Long Distance Visuals

[CoonDuke]

I have aquired a place for the upcoming season that is sub-par when it comes to good set location.

I have permission on 12 acres in a rather large area that has pretty good travelways and a fox den on the surrounding property.

The property I have permission on has slight topography and some crop changes but not too much else to work with.

I am thinking I am going to need to rely on some type of visual because I am handicapped as to where I can set.

Here in PA we can't use any animal parts, so I was thinking cattail fluff spread out to resemble a bird or rabbit kill.

1) Does anyone ever have good luck with this?

2) Any other suggestions besides the cattail fluff?

I also have a pretty good location at a pit where dead livestock is dumped. I hate to set right at the pit because of all the non-targets, so I was thinking of trying a visual there too so I can set a little further away from the pit.

[Maineman]

It's not a visual but why not drag a carcus "from" the property without permission, or lay some other training scent ?

[CoonDuke]

It is a pretty big area and I could pin down 1 good location within 100 yards of the "permission" property, but other than that it would be a lot of carcass dragging.

I don't exactly know where the den is either, but the farmer saw the pups.

[3n]

Try O'Gorman's fake badger hole set it is a killer on fox and has maximum eye appeal... take a tile spade and dig a hole at a 45 degree angle then take two 5 gallon buckets of dirt and dump them end to end in front of the hole then level the top of the mound...you want the mound to be about ten inches high and about 2 ft. long...for coyotes add a third bucket of dirt to make the mound longer...make this set pre-season because the mound of dirt will settle and you may have to add more dirt to have it ten inches high..when season rolls around take a three tine hand rake and scratch the mound up to make it look fresh dug...also dig the hole as deep as you can get it the deeper the better.

[walkercoonhunter(Aaron L.)]

coon are you all caught up on your sleep? my # 1 visual attractor in a place like that is a big ol ground hog mound..if you look there will almost always be fox turds on them..and you will be suprised how a bright white rib bone sticking up in the air will attract with the moon light shining on it..or another visual attractor is just take a bail of straw out in the middle of the field and let it togather and set round it...deadly on reds...but i would say look at you topo of the land and set according to what you know about foxes travel...there will be a travel route across that property someplace..sometimes it staring ya in the face and ya overlook it many times....lol go back to bed and get caught up on your rest and go look at this property again...it just might reach right out and slap ya....lol

[MickMcLaughlin]

Yep big dirt hole would work or anything that sticks out.If the feild is fairly flat and open throw out a hay bale and spice it up before season with some pee or skunk essence maybe throw down some grain to attract mice.Look for travel points,the shortest path between two areas of cover.Think like a critter, if I was hunting here and I wanted to hunt there,how would I go and what would I look at on the way.

[Rob220swift]

Why just visuals? Audio attractors like a squeaker may also work for you if theft isn't a real concern. Combine the 2 and you may hit paydirt.

[trappnman]

if you cannot use animal parts. my best long distance attractant would be out, a cow ribbone.

But as 3N says- a hole dug with the dirt piled up next to it is also a good attractant type visual. Many times the "best" spot for me isn't readily accessable in bad weather, so I make the set within site of the "best" location and use visuals to attract them.

Works good for me.

[bobwendt]

why do you or would you even think that foxes don`t naturally use the 12 acres in question? I must be missing something tremendous here. are you in a paved parking lot or some reason they would not be suseptible to normal sets and location? it seems a no brainer to just set the crop changes and not worry about it.

[CoonDuke]

Bob,
I have a crop change that is perpendicular to a very subtle drainage...typical contour farming. The drainage swale is somewhat wide, so I was afraid of missing foxes coming up the drainage. But, I would have the crop change travelway covered.

I might was well just set the freakin crop change on the upwind side of the swale, use an LDC, and be done with it.

[bobwendt]

that`s exactly what I would do, should be a cake walk. might throw a lot of dirt around and set both sides of the drainage at the change, in case the wind changes or is real still.

[trappincoyotes39]

For drawing predators in I would always want a large bait in the area over any visual, cow carcass,hog, sheep or horse, they will pull them in, the bigger the pile the better!!! I have ranchers take dead stock and put them were I want them for fall/winter use. A high knoll, a draw head, stock dam levee etc. you can then set up the few approaches they will use to get to and from these draw stations and it doesn't take much to figure out how they will approach these big baits.

Fox/coyote will come and find these large baits with no problems once the weather turns cold. Ant time of year a large bait can aid you when location isn't 100%, it will keep them milling in the area longer and they will find your sets.

[trappnman]

trouble is- those large baits are illegal in much of the country. Its even illegal here to have farmers put thier dead animals in a dump pile in most areas. Luckily, I have 4-5 that still do, thus making it easy to add my carcasses to the pile and allows me to take advantage of having big baits out there. Its also illegal on any public land to leave ANY carcasses or animal parts.

But I don't really think thats a drawback. Studies at Logan have shown that coyotes hunt more by sight...that is, find more prey by sight than by their nose... so they are used to observing and looking around. I've pulled coyotes a long ways on flat fields with just the visual of the ribbone.

[bobwendt]

12 acres in amish country where you can not stand anywhere and not see a house is a different ball of wax than western big country. In the west I work big baits like you tc35, but in the east it is like being in downtown new york city and setting a dead horse on the corner of 5th and vine, just won`t fly. in indiana dumping dead animals is illegal also, but our farms are big enough most larger livestock operations still do, and I love it! In amish country of pa the average farm is 40 acres with a family of ma,pa, and 8 kids on it. a town every 3 miles. It the gosh dangdest mess of humanity you ever saw. be like prison for me or you. Of course that is why they have red fox and the rest of the world has daggone coyotes. I love `em and hate `em at the same time.

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

40 acre farms wow!! That's a building lot around here.

Joel

[Danny Clifton]

Go in about 3 in the afternoon and put out a few sets. Blow a predator call and then leave.

[NattyBumpo]

If its only 12 acres you can just use scent and get the fox with regular dirtholes around the edges of the property.

If there is nothing in the field put something out there a hay bale, big rock, a log a Christmas tree or even drive a 2x4 into the ground to make a post set. When hunting that fox will check out anything that sticks out in an otherwise clean field.

Get permission before putting visuals like that in a field.

[BK]

I would tend to go with Bob's answerer setting this up today.
In the past I've used a trick I think I read in one of Garold Weiland's Books,...... that was to place a hay bale that you dumped lots of fish oil on.
I was into making fish oil then and would dump like a quart on it.
This drew fox for a long ways and did act as a visual too, ......... one could also hide fox behind the bale.

It worked well, but I may have been making it too hard?

[trappnman]

can't tell you about fox BK, but you maybe were making it too hard, so to speak, if you were trapping coyotes. While a bale works well, and the fish oil surely didn't hurt it, a subtler type of visual will do the same thing on coyotes..

[BK]

Perhaps Steve Perhaps,...and I don't see myself doing it again anytime soon.
But the bail did act as a wick and with that volume of fish oil in it, I could smell it down wind at the end of season.

When ever I caught a fox after a snow or tended the traps I wold brush the snow off the bail,..... it made me feel better and I think it helped. LOL And as I said before Fox would hide behind the bail if they could.
If you can't use animal parts it is an option.
I don't thik I ever had more than four of these out at a time even when I ran a lot of traps, but I felt whey were worth it at the time.