Here are the write ups that may help answer some of your questions (excerpts from last season's 20-21 Catch Thread, pages 3 and 7). The 550 traps would be the most economical for your application, being that you have so much land to trap. You could go with Duke, the budget choice or Minnesota Brand (MB), the premium selection.
There's a friend of mine that expressed interest a while back, so I wrote up a beginner's guide for him.
I've been learning about trapping for several years and started my first trapline a year ago. It took a while to accumulate all of the equipment that I'd need on a trapline. I have
trapsout on a neighbor's land and on Redstone. My buddy, who used to cut my grass said "take all of them you want" when I asked him on facebook if I could help with his coyote problems. There's 100 acres, but only about 20 are accessible by truck in the winter, 90% of the land is farming property and is too soft to drive on. I found out he owned land using the HuntStand app that shows parcel owner info.
When trapping, it's easiest to
traps nearby a dirt or gravel road so that you can quickly cruise through your line and see if anything has been caught.
Unintended targets are a part of the game. A skunk will clog up a set and you'll hafta try to get a
syringe close enough for a lung shot full of acetone. A half-buried skunk set would arouse some curiosity in a coyote. If it’s a bobcat out of season (Mar-Oct), then you can put a large
pan over them and
release their leg. Coons can also clog up a coyote set. There are so many of them, it wouldn't hurt their population to dispatch them then toss them into the woods or skin and tan them. Possums and raccoons are nest predators, so you’re doing the turkey population a favor in eradicating them from an area. Coyotes love decimating deer herds and neighborhood pets, so eliminating them to the best of your ability is a civic duty for responsible land managers.
The best way to make sets is using
knee pads or a
gardeners kneeling pad. You'll be down working in the dirt for a while, about 30 minutes per trap at first, and anything that you can do to be more comfortable helps. You want to use shoes that you only wear into the woods, never out in town/at a gas station. Coyote’s sense of smell (220 million olfactory senses) is nearly as good as a deer's (300 million olfactory senses) and you have to work hard to leave as little human scent as possible at a set. Most trappers use different gloves for bedding and handling a trap than they do for baiting. Gloves can save you from painful situations when the trap closes on your fingers, too. Coyotes are known to dig up traps if there's any scent left on them.
The equipment required to trap coyotes is rugged stuff. The traps have to be bedded properly, flush with or below the grade of the ground. You'll need a
cookie cutter or a
sod buster mini sledge hammer to dig the footprint of the trap out of the ground. Then, you compact the soil under the trap. You don't want the trap to rock to one side or the other or to press into the dirt when you're done bedding it. The coyote needs to be committed to placing its foot down on the pan of the trap.
To attach the trap to the ground, you can use rebar stakes or
cable stakes. I'm using Wolf Fang anchors attached to cable stakes. They are set into the ground using an
anchor driver. The trap and chain are attached to the anchor using
Minnesota Brand Crunch Proof Swivels,
Barrel Swivels, and
Quicklinks.
The coyotes are very strong and can wreck a
cheap trap or pull out of a trap.
Shock springs keep this from happening, they do just what it sounds like. Every time the coyote pulls, the shock springs absorb the energy. It reduces stress on your trap, the animal, and the staking device holding the trap to the ground.
Trap pan covers (screen or
latex) go over the trap pan or you can use some
polyfill/pillow fluff to go under the trap pan. It's important to keep the area under the pan clear of clay, dirt, mud, or rocks. The pan should release the jaws of the trap with 3-4 lbs of pressure and anything in the way of the pan traveling downward will prevent the trap from firing. To cover the trap, you'll need a
dirt sifter. It helps to carry a 2-gallon bucket of
peat moss to cover the traps with, as it’s light, absorbs moisture well, and won't clog up the jaws of the trap when it shuts.
While checking traps, it's state law to carry a
catch pole/choke stick. Stray dogs and vultures may clog a trap and are easier to release using a choke stick. It's for releasing non target animals.
It may be easier in your area to call coyotes in using
electronic game calls and shoot them when they get within range, using a shotgun or rifle. Trapping equipment can get expensive and it's a daily responsibility to check and clear any traps. There are so many homes around me that it's not an option to predator hunt. If you have pets, they may get caught a few times before they learn a lesson about suspicious smells.
Once you have the trap bedded and anchored, you'll want to bait your hole, pipe, or tire. For dirt hole sets, you want to have backing to make the animal funnel into an area that the trap is hidden inside of. I use logs that I find in the woodline for backing, but sometimes you can use grass clumps. I try to place the trap 9" in front of the hole and 3" to the right, and left sometimes. It helps to have your trap off-center from the hole in order to have it aligned to attach to the leg of a coyote.
One
bait and 2 lures is the standard for baiting sets. I use Elk River Lures, No BS Lures, Caven’s and Pro Line. The bait works best when it's applied to some
sheep's wool. It causes the coyote to get curious and dig it out of the hole, pipe, or tire. Coyotes think that dirt holes are where mice are hidden or where a fox has buried a nice snack for later.
The
limit for inside jaw spread on a leg-hold trap in Alabama is 6". The K.O. K9 Xtreme traps are more than 6" unless you order them with inside and outside laminations. The lamination is just a small gauge wire that is welded to the contact surface on the jaws of a trap. It spreads the pressure over a larger area of the coyote's leg. They call jaw type traps leg-hold traps. The more springs on a trap, the faster they shut but they also become harder to set. If you were in Kansas or the Midwest, where the coyotes are huge and powerful then 4-spring traps may be best. A 4-coil trap also breaks icy ground better than a 2-spring trap for those who live in icy climates. But, our coyotes in Alabama are smaller, our weather is warm and a 2-spring trap is usually plenty. The K.O. K9 Xtreme would need to be inside and outside laminated, 2-coil, with offset jaws, if you decide on those. The 550 traps are best with offset jaws, 2-coil. The offset jaw will let blood flow to the foot of the animal, they're easier to release non-target animals from without lasting effects. If you were on a ranch where there were no non-target animals, like housecats, then a closed jaw trap would hold the coyote better.
A good trap with laminations, swivels, and shock springs won't hurt animals that get hung up in them. Snares are illegal in Alabama for that reason. Snares are the best way to trap coyotes but they're indescriminatory and will kill anything that gets hung in them, like chihuahua's and housecats. Trapping coyotes in leghold traps is extremely difficult. You have to make sets (dirt hole, T-bone, pipe dream, tire, and urine post) to trick the yote into stepping on a 3" x 3" area (the trap pan), whereas if you set snares, you can place them where coyotes travel. They're cruising the woods and all of a sudden they're hung and choke to death.
Recipe for SuccessStep 1. Identify coyote sign or paths of travel
a) Coyote scat usually has hair in it, rabbit or other. It’s K9 and about the size of what a beagle would leave.
b) Coyote footprints are K9, with a 3-point pad with 2 toes directly over the top of it and 1 toe to each side of the tightly spaced inner toes.
c) Paths that coyotes frequent are road junctions, where 2 or more roads meet. The more roads that converge the better. Whereas deer are known to stick to the inside corners of fields, coyotes stick to the outside points. If there is a peninsula of woods that reaches out into a field, a coyote can more quickly move through the field and browse that point. Coyotes are constantly focused on covering ground. Gates, roads, pass-throughs, or points of woods that reach out into fields are excellent trap setting locations. Coyotes travel in a similar fashion to the way water flows, they follow the paths of least resistance. Coyotes enjoy ridges to look down from atop on deer and other small game.
Step 2. Identify the location for the trap.
a) A natural ‘V’ shape in the terrain will make the coyote funnel to the bait. When you can control where they coyote is stepping, there’s a much higher likelihood of him stepping on your trap pan.
b) Flat sets are used when there aren’t any natural contours available to funnel the animal. A log with some urine on it can be placed out into the open with a trap 3”-12” away, in the walking path of a passing coyote.
c) Backing will keep the coyote approaching the bait from the direction you choose. Backing, found in nature, can be made of a large tuft of grass either growing or gathered up, a dead limb/log, a rock that’s too big to be moved by the coyote, or any structure that has been sitting for a while.
Step 3. Digging the trap bed
a) The tools needed include a hammer, sod cutter, bucket of peat moss (2-3 gal), and dirt sifter
1. Lay the trap where it will sit back from the bait 9” and either 3” to the left or 3” to the right, a pinky to thumb measurement works for this, then estimate 3” to one side or the other. Traps can be placed on each side, then another trap 18” back if gang setting for ‘trap smart’ coyotes.
2. Visualize the footprint of the trap. Take the sod cutter, a sod buster hammer or digging trowel, and removed enough dirt so that the trap can lay in the trap bed and be at or just below the grade of the dirt around the trap bed.
3. Pack the dirt in the trap bed with the hammer so that the trap bed is firm. This will prevent the trap from moving if the coyote steps on the jaws of the trap and not the trap pan.
4. In cases where heavy rain or freezing ground is expected, make a small void under the trap where water can collect. This will allow the pan to be up out of the ice or water. Be sure to leave a lip around the void where the trap jaws can rest to keep the trap from rocking.
5. The depth of the shelf for the levers to rest on will determine how far into the trap bed that the jaws will sink.
6. Take the dirt from the trap bed that was dug out and place it in a dirt sifter. This will be used to shake over peat moss and/or poly fill to blend the trap with the natural surroundings.
Step 4. Set an anchor in the ground
a) The tools needed include a cable stake and anchor driver or a double rebar bracket and 2 x 24” lengths of rebar, a mini sledge, and a long handled sledge for dry ground (optional)
1. A cable stake driver needs the channel for the anchor to be cleaned prior to attaching it and driving it in the ground. Pound the stake into the ground so that it sticks up less than 3”. For double rebar stakes, hammer them in a criss-crossing (X pattern) 45 degree angle.
2. Yank the stake puller out of the ground. Hard ground may require a long handled sledge be wedged under the stake driver to pry it up with leverage. Muddy ground may require hammering the stake in another time as it could pull out with the driver, same as it went in.
Step 5. Attach a quicklink, 3/16”-5/16” from the trap to the anchor
a) Crank down on the quicklink once it’s tightened to prevent easy theft of the trap, by animal or human.
b) Pull on the anchor to set it horizontally deep within the ground. The coyote may take off with the trap, cable stake, and anchor if it isn’t set and the ground is really muddy.
Step 6. Bed the trap
a) Set the trap, if it wasn’t already set, and place it down in the trap bed
b) Use 2-3 scoops of peat moss to mound on the trap pan
c) Smear the mound out around the jaws of the trap
d) Put your fingers in the levers and pull up the trap to allow the peat moss to get under the trap jaws
e) Mash the trap down in the trap bed and repeat the process of mounding peat moss and pressing the jaws into the trap bed until the trap doesn’t rock when one side is pressed on
f) Alternate method is to cover the trap with short grass clippings enough to camouflage the jaws, levers, and pan
g) Alternate bedding material to peat moss is poly fill (pillow or quilt fluff) under the trap pan to keep dirt from resting under the pan and preventing downward travel of the pan
h) Sift dirt taken from the hole made for the trap bed over the trap. Be sure not to get any dirt clods or rocks inside the jaws of the trap. Any hard material that gets hung in the levers or jaws can prevent the trap from closing fully.
Step 7. Make a bait source
a) Baited sets include the dirt hole (most common), pipe dream, tire, T-bone, and walk through
1. The dirt hole set is a hole 12”-18” deep at a 45 degree angle, dug away from the direction of your trap. The angle of the hole forces the coyote to stand where your trap is to look down into it. The depth of the hole is important because it will dictate how long the coyote will be trying to reach the bait in the bottom of the hole. The longer that you can keep a coyote working your set, the better your odds are at catching it. Dirt holes can flood in swampy areas, requiring rebaiting after heavy downpours.
2. The pipe dream set is a pipe at a 45 degree angle, leaning away from your trap. You may want to hammer the 8”-10” long section of Schedule 40 PVC before setting your trap. The pounding on the ground only 9” away from your trap may make the trap snap shut. The pipe has a hole for drainage drilled 3” from the top on the side closest to the ground. This hole lets rain come out and it helps vent the smell of bait out into the air around the trap. This set is very rain and ice resistant, coupled with a void under the trap and grass clippings over the trap.
3. The tire set is a tire laid around a trap. With the trap in the middle the coyote has to step into it to see the bait placed in the tire. This is a good rain proof set because the bait won’t get washed out like it can in a dirt hole.
4. The T-bone can be a box turtle shell, cow vertebra, or any bone that might be found in nature. The white color makes for great eye appeal. By smearing lure on the T-bone, or placing it inside of the box turtle shell, the goal is to make the coyote spend time investigating the attractant. The bone or shell needs to have a large spike driven through it to prevent a coyote from carrying it off and chewing on it. You may have to drill a hole in a turtle shell, most cow bones have natural holes to drive a spike through.
5. The walk through set is a dirt hole set with the bait in a dirt hole with backing placed behind it on one side and the lure placed in a smaller hole, made by the anchor driver, on the other side. The idea is to arouse curiosity in a coyote to get him to walk between your bait and lure. This is a flat set.
b) Urine Post sets
1. A urine post is any piece of wood that absorbs urine placed nearby a trap. It is a flat set because it looks the same as the ground around it. The coyote instinctively want to leave its scent on top of other coyote, fox, or bobcat urine. Gland lures from predators work as well. During deer season, the smell of coyote or bobcat urine may frighten away deer. This is when fox urine is the go-to choice. Backing for urine posts can be the corner of fenced area or logs placed at road junctions. If you have backing, it puts the coyote on the side of the set where your trap will be waiting.
a) A urine post set can be made by hammering a skinny limb, 2 x 4, or 1 x 1 into the ground.
b) Urine post sets can be made by placing some coyote scat and spraying it with gland lure or urine
c) Urine posts can be made on the edge of a large log
Step 8. Camouflage the area and make the set look natural
a) While you can place clods of dirt or rocks adjacent to the side of the set that the trap is on, don’t work too hard to funnel a coyote. They’re extremely skittish and can easily get frightened by an area that doesn’t look natural. If the smallest thing is out of place, they’ll take a hike.
b) Use step sticks to keep the coyote funneled toward the ‘V’ of the set location, where the narrow portion is your bait. If the coyote can run circles around your trap set, he’s taking more steps that aren’t in the general area of your trap. If his nerves are focusing his movement toward your bait, then there’s a much greater chance that he’ll wind up on your trap pan.
Step 9. Let the trap hunt
a) Traps hunt 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
b) Control any interference with the trap set by limiting human scent around the set
c) Check to be sure the traps aren’t sprung after heavy rains because a sprung trap could educate a coyote. Trap smart coyotes are nearly impossible to catch.
Step 10. Check traps daily
a) State law requires 24-hour trap checks. Try not to trap out on a busy road where the anti-trappers will get fuel for their squawking about how cruel it is trap animals. Dispose of the carcass where people won’t think there’s a serial domestic dog killer stacking victims. Within 4-6 months, nature does the job of recycling the coyote back into the habitat.
b) You don’t need a trapping license to trap your own property or to nuisance trap. The license allows you to sell fur. Fur sales are down drastically, making skinning, fleshing, and drying of hides a hobby and no longer a profession for southern trappers. Southern furs are much smaller and less full than those from wide open ranges and mountainous regions. US sentiment for fur trapping is mostly negative nowadays. And, world powers are battling recession, making their (China and Russia) fur purchases scarce.
c) State law requires a catch pole to release non-target critters. If it’s your property, then all critters may be target animals. I have caught 3 domestic dogs over the past year, they eventually learn to avoid strange smells in trap sets.
d) Bury or burn coyotes with mange. Mange is an awful disease that makes animal’s hair fall out and they freeze and/or starve to death. It can be passed by carcasses. Coyotes can get rubbed on their back, mange is more noticeable as large patches of hair will be missing.
Step 11. Dispatch, avoid entering the catch circle
a) A bat is the simplest tool to use to dispatch with, it is over in a second. One or more strikes directly on top of the head will be lights-out. An axe handle also keeps you at a safe distance. A strike or 2 to the throat to collapse the wind pipe can insure that you don’t get bitten. A boot on the lungs for a minute, to force all air out and none back in can prevent the coyote from recovering from dispatch. Viper blowguns with razor darts are just as quiet.
b) Ammo is in short supply, but during normal times a 22 short is the most preferred method by some trappers. A shot through the chest, just behind the armpit will stop the pump station and result in minimal bleeding.
c) A luggage scale is helpful in weighing catches
d) Once dispatched, you can determine the sex of the coyote
Step 12. Trapper’s Log
a) A log book, or app is good to keep track of lures and baits used, set types, catches, and trap set locations. Analyzing data over time can identify proven techniques that work for your area.
Step 13. Trapper advocacy and political activism
a) Trapping is a dwindling skill that deserves to live on. Pass on old equipment, mentor youth or budding trappers when possible. Our country owes a great debt to the hardworking trappers that settled these once wild lands. If anyone questions your authority to trap predators, let them know Our Creator is our authority. Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””
b) Join your state trapper’s association,
www.ATPCA.org. Without support for trapper's rights, the anti's will eliminate trapping. Start local and expand from there in supporting trapper's rights.
c) If inclined, join the Nat’l Trapper’s Association,
www.NationalTrappers.com
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