Lightweight and built to last 160 Conibear Coon Box

"I used 7-by-1 pine or hemlock boards for the sides and 3/8-inch treated plywood for the top, bottom, and back because they are light and strong."

- Robert Sellers

Others may not trap for the money, but I have always been straightforward about it. In my younger days, fur sales helped make life a little easier. Though I was doing what I most enjoyed in fall and winter, I was also counting on the sale of that fur.

This year will be my 63rd consecutive trapping season. With today's low fur prices and high gas prices, I'm not counting on the fur check and will not be running a longline. Over those six decades, however, I've seen enough swings in the fur market to know that prices may one day come back up. Younger trappers who stay in the game stand a good chance of seeing it happen. Even if they just put out a short line this season, they will gain experience and enjoy the outdoors. The next time prices go up, they'll have the skills to take advantage.

For many years, I was a fox trapper in keeping with family tradition. When fur prices took off in the mid-1970s, I quickly realized that I was not putting in nearly enough time trapping what were now high-dollar coon. I started setting for coon along with my fox lines. Mostly I used No. 1-1/2 double-jaw traps, usually with a grapple on land and rigged to drown the catch in water.

When Victor came out with a 6-inch Conibear, I believe it was in 1996, Pennsylvania required that a bodygrip on land had to have a jaw opening of 6-1/2 inches or less. The 160 Conibear fit the bill, and I bought a dozen at Stanley Hawbaker's supply house. I had read an article about setting 120 Conibears in wooden boxes for marten and thought I would try to adapt that for coon.

I went to the local sawmill on Means Hollow Road in Franklin County for rough-cut lumber. Lifelong friends still run the place. Most sawmills have switched to giant band saws, but this mill still uses an old-time circular saw to cut lumber. Little did I know that I would be returning again and again for more lumber for coon boxes.