Canine Trappers

[Steve Gappa]

Just curious.............

Feel free to elaborate.

[coyote]

snapped trap, out of bed...usually deer. stinking bass turds.

and possums...don't forget the POSSUMS clogging up good fox sets!

[mike692]

Same as Don. Deer give me fits. I hardly used any urine last year and I did notice some difference. I may not use any this year just to see if I can eliminate the deer problem.

[17kiss]

People!

[CoonDuke]

I voted for snapped trap out of bed, but trucks and tractors driving over my sets can be a real pain in the azz.

[Zagman]

One, two tracks on the pattern....the reason, I had them, did most everything right, and missed.

It's like setting the hook and missing.....

Granted, I do many things now that help minimize the occurence, so if and when it happens, it creates a little grief. Plus, I am the dude who posted the "27 coyotes but OH the misses" post from trapperman back several years......I got lots of experience!

Regarding the other categories, some of them are either hard to prove or have obvious cures to the symptons....

Canines digging at trap......the more experience I get, the more I think these are coon or red fox.....

Canines digging at side or back......I try not to let them......setting next to cover, bank sets, etc. Plus, I play the wind, which many on here downplay.

Standoffishness.....hard to prove, without snow. Just because theres nothing in the trap does not mean they are ignoring you.

Not finding sets, no action. Probably more of this then true standoffishness. With experience, and hopefully sign (but not necessary) you just KNOW you are on the bullseye.......just comes with time, I reckon.

Snapped traps in bed....probably a pan tension issue. Any animal that snaps a trap will PROBABLY exhume the trap from it's bed.....

Or, a vehicle drove over it and popped it. If it was a tractor, you will know.

Snapped traps out of bed.......with no fight circle, means I more than likely ran into a deer. You really need to get down to the set, observe, take your time, not move anything (CSI: Hillbilly) and figure out what the heck happened. More times than not, I can figure it out, but still, sometimes, I walk away scratching my melon.......lots of animals have short brown hair.....

The traps I use simply do no allow a pull out on the first lunge. If there's no fight circle at all.....probably a deer.

Had a guy set a pop-up trailer over one of my sets this year.......blended!

Z has the best story....pulled in to check his traps and the farmer had dumped a semi-load of runner crush gravel over his sets!

Zagman

[bobwendt]

I voted "other". the 2 biggest are #1disease decimating populations, mainly mange and distemper. #2 is bad weather- flooding, mud, freezing rain etc, stuff out of my control sooooooo bad access is not possible. And I can ride atv`s, walk and carry peat and dry dirt with the best of them. but sometimes weather just shuts you down or makes it not worth the effort.

[CoonDuke]

I had a combine parked over my sets once, but the load of gravel story takes the cake!

[bobwendt]

I set 2 nice sets on a bull doze pile ,of a mile of fence and brush dozed into a giant jungle of weeds and brush in the middle of an open section. been there 4-5 years at least and they farmed around it. next morning in the dark couldn`t even find this pile, big as a house. they brought in a backhoe and dozer and buried the whole thing, traps and all. `nother time put a $27 squeeker in a thisle patch they picked the beans around. next day, you guessed it, farmer must have been bored as he drove the tracter and bush hog 5 miles to bush hog that thisle patch, and my 27 dollar squeeker. went back and forth, back and forth. both traps flatter than pankaces and the squeeker I found one diode and a piece of plastic. oh, there is plenty more too, but you get my drift. I swear you set one trap in 5,000 acres and they plow one test strip thru with no ryme or reason and plow the trap every time. `nother time setting 2 track along a rr track, set off 5 feet from the 2 track so no one runs over my trap. just get her set and here comes a dude zooming down the 2 track, swirls round me before I get gone and runs over the trap both tires while I watch him do it, `nother pankace. I can`t tell anymore, it`s depressing me.

[CoonDuke]

I come from a farming background, and work in the agriculture industry, and still have trouble predicting farmers. I bet guys that don't understand agriculture real well have a heck of a time.

[bobwendt]

for the most part I do as well as one can do with farmers, but with volume comes some inevitable john deere catchs.

[edge]

Other

Weather,Deer,Cattle.Not using urine has helped immensely with the cattle and deer,also giving cattle their own set to tromp and smell.

Not much I can do about the weather except move.

Edge

[Clyde Isaak]

Deer are my #1 problem. It is impossible to set many locations because of the deer traffic every night. I find I'm passing up a lot of areas with good coyote sign just because of the deer problems. I may try using obvious dirt holes with no bait or lure this year in a couple locations along with a set without a trap lured as usual, just to see if I can pick up some of the coyotes traveling the trails and hopefully miss the deer. Clyde

[BigIron 1974]

I have alot of problems with deer also. I have to say though, my biggest problem is the gray fox working my sets from the side or back, it is like they are walking a tight rope tippy toe up to the hole.

[MickMcLaughlin]

I voted for sprung traps,but if I would have read about deer and cattle I would have picked that one.I hate those deer,I will never understand how I can't get in the woods because of deer hunters and there seems to be more deer every year.

[kickback]

Other our Big Game rifle hunting season lasts 5 weeks.Coyotes get real spooky and pull into the real rough parts of the territories.Got to go to them.Lots of gut piles then too.

[trappnman]

Interesting-two directions going here- one direction is weather, farmers, etc....stuff that one has no control over. About all you can do is be prepared for the worse and take anything better as bonus. Fro those getting traps plowed, snowed under, etc- best thing yo ucan ever do is buy a metal detector. I bought one 4 years ago just for trapping and have more than paid its price in recovering traps the first year or so.

Other direction is what do canines "do" that give you the most problems.

I find coyotes to dig only once- that is, if a trap is dug up- it seldom is again. The one exception was a collared female- she dug at the trap nightly or almost nightly for over a week. After she was caught, no more digigng at that location.

A couple of fox pups sure can dig, they like to play in the fine, dusty soil I frequently get in bean fields, etc.

I feel digging at the trap is directly related to the type of set made. Dirholes, cutbanks, stepdowns- all get less digging. I feel that flat sets, do to their having nothing obvious as a visual guide to the coyote, get more digging.

Coon I find do little digging at a set- by this I mean canine type digging. Coyotes, at least most of the time, seem to just uncover a corner of a trap and let it go like that. Coon flip, etc. Once again, thinking about it, the type of set really matters with coon digging also- but in reverse. That is, for coon, its the hole type sets that get the most digging, or more accurately the holes with obvious, dirt patterns.

I find its seldom that I get anty side digigng, without trap digging first. Setting up with natural directional guides as Zags says eliminates most of this.

[Iowa Badger]

Having to reset and rebed empty traps--time waster, usually from deer. Plus it requires extra antifreeze and covering that was wasted on snapped traps.----------------grief---------

John Deered traps ug-hate that every year. Once the frames gets bent, I usually can't do much with them to getem back to coyote standards.

[bobwendt]

tip on heavy snow, or even non descript miles and miles of sagebrush. I tie a small twisty or even flaffing tape to the fence top or what ever to mark set, i.e., go 3 posts down and exactly 8 steps out. spray paint on pavement- sounds weird but hiway crews spray all over, x`s, arrows , circles, etc. means nothing to anyone but you. I even use flourescent paint to run at night and flourescent flagging. easy!

[upcoyote]

I voted other. 2 things cause me grief, the mange and fellas making their sets 10 feet from mine. They are usually young guys or guys just starting out so I usually dont fuss about it. However, ive never done it so they should learn that they shouldnt either.