the perfect coyote set

[braveheart]

As long as the Temp. stays cold I will not move snow up to 3-4 in.If it keeps snowing I then go to open wind blow areas and get out of the deep snow.Lure the crap out of my sets and make a more visible set with a bigger than normal dirt pattern.Like this year snow wind and then it thawed and rained.The big guiding method payed off in the snow.

[trappnman]

I think both the scent and the hole are attractions, or rather things of note. I don't have any probelm thinking that the visual could stop them i ntheir tracks, with or without them getting any scent indicators.

a small tangent- how far do you think a lure in a hole, covered with snow, is going to reach out? in ideal conditions, ie soft, fluffy dry snow its not going to be far, and with wet, crusted snow on top its going to be far less. Now, this wouldn't matter much at all, IF one were setting exactly on the spot- but if you are setting close to the spot, I'd think this lack of visual/odor would be critical

I don't remember the study, but the results at Logan stated that between nose, ears and eyes- prey was found first visually.

my snow trapping last year was 100% lured and baited sets, all dirtholes. its obvious that we all have different conclusions, and part of that is obviously the set type, but without a doubt for me, I caught more coyotes and saw less milling, avoidance tracks when a pattern (meaning dirt scatterred all over the snow) and a visible hole were present.

Wiley E once asked me when I was making invisible flat sets, even going so far as to cover the wobble holes with plugs of grass, why I wanted sets without any visuals? This was in a conversation pertaining to digging at the set-and Wileys thought was no visuals, casue more digging- simply doing so to locate the source of the odor. I started making my sets a little less invisible- meaning more obvious walkthrough patterns, and small visible holes- and my digging incidents decreased greatly

[Deleted]

With a crust or snow-blown packed, no, I don't think the scent can get out easily, sort of sealed-off.  Also, with the soft, fluffy there has to be some diminishing of carry BUT-BUT, with snow, there is no excuse for not being on the spot!  Sure, the initial snow fall will either show on the spot or a miss but repetitive snowfalls remove all doubt.

So lets talk a bout digging as you described which I think also takes into account your previous comment(paragraph) about the visible hole.  So here's the scenario, there's no hole (as Wiley addressed) but there is scent, the scent/set is placed in the right spot and the coyote smells the scent and investigates.  Why the digging!  Seriously, why was the digging allowed to happen and not a catch??  My answer to the question is to look to the set construction in the micro and ascertain why and how the coyote came to the set and was allowed to dig WITHOUT being caught!!!  

It could be said that the hole lines the coyote up with the trap placement therefore a catch is made.  Yes, but I feel that's only part of the equation in the context of your last two paragraphs.  The perfect illustration of not only the hole lining the coyote up but also the backing as both are represented in your video.  Now I'm not promoting the walk-thru set but the two of the parts of the equation to making your dirt hole work I use as well.  Different but same.

So, back to the snow-covered set, to what degree is immaterial for my illustration.  No large hole for a dirt hole set is seen, no little holes at a walk-thru can be seen so how can we catch a coyote that works the set without a visual aid??  Scent and guiding that's how!  The coyote knows exactly where the scent is coming from so that part of the equation isn't a factor.  Knowing that, does the coyote start digging and scratching all over the place trying to locate the source of the scent??  Nope, it certainly doesn't in my opinion, so what dos the coyote have to do to step in the trap?  The coyote has to step over the trap as it pinpoints the source of the scent BEFORE if does any digging or scratching.  If the coyote gets to dig first then trapper did something wrong in the set construction because the coyote found it easier or more opportunistic to pinpoint the source without crossing over the trap by which it just went ahead and dug!!  If it were dry, bare fall ground and you had coyotes coming to your set AND digging, what would you do to stop it??  Same thing with snow covered sets!

If I've repeated myself I'm sorry

[Deleted]

May 16, 2015 6:20:32 GMT -6 trappnman said:

 I started making my sets a little less invisible- meaning more obvious walkthrough patterns, and small visible holes- and my digging incidents decreased greatly

This is an interesting comment because I just heard another known coyote trapper make a very similar statement in regard to his walk-thru set.-  "Once I put a hole in the ground, even a peep hole, the ground is disturbed.  If the ground is disturbed why can't the set look disturbed rather than blended."  The quote, or the best I can remember of the quote by Ray Milligan.

I've never used an unblended walk-thru set BUT I've used two different hole types and both seem equal in performance with neither having me see sign of avoidance or milling.  One method is using a 1" bulb plater drill and I leave the little ring of dirt from drilling the hole just as it comes out of the ground, reminding a person of a crayfish burrow but not near as high.  The 2nd method is using a 3/4" piece of crowbar with a point, driven in the ground so those holes look as such, just a plain hole in the ground without a dirt from the hole on top of the ground.

Now this needs to not be taken out of context because he does, depending on the surrounding soil conditions, give a quick, maybe off-hand blend without making the trap pattern disappear as would be thought of as a "blended" pattern.  The most interesting thing that is noticed with this method of making a set is that what is left to see is a small pattern of sorts.  Small pattern being key words her ein-compared to a large spread out dirt pattern of a dirt hole set or a pile of excavated dirt in front of a dirt hole set.

[trappnman]

Why the digging! Seriously, why was the digging allowed to happen and not a catch?? My answer to the question is to look to the set construction in the micro and ascertain why and how the coyote came to the set and was allowed to dig WITHOUT being caught!!!


and thats the crux of the matter- WHAT could have been done, to force that coyote to walk over the trap before digging.

some of that is obvious- if digging from the back, a larger backing would be the cure-

one thing to remember about the flat sets (or at least mine) is that we are dealing with vertical holes rather then the standard angled hole of a dirthole.

nor blended vs blended- I think we are using te words slightly different- I'm not meaning blended so that the pattern isn;t visible, i'm talking blened in that the pattenr looks natural. For example, my favorite place to make a flat set (besides old manure piles remnents which is my #1 favorite) is in what I call dust circles- places where there is no vegitation, just dust- so while the pattern "blends" in, its certainly obvious to me- obvious, but natural

worst case scenario is to cut out a chunk of sod, leaving a "unnatural" looking bare spot where that sod should be

[Aaron.F]

The perfect coyote set for me, a bean chaff pile on the edge of a picked field. It catches the coyotes eye, is easy to camouflage the trap, and put in vertical guides. I also like to put some type of above grade attractor in pile, such as bone, getter type stick or something along those lines stuck in the ground. He will hopefully be thinking of moving the chaff and pulling the attractor and not think about his feet.

When Slim was out with me this last year, probably the biggest thing we discussed as far as set making was getting rid of hard lines. It was a combination of feathering the dirt out and tossing in chaff, grass, etc.

[trappnman]

Aaron- on the bones. I like using bones, not as a lure holder, but as a visual attraction. But I've had far better luck, with placing the bone away from the set. I don't care what anyone says, I see the difference a bone makes when I have to set locations not exactly where I'd like to be- a good example, a field road comes out, and dead ends halfway through a hay field. I cannot be in this fields, no way no how. Yet, below the fields are some prime hunting grounds. I set that up a few years w/o bones and would take 1 coyote a year. last 3 years, have placed a cow skull about 25 feet back in a plowed field behind the sets- 7,5,5

I found with the bone at the set (my most common but not most preferred are rib bones, skulls and hip bones my favorites) the attention would be on the bone, and I often had them moving the bone and ignoring the set. Even away from the set, I find the bones moved- whether from the caught coyote or others- but it gets physical attention.

agree on hard lines

[Deleted]

Glad to see you participated Aaron, you helped and added to the discussion!

[redeagle]

What has worked for me where coyotes are skittish in reaction to something new in their territory is to find a location such as a fence crawl under they are using, and put a stall out (such as a deer head, staked to the ground) as an attractor out from, but not right on that crawl under. Then, put a grouping of blended flat sets, scented only with urine, in a circle around that attractant. Basically, I punch a miniscule little hole (not even noticeable) a couple of inches deep in the ground with a stake, (just enough to hold the urine) and pour some urine down that tiny hole and bed and cover the trap in the usual way. The attractant is in the center of the circle and the sets are in a radius of 20 feet or so from the center. They won't approach right
up to the stall out when it's new, but will circle it at a safe distance out of curiosity. The urine will do its job from there.

[rionueces]

There are lot of places down here where I don't see much evidence of digging by coyotes. The ground is too hard or rocky for digging. Most of the prey will be found in thick brush or cactus so flat sets work well. Coyotes are used to sticking their noses into thick cover all day so crowding isn't the issue that some people make it out to be. Furthermore, I have seen evidence of dirt hole avoidance in these areas, so I use mainly flat sets with some kind of natural attractant like bones or feathers.