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Author
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Topic: tRAPPING
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InjunJoe
unknown comic
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posted July 07, 2005 11:46 AM
I ran into a trapper and asked him a million questions. A couple days went by and I started wonder and I know somebody here would have a good answer.
The trapper said that he when he runs his trap line that he often sees coyotes run off when he gets near his trap. He said that this is a pretty good sign that he caught a coyote. He said lots of times when he traps a coyote another coyote will hang around. He also said that if he didn’t catch a coyote that it was just a matter of time before he would have caught the one he sees running away. He said sometimes he will be resetting a trap after he catches a coyote and see another one off in the distance watching him. He said all this doesn’t happen all the time but enough. He said that some coyotes just can’nt be cought but they sometimes hang around because of the lure he puts out.
This started me wondering. What if he stopped short of his trap before he got there and tried blowing on a call? Wouldn’t this be a good thing to do to get more coyotes because if they were’nt trapped yet they would come in because they were still hanging around a trapped coyote or the lure brought them in and they just were’nt trapped yet?
I guess my question is would it be would it be good to go with a trapper and call along his trap line?
My second question would be is this something they do anyway or is it one of those things you’re not supposed to ask?
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Melvin
Knows what it's all about
Member # 634
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posted July 07, 2005 01:47 PM
Joe,I can answere part of you're question..coyotes will hang around when you got one of the group in a trap,especially if you take a female while she is still in heat...The male will often stay around for a few days...I reset the trap and let the site stay as it were,when she was caught(with a small skift of snow,makes it all that much better)...usually 2 to 4 days later i often catch the male...I can only speak about the eastern coyote,'they will hang around the caught coyote for a while,but once you remove it from the trap,they generally leave,unless it was a female in heat'...As for trying to call the coyote hanging around the trapped one,i have no idea if it would work or not...Maybe this season i will give it a try and let you know.
Posts: 661 | From: PA. | Registered: Apr 2005
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 07, 2005 04:28 PM
Injun Joe, I think we touched on this subject somewhere around here recently.
For my part, if a location is worth stopping for, it's worth putting in 2 or 3 different sets in aprox. a 50 square yard area. If I make a catch, I still have sets open for more guests. Even after removing an animal from one set, a urine post set 20 to 50 yards away can tempt the ones that circle.
I'm no expert trapper by any means but I have learned that a couple of seasons trapping will teach you more about finding sign and reading it than you would belive.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7672 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted July 07, 2005 04:50 PM
Back when I really trapped a few here and there, I quickly learned to gang set for coyotes. That first few minutes after the trap grabs him is like all hell has broken loose. And that caught coyote raising hell is better than any lure at the set. Pack mates, neighbors, they all come to see what the commotion is all about. I usually set three traps in a triangle pattern and hope that I have one upwind of the caught dog because the lurkers will circle the coyote in the trap. Only takes one snowfall to figure that one out. I've seen them do the same thing on bobcats in traps. There was one place I managed to score several doubles each season and the occasional triple. (Each being defined by me as being able to get the 2 or 3 in the same picture frame.)
Nothing gets your adrenalin going like rounding a bend or topping a hill and seeing three coyotes flopping around fighting your traps. It's pure music!
As far as calling along the trapline, I know very few trappers who have the time for that luxury. Running a line is time consuming and an all-day project, not counting skinning and fur put up. When you start running the first string before sun up, hit the lost trap around 5 pm, and spend the evening in the fur shed skinning, fleshing and stretching fur until 11 or 12 midnite, adding another hour or two to the day just doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Spend some time with a serious trapper and you'll find three things. 1) You'll see a man that loves what he does enough to do it and still not make much an hour. 2) You'll learn more about the animal you seek than in any other way. And, 3) if done right, you'll learn what hard work is about. The anti's play trappers off publicly as lazy. Far from it. It's hard, nasty work at times.
[ July 07, 2005, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted July 07, 2005 05:49 PM
If an area looks good enough for me to make one coyote set, it's pretty rare that I don't make at least two sets. Many times I'll have 3-4 sets in the same general area.
I only use one trap per set, but I may use multiple sets in a 100 yard area. Some may be just simple pee posts 25 yards from my main set, others may be a blind set trap on a trail where the brush narrows down.
My main sets tend to be flat sets, I used to make a lot of dirtholes, but this sandy AZ ground just doesn't do well with them.
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Melvin
Knows what it's all about
Member # 634
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posted July 07, 2005 06:24 PM
Cdog,..Did you ever track a coyote that pulled your stakes or earth anchor?...If that coyote is with a family group,they will do unbelievable stunts to protect it from danger...Last fall,we lost one that was double staked and i learned just how smart they really are in 4 hours of tracking,than most learn about them in a year...What amazed me most was,one of them always taking the lookout position and the rest running all over the place to throw us off the trail of the one with the trap on its foot...We never did get the coyote,they led us into thick stuff that only something there size could get through...I do gang set,depending on sign and location...The Trap this coyote got away with,was a 4 coil no.3 montgomery,modified...But the experience was worth it.
Posts: 661 | From: PA. | Registered: Apr 2005
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 07, 2005 06:39 PM
Tim, have you ever tried one of those 'Speedy' dirt hole punches?
Pound it in, give it a twist, pull out a small 'core sample'. I've had good results with one in sand washes.
My 'go to' set is a couple of dirt holes about 18 inches apart against a low backing. Trap centered, out about 8 to 10 inches. Jaw gaurd turd with urine on the outside. Gland lure in hole #1.....change up smell in hole #2. Makes a decent trail set too.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7672 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted July 07, 2005 06:54 PM
Melvin,
I had one break a chain once and ran a half-mile north, under I-70, alongside the highway and into a drainpipe from the road overpassing the highway. Pretty much a straight line and all by itself. I sat at the bottom along the higway with my pistol conventiently hiudden behind my leg as I waved at the nice people driving by. When it was "all clear", my brother shot the coyote in the ass with a roman candle from the topside and when I saw "nose" at the bottom, I shot. As soon as the next cars got by, I reached in, grabbed my coyote and ran through the snow to the topside so no one would go by and think I'd just killed my dog.
The secodn time was right on the heels of a terrible snowstorm. Not a white out, but danged close. Sub-zero and fifty mile an hour north winds. Cooooooooold. He, too, broke the chain and I followed him for a mile and a half thru snow, down into a creek channel and along the frozen creek. Had it not been for the occasional scratch on the bare ice left by the scuff on the trap, I'd have lost him. I found a place where he busted a drift and went topside on me. I cleared the top with Mini-14 in hand and found him tangled up in a small cluster of trees. he'd managed to wedge a hegdepost through the jaws of the trap with equal amounts on each side acting like a drag. If he'd tried to back out of those trees just once, the race would have been on again. I hung him in a tree, walked the mile and a half back to the truck and by the time I drove around closer and went to get him, he was frozen solid. He was a loner, too.
Sounds like the experience you had would have been interesting, but I was more concerned about freezing to death more than learning. ![[Smile]](smile.gif) A couple years before that, in the same area, one of my classmates' grandparents got turned around in a white out and she found them dead in their car while searching on horseback. Hard not to think about that while I was searching for my trap.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Jrbhunter
PAYS ATTENsION TO deTAIL
Member # 459
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posted July 18, 2005 04:50 AM
Kok, are you describing a walk through set or are you using TWO traps in that one?
I agree, if it's bedding, staking, luring and checking ONE trap it's worth doing TWO or THREE. I set groups not only in hopes of a double but to prevent me from having downtime in an area after a catch... if I catch a single I will still have the other traps ready to go once I remove that trap and it's animal. Just a more efficient way to trap in my book... saves me a lot of time and catches me some animals I would've missed.
Posts: 615 | From: Indiana | Registered: Dec 2004
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 18, 2005 05:49 AM
Jrb; One trap to the set, two to three sets to the location. The double dirthole (walk thru) as my main set, and a scent post & flat set nearby. I've also been known to use Delmar Kramer's post hole set. I'm not into trapping for the money, so I can spend extra time building different sets. However, if a coyote visits my set I want him waiting for me in the morning. I get very few misses with the double dirthole. The coyote working that set has to shift it's feet several times to smell everything offered.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7672 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Jrbhunter
PAYS ATTENsION TO deTAIL
Member # 459
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posted July 18, 2005 10:21 AM
Yes, that is a very good execution of the walk through set and it's an excellent percentage set as well.
When it comes to holding coyotes I like to use aircraft cable... I played in the dirt enough as a kid! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Really, the Dirthole set is my bread and butter when I bed a K-9 set.
Posts: 615 | From: Indiana | Registered: Dec 2004
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