Dang Archeryguy, I would rather trap in Louisiana also if I had all of that to deal with.

Mark, two seasons ago when I started chasing coyotes there where so many decisions on equipment and procedures that had to be worked out. One of the first was how to get a set to take rain. Not only function, but not leave voids and or show the out line of the trap in the pattern. One of the things I tried was steel screen. It failed. Sand would wash through the screen leaving the above mentioned problems, and some times render the trap inoperative. So the screen went into the shed.

Fast forward to this season. One thing that had been a problem for me was that several properties that I trap have no bare dirt, its all sod. I like the efectivness of a dirt hole as much as the next guy, but I also feel like a certain amount of randomness in set type and construction is needed to keep the coyotes on there toes. Then I saw an artical or post by you, on your set and decided to give the screen another go. This time, in these sod areas I used the screen and covered with the trap with grass clippings. I was even able to keep my sets walk through sets by using my sheers to trim the entrance and exit of my set. You gave me another tool! Now I could be random and use t bones, bait sticks, poke holes, little mouse holes with a little dirt drug out over the grass clippings. The variations are endless. Then it occurred to me I hadn't tried the pipe. I have sense tried and liked laying pipe:].

Another advantage of the screen and clipping method is the ability to make the set exactly where it needs to go. Weather it is bare dirt or thick grass and not be restricted to one method.

Mark, I'm sure I've missed this but I'll ask..I've read your articles on the way you bed a trap, if the ground is froze solid how are you pounding in a trap, by this I mean when you chip out your trap bed in frozen ground how are you keeping the trap snug and not allowing it to freeze in?

When I chip a bed out in frozen ground I can't come close getting it the shape or size of the trap...I pretty much just bed the trap the conventional way at this point.....

Thanks

Frozen ground is a game changer! But, the GOOD NEWS? If frozen solid, you probably DON'T need the super-deep bed I dig to keep ground and rain water from touching the trap, and potential, fouling its function.

First, I OFTEN am going back to sets I made in the fall on the same farms, and putting traps back in the old bed I dug earlier in the year.

Still, that is always an option for any of us.....I use my pulaski to CUT four square sides to form my "box"-shaped bed. Then, I get on my knees and chip away at that out line with my digger hammer. It's never perfect like it can be in the fall, but I make it work. If you have gaps between jaws and edge of bed, just fill in with the frozen chunks you have laying around if the voids require filling....

Usually, even if frozen, if I put my butt into the hammer, I can manipulate the soil enough to pinch it up tight, but its never as good as in the soft ground.

Winter and frozen ground change everything. The good news is I think you can get away with some things in the winter that might cause issues in the fall. Coyotes simply respond better and don't seem standoffish as much, or at all, in the winter. Just get as many traps operative as you can.

I've checked traps this past winter and felt at the end of the check that NONE or very few were operative. Mostly due to blowing and snow drifts. Get out of the truck, grunt and cuss, grab broom, and clean it off. Repeat all day. Repeat every day.

I swept so much snow this year I believe I will try out for the US Olympic Curling Team!

MZ

Thanks Mark

We are supposed to get rain almost every day from now until the 16th or so. I'm going to pop in some traps on a few spots and will use exclusively pipe style sets.

Here, when we get this much rain, you can literally set your trap, place it where you want to bed it (without digging a hole) and use the balls of your feet to squish the trap into the ground. Just line the balls of your feet up with the spot where the jaws, levers, and frame all come together. Bounce on it a few times, fill between the jaws with peat, and cover over with ground litter from the area around the set. If you get enough rain that all the holes are filling up, it saves you some time. But again, its all for naught if you aren't setting on sign to begin with!

And don't worry about a remake, the spot will be a mudhole and you'll need to move anyways.

This was a game cahnger for me. I seen Marks demo at Minktoberfest last october. 2 things were "Aha" moments, one was the pulaski, #2 was the grass clippings. I bought a pulaski axe at harbor freight for $20, it keep me putting in new sets when I couldn't break the soil with my digger. Our ground here gets too hard for a hammer, but not too hard for the pulaski. Even got a special holder just for the pulaski!




The grass clippings aka haylage was awesome too. I trap a lot of pasture and man you can really blend in a set in with some grass clippings. So Thanks Mark. I am now the weirdo out in my front yard shoving grass clippings in a burlap sack in the dead of summer as the neighbors drive by!

I've had that same Pulaski longer than I've had my wife Gina!

In "Dynamite Fox Trapping" Tom Krause says: "I'd rather make sets without my pants than without my broom".

Well, that applies to me and my Pulaski!

MZ

I'm telling Gina you like your broom better than her.

She'd believe that!

Ha!

MZ

The Pulaski is one tool I don't have, and I made a chisel for that frozen ground once. It's a time consumer. I think I'll add that to my tool collection.

Hey Les, get one of your cougars to get you one for your birthday!

Good idea !

Well, It looks like I was over thinking it a bit. It rained most of the day and I still was able to get some sets out in good locations. Not as many as I would have liked, but I can add a couple each check until its all covered. There were pipe, bait stick, and some t-bone sets here and there. There were also a couple of poke holes full of bait, and a couple turd sets, but no dirt holes today. With any luck there will be a mud ball or two waiting for me in the morning.

Yep, flat sets are the money maker. Try to put them on high spots, I have an endless supply of bent aluminum arrows (another story) I cut em in six inch length and fold an inch or so over to hold lure. Stick it in ground, grass or whatevers handy. The zagger bedding is the most important thing. Good luck

Snares. Flat sets. Remake with debri walk thru mound sets.. or make one big mound an dthe the trap side.. killer.. snares work no matter what. And you should be able to put at least a dz snares in an HR. Set and go.

Blee, my front yard is an archery range and at every target there is a bundle of busted and split carbon arrows. That is a great way to repurpose my old shafts. I like it!

Tigerland, no snares here. To many domestics.

I've caught more domestic animals and even deer than I can count. Use relaxing washer locks.. I've never hung a domestic animal. You should have a catch pole on hand if setting with snares. For my area, the live market and for domestic animals. I understand you though I too am always very cautious when domestic animals are s possibility... Which unfortunately, is becoming a bigger problem every yr it seems.

No coyotes this morning. One mud cat though.

TigerLand, it would be nice but we aren't allowed to use snares on land.