I use wood, only for the bigger traps, and then, only where a running pole will not work well.
I found that too many wooden boxes were getting damaged over the summer, and for me, picking them up in the spring and reinstalling them the following fall was too much.
So I came up with a wood base and cardboard box system.
The bases wind up permanently attached to the tree and the box, being one piece of cardboard, is replaced when damaged and replaced each fall.
I'll describe what I'm doing and if there is enough interest in my design, I'll make drawings and post them.
So first I take a 16 or 18 inch section of 1x6. I cut a 3/4 grove, 1/2 deep and 4 inches long up the middle of one end.
Then I drive two 2" shingle nails 3 inches up from that end and 2 inches either side of my grove. The nails hold the trap until it is sprung. I drive them into the base only about 3/4 of an inch so that the heads are 1 1/2 inch above the base.
Now I take a large cardboard box and cut each side free. From these sections of cardboard I mark out my box, or use a pattern I have designed for marking the cuts.
The pattern is as follows. One side, 5"x5" front, 5" x 5" x 7" - I want the front to be 5" across the bottom, 5" against the first side and 7" against the second side, to give a sloped top edge. So the final side was to be 5 x 7".
Directly off the top of the second side I mark out the top which is 6" x 6"
Note: measurements must correspond to the wood base, but need not match the trap. Any body trap close to 5 1/2 inches will work for this box, and in fact even a 220 size trap will work, although it will destroy the cardboard portion when triggered.
Now. all three side and the top are connected, that is to say, the corresponding sides touch and will not be cut out.
Now all I have to do is cut along the perimeter lines and I have my box.
To picture what it should look like, picture three equal squares side by side and one slightly larger square above one of these squares, forming an L shape. That would be a cube box, along the same idea as my box, only mine has a sloped top.
At this point I am ready to set out my boxes. I nail my base to a tree with the grove toward the bottom. Then I staple the box to the base such that the base forms the fourth side of my box. The bottom is left open. The bottom edge of the sides needs to be about an inch above the shingle nails that will hold the trap.
Now I wire the bait, a piece of beaver meat, to the lid and fold the lid down over the sides. I carry a nail to punch holes in the top for my bait wire.
Oh I almost forgot. I place my base near enough to a large branch for my trap chain to be wired to this branch, well out from the tree.
So at this point all I need do is set the trap and hang it on the nails, with the trigger dog, in the grove cut in the base.
The trap is now oriented as though it were laying on it's side on the floor.
The way the set works is, Marten comes to bottom of tree, drawn by the scent of the bait. It can look up and see the bait in the box, so it climbs straight up and sticks it's head into the bottom of the box to get the bait and Wham! You have him. As the trap triggers the jaws swing out and away from the shingle nails allowing the trap and Marten to drop free.
Since the chain is wired to the branch, it will cause the trap and Marten to swing out away from the tree so your catch is hanging in open air, not touching anything. The protects the fur from pine pitch, dirt ect. and makes it difficult for shrews and mice to reach it.
The set also is almost weather proof, never gets snowed under, birds can't steel the bait and it quick to set up and inexpensive. Plus one can carry several hundred boxes and bases in a toboggan. Many times more then wooden boxes.
For mink and Fisher I use all wooden boxes of traditional design or with Fisher, more often I use 2 x 220 size traps on a running pole.
It was on one of these running poles that I caught the only Wolverine I ever caught. Wolverine are very rare on my line.
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