# Last minute advice



## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

So the season starts this week, all traps are ready as well as everything else. So my question is does anyone haveany last minute advice for my first season?


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## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

Pretty much strait forward--- lay steel--- catch critters--- post pictures here on PT.lol.

What critters are you after?.

I will say--- for your land sets for K-9's--- take your time make'in the set and do a good job on it. One or two well made sets will make more catches than 10 sloppy ones.

Good luck and have a good season MMT.

awprint:


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

*Coyotes Can't Fly*

=Be patient #1. Yotes can travel a long long way. But like a good hunting dog it will eventually come back to where it started. This could take 1 day or 10. Most caches occur towards the latter half of that period.

=Be patient #2 Don't worry about human scent. The minute you make the set the yotes know you are there so get over it from the get go. Gloves don't help unless you need them to prevent cactus spikes and spines from penetrating your knuckles when your packing the set. But in time your scent will fade and your urine and lure will prevail! Be patient.

=Refresh If you make a dirt hole set refresh if it rains. But only refresh the urine.

=Use binoculars, Try to check as much as you can with binoculars. Old timers know a 3 day check is better than any 24 hour check. But since the law states 24 hour checks are the law it does not state you have to rattle the chain or wire! So improvise and use glass to make your checks.

=Now is a perfect time for Gang sets! Dispersal will be underway where you are. This means lots of confused pups getting their butts bitten by every adult in the USA. Often these pups will still be traveling together. So like a a carcass set, take the time to make gang sets. In other words that special location that you just know not one yote can pass up deserves more than one set, these are called a gang set's. Make the sets 10- 30 feet apart do not be afraid to set as many as 5-6 sets in a acre size area.


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## pokeyjeeper (Sep 5, 2013)

All great tips Larry I will add when your out on your line keep your eyes open for new sign and set it in my area all the wildlife movement changes as the crops go in and out of the fields and as the water sources change dry up freeze up good luck tite chains


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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

I'm going for bobcats, foxes, and coyotes primarily. Maybe badgers if I get lucky.


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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

Thank you guys for the great advice. I'm sure this first year will be full of embarrassing moments which I will be sure to share with you guys lol. And hopefully some good looking animals too.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Not embarrassment, learning. You'll do a few steps forward and two steps back. Then as the season grow your comfort level will grow with it. there are lots of fancy sets out there. Stay with basics, more critters are caught with buried bait hole and flat sets. Learn these so well you can make them in a couple of minutes,

These sets also will teach you where to set.

We are all here for you, the days of the silent trapper are long gone regarding advise. Except one thing, speak of you sets but don't brag about your total catches unless you own allot of land. The reason being is loose lips sink ships, If your catch is lets sat 15 yotes in one area and another guy is catching just 5 he will try to edge you out. Then their are trap thieves, most are slob deer hunters trying to add a few dollars to offset their expenses. Unless you a good drag man and your not yet! Any coyote will catch the eye of a hunter as it fights the chain.


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## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

Gotta disagree with ya on #2 Larry. Folks dye and wax their traps for a reason. Clean traps, clean tools and clean boots. I always set on sign in travel areas and don't want to wait till my scent "fades" from a set as an animal my be pass'in the set 30 minutes after its made.

awprint:


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

I am with Catcapper on this one... I've caught a few Fox back in the day, but my father caught a but load. He was a stickler about leaving human sent. Always dyed and waxed all his Fox traps, they were stored separately from the other traps. He had a separate trapping bag with tools just for Fox and coyote... A pair of gloves just for making sets and setting the traps. He didn't use the gloves for anything else...

Now Larry is a coyote trapper and I believe him...maybe it's where Larry traps that doesn't require him to be careful about leaving human sent... Ie: wide open plains where the wind blows constantly. Subzero temperatures and snow covered ground. And last but not least... starving coyotes lol.

If you're trapping back in the woods, and creeks that are shielded from the blowing wind...sent hangs around in my opinion.

Larry, can a ( Fox or Coyote) smell steel that is in the ground? Just wondering what you think.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Maybe back in the days when men were few and man's scent was new to all creatures it made a difference. I think that is what AZ alluded to. But I doubt that also, Indians never died or waxed, and they traded many pelts for blankets, salt, and other wares. Only when white trappers decided to go after beaver did he think beaver smelled man on a stick and thus the beaver left it alone because he smelled man. Then the white trapper thought my goodness they see the trap we better darken it, So he boiled his traps in leaves, second he tried bark and finally walnut hulls and the stories grew, If only the white trapper would of used the right stick this issue of human scent scaring critters may not of occurred. Indians used the right stick for bait and used castor and hardly missed a beaver.

Fact is if is dye and wax was so good then how can anyone ever snare anything? Why don't conibear or cage trappers use it? Last, I checked you hang a snare just under the yotes nose on a trail as he walks. You leave a giant cage of steel out and you have a critter. You put out 10lbs of #9 hardened wire and trigger made from hardened 14-gauge wire right in their face and the get a crushed neck on a critter. I know few who have boiled or waxed any of these. For good reason you wax a conibear and you break an arm. In fact, many trappers today are painting conibears.

Snares is what gets me the most as far as holding scent 99.9% are left untouched from the time the wire comes off the reel to the time its hung. Yet, when the ground freezes a trapper can lay out 1-300 and combined they will it outperform most steel line sets smothered in urine, boiled, dyed and waxed. Still that wire surrounds the critters head in 360 degrees and there is no escape from any breeze. Its chalked fool of scent because the 7-19 strands make up a bundle and then those strands are twisted into a rope. At least for a 7 x 7 snare. 1 x 19 is a tad less wrapping. None- the- less if man's scent is so prevalent how is it man can catch anything from that snare that is steel, full of human and factory scent and even twinkles on moonlit nights.

Yotes don't have their noses on all the time! They cannot! I have said this before! All canines have a poor brain in this regard. To be able to use sensory organs in parallel their neurological system would have to be more advanced. In fact, it would have to be so good they could reason, now if they could reason they would shop at grocery stores and even build them! Thus, they cannot have more than one sensory gland working in sync with the other senses Pavlov proved this over and over. Its time you stop tradition and just once look at scientific facts. If nothing more for the sake of the new hunters and trappers. Two, yotes are color blind and because of their lack of cones they can't see any better at night then man can.

Ill drop names of whom I consider consistent trappers. To me a consistent trapper can go into any new area and know he can catch the nuisance critter no matter the time of the year. Craig O'Gorman, Mark Steck, Slim Pedersen, Andy Weiser, Crt-R' Call maker fame Major Boddicker all are consistent trappers. I thought I was one also, but I admit I forgot so much the last two years, I doubt myself now. Many of the above have schools in summer, I would go to as many as I could afford if I was a trapper as these are in the field and hands on for two days to a week.

I have no school I just tell people like readers on here...Think, think about the big picture! One thing in this big picture is now-a-days that critters smell man everywhere except maybe in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge or places like that. But even in such a remote area man scents prevail IMHO. As airplanes fly over, explorers being slobs; abandon their goods, fires are made to stay warm, etc.

In fact, most have learned where man's scent is there is food to follow. I have been to the arctic circle and artic fox seem tame and walk right up to humans, but I doubt the ones we saw ever saw one. In Blair, Nebraska; red fox thrives in town and eat out of human hands and off porches. East of my house 2 miles a pair lives in an old abandoned farm. You all know the issue we have with urban coyotes. Now if these all feared human scent as much as trappers believe how do they ever adapt?


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## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

Easy there fella--- It wasnt a personal attack.

Just want to be sure MidMo has a good shot at fill'in his fur shed for his first season, and scent control is "important" when trap'in K-9's.

Heres what I got figured so far------->

* Sounds like Eric's dad was quite the fox trapper.

* Eric needs to spell butt with two T's.lol.

* Where anyone traps, (AZ) coyotes can detect human scent.

* Indians didn't "dye" and wax steel traps cause they didn't have them.

* Me and other snare hangers do boil the "oil" from the factory out of their snares for scent control--- above ground steel to a K-9 is a whole different conversation.

* Guess Pavlov proved a coyote cant walk and talk and chew gum at the same time----- a coyotes nose is on "ALL" the time.

* Lets see--- to be a top notch trapper, ya have to spread your name around the internet and sell lots of stuff to folks and tell'em your great.

Anyway--- clean traps, clean tools and clean boots will up the take on K-9's--- their far from stupid.

awprint:


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Fare enough Cat we both trap 180 apart. You the old way and me adjusting to modern times yotes and their habits. Now tell me since we both are respectable trappers who do well each season, who's right?

I suuppose the man that read this thread will have to decide what is best for him.

To prevent further confusion Ill man up and step aside if you post. No point in confusing anyone trying to learn.

BTW- I used to boil new *steel traps* to remove oil, I don't do that now especially since I have seen a few hundred yotes along the highway eating roadkill on asphalt road shoulders. Plus I have I have observed one licking something off the road. When I stopped and backed up there was a huge oil spot right next to where the coyote was licking a crushed vole.


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

LoL Catcapper... Yeah I need to get my eyes checked, and something larger than my phone to type on. 
My dad was good at fox trapping, but he was mostly a mink trapper. He wrote a book on mink trapping when I was like three. He taught me how to trap mink, muskrat, red fox, and raccoons when I was very young. I went with him on his trap line until I had my own in grade school. By fifth grade I had a friend helping me run my trap line... that year my dad drove us so I split up the profits, it was about $800 each. Anyway Larry I didn't intend to create a pissing match, just wanted your two cents worth. I should have been a little more specific when I said my father dyed and waxed all his Fox traps. All BUT the Conibear traps. NEVER WAX CONIBEAR TRAPS! Like Larry said If you want a broken arm wax them. Fox can smell steel and will dig up the trap... Maybe it's the steel or rust I don't know. But dyeing and waxing the trap doesn't hurt one bit. As far as a coyote trotting down a trail he uses on a daily basis in the dark and not smelling the snare that's hidden in the brush until it's to late... I don't know. I am not experienced enough in cage trapping to have an opinion about catching a coyote I one, I do know that I haven't seen a coyote track anywhere near a cage trap. ????


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Larry said:


> Two, yotes are color blind and because of their lack of cones they can't see any better at night then man can.


They may be colorblind... But the can't see any better than man @ night ????


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## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

I'll agree with ya there Larry. Mainly--- the reasoning behind my sarcasm in post #11 was to draw new trappers attention to the question on human scent and the effect it has or dose not have at a land set. Its up to the trapper to decide how he'll run his line.

I grew up a hard dirt trapper, so for me, its always gonna be--- the nose, knows--- clean traps, clean tools and clean boots take K-9's

awprint:


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

Cat I grew up the same. 3 decades ago I changed and have not looked back,. Just goes to show you the difference in style of trappers. I wish you "All" the best this season.


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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

First dirt hole set of my first season I guess we'll see how it does.


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Best of luck, MM, and hoping that any and all catches are your target animals and that they reward your efforts.


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## Larry (Dec 2, 2010)

MM...

I am posting my advise not to be mean or cruel. I am just pointing out its the little things that matter to me. These are my personal views and when it comes to trapping nothing is absolute. So please don't my advise you did anything wrong at all. I am posting this to change your odds of a catch when the yote investigates your set from 99.5% to 100%.

my critique....

One: I stopped the use of guide sticks as it confines canines. Guide stick work fine for raccoons but yotes don't like to be "obviously " herded. Here are my thoughts: The backing (log) will stop a rear approach just fine, visual hole and bait/lure will guide the yotes nose. Thus now all I have to do is guide the foot. To me its more critical guide the foot as again the nose and eyes will guide the yote. Thus when the yotes steps down make it uncomfortable and cause him to re-step. When you sift the clods from your sifter set them aside and pick out some nice 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch ones for guides. Place these near the near the jaws. This assures the critter paws will hit the pan and if he doesn't he'll fell discomfort on those sensitive pads. Don't ever use sticks or rocks foot guides as on occasion they get get in the jaws.

Second: think eye appeal. Yote's are used to see diggings from mice and mice/voles don't hold back when they spread dirt. So open up the leaves and let the yote see bare dirt.

Third: make trap bed a little deeper than the hole. Nothing beats a good step down for yotes in the woods.

Fourth: I can tell your trap is straight on to the hole per your guide sticks. We old timers have learned yotes are left handed per say. Not always but usually. This means when they go to lower their head for a sniff, they will put their left paw out for balance as they lower their head. Now if you take this rule and use it, you will learn to always offset the pan about 1-2 inches to the left and 9-10 inches or so from the hole. Your method works just fine so don't reset please. But be mindful on occasion you will get a foot throw as the paw hits the edge of the pan and the jaw together. Now between using guide clods and offsetting the pan to the hole, you help the yote foot hit the pan only almost every time.

Again I hope this doesn't offend you, that surely wasn't my intent. I just want you to increase your odds so much they are no longer odds they become expectations.

Regards,

Larry


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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

I didn't take any the wrong way and thank you for the great advice!


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

MidMo Trapper, how many traps are you running, and what are you trapping? Besides Fox. Larry said yotes ten times⬆... I imagine there's coyotes around as they are everywhere.

Don't forget to post some pictures of the fox when it's done.


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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

I have a dozen out now. I am trying to catch some bobcats and coyotes as well. I should have a picture of it soon. Where I'm trapping no one has ever trapped or called so I'd like to believe the critters are pretty uneducated lol.


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## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

Make a few cubby sets. That should up your chances on cats--- they'll take grays too. Cubby's tend to worry coyotes some---

We all want to see a picture of your smile this season when you catch your first cat.

awprint:


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## MidMoTrapper (Feb 14, 2017)

I will definitely share a picture of that lol


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