had Austin and another young fella, Drew, helping in the yard saturday. put Drew to picking up pine cones and sticks and sent Austin on his way to pulling the six traps we had out.

i boiled, dyed and then waxed them. they are still hanging on the barn porch.

hit the main logging road and made a urine set. turned onto another road and made a dirt hole set. then went down the paved road to access one of our gates. about 200 yards inside the gate, we made another urine set and a couple hundred yards past that, we made another dirt hole set.

i checked them sunday and Pete's been checking them the remainder of the week.

early this morning, he received a text message. a hunting club member discovered a coyote in the urine set on the main logging road. what he didn't say at that time was that he took care of it.

Pete headed over there a little after ten this morning. he said no facial picture so this is all i have:


boy yote

One otter and one beaver was all I had today. Land line was still dead.

nothing again. I thought I had a canine but it was a solid nope. At 430 this afternoon, I heard something start yipping and carrying on in the direction of one of my sets. It went on for a while, long enough that another guy on the club texted me to make sure I heard it. Had my hopes up for nothing.

All empty sets for me again today. Set 6 more dp coon traps, 4 drowner sets and one more conibear. If the coyotes don't move back in by tomorrow night I'm going to pull the land line.

Empty. Moved some conibears around. I'm pulling mine Tuesday. Gonna reset after christmas.

Finally got a few set this afternoon. Maybe will have some pictures tomorrow. Y'all are doing a good job on them from the looks of it. Keep up the good work.

Well the hunting club called an said they think the trapping is pressuring the deer hunting, so I guess I'm done till February 1st.

Typical club. Want the cake and icing both.

That's the way they all are Rusty!

One coyote this morning for me.

Well I'm in the club. So the service is free. But I'm just shutting my mouth and not rocking the boat cause it's too good of a deal for me to pass up and I'm the new guy.

Smart man.

I know folks are different but if it was me they wouldn't get anymore free trapping from me. Now if they will let my membership be paid for in exchange for trapping then I'd trap on their terms if not then they'd have to pay me to trap anymore.

I probably should have rephrased that. I'm in the club to hunt, but decided this year to start/learn trapping. So they're gonna get some goodie out of it but it wasn't a part of the deal. Just wish some of them would realize that I was being(or trying to be) very conscientious about the hunting. I only had a few land sets out and they were in locations I could check from the truck while driving in to hunt.

So I'll be living vicariously through ya'll for a month, so don't let me down It'll also let me work on some things that I've noticed on the traps that id like to tinker with, like long trigger travel on my conibear and pan tensions.

First set I got to this morning was interesting.

Can you see him?

Not what you expect to find in the water on Dec. 22nd.

Had 3 possums.




And an otter.

True, IF your trapping for a club AND catching coyotes in good numbers THEY should be , at the least giving you a FREE Membership. I DONT TRAP for free, even if its for family, that 1 of my few trapping rules!

Good Job.

As soon as I got a little more confidence in myself and abilities it's gonna be my rule as well.

Then you'll find yourself without a place to hunt or trap! Lol!

Don't get too big for your britches is all I'm saying. I've got more traps than I have land to set them on and I still pay club dues and look for places to trap.

People love to bitch about coyotes but when it comes down to pulling out their wallet they'd rather have the coyotes than pay for someone to remove them.

I get paid just enough to justify calling my trapping a business. It's hard, dirty, stinking work and most of the time the only benefit is your personal enjoyment.

Dont get me wrong YOU HAVE to be good enough to produce the numbers! IF your working you way to catching more THEN honsetly you have no bussiness charging, BUT when you start to catch good numbers THEN its OK to charge for it! I get what your saying on the = Bitching BUt not wanting to pay for a Pro Trapper. BUt when I was young my selling point was this = IF you have 11 people on 1100 acres whats 1 more going to matter Pressure wise???? Being the 12th man in this situation is NOT going to break them and you remove the coyotes at NO cost to the club!