Okay, I get that a lot of people won't find this very exciting, but please understand I am new to trapping Set my first Conibear 220 bucket set with some nasty wet dog food a few days ago and today, I got my first visitor.



POSSUM!!


Apparently possums aren't the brightest little creatures and pretty easy to trap, but I sure like him. I learned that possums have lots of fleas and ticks, and will apparently fight with porcupines (don't know how else he would have picked up porcupine quills in his tail) Their tails and feet will also rip off when you pull their skins, so I will make more ginger cuts next time



I have a southern cookbook from the 70's that has a possum recipe. After skinning one, I can say that I will NOT be trying it. Is it just me or do they seem to have a lot of glands going on? Anyhow, skin is in the freezer and I may go ahead and DIY euro his head. They've got some pretty cool teeth! Thank y'all for looking.

Awesome trap!

I ran traps all deer season and came up empty. Every thing from coyote snares to foot hold bear traps. Something got away with one of my foot hold traps, so at least I caught something, although I haven't a clue what it was. It did pull out a 1 foot stake so I'm guessing a hog. Congrats on your trap!

One good thing about conibear traps, never had a live critter to deal with that got in one of those traps. Congrats on the catch.

Opossums are survival food IMO, you could eat one to survive but that would be about the only way I would eat it again

They do make a good Euro, viscous looking, congrats

Thanks y'all. He had some sort of scabbing on his face near his mouth (looked like a bite wound) does anyone know what happens to that when tanning? I'm assuming they'll just turn into hairless patches Rough little critters!



Bigpig, I would agree to pull a stake that big it would have to be a hog. Sorry you didn't catch more, this is only my 2nd trapping success (first was a snared coon) Snares are very often pulled out of the fenceline but I haven't learned the appropriate height/tenseness to sit it at... so they very often get away. Still working on that.

Kmon, I was pretty sure he wasn't just playing possum! Haha

Congrats, very cool

Congrats! You'll learn alot by trial and error.
Hope to start running my traps in a few weeks.

Gbuck, you're pretty hardcore. I like that.

Good job!!!

I trapped for a few years as a kid under my grandfather's direction. Late 1960s to early 70s. He had made a living trapping at one time. One of my buyers who would drop by bought the possums to eat them. He would have me keep one in a trash barrel for several days feeding it table scraps before he picked it up. He brought me some possum stew to try once. Best I remember it was not half bad. I was told it was important to boil the meat first and poor off the fat that will float to the top. Very greasy meat. I got $1.50 to $3.00 for live possums back then. That added up to a lot of money for a 6 to 12 year old kid trapping year round with catches most weeks. BTW, I took out two possums from inside my storage shed with 160 conibears just last week after I found evidence they had got in somehow and set up camp.
Congratulations on the catch. If you don't have a conibear set tool, I would pick one up. Doing it by hand or with a rope will get old fast. And the first time you catch a skunk, you will really wish you had it.

Possum's life span isn't very long in the wild and they are dumb as rocks it seems. Easy to catch in a live trap, but will tear their face off trying to get out.

Well done. Congrats on your first catch.

don't think I could eat one & keep it down

Nicely done. And I like that bucket set. By the way, no offense intended here, but are you a young lady? If so, this is WAY MORE impressive. I could just picture the sights and sounds of me tossing my wife a possum and saying, "Here, cook this up and fry me some taters." It wouldn't be pleasant. Heck, she's scared of mice, lol.

Thanks everyone! Sniper John, thanks for sharing the memories I can't imagine anyone wanting to eat possums but hey, I never did *actually* try it... Too funny he wanted you to feed em table scraps for awhile! I do have a set tool, luckily. I don't think I could have even opened that 220 by hand, nor would I want to get my hands that close to it!

D.G., no offense taken, you are correct. I bet if you asked her "PLEASE cook this up and fry me some taters" it would be more pleasant I'm just teasing you. But really, the possum was pretty cute up close, and soft. Maybe she just needs you to catch her one for proper inspection!

Haha, she don't even like dogs and cats!

When I was in my teens a buddy and I came upon a big ol dead cow....bloated like a basketball....we lit it up with our .22's to see if we could deflate it some....when we started shooting a couple of opossums ran outta the cows azz headed for the creek....we were so shocked and grossed out we couldn't even shoot at 'em...

I will never eat a opossum!

Wonder how that would work on a squirrel