MilkweedMania
Member
Howdy Folks,
I run trail cameras for deer in the late season to pattern them. There's a spot about 300 yards south of where I live where an old wagon road used to be. At a point where the wagon road intersects two CRP fields, there is a great place to put a camera. Anyway, I've been noticing that every night, or every other night, coyotes are passing through this spot like crazy. Not just one at a time, either. The wagon road itself is several hundred yards long and they cross it at many different places. I think the reason they like it is that the road actually sits lower than the fields on either side.
I can't stand coyotes. They are super hard on our deer population, not to mention all of the bobcats we have running around that are illegal to trap or hunt. That being said, my dad and I decided to try trapping this winter season, which is in until March 15th. I watched every video and googled every forum discussion I could for about a week. I'm sure I am still missing lots of information, but this has been my process so far:
We purchased 3 MB-650s, 3 MB 550s, and 1 Bridger #3 dogless. I purchased peat moss, sheep's wool, a jar of RK's predator plus, Caven's violater 7 lure, and some red fox urine.
We placed coyote sets at various places along the wagon road where the coyotes could not access from the backside to work the set. 2" auger for the hole about a foot down. We bedded the traps about nine inches in front of the hole in a little peat moss, hammered them in using native dirt from the sides, covered with pan screening, packed with peat moss to cover, and then sifted native dirt over the top to hide and lightly brushed. I tried to manipulate any coyotes with sticks, dirt clods, and little rocks as seen on instructional videos. I used a teaspoon of RK's Predator Plus, a Q-tip amount of the Caven's lure on a stick, and a few squirts of the fox urine. Bait went down the hole with wool and lure was placed using a twig in the backing grass.
Day 1 Result - no coyotes, traps had not been messed with.
Day 2 Result - 4" of snow over night and freezing temperatures made me nervous. Now the sets were covered in snow. However, warmer rain was on the way so I just went back home and did not disturb anything.
Day 3 Result (today) - 3 of the 5 traps we set on the wagon road have been sprung. No hide or hair in any of them. 2 of them have tracks of some kind approaching them (too much snow has melted for me to be able to tell what it was), and one of the traps has zero tracks coming or going.
Can anyone tell me what they think may have happened? Can rain/snow pop sets if the pan tension is too loose? It has been freezing in temps the last 3 nights, but I'm just surprised they were tripped like that. All three of them were the MB-650s, which is ironic to me. I honestly don't know if an animal tripped them, or if they just sprung on their own. I would have thought there would have been more evidence of disturbance had an animal caused it, but I'm new at this.
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.
I run trail cameras for deer in the late season to pattern them. There's a spot about 300 yards south of where I live where an old wagon road used to be. At a point where the wagon road intersects two CRP fields, there is a great place to put a camera. Anyway, I've been noticing that every night, or every other night, coyotes are passing through this spot like crazy. Not just one at a time, either. The wagon road itself is several hundred yards long and they cross it at many different places. I think the reason they like it is that the road actually sits lower than the fields on either side.
I can't stand coyotes. They are super hard on our deer population, not to mention all of the bobcats we have running around that are illegal to trap or hunt. That being said, my dad and I decided to try trapping this winter season, which is in until March 15th. I watched every video and googled every forum discussion I could for about a week. I'm sure I am still missing lots of information, but this has been my process so far:
We purchased 3 MB-650s, 3 MB 550s, and 1 Bridger #3 dogless. I purchased peat moss, sheep's wool, a jar of RK's predator plus, Caven's violater 7 lure, and some red fox urine.
We placed coyote sets at various places along the wagon road where the coyotes could not access from the backside to work the set. 2" auger for the hole about a foot down. We bedded the traps about nine inches in front of the hole in a little peat moss, hammered them in using native dirt from the sides, covered with pan screening, packed with peat moss to cover, and then sifted native dirt over the top to hide and lightly brushed. I tried to manipulate any coyotes with sticks, dirt clods, and little rocks as seen on instructional videos. I used a teaspoon of RK's Predator Plus, a Q-tip amount of the Caven's lure on a stick, and a few squirts of the fox urine. Bait went down the hole with wool and lure was placed using a twig in the backing grass.
Day 1 Result - no coyotes, traps had not been messed with.
Day 2 Result - 4" of snow over night and freezing temperatures made me nervous. Now the sets were covered in snow. However, warmer rain was on the way so I just went back home and did not disturb anything.
Day 3 Result (today) - 3 of the 5 traps we set on the wagon road have been sprung. No hide or hair in any of them. 2 of them have tracks of some kind approaching them (too much snow has melted for me to be able to tell what it was), and one of the traps has zero tracks coming or going.
Can anyone tell me what they think may have happened? Can rain/snow pop sets if the pan tension is too loose? It has been freezing in temps the last 3 nights, but I'm just surprised they were tripped like that. All three of them were the MB-650s, which is ironic to me. I honestly don't know if an animal tripped them, or if they just sprung on their own. I would have thought there would have been more evidence of disturbance had an animal caused it, but I'm new at this.
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.
