan Probst:And it's just, it's fun.
Alan Probst:It's.
Alan Probst:As I've gotten older, I really liked it.
Alan Probst:And it doesn't matter if they're a kid or an adult, the reaction of that person catching their first animal is absolutely priceless.
Alan Probst:I get a lot of emails from people and this definitely gives me fuel and fire to really keep going with what we're doing.
Alan Probst:I get a lot of emails from people that say, hey, man, I got into this because I saw you on TV or I saw you on YouTube and we just caught our first fox and you can see their smile.
Alan Probst:Or, you know, a little kid, 10 years old, his parents send me a picture.
Alan Probst:Then here he caught his first coyote or she caught her first coyote or fox.
Alan Probst:It's really cool to have that.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, I saw, I was watching that video where you got a coyote in a foothold trap and there's a real pretty.
Speaker C:Real pretty coyote to there that.
Speaker C:That one animal is.
Speaker C:Is there to get a coyote, you got to be a pretty good trapper, you know, I mean, that's not the easiest thing.
Speaker C:I want to.
Speaker C:I want to hear your thoughts because I think they're.
Speaker C:They're harder to get in a trap than a wolf is, in my personal opinion.
Speaker C:But I want to hear your Thoughts on, on coyote trapping, specifically, because, you know, the art of the foothold trap.
Speaker C:I'm fascinated by that.
Speaker C:I always have been fascinated by that, the set itself.
Speaker C:Because it seems like every day you're out there, especially in the northwoods of Wisconsin, is a different day.
Speaker C:You know, the environment is changing all the time and, and, you know, I just would love to hear your thoughts, if you don't mind sharing just some of your thoughts on foothold trapping coyotes.
Alan Probst:Boy, there's a lot.
Alan Probst:That's an interesting question because there's a lot of different philosophies on this.
Alan Probst:My philosophy is I, I, I, I really take it down.
Alan Probst:Simplistic idea.
Alan Probst:It's an animal and you're a human.
Alan Probst:Anybody can catch coyote.
Alan Probst:The, the, the people that blow and, you know, just say that this is the best method and you got to do this and you got to do that.
Alan Probst:There are very few things that you have to do.
Alan Probst:The most important thing to catching a coyote is having the set where a coyote is.
Alan Probst:That's number one.
Alan Probst:You can't catch what's not there.
Alan Probst:Secondly, following close behind that is you got to bed your trap properly.
Alan Probst:Now, when I say bed your trap properly.
Alan Probst:And if you watch enough of my videos online, you'll see I am redundant with bed that trap properly.
Alan Probst:So when you bed that trap, if that's the trap, you're packing dirt around the edges to where you can step anywhere around that trap.
Alan Probst:And there's no wiggle, no water.
Alan Probst:It's got to be in there tight.
Alan Probst:So if that animal misses the pan on his first step, there's no wiggle or wobble underneath to where he backs off.
Alan Probst:And then he knows the traps there.
Alan Probst:It's got to be tight.
Alan Probst:And that is 99% of your problems as a predator trapper will be fixed by bedding your trap properly.
Alan Probst:And then the third thing that goes along with that, and there's a few other little nuances, but the third other main component of catching coyotes and catching critters consistently is your patience.
Alan Probst:You have to have patience to know that the bait or lure that you have in the hole is all you need.
Alan Probst:And if you see a coyote step on the set and he didn't work the set, they are wary.
Alan Probst:They didn't get the name Wiley Coyote because they're, they're, you know, just lackluster running around.
Alan Probst:They're wary, they miss something may have been off.
Alan Probst:But if you go there and you put another lure or you do something, he's going to come back that set and now something's different.
Alan Probst:You have to have patience.
Alan Probst:Leave that set alone.
Alan Probst:What he didn't like, if it's the scent was too strong, whatever, when he comes back, it's going to have dissipated a little.
Alan Probst:He's going to feel more comfortable.
Alan Probst:There's no new smells, there's no anything.
Alan Probst:He's going to work that set.
Alan Probst:So you have to show patience.
Alan Probst:Now.
Alan Probst:You can go out the first night and catch Kyle.
Alan Probst:We've done that before.
Alan Probst:But the longer your set sit there, I like to call it marinate.
Alan Probst:The longer your set sit in the ground in a area where you do have a population, the better chance you have.
Alan Probst:If you have a good working set.
Speaker C:Don'T monkey with it.
Speaker C:Don't say don't.
Speaker C:Don't monkey with it.
Alan Probst:Leave it alone.
Alan Probst:If you make your set and you're happy and you know you have that bedded properly and you're using wax sand or wax dirt, if it's in freezing conditions or if you're down south, you don't have to worry about, but you know that that trap's gonna fire when that animal does work to set, set it.
Alan Probst:Leave it alone.
Alan Probst:Don't add any more bait.
Alan Probst:Stay away from it.
Alan Probst:Check it from a little distance.
Alan Probst:You're gonna be very, very successful.
Alan Probst:I just went.
Alan Probst:The first trip I took this year is usually over here where I grew up.
Alan Probst:But I went up to the southern tier in New York, out around Erie, and I went on a track to land, and I showed the landowner how to set.
Alan Probst:And I said, you know, I told him all these things and caught a couple coyotes in the sets, and we put about a dozen sets in, Caught a couple coyotes over the few days I was there, and then I've left and.
Alan Probst:And he keeps sending me pictures.
Alan Probst:Got another one, got another one, got another one.
Alan Probst:Because he's just letting his sets marinate.
Alan Probst:He's staying away from.
Alan Probst:He's letting those animals run their circuit, and when they come back by, nothing's different.
Alan Probst:And they're working the set the second time through or the third time through.
Alan Probst:So if I could impress on the viewer that wants to get into trapping, don't believe everything you hear and read that you got to do this and you got to use this, and you got to put this on, and you got to basically be in a full body suit.
Alan Probst:Those coyotes and they know a human's there, understand you're not going to do anything about that.
Alan Probst:Make your set properly and then stay away from it.
Alan Probst:Yeah, over here today and had a red fox.
Alan Probst:First couple Nights, nothing around him other than opossum remade the set, went back today and had a red fox.
Alan Probst:Well, why didn't, why wasn't he in it the first night?
Alan Probst:I don't know.
Alan Probst:Maybe he didn't come by.
Alan Probst:Maybe he came by and didn't like it.
Alan Probst:But the curiosity got a better of him and he worked the set and he was in there today.
Alan Probst:So patience is a virtue when it comes to trapping in general, but it takes another step up when you're dealing with, you know, your coyotes.
Alan Probst:Patience will, will lend you success.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Alan Probst:And then it comes down to how much ground you have.
Alan Probst:How good of a population of coyotes do you have, and how many sets are you physically going to pound in the ground?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:How long does it take you, just generally speaking, an average day to, to set a, a foothold trap for out.
Speaker C:I mean, time wise, what do you think you're looking at there?
Alan Probst:I can do about.
Alan Probst:If I get 30 to 36 in, in a day, that's a good day for me.
Speaker C:That's a ton.
Alan Probst:Yeah.
Alan Probst:Like normally if I'm in a close area, like if I don't have to drive 20 minutes to the next spot or I don't have to drive an hour to the next spot, I can probably pound in 30 to 36 if I'm in an area where I have to most, most often, I'm going to get about 20 to 24 sets in, in a day.
Speaker C:And what kind of, what kind of.
Speaker C:Okay, I know it depends, but I mean, how much land or how much train are you covering?
Speaker C:You know, how dense are these traps?
Speaker C:Because I've seen guys will be like, you know, I'll put like 10 traps in a, you know, you know, in a 40 acre slot, you know, and that's not, that's not uncommon, right?
Alan Probst:Oh, no, that's not uncommon.
Alan Probst:Well, the more traps you have in the ground, the better chance you have catching them quicker because they're going to have more chance to run by different sets.
Alan Probst:Like if you go into a 40 acre piece of property and you know, they come by this one spot and you only put two traps there.
Alan Probst:Well, hell, they might not come by there for a week, but if you hit all four corners of that and then in the middle.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Alan Probst:Anytime they come to that 40 acres, you're probably going to catch their sense of smell at least once you're set.
Alan Probst:So you have a better chance.
Alan Probst:Yeah.
Alan Probst:Normally here in Pennsylvania or anywhere, whether it's Illinois or whatever, if I'm trapping canines, and I mean canine Specifically coyotes.
Alan Probst:Yeah, yeah, I'm trapping coyotes.
Alan Probst:I'm only going to set within five to seven miles.
Alan Probst:That's usually I'm going to give myself.
Alan Probst:I'm not going to set a farm here and then quarter mile down the road go and set another farm.
Alan Probst:Me personally, I feel you're wasting your time there because those coyotes in that area are going to run all that territory.
Alan Probst:I want to move 5 to 7 miles in between most of my sets.
Alan Probst:You can put as many sets as you want in an area like for raccoons, which you have more populations of.
Alan Probst:And if you have a good food source and you got water and you got cover, you know, some of those game cameras out in Kansas have 20, 30 raccoons on them in there eating the deer feed.
Alan Probst:Well, if you go in there and put two traps, you might as well not even go in and put two drops because you're wasting your time.
Alan Probst:You're going to be going back over and over and over and have one or two coons.
Alan Probst:One or two coons.
Alan Probst:One or 2 coons.
Alan Probst:You know, you go in an area like that, you want to gang up, you want to put eight, you want to put 10, you want to put.
Alan Probst:So you catch the majority of them quick.
Speaker C:Do you like the DPS for, for cones?
Alan Probst:I love the dps.
Alan Probst:Now, they're a tool.
Alan Probst:They are not the end all.
Alan Probst:Like DPs.
Alan Probst:There are, you know, different philosophies, but the DPs have really revolutionized and allowed people to do it quick.
Speaker C:And I was gonna say it's quick.
Alan Probst:Quick and efficient.
Alan Probst:Now a 1/2 double jaw is a really good trap for raccoon too.
Alan Probst:In those situations, you know, where they're walking along a stream bank or where they're coming up a trail across a little ditch or, you know, it's hard to beat a one and a half in a good location too.
Alan Probst:So it's another tool.
Alan Probst:But what the DP allows us to do is teach people how easy it is to set, how easy it is to catch these raccoons.
Alan Probst:And the other thing that it does is it allows us to get more people involved and they don't have to spend a tremendous amount of money and they don't have to, you know, put forth a tremendous amount of effort.
Alan Probst:These are very easy.
Alan Probst:I mean, I can go in an area.
Alan Probst:If I go in an area and I'm going to set say four or five traps on a couple little intersecting trails.
Alan Probst:If I'm going in, I can pound four or five DP Sets in stakes in the ground, trap set in the ground, bait in them and trailing scent there.
Alan Probst:And I'm out of there in less than eight to ten minutes.
Alan Probst:Yeah, just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Alan Probst:Bait them, leave and you go back the next day and you're going to have your raccoons.
Alan Probst:But it also affords the opportunity to get a kid involved them a good, you know, chance for success.
Alan Probst:And that's the one thing that I like to use as an analogy.
Alan Probst:If you're going to take a kid fishing for the first time, you're not taking them out on the ocean trying to catch yellowfin or whatever.
Alan Probst:You're going to get a bobber and you're going to get a worm and you're going to go over and catch some sunnies and some bluegills and the kid's going to have a blast.
Alan Probst:He's going to have fish all over his hands.
Alan Probst:He's going to be seeing the bobber drop down.
Alan Probst:You're going to kid.
Alan Probst:Get a kid excited to be out there and want to fish.
Alan Probst:Same thing with trapping.
Alan Probst:You could take those dps, they have a setter, they can use the ground as a fulcrum.
Alan Probst:They set them easy by themselves.
Alan Probst:And I've seen five, six, seven year olds set them by themselves with a DP setter.
Alan Probst:I mean, you're giving that kid the chance to do it on them, you know, their own and have success the next day because, you know, the raccoons bump their nose on it.
Alan Probst:They ain't walking by without pulling that trigger.
Speaker C:Right.
Alan Probst:And that's the one thing that the DP does.
Alan Probst:It opens up the ability to get more people involved.
Alan Probst:Yeah.
Alan Probst:With not as much work.
Speaker C:Do you put like a golf ball or a rock or something on top of the set there so that the mice and things don't get out of it.
Speaker C:What do you, what do you do?
Alan Probst:You can do that.
Alan Probst:You can put a golf ball on the trap, you can put a Styrofoam cup on it.
Alan Probst:It'll allow you to seen that.
Alan Probst:Yeah, things like that.
Alan Probst:We use our com buster and our magnet.
Alan Probst:That's our DP system.
Speaker C:What's the magnet?
Alan Probst:The deep.
Alan Probst:The, the magnet is a trailing scent.
Alan Probst:It's a very sweet loganberry, blueberry, A bunch of different essential oils in it.
Alan Probst:And, and we put our combuster in.
Alan Probst:And the combuster is a 8, 10 different ingredient that soaked in crawfish oil.
Alan Probst:The cylinder of a DP actually looks like a crawfish burrow in nature.
Alan Probst:It sticks up out of the ground.
Alan Probst:It actually looks like a crawfish barrel.
Alan Probst:So we, my philosophy, my thought process, we're going to make a crawfish bait because that's what it resembles.
Alan Probst:The combustor topped off with that sweet magnet.
Alan Probst:They just do not walk by the sets without work.
Alan Probst:Now, does that mean you have to use our combustor magnet to catch raccoons?
Alan Probst:Absolutely not.
Alan Probst:That's what we make.
Alan Probst:We stand by it.
Alan Probst:We know it's going to work for you.
Alan Probst:If you're going to want to buy a bait that's manufactured now, you can also use cat food.
Alan Probst:You can also use dog food.
Alan Probst:You can use pretty much anything.
Alan Probst:Marshmallows.
Alan Probst:You can use anything to catch raccoons.
Alan Probst:And they will catch raccoons.
Alan Probst:But moving forward, when I'm doing this, I don't want to waste time putting golf balls, Styrofoam cups, things like that.
Alan Probst:If the mice get in there and eat a little bit of my bait, I open my jar and I put a little more bait in.
Alan Probst:That's that just the.
Alan Probst:I look at it as a time issue.
Alan Probst:I'm going to have a lot more chance to get traps in the ground from the time I'm saving from looking for a cup and all the other things.
Speaker C:Yeah, you know, I want to go move backwards a little bit because I meant to ask you about, you know, betting your, your canine sets.
Speaker C:Just something I'm, I'm, you know, always been monkeying with and I've seen experimenting and changing, you know, happy to glad if you will.
Speaker C:But I imagine at your stage of, of.
Speaker C:Of as a mature trapper, an experienced trapper, you've got a, an sop or a standard, you know, if you don't mind, you know, share with us a little bit on just bedding, you know, a foothold trap for canine.
Speaker C:Are you using pegs, you know, to keep it from rocking?
Speaker C:You know, what method are you, are you using?
Speaker C:And do you advocate there?
Speaker C:I mean, that to me is like you said, you mentioned, that's the most important thing.
Speaker C:I agree with you, but could you, would you share some of your ideas on that, please?
Alan Probst:Yeah, I use a spade now, where I basically go and make four little insertion.
Alan Probst:Then I pop that chunk of dirt out.
Alan Probst:I basically am making it just smaller than the size of my trap.
Alan Probst:When it's set that way, it kind of jams in there and I don't have to pack around it and spend so much time packing it.
Alan Probst:So I'm trying to.
Alan Probst:As you get older, as you said you start to learn things, and that's what I've done.
Alan Probst:I think the best dirt to pack a set in is the natural dirt.
Alan Probst:The problem I have here in the north is that we have freezing conditions.
Alan Probst:We have stall, freeze, thaw, freeze.
Alan Probst:And if you're packing in the normal dirt that's got moisture in it, when it freezes at night is going to freeze your trap.
Alan Probst:And so you got to make sure that the trap fires.
Alan Probst:That is determined by the weather here in the north, down south, use the natural dirt, Pack it in, pack around those jaws.
Alan Probst:I really like the 550 Pro series.
Alan Probst:They have those cast jaws, which have a little thicker jaw on the side when they're open and set.
Alan Probst:Packing that dirt in there is real easy.
Alan Probst:So number one, pack in the dirt that you have if you don't have to worry about freezing conditions.
Alan Probst:Number two, I like wax sand.
Alan Probst:I feel my trap buries a little bit tighter in wax sand, followed closely by wax dirt, and then on down the line.
Alan Probst:You could use peat moss, buckwheat hulls, all those different things that are gonna keep your set from freezing firing.
Alan Probst:But once you get below the regular dirt, the wax sand or the wax dirt, I personally don't feel you can bet a trap properly in buckwheat hulls.
Alan Probst:I don't feel you can better trap properly in peat moss.
Alan Probst:You know, once you get down there, it's tough to ensure that you've got your trap bedded properly.
Alan Probst:But the most time spent by me at a set by far is the bedding of the trap.
Alan Probst:I.
Alan Probst:I do the same thing pretty much for the hole.
Alan Probst:I'm not even digging the hole with a trowel anymore.
Alan Probst:I'm taking my driver.
Alan Probst:I'm pounding in, I'm wallowing out a hole.
Alan Probst:I just want to get it down in there as deep as I can get.
Alan Probst:I want to go 812 inches, get the scent down the hole that's going to track them over.
Alan Probst:They're going to work the set.
Alan Probst:But most of my time spent at a set now is the basic bedding of the trap.
Alan Probst:But the dirt has to be, if it's too loose and like Pete moss or buckwheat, you can't get that tight pack that is going to ensure you that when an animal works the set, that if he doesn't immediately hit that pan, that that trap's not going to rock and he's going to be aware of it.
Alan Probst:So that that's how I go about my standard operating procedure.
Speaker C:Not using pegs you don't.
Speaker C:You don't use pegs?
Alan Probst:No, I don't use pegs.
Alan Probst:I bet in around them jaws, pack it in tight and you can use pegs.
Alan Probst:You know, there's been people.
Alan Probst:I've seen people use nails up through the, you know, but yeah, I just, I don't.
Alan Probst:That.
Alan Probst:See, that's one more thing that I don't feel I need.
Alan Probst:And I don't have any problem catching animals doing it the way I do it.
Speaker C:Right.
Alan Probst:Use pan covers.
Alan Probst:You know, I wish I was the guy that invented pan covers, but, you know, my philosophy is you're sifting dirt directly over it.
Alan Probst:There's no way there's dirt getting packed in under the pan.
Alan Probst:And the way I said, I just take the dirt over.
Alan Probst:Yeah, there's some dirt and sand that's going in under it, but not enough to keep the pan from depressing.
Alan Probst:So I don't use pan covers.
Alan Probst:I don't wax my traps.
Alan Probst:I keep my traps clean.
Alan Probst:I boil them in log wood dye.
Alan Probst:But I don't wax.
Alan Probst:I think another added procedure that I don't use, and I don't think it's necessary.
Alan Probst:Now, do I begrudge somebody that uses pan covers?
Alan Probst:Do I begrudge somebody that waxes their traps?
Alan Probst:Do I begrudge somebody that does something different than me?
Alan Probst:Absolutely not.
Alan Probst:Anybody can do anything they want to do.
Alan Probst:And that's what's great about, you know, America in general and, and, and, you know, for getting to what you guys are all about, you know, the freedoms and the people that have protected our freedoms.
Alan Probst:That's what America is about.
Alan Probst:We have our choices.
Alan Probst:And I'm for anybody.
Alan Probst:I don't care how they do it as long as they're out there doing.
Speaker C:Right, you know, and, and I was on your website, you know, just checking out some of your truck, you know, I was like, wow, you get some good kit, man.
Speaker C:What's your foothold?
Speaker C:I mean, I saw, saw some Duke on there.
Speaker C:But do you.
Speaker C:Is that your go to or do you have other.
Speaker C:I know you got to probably be careful.
Speaker C:I don't know your whole product line there.
Speaker C:But you know, what, what, what's your, you know, what's your go to your favorite trap out there for canines?
Alan Probst:It's.
Alan Probst:If I'm in.
Alan Probst:Well, there's.
Alan Probst:It's kind of changed a little bit here recently.
Alan Probst:I've been using the Duke 550 for the last three or four years completely.
Alan Probst:I love it.
Alan Probst:I love their pro series.
Alan Probst:As I said earlier, Castrols, you can Pack them in there and they are in there tight.
Alan Probst:They just added another trap to their arsenal, which is the Duke 450 in the Pro series.
Alan Probst:And I'm using that exclusively now in Pennsylvania because we have fox, coyote and bobcat.
Alan Probst:The 450 is a little smaller version of the 550.
Alan Probst:And then the 550 is a smaller version of.
Alan Probst:They also offer a 650.
Alan Probst:You mentioned wolves.
Alan Probst:They offer an 850 for wolves.
Alan Probst:When I was in Montana, trap rules about four years ago, I put the first Duke 850, the prototype, in the ground for wolves.
Alan Probst:When I was in Montana, I was with Paul Anzac, who's on Mountain man now.
Alan Probst:He's one of the guys that they follow for the TV show Mountain Men.
Alan Probst:I was with him and he caught four.
Alan Probst:When I was there, the wolves just.
Alan Probst:I had eight sets and ground.
Alan Probst:They just did not go by my sets, but he caught four there.
Alan Probst:But they have the 850, then the 650 for the Western guys that like a bigger trap, 650 to me is a.
Alan Probst:It's a great trap.
Alan Probst:I don't use it.
Alan Probst:It's illegal in Pennsylvania because it's got a too big of a jaw spread.
Alan Probst:So I've used the 550 exclusively now here in Pennsylvania, I'm using the 450 this year.
Alan Probst:And as I said, I let that gray fox yesterday go yesterday and his foot damage, there's no damage.
Alan Probst:And that's one of the good things about these traps.
Alan Probst:Now, if you do catch an animal that you don't want or a bobcat that you have to let go or a fox that you want to let go or whatever, they're not maimed up.
Alan Probst:And that's a credit to, to the industry.
Alan Probst:There are a lot of other good traps out there.
Alan Probst:Duke's not the only brand, but Duke has been a big supporter of mine for 20 years, since day one.
Alan Probst:And that's what I use.
Alan Probst:And in, I don't do that because they're a supporter of mine.
Alan Probst:I do that because they're a fantastic trap, right.
Alan Probst:And that in and of itself is what goes in the ground.
Alan Probst:So when I go to Kansas, in Illinois though, I won't put the 450s in there.
Alan Probst:I'll be using the five 50s, which will give me an extra inch of pattern to get them to step their foot in.
Alan Probst:But you bed your trap properly, that 450 or 550 or 650, no matter which one you want to use, is going to work for you.
Alan Probst:In every one of the canine situations or feline with bobcat that you run into.
Speaker C:You know, today, these traps, you say the pro series, I mean, used to have to instill.
Speaker C:I still monkey, you know, you know, a little bit with it from time to time.
Speaker C:You know, the trigger and the travel on the pan and all that.
Speaker C:But are they.
Speaker C:Is the pro series exact?
Speaker C:Like where I know some of the more modern technologies where that, that trigger and that travel on the pan is just absolutely exact.
Alan Probst:They have what's called a night latch that actually, when you pull that pan down, it, click.
Alan Probst:Yes, flat into place.
Alan Probst:It's, it's.
Alan Probst:It's taken all of the guesswork.
Alan Probst:That's how far you can take the pan down.
Alan Probst:Because the 450, the 550, the 650 and the 850 all have that night latch where you just pulling down and then click and you know, it's right little notch and then when that notch is broke, the trap fires.
Alan Probst:Yeah.
Alan Probst:And it's, it's.
Alan Probst:It's really.
Alan Probst:I'm telling you, man, game changer.
Alan Probst:Simplified it.
Alan Probst:You know, I remember years ago using the one and three quarter, the number two or whatever.
Alan Probst:I'm pulling it down, trying to get it level.
Speaker C:Caught my finger in one.
Speaker C:Oh, I catch more than once, man.
Speaker C:It's not.
Alan Probst:I latched into my finger a couple days ago.
Alan Probst:It snapped me with just one finger.
Alan Probst:And I happened to be with a guy.
Alan Probst:It was actually a week or so ago.
Alan Probst:I was out in western New York, and the guy's like, oh, you got your finger.
Alan Probst:Yeah, I know.
Speaker C:I'm sitting here.
Speaker C:I'm sitting here holding my thumb right now because it's.
Speaker C:It's actually.
Speaker C:I don't know, it's the one I caught in the trap.
Speaker C:And I'm just sitting here holding it because I know what it feels like.
Alan Probst:Yeah, yeah.
Alan Probst:It wakes you up.
Speaker C:It wake you up a little bit.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Anyway, I love it.
Speaker C:Listen, I.
Speaker C:It's been a.
Speaker C:It's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker C:Thank you for your.
Speaker C:Your time.
Speaker C:I really enjoyed our chat.
Speaker C:We got a little bit of time left here, but so I'd like to.
Speaker C:And I just wanted to, you know, give you an opportunity to tell us about your website.
Speaker C:Tell us about, you know, how folks, you know, can.
Speaker C:Can get a hold of you and, you know, just the, you know, anything you want to share with us before we close out here.
Speaker C:And I want to thank you again for being such a great guest.
Alan Probst:Well, I appreciate you having me on.
Alan Probst:I think you guys are doing, you know, a Lot better things than I'm doing.
Alan Probst:I'm showing people how to trap.
Alan Probst:You're doing things that are helping, you know, the people that give us the opportunity to do what I do.
Alan Probst:So, you know, more of a credit to you when it comes to, you know, your WWII and, and I commend you on that.
Alan Probst:And taking that as far as the trapping stuff, as said, there's a lot of different methods.
Alan Probst:There's a lot of different ways.
Alan Probst:There's a lot of.
Alan Probst:They say there's a lot of different ways you can skin a cat.
Alan Probst:We offer packages for the beginner.
Alan Probst:We offer the tools that are needed.
Alan Probst:We have a full line of baits and lures.
Alan Probst:And everything that we have is at North American trapper.com Same with our, you know, YouTube book, Instagram.
Alan Probst:If you search North American Trapper, you're going to see that logo right there.
Alan Probst:You just click it and that's going to be us.
Alan Probst:We run a lot of specials.
Alan Probst:You know, we probably run more specials than anybody in the industry because we want people to get involved and we want people to have success and we're always open.
Alan Probst:You know, you talked about the.
Alan Probst:I can't remember your whole analogy, but the dishwasher, I'm going to say, right.
Speaker C:Chief cook and bottle washer.
Alan Probst:I do everything.
Alan Probst:I answer my own emails.
Alan Probst:Now, I may take a day or so to get back to you because I might be out in the field, right?
Alan Probst:But I'm answering my own emails.
Alan Probst:I want people to have success and there's nothing better.
Alan Probst:And I get a lot of these emails and there's nothing better to me than getting an email and people telling me, thank you for helping me out.
Alan Probst:You know, I got my kid out there.
Alan Probst:I remember trapping my grandfather.
Alan Probst:I want to get back into it and what can I do?
Alan Probst:And, you know, I get them set up and I, I help them be successful.
Alan Probst:And that's truly what the, the vision of my brand has been since day one.
Alan Probst:So if somebody wants us, they can reach us@northamerica traver.com we send free catalog out to you if you, if you want a catalog, you know, whatever anybody wants or needs, we'll be more than happy to help out.
Speaker C:That's awesome.
Speaker C:That's awesome.
Speaker C:Well, you know, it is that time of year.
Speaker C:You know, it's the first are getting.
Speaker C:Are getting and thick.
Speaker C:Priming up.
Speaker C:That's right, priming up.
Speaker C:And I wish you the best of continued, you know, luck.
Speaker C:Not that luck has a whole lot to do with it.
Speaker C:You're you're a hard working man.
Speaker C:You didn't get to where you are by being lucky.
Speaker C:But thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us and, and and, you know, appreciate you being on the program.
Speaker C:North AmericanTrapper.com Alan Probst thanks for your time, sir.
Alan Probst:Thank you, buddy.
Alan Probst:You have a great day.
Speaker C:All right, you too.
John McDaniel:Thank you for listening to the WWIA Podcast.
John McDaniel:To learn more about the Wounded warriors in Action foundation and how you can get involved, please visit our website@wwiaf.org or follow us on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitter and LinkedIn.
John McDaniel:If you'd like to comment or offer feedback about our podcast, or if you have a suggestion for a future episode, please email us at.
John McDaniel:Podcast thank you for your support and for helping us honor, connect and heal our combat wounded Purple Heart heroes through the power of the great outdoors.
Alan Probst:It.
