I'm about to start buying traps and was wondering the best size traps for trapping coyotes & bobcats. Should I buy a startup kit? IF so, I also need to know best deal to get everything I will need. I dont want to buy a bunch of stuff I'll never use. I tend to do that a lot. Thanks in advance.

There was a thread on here last year that compared traps. Mainly MB 550’s vs. K9’s. Good civil discussion on pro’s and con’s of each. I forgot the title but maybe you can find it in a search.

The other guys on here are a lot more experienced than me so let them chime in. I like to go as wide as I can and be legal in Alabama. PM North40R and see if he has any equipment for sale. He had some beginner packages for sale in the past.

MB 550's have been wearing them out for years. I also like bridger dogless for ease and price.

Planning to run my first line this weekend and have all of $50 invested. Bought two Duke #3 traps, anchor rods, and a sifter from Bass Pro Shop and got a 5 gallon bucket shovel, gloves, and plastic bag from the hardware store. Planning to use dog food as bait which was recommended if you're in an area where the yotes usually raid local dog food pans. Figured since I'm just getting started and really just looking to thin the herd, I didn't want to drop a fortune on it. Plenty of tips on youtube.

That's about the speed I'm ready to be at. I'm probably going same route tomorrow on traps If I like it Ill go bigger. .

I’d rather have just a few good quality traps, like the MB560s, rather than dozens of the lower quality traps. Spend your time and $ doing best you can on good quality sets. Just my opinion

I thought the same way to start with. Bought duke traps. 1st catch pulled the jaw and got away. So then bought laminating rods and went to welding. Laminated all them, Buble welded the ends and spent quiet a bit of time adjusting on them. Now there pretty good traps but do yourself a favor and buy MB550s or somthing that's ready to go.

Great advice from everyone. Since two traps seems to be too few to do any damage, I'll probably keep those Dukes and add a couple more quality traps, like the MB550's or 650's that you guys recommend. Didn't have any luck last weekend, but only kept the traps out overnight and could see paw print around one of them. Didn't want to leave them out longer if I couldn't check them,, but plan to keep them out longer over youth turkey weekend. Saw a lot of info online about placing a membrane of some kind over the pan to keep dirt out from under it. Anyone have any advice on that. Also the degreasing and dyeing aspect was something I (nor my old lady for that matter) had anticipated, but did it!

If your going to buy more traps and want to get quality at a good price I'd look into the K9 extremes. They're the best built traps for the money.

The easiest and simplest way to prevent dirt from filling in under your pan is with polyfil. It's pillow stuffing and you can buy it anywhere for cheap. Stick you a gallon Ziploc of it in your bucket and that one bag will make dozens of sets.

I started with the Duke trap and learned real quick they are cheap for a reason. I think I have a couple of everything but the K9 which I have seen and they are solid traps so they are on my wish list. Of all the traps I have used I liked the Bridger dogless the best. The dogless traps are much easier to set for me.

Cahaba,

You can buy pre-cut screen wire pan covers from Field & Stream in Hoover if you just need something quick to keep dirt from getting under the pans. You can even cut a piece of wax paper from the pantry the size of your trap jaws. Wad it up several times to wrinkle it to make it quiet and you can make those work in a pinch. Like Hank said polyfill is good too. I don’t mind showing you what little I know if you are around Hoover. All my stuff is set our right now though. One thing that took me a long time to figure out was how to bed traps around here without them moving any. Our soil makes it tough sometimes. Take some extra time and get the bedding right for every set. Simple concept that I have to keep in mind every set.