not to early to start getting ready.

[RdFx]

Never your proposed trapline looks like my forest trapline. The open farm country has yotes but i have alot of hound hunters who are all over and DONT have permission. When i trapped farm land i had a fair nbr of yotes shot by hound men AFTER they let their hounds maul the yote before they shot it. If i have a farmer ask me to trap and it suits me as far as access and time of year i will help. With fur prices now as to coon, mink i wont set the farm land creeks and rivers unless the yote set is right next to the barrier river and a mink set is easy. I run into wolves in my forest areas but thats okay as yotes and wolves habit the same areas. Yotes keep quite though and dont have sing-songs like they used to...LOL....
If i cant set from truck or atv i dont set, im not a young buck either and not dragging a yote across the 80.

[Deleted]

Jul 6, 2015 10:57:27 GMT -6 RdFx said:

Never your proposed trapline looks like my forest trapline. The open farm country has yotes but i have alot of hound hunters who are all over and DONT have permission. When i trapped farm land i had a fair nbr of yotes shot by hound men AFTER they let their hounds maul the yote before they shot it. If i have a farmer ask me to trap and it suits me as far as access and time of year i will help. With fur prices now as to coon, mink i wont set the farm land creeks and rivers unless the yote set is right next to the barrier river and a mink set is easy. I run into wolves in my forest areas but thats okay as yotes and wolves habit the same areas. Yotes keep quite though and dont have sing-songs like they used to...LOL....
If i cant set from truck or atv i dont set, im not a young buck either and not dragging a yote across the 80.

Yup, by the sounds of it, our lines are dead-bang similar inregards to type of habitat.  I bet being in the woods with the fall sights and smells and the general sightings of a mirad of other wildlife makes you feel good, I know it certainly does me.  Heck, I can almost get high rubbing sage and all you get rubbing dirt is dirty!  On the map to the right(east) is all crop farm ground with a sprinkling of 5 acre hardwood wood lots.  That whole county and 1/2 of mine are bigtime houndsmen coyote hunting areas every weekend in addition to the groups of "walk'em-up guys"(getting to be a big deal lately) and the road hunters with the snow cover.  I never had much trouble because the 3 regular groups knew when I was on the properties BUT would pester/pressure the farmers to urge "the trapper-guy" to leave ASAP.  When there'd be a late harvest, I'd then be on the farms late and usually with snow-cover.  This was cause for quite a few phone calls from the farmers, though polite, asking when I was gong to be done so the houndsmen could run.  BUT truthfully, I really got tired of looking at plowed dirt, dirt, and more plowed dirt and unless you're a farmer, the sight of plowed dirt does not give me a nice feeling!  Screw the waterways across the plowed ground and I caught coyotes but did nothing to make it better.    

[trappnman]

one thing about having a 17 month deer season, is that that there isn't a whole lot of concentrated numbers out on any given day. and even then, the hunters are in the woods, not in the places I trap coyotes. So except for having certain woods getting daily use, which does effect where coyotes are at least to a degree, deer hunting is pretty much an ongoing thing starting 1st sat in nov until end of dec with bow hunters out in, really it seems, more numbers than gun.

plus, I literally got farmers telling hunters to NOT mess with their trapper, cause he won't be going, you will

I love the woods as well- but for me, the reason not to trap it is simple- there are no concentration points.

I live in a state hardwood forest- this is typical of the view from the top of one of the bluffs-

and this winds for miles- and then the bluff tops- all the same height btw- are farmed, with smaller versions of this river valley going back in a band 25-35 miles-

www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_forests/sft00033/index.html

so the fields I'm trapping, either connect direction to terrain like this, or are connected to smaller versions. so long, continuous strings of similar, suitable habitation. not so much food- whiie of course food, the woods are more protection and rearing areas- a food study in this area showed voles to be #1 in scat samples over a 12 month period- and where are those voles?

in the fields.

now connect all this with long running waterways- waterways that are permanent and wide, and groomed- waterways passing by weed patches, marshy areas, multiple places for small rodents like voles to live- so the travelways are also the hunting routes- so when you get an attraction like a compost pile, or like long term manure piles, set asides or stack areas- you have concentrations of coyotes as well- and more importantly, there regularly as well

interesting comparisons- which is why the common factor in behaviors can only be innate.

[trappnman]

Those peat prices seem steep. 9$ for a 4 cu ft here
BUT THOSE 2 cu are easier to handle

I use nothing but imported peat........

[Deleted]

A classic example of how pressure, in this case caused by bowhunters, moved two families off their home territory.  I say two because it happened in the very same area twice I think two years apart.

Some years ago I found while summer scouting a coyote family's home territory though I didn't search for the den, I'm sure it was close.  This was on State lands which didn't see any people except for the parkers doing what young parkers do.  The first year I kept track of the family's activity and the week before setting, as I do with all of my locations I did a final scout to make sure my chosen set locations were still valid.  Well that first year I was shocked to see the family long gone, not even any old sign but I found quite a bit of old and fresh people sign coming and going from the direction of some houses about 1/4 mile away.  The people sign couldn't be from anything except bowhunters.

Skip ahead two years of no coyote activity in that area and then I find I have another coyote family has moved in and taken over.  Happy days!  The week before I set I do my last check and what do I find?  No frigin coyote sign but lots of people sign!  I'm actually standing there 1/2 pissed when I see a bowhunter approaching me from across a high-bush blueberry marsh.  He's a little younger then me and we get to talking.  He told me he lived 1/4 mile through there and ask if I was scouting for a place to deer hunt?  Nope, I told him about what I was finding with the coyotes and that I trapped coyote but they'ed disappeared on me again.  I ask him how often was he hunting the immediate area and he said since he's retired he hunts it every morning AND evening from 10/1 until 11/15 and his son hunts it every evening!!!  I ask him how many years he's been hunting there and he said maybe 6-7 years and pointed out different paths he and his son cut so they can slip into their stands on the quiet.  I found out the fella died of a heart attack late last summer but there'd not been another coyote family in that location last year.

I truly believe this is the same thing I first experienced years ago when snaring and found I have to be very mindful even now during deep snow trail-setting footholds IF I DON'T take necessary precautions so that I don't waller into the set locations on our 24 hr check leaving my scent everyday!  It's pretty darn tough to check trail-set traps 50 yds down in a tag alder swamp or a 100 yds out in a high-bush blueberry marsh!!  It's been my experience that if I trail set and my coyotes are coming through on a 5-7-day swing, I'm going to get one good chance at them, maybe a half-arse second chance before they pull out if I haven't taken precautions.  They'ed pull out due I believe, to me, until which time I figured out the cause and effect of the problem down in the hunting area from me everyday leaving new, fresh scent on everything.  Pressure applied, pushes them out, there is no doubt!!

I have several properties I've trapped since 2008 and back then nobody really used the properties before I set traps such as bowhunting and I caught coyotes.  For the past 4 years the owners have got relatives now using the properties every day either morning or evening and the coyotes that were there in Sept are gone by 11/1.  The up-side is since these parcels are prime prey habitat areas and hold rabbits and deer, the people are gone and the coyotes are back in 1/1 and I catch them at that time.  Notice I said 1/1, this is important because it requires adjusting my loop just for that time to take advantage of the coyotes movements even though I may have been driving past the properties every morning a month and a half before.

[lumberjack]

Steve, Im primarily a water trapper. I am toying around with the idea of trapping fox early and late this year. I can be ready on a moments notice- my traps are waxed in wooden boxes, peat is dried and ready, I have tons of flood control (government) ground, Game commission and co-op ground, coal co. ground, along with friends that will let me trap anytime.
Granted, not on a big scale like many, but it is all lining up to be close with low miles put on. My main concern is the fox population, it may still be hurting, Im western Pa, not all of Pa is fox country. We have a little bit of everything , but not much of anything, well yea, possums.......one reason I left land years ago.

[trappnman]

possums... after a series of tuff winters, out possums got knocked back real hard- last year- 1st trap of the season had a possum- only one I caught all year!. I've had many days in past with 10-12 possum days-

I do wish we had more fox- had a population boom a few years ago where I was catching 30-35 a year for several years- but now its down to a handful.

few things prettier than a red fox

[musher]

This thread motivated me into getting my butt in gear. Footholds and 120'a are all ready as of today.

[mustelameister]

Sold all my #110s and am converting over to Bridger #150s for BE sets. I like the way the KB stabilizer grips the #150 and the 1/2" extra width/height makes this, IMO, a real nice trap for that BE location. Now I need some low humidity days to paint 'em and let 'em dry up good before season.

[RdFx]

About time you did something beside fishing for smallies.... hows the action been....? Thinking of going 3/4 150s and 1/4 160s.

[Deleted]

Jul 18, 2015 15:28:13 GMT -6 mustelameister said:

Sold all my #110s and am converting over to Bridger #150s for BE sets. I like the way the KB stabilizer grips the #150 and the 1/2" extra width/height makes this, IMO, a real nice trap for that BE location. Now I need some low humidity days to paint 'em and let 'em dry up good before season.

Without trying to distract from the topic of the thread, this is my BE "go to" classic trap set which is a 110-size trap, anything larger will not fit in my BE locations.  I have no otter to be concerned with so I never use a wire tether.  I've actually timed myself from finding the trap location with my toe to making this set and it takes less then 5 seconds to make this BE set!  The mink or rat in the rat is in the exact same spot as I set the trap!
 
The set-(notice stake top)

The results from that set-



Under bridges and under ice though, I use a 160 on these for a BE set.


These are simple to fabricate and simple to use.

[musher]

never: your photo taught me something. Cool system. How much does each weigh? And why aren't they all rusted to crap yet!?

[Deleted]

They weigh 4+ lbs and are built with scrap rod and chain pieces except for buying the bar stock.  They're a "drop & go" setup and work very well.

They're not rusted because I never got a chance to use this batch on the mink project last winter.  If you recall I posted some photos of when I was scouting in the summer locating my BE set locations for Feburary and setting through the ice.  When my dad passed suddenly leaving me with an in-home mother with dementia all trapping stopped for the year for me as I am the Trustee of both estates and both ma's POAs.

[bblwi]

Even though many of the farmers here are large. By that I mean running 1-2,000 acres for dairy, very few have 1/4 of that contiguous near their buildings. Many run land 5-10 miles from their farmstead and haul forages, feed and manure in semi- tankers. About 75% of the land on most farms is tillable with the rest being small woodlots, sloughs, streams, rivers and small lakes. Even with large equipment where I do most of my trapping average field size would be 15-40 acres and most not square. The big issue here is alfalfa (not much for coon and or canines) and about half the land gets 10K gallons of liquid manure August through November and that drives most wildlife off the fields other than late geese and wild turkeys. I have been slowly loosing or giving up on the dairy farmers and working to find more cash crop farmers with later corn and more stubble in the fields in December. Also the larger farmers also hire more services to get rid of vermin which includes coons.

Bryce

[trappnman]

odd note on liquid manure- several times have had traps set, and then the field is sprayed with manure---left traps so manure could "settle in" before walking across it, and of course, caught coyotes before I could pull them. So I know it doesn't bother coyotes to cross it. Having said that, the liquid manure from spray trucks is usually only put on between crops, and I'm able to trap gophers in it in a couple of days as it dries quickly. More of a concern for me are the pumpers- can't drive over an inflated hose, at not only is access often blocked- but its spray and plow. I got a ton of pig farms, permission on all (same owner) but as soon as corn is picked, its pump and plow so really not much use to me beyond an occasional pond and waterway.

[RdFx]

Ditto here on the pumped liquid manure... they usually get done in a couple days. Around here its miles of hose put thru under roads in culverts and huge auxillary pumpers along the lines. Some places its huge semi tankers that come and dump into huge pumps to the hoses.... at least its underground and when done one can work the fields..

[trappnman]

I hate it when I come into a location, and find a pipe going across the field road- I hate walking in!

the big pig and dairy places here do the same Lee- miles of hoses and aux pumps, and then the tankers as well

[bblwi]

Around here we do more pumping than semi tankers as this saves our town roads but then knifing in the liquid makes driving the fields unavailable. With so much corn silage here and alfalfa we don't have much corn land that is not covered with manure or not tilled. With the corn gone by mid September the coons have changed their routes totally by then and canines here prefer the shell corn fields as there just is nothing left in a field where silage is taken off. We have a lot of traffic in the fall on field roads and most get really muddy and manure is applied until freeze up which many times is after our 9- day gun season. With the prices several farmers are getting for leasing to bow, gun and turkey hunters they can let the coons that survive their control methods take the corn they want.
I know a couple avid bow hunters who have taken Trapper Ed just to get some fur and some do quite well even with limited experience.

Bryce

[Deleted]

This thread has literally gone to chit!

[jim]

I am putting up some dry dirt/sand, first time for me. Does it help to use waxed paper in bottom of set in freeze/thaw conditions?

Jim