The shingle set for cats

[huntinglonewolf]

Here is 2 pictures of cubbie sets with the exposed trap with only a shingle coving the pan. I have taken 9 cats in the last 5 days with these kind of sets.

[cameron2]

Put a stepping stick on either side of the trap and watch what happens. . . . . .

[mr. finch]

when you say stepping sticks do you mean just small sticks laying down in front of it?

[mr. finch]

how tall off the ground is this set?

[cameron2]

Something like this . . . .




Or this . . . .



Now that I look at these two sets, the stepping sticks are a bit small, oughtta be an inch or thicker, but these both worked.

Get Bill Ilchik's book, Wild West Bobcat Trapping and/or Steve Wood's DVD on Bobcat Trapping. These guys have perfected this set to an art form. Many people still fight it and say, "It won't work here," but it will. You just have to give up the coyote trapping mentality of covering your trap. You'll only catch the ones that step on the pan, so just make the pan the only place to step.

[billcat]

My reccomend, for a cubby set, would be one stepping stick placed behind the trap (as a stopper) and tight against the jaw. Sometimes a cat will only come to the first obstruction at a cubby set and not come any closer. With one stick behind, the cat's last step will be on the pan. Place your scent/attractor a full hand span behind the trap dog, too close and you'll get toes. Two stepping sticks is the way to go at a walk through type set.

Bill

[Steve Gappa]

I know its not as easy as you are making it out to be- and finding cats, etc is part of the rush.. but my God- can an animal be any dumber.....?

If they weren't pretty they'd just be a taller possum.....

[Corey]

Great picture's everyone.

Huntinglonewolf, what have you been having the best luck with for bait in you cubby's??

Corey

[cameron2]

Steve:

It is that easy, but it takes a leap of faith for guys like you and me that started out trapping coyotes. The first time I made one of these exposed sets and turned around and looked what I'd done, I felt like I'd just kissed my sister. I went back and covered the whole thing up. You just have to let go of the coyote trapper mentality.

Like Yoda said, "Let go. Trust your feelings."

Like Billcat recently told me, to a cat, that rusty trap pan is just another smooth rock to step on. Exposed trap jaws are just stepping guides to me. If you watch cat tracks in the shallow snow, they walk on real small rocks and sometimes knife edges of rock.

I don't think it's so much of being "dumb." Cats are pretty confident hunters and they don't have too much to fear. Maybe it's just that canines think there's a boogy man behind every stump, and cats generally don't care. Like my southern friend said about the effect of camo clothes on deer and turkeys. The difference between turkeys and deer is that deer think that every man in the woods is a stump, and turkeys think every stump in the woods is a man. ??

[romans117]

The difficult part for me on using the set for the first time was the length of time it took for the cats to come through. I questioned if the lack of a catch was due to the set type. I checked the sets every day and thought I was getting no action because the set was so blatant, until I show up one day in hurry up and check mode and bam there's a tom looking at me the same way I am looking at him.

Which brings me to a question for you cat vets. I had a big tom pull out in front of me when I went to catch pole him. (I usually shoot the big toms in the chest.) He was caught in an exposed set. He was wrapped up pretty good in a tree or I wouldn't have attempted it. Will he be shy of exposed traps in the future, assuming he comes back to the area. I assumed he would be and covered several of my sets in the same area.

[cameron2]

Romans:

I'm not the expert you're looking for, but I don't think the cat will avoid similar sets. He may avoid that particular location because the Boogy Man got him there, but not other sets.

I think you're giving the cat far too much credit. All the cat knows is that he was walking along one night as usual and suddenly this thing grabbed him by the foot, until you showed up and then it let go. It's a stretch to say that he would recall, let alone recognize, that exposed trap pan as the source of all the problems.

[tulemanlabs]

Huntinglonewolf,
Thanks for getting those pics up. I've been hesitant to get started until now. Looks great.
Tim

[huntinglonewolf]

I make my own bait. These sets really work but look really stupid, but cats are easy as long as you are where they are. These sets work in rain and freezing coditions really good.

[John56]

May sound silly but is the shingle just sitting on the trap pan? or is it attached in some way?

[huntinglonewolf]

I have a piece of screen on the bottom of the shingle duck tape to the shingle so the shingle slides on the pan and stays tight.

[mr. finch]

ok so this is the coyote side of me(lol) the trap is just bedded and not covered in sifted dirt? do you really need a shingle or will the pan work alone(dont have any shingles yet to try) so i make what appears to be a all most cubby slash walk through set leave the trap exposed(do you still need somthign under the pan?) where's the bait go? man you guys are right thats tuff to do just because i am in to coyote trapping. but hey if it works

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

Read Billcats post again.

There is a huge difference between Tracy's walkthrough set and HLW's cubby.

The first stick acts as a "stopping" stick rather than a "stepping" way to often.

Gappa you'd be amazed at how many coyotes get in these things.

Two years ago I think I caught 17 or so.

Coyote trapping mentality is a huge box we've all been in.

It's been a life lesson that I've taken to other places.

Joel

[SteveCraig]

Bills post ihas some of the most valuable info in it there is.

Something I learned the hard way many years ago with cats.

I had pardnered up with a novice trapper on the Navajo Res. in 1980. I was putting in the regular coyote/fox sets trying to trap cats with little success. Lots of refusals etc. My friend just made a huge dirthole into a side bank of a sand wash, took a garden hoe and made a trench in an arc going past the hole and set 2 traps in the trench on the approach to the hole. When I saw that set I laughed at it and him. I had to eat alot of crow as the next day there was a big tom in it. And the next, and the next! It is a great set for cats in the right place. They cant help themselves. Even though they could just walk over to the hole, they will walk the trench instead. It isnt a deep trench, but more like a shallow cow path type trail.
Lesson learned, and I have never looked back.

I would be willing to bet that 80% of your cats will stop on this side of a stepping stick in an approach type set.......maybe more.

Walk throughs are a different story.

It is also a reason why you get so many misses with cages too. They walk up to the pan and stop there. When I changed my cage pans and put them more in the middle of the cage, then they worked much better. The door will literally hit them in the butt many times, but a cat will just jump forward 99% of the time.

I have said it before and will repeat it again.........
to trap cats with any consistancy, you need to trap and think like a novice 12 year old kid! Stop thinking like a coyote trapper.
FWIW
Steve

[FWS]

It is also a reason why you get so many misses with cages too. They walk up to the pan and stop there. When I changed my cage pans and put them more in the middle of the cage, then they worked much better. The door will literally hit them in the butt many times, but a cat will just jump forward 99% of the time.

Yup, and I use rocks and sticks as guides inside the cages, guide em' to the shingle on the pan just like with a leghold.

The other thing I've tried this year with good success is a 'walk through' set in a cage. The "modular" design of my cage trap door system allows for a door on either end by using two doors with the cage wire between em' and they both fire off the same pan.

[huntinglonewolf]

Picked this one up this morning.