Chapter 43: The Steel Wire Rope Trap (Please keep reading and subscribing)

Arriving at Feng Chengmin's house, they greeted his aunt and uncle.

His cousins were still sleeping, so Wang An did not enter the inner rooms.

Feng Chengmin tossed the six large snares onto the sled, and the two of them wasted no time.

Driving the sled, they headed directly into the mountains.

They first went to where the snares had been set yesterday. This method of trapping was truly impressive; after a round of checking, they had harvested another seven jumping cats.

While they were at it, they reset the five snares that had caught jumping cats the previous day.

Once a wire snare catches a jumping cat, it must be processed before being reused; otherwise, it will never catch another one.

This is because after a wire snare catches a jumping cat, the animal struggles violently. The more it struggles, the tighter the snare constricts.

Eventually, the wire bites deep into the cat's neck, breaking the skin and leaving traces of skin oils and blood on the wire.

Though it might not look obvious, to the sense of smell of a living jumping cat, this is a massive danger to its kin.

The processing is very simple: throw it into the stove pit to burn it, then toss it onto soft soil and rub it with your feet to clean it off, and the job is done.

Consequently, after being used a few times, the wire loses its strength and becomes useless!

After checking the snares, they went to check the traps, which had only yielded one pheasant.

The three large traps were still there, covered by a few blades of grass and some large leaves, undisturbed!

Feng Chengmin drove the sled straight toward a mountain range thick with shrubs, where plants like hibiscus and boxwood were abundant.

This was the primary food source for roe deer in winter; the deer would come here to nibble on the tender buds of the shrubs.

Feng Chengmin hitched his lead horse and had Wang An carry the six large snares.

The "large snares" were steel cable snares. The principle was the same as the wire ones, but the material was steel cable about the thickness of a little finger.

These were also blackened, but Feng Chengmin explained that it wasn't just to prevent reflection; they also had to burn off the grease inside the steel cable.

Therefore, they had to burn them for a while, rub them in the dirt, then burn and rub them again—four or five times was enough!

The large snares were used for trapping wild boars, roe deer, sika deer, and black bears.

The success rate for wild boars and roe deer was slightly higher, but it still wasn't great. If a hunter could catch one or two with a single snare in a month, they were considered a master among masters!

The tracks of sika deer were unpredictable; they grazed wherever the grass was.

They weren't like roe deer or wild boars, which generally stayed within one mountain range unless extremely startled.

The agility and strength of sika deer also exceeded that of roe deer.

Unless one was incredibly lucky and knew exactly where a deer might pass through, one might only catch a half or a whole deer every once in a while.

As for trapping black bears, there was no way to say; mostly, no one had ever heard of anyone successfully trapping one.

Those few who supposedly did said that the stakes holding the steel cables were broken by the bears, and the bears ran off with the cables attached.

Whether that was true or not, no one really cared; they just knew such stories existed!

Even if one did catch a bear, it would likely be in vain without a gun. The agility, strength, and bite force of a black bear were unimaginable!

Walking deep into the shrubbery, Feng Chengmin looked for a few clusters of shrubs that weren't too dense, arranged like an irregular roundabout!

This area was covered in a dense carpet of roe deer hoofprints!

There were both old and new prints; this was a foraging spot where the roe deer felt safe!

Furthermore, setting these snares wasn't like setting wire snares, where you move to a new spot after every trap.

Instead, they were set at the entrances leading into the thick shrubbery.

He set four large snares directly.

Setting these snares took a significant amount of time. Because steel cable has elasticity, one had to tie three thin hemp ropes to three different points, securing the hemp ropes to thick shrubs.

The hemp ropes couldn't be too strong; they had to be the kind that could withstand the recoil of the steel cable but would snap with just a little force! Otherwise, the snare wouldn't tighten properly, or if it snapped too late, the roe deer would have already escaped!

The entire snare loop was about 55 centimeters in diameter and hung about 45 centimeters off the ground.

If there were no overhanging branches above the loop, a few shrub branches had to be propped up. It was best if the branches didn't touch the steel cable to avoid interfering with the tightening mechanism and to keep the cable from being too visible.

Wang An didn't even want to learn this technique; it was too meticulous and far too much trouble!

Moreover, steel cable in this era was not easy to come by; it was a highly sought-after commodity!

According to Feng Chengmin, he had to use connections at the forestry farm to buy it. Six sections of 2.5-meter steel cable cost 25 yuan, plus two extra packs of cigarettes worth 50 cents each—all thanks to his "face" (connections)!

Wang An was shocked; that was way too damn expensive!

Sensing Wang An's lack of interest and realizing that setting these large snares for roe deer was a massive waste of time, Feng Chengmin had Wang An carry the remaining two large snares. They walked to an oak forest and set them under trees that hadn't been rooted up by wild boars.

Setting snares is a matter of technique, but whether they catch anything is mostly a matter of luck!!

The two of them drove the sled deeper into the mountains.

Wang An didn't know where Feng Chengmin was going, as they passed many wild boar and roe deer tracks.

But Feng Chengmin didn't stop the horse; he just kept heading deeper into the mountains.

An hour later, Wang An discovered several more wild boar tracks, but Feng Chengmin acted as if he hadn't seen them.

Unable to help himself, he asked, "Uncle, where are we going? We've passed so many wild boar tracks already."

Feng Chengmin gave Wang An a deep look and said seriously, "Today, I'm taking you to 'dig out a den' (tao cangzi)!"

"Dig out a den?" Wang An asked in surprise.

Feng Chengmin nodded but said nothing.

Wang An knew what "digging out a den" meant—it meant raiding a black bear's den or a brown bear's den!

In Northeast China, black bears hibernate, with very few exceptions.

Brown bears were different; some hibernated and some did not, though the exact reason was unknown.

Bears that hibernate are called "sitting in the den" (dun cangzi), while those that do not are called "wandering" (zou tuozi).

Most "den raiding" involved black bear dens, with brown bears being a minority.

After the first snow of winter, black bears (black bears) and brown bears (brown bears) would crawl into pre-selected tree hollows, caves, or rock crevices.

Those in tree hollows are called "sky dens," while those in caves or rock crevices are called "earth dens."

Raiding a den involved finding the hibernation den of a black bear or brown bear, and the hunter would prepare at the entrance.

They would find a way to wake the sleeping animals; this was called "calling the den" or "shouting the den."

Once the animals were startled awake and crawled out, they would be killed!

No matter what method was used!

Then, one could obtain highly valuable bear gallbladders and relatively low-value bear skins.

Bear skins are large, but they aren't actually worth much—not even as much as fox pelts.

Wang An remembered the supply and marketing cooperative bought them for about 25 or 35 yuan; he couldn't quite remember, but they weren't expensive.

However, Wang An was very puzzled. Why was his uncle taking him?

His uncle had three brothers!

*Forget it, I'm here to learn. If he shares, I'll take it; if he doesn't, I'll just hunt my own bears later!*

As if sensing Wang An's confusion, Feng Chengmin did not hide it.

He said someone from the same village had told him the location of a black bear den, and in exchange, he had to give that person twenty percent of the bear.

Twenty percent didn't mean two shares; it meant twenty percent of the money after the sale!