Non dirt trap coverings

[trappnman]

How many land trappers use something else besides dirt on a fairly regular basis?

I've tried buckwheat hulls, sawdust, styrofoam beads and grass clippings.

Sawdust works quite well in mink boxes and for possums. Pour out sawdust, wiggle trap in, place box over trap.

I think it would actually work well in places like logging areas for canines- packs nice.

Never tried coal shale- but those that use it swear by it.

Hulls seem to get a lot of digging and sure are messy.
Not happy with the hulls at all. I've read to spike the trap in hulls.

My thought on the beads would be that they would blend with snow- and they do, to a degree. Workable, esp with snow as covering- but they are so featherlight that they get EVERYWHERE in the truck. A lot like using hulls.

Never used waxed dirt- think it would be the ultimate.

Grass clippings or cut up grass- works to a degree but just don't like using them. Wet grass and mud has given me my share off "pullouts". Usually resort to cut up grass in very muddy coon remakes.

Haven't used peat moss since I got competent at trapping yotes- and do want to give it a try- esp when using the bigger traps.

Any other manmade stuff you have had good luck with..... or the opposite- you would never use again?

[briankroberts]

I've used hulls, beads, grass and settled on waxed dirt, in freezing, raining conditions it works well for me, 5 gallons will do 15 sets give or take, takes even less on a remake as most of it ends up in the trap bed.
I love it for this crappy weather we have here in the mud/ice zone.
I get close to zero digging with it, no more than with imported dry dirt....B.....

[bobwendt]

the rage with all the cat trappers now is a shingle twice the size of the pan and no covering at all, the jaws being the guides. And sometimes you can`t keep the coyotes out! I think there is some territory outside the box to be explored still, and wouldn`t it make accepted canine methods obsolete over night! Been a long time since E.J.dailey and bill nelson died. I think it is time to start looking forward instead of always backward.

[3n]

I have tried cedar duff,peat moss,zonlite and coal shale..I'm using pea gravel right now..Got the idea from Bob Maier over on trapperman...If I remember right Bob was going to try waxing his gravel...anyway I can get a hole pick-up load for $6.00 dollars.

[K9Wolfer]

I use peat if I have to..... Use dry dirt where I can

[bobwendt]

fine gravel or sand will freeze hard as a rock with I swear one drop of water, ok , maybe 2 drops. Unless the waxing fixes it.

[3n]

The gravel is 1/4 inch and I'm using R/V anti-freeze with it...the anti-freeze isn't bullet proof waxing it would probably be a big improvement.

[Planes & Poison]

I use coal shale year round with. Every trap I set is bedded on coal shale and then covered with it, I top dress during the summer and fall with dry sifted dirt to give the pattern a natural appearance.

During the winter/spring I do the same, but top-coat with waxed dirt. In my opinion this is the ultimate. There's no need (unless setting in extremely sloppy mud) to bed the trap on and then cover with waxed dirt, so by only top-coating you can make your waxed dirt go farther.

I've experimented with the Nevada-style "shingle-on-the-pan" but personally didn't care for it for a few reasons. Yes, it does work great on cats, but you exclude a number of coyotes. Yes, you'll catch some, but you'll miss more. And I gang set every location so there's always traps open for a cat to get caught after the dumb coyotes get caught on the shingles.

Also, it doesn't take much bad weather to put a shingle cat set out of commission. Whereas a covering of waxed dirt will allow the trap to operate through just about any weather condition thrown at you.

I tried ant hill dirt/gravel whatever you'd like to call it and I didn't like it at all. It did provide a certain level of operation in freezing weather, but when it did get wet it would freeze unless some type of antifreeze is applied. And the real downside is the small gravel stones can get between the jaws as the trap closes and keep them open. Learned that the hard way and won't go back.

[bobwendt]

A lot of it is availability too. Caol shale basically doesn`t exist east of the colorado line unless maybe you could scab some off the pa and ky /va. deep mines or the few stripper pits left. It seems the ultimate in the west where most average precipitation is 8-18" a year is as white mtn cur described. In the east with our 35-60" of mainly rain on heavy yellow and blue clay soil, it`s peat moss, what with ice storms and snow mixed between floods. Go to the south (far south) and it is all rain and no or little freezing- then arts soil/peat mixes. Go to the west coastal areas with 60-120" of rain and its porous gravel. So just depends on where you are. To say one or the other is "best" is a moot piont without qualifying annual precipitation, temperatures and soil types. The shingle deal is biggest with the az/new mexico, southern nevada, south texas boys, where basically they have no "weather" compared to the rest of this swamp they call the u.s. The rub with the internet is we have trappers from 3,000 miles apart telling each other the "best" methods, and often it is dead arse wrong if you move 500, 1,000, or more miles to a whole different region and climate and soils. Ditto on trap types sizes etc. That I think is the root of a lot of peeing matches. Each guy just knows he is right, and both are, but both are wrong if talking other parts of the country. The old "the world ends at my driveway" syndrome. Having had the blessing of trapping all 4 corners and in between I see alot of difference from here to there. The wise man can switch up and learn from the locals real fast, or stay struggling forever with methods suited only to 1,000 miles away.

[trappnman]

Good replies1

Wtmtncur- doesn't the coal shale get between the jaws or is it "crumbly"?

are you importing it or its just there? any trouble with avoidance due to color?

[bobwendt]

tman, it is naturally exposed by seams of coal and the coal precursor ( coal shale) that are eroded on the surface, sometimes cut banks, sometimes giant blow outs the size of a football field. It can be grey to black in color and is like dust or fine dirt with little flat flakes in it. Some sift out the flakes and some not , as they crumble if you look at them. It drains out naturally, absorbs sunlight to create its own heat and thus thawing, (335 day/year avg sun in the west, 165 days/year avg. sun in the east) plus has a natural oily feel and look -from I guess oil in it, so it sheds or repels water too. I could bring back 100,000 railroad cars of it if there was a market.

[Planes & Poison]

T-man, I import all my coal shale. In the states I've trapped all but one exposed seam/blowout I've seen have been in Wyoming. The other one was in Utah. I can count on one hand the number of times there's been naturally occuring coal shale where I want to set. Too often the exposed seam is right where a drift forms, or wrong direction with wind, etc.

I get mine from a local gravel pit that has huge piles of it, all the dark black variety. I collect mine in the summer when it's bone dry and sift it just to get out the big chunks. The dust and small flakes that remain are what I want, and the small flakes just break and don't inhibit the action of the jaws at all.

I've found that coal shale is water resistant but not water proof. During the spring thaw and rains even a set made with coal shale can be put out of commission unless you top coat the set with waxed dirt.

With all the rain and melting snow experienced across much of the west this past October/November coal shale alone would have been about worthless. Waxed dirt which truly is water proof had to be used at each set to top coat. In low lying areas, you had to bed on top of waxed dirt to keep water from seeping in from beneath the trap and freezing it down, preventing it from firing and causing extremely slow action.

I don't have any problems with avoidance due to color because I top-dress it with natural dirt from the set. If I'm making a flat set the first thing I do is scrape the top thin layer of soil at the trap location to the side (does't have any moisture in it so it's not discolored like the rest of the dirt that will be dug out of the trap bed) and leave it there. I then dig the trap bed, pour in coal shale, bed trap, cover with coal shale and then top coat with the dirt I scraped aside.

At dirthole sets I use whatever dirt I dig out of the bed/hole to cover the coal shale to give the set a more contrasting look.

I've used peat moss, buckwheat hulls, ant hill gravel (not much different than pea gravel), and tried different combinations of glycerine and glycol but I've always come back to waxed dirt. For dealing with virtually any weather condition (except extreme wind) I've found it to be the ultimate. Nothing else I've used even compares. I simply incorporate coal shale during the winter/spring because of the expense and time involved in making and storing a large enough volume of waxed dirt to get me through a season. Incorporating coal shale makes the waxed dirt go farther. During the summer/fall I use it because thunderstorms won't put it out of commission like could happen in some soil types (that compact after rains), and you can set in alkali soils without causing severe rusting of your trap (coal shale doesn't rust traps).

Bob, why do you prefer peat to waxed dirt?

[bobwendt]

for about 30 dollars I can buy enough peat in compact bales to make several thousand sets, and it weighs maybe 50 lbs for the whole several thousand sets worth, so basically my whole winters worth for pocket change and no labor. It can actually go under water for a month, 10 feet deep, whatever , and will not absorb moisture. Say the flood goes down, you go wade thru the slop to your set, pop the trap and dust flies up. Most amazing stuff you ever saw. It is so light in weight that we have to top dress with a dusting of dirt to keep it from blowing away, or maybe 1/8 to a 1/4 inch of dirt to hold it from floating up if it totally submerges. I will not absdorb water from underneath either. So, to answer yourt question, #1 availability year `round, #2 cheap cheap,cheap #3 it works thru 2-4" rains we commonly get here in the east. The top dress you have to salt or replace if it gets wet and freezes. If the top dress is thin enough, even frozen ,the trap will still go off. We don`t get 1 day in 10 sunny back east , so can`t count on radient heat from a black trap covering to thaw or dry sets, plus the coal shale being 1,000 miles away. When in wyoming I use it regularly as it is virtually everywhere in my country, football stadiums full of it just for the taking. The predators always hunt those exposed seams and blow outs and lot of old dens in them too. So many sets are made right in the coal shale and I just reach over and scoop what I need. I tried cover hulls one year and man, what a joke they were, just a scam to sell something to newbies. In ks last jan I got caught in bad mud and rain and no peat or coal shale available , but lot of old abandoned cattle tramp sheds with rotted to dust 10-20 year old bone dry cow crap. Had my regular stops to fill 5 gallon buckets as I made the rounds. Like it best when I could scoop up poop powder with pack rat poop and pee in it. really dressed up and smelled up a dirthole good for cats or coyote. speaking of radient heat, I dye all my smear lures black so the sun heats them up every day in the west. Put that in your bag and get some black ink and dye all your lures black as a coal miners arse, keeps them stinking at zero or below if the sun comes out, especially fat based lures like on getters or ldc type stuff. I`ve never told this before except to joel. So when some guy writes it in a book or video and says he thought of it, or all the lure makers lures are black next year, well , you know where it came from. I`m glad to share this stuff, it`s time. In fact tman, put the black lure thing in the archives, it`s worth it.

[trappnman]

never heard of the black lure idea-


but regularly I use the sun and cleared off snow areas around mink/coon sets to keep the smell and appeal going longer in the cold.

Did you see stefs reports a while back about waxing peat?

[thunderbolt]

This was my first season in Nm, I thought hey it's sunny NM. No need for antifreeze or waxed dirt. I was dead wrong. I live on the Colorado border on the edge of the Sandeo Cristo Mts. By halloween we had our first snow. I had no dry dirt to work with. I went to the dry cow manure it worked great untill it got wet. when it dried out there was a crust on top of the trap. I tried ant grit, this to froze. I mixed them both with salt and had ok results. I missed a few coyotes and 1 cat to frozen in traps. My last week of coyote trapping I was on a new ranch and found some coal shale. I made six sets at one location. I think it was Bob W. that said,"if its good for one trap its good for four traps" Any way I bedded them like Wt Mt. Cur does. The first check I had theses 2.
That night we got 14 inches of snow. I tried following my states 24hr law and burried my truck in a 3 ft. snow drift. After a 6 mile walk to the ranch I went home with my tail between my legs. I waited untill it was safe to travel. I had these 2
.
So needless to say this summer I'm going to be stocking up on the coal shale.

[trapperdog]

3n, glad the gravel works for you.I did try waxing it but it was more work and cost than I cared to do.I spray my sets with a 50/50 solution of propylene glycol and water now instead of RV antifreeze,protects better.I have caught coyotes both by covering the gravel with a thin layer of set duff and leaving them just gravel.
Its not really gravel it is more of a coarse sand,what ever goes thru a 1/4" screen.
Only problem is it is heavy,but traps bed real nice in it and I have ranches that have mountains of it for the taking.

[3n]

I'll try the propylene glycol Bob...there's a sand and gravel yard about five miles from my place so it works out good for me...thanks

[Bristleback]

I'm sure we don't have it as bad as the guys out East, but even here in Eastern Kansas we have so much freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw,add in rain, mud, muck.....waxed dirt helps.
When it's frozen and stays frozen, done dry dirt works fine.
One thing I used this year, and I used it for top dressing, on flat sets is I collected several buckets of barn chaff from your local 4H Fairground stalls....when dry, this stuff really blends in, and makes a set invisable. Not the saw dust bedding, but the chaff.

[bobwendt]

I gather quite a bit of duff from under thick ceder groves also-great stuff. Of course any type of "great stuff" works best if it will just quit frigging raining and alternating freeze thaws/ice/snow/rain.

[docux]

:)Hey Bob; Can you explain that shingle for trap covering a little more?? Are you talking wood shingle? And you mean no other covering? Not for coyotes or foxes?? Thanks