I’m slowly going through Master Wolfer. Contains some ways of looking at things that are new to me. One of them is trap placement. I ordinarily don’t worry too much about trap placement. I place the trap jaw or lever edge a few inches in front of the attractor, with the distance to the center of the pan dependent on the trap size. I use sage duff and small dirt clods to make the pan the best place to step. This question is for people familiar with the Lucero placement strategy who have actually used it. Do you find that it 1) reduces misses, and 2) reduces accidental dig ups?
This is an old but very interesting read

I use his system and It does work. But remember his placement Is subject to how he builds that dirt hole. And also how he places the lure. You see that he doesn't place any lure down In the hole or even on the backing. This lure on the stick gets the critter moving It's feet to some degree.
Remember a coyote has a pretty long neck and may stand back a ways from your attractor while investigating It.

I have used Lucero's style of sets for the past 2 and 1/2 coyote contract jobs . Have caught about 35 coyotes so far, using the James Lucero style post and flat sets. With the offset he describes and the lure stick I find it misses less, than my old offset. So I will use his methods until i start missing again.

well, I'm disappointed, I thought you were going to share his "system" and save me from buying the book.


I think neck length and approach posture of the animals is often overlooked. A hole may cause crouching and a stick may cause stretching/reaching postures.

Not hard to make some test sets this time of the year and see were they stand

But that would require work which is a four letter word.

Master Wolfer, is that the book that everyone is always looking to buy but it’s almost as hard to find as a unicorn?

Full title and author please?

EBay just sold 1 for $37.00

Master Wolfer by James Lucero, Big1

Thanks for the confirmation gentlemen. I’ll either pack a ruler or mark my hammer.

Wow, thank you for that link. I’ll be calling him right away

As Beav stated, his method works.

I am still on small NoN - Discloser 7 day coyote contract .Caught some more coyotes today using James Lucero's style flat and post sets.

Steeltraps, thanks for responding. Do you use his dirt hole set up at all? I do great with flat sets but so poorly with post sets that I stopped using them. I only trap during fur season so that might have something to do with it. I call year round but infrequently in the off season mainly to get the dogs out.

Badgerman50 , No and yes. No = this year has been the WORST year ever for ants in the places I trap. Plus some of the place I have been trapping 4 years plus,up Twice a year on most places. So the deep dirt hole is not as effective on the older educated coyotes. So i use lots of post and Flat Sets on these repeat places. YES = I do use the dirthole. If its a new place=never been trapped , and the ants arent to bad. BUT I often put out LOTS of dirtholes in august , september, and early october . I catch lots of pups this way. Im not in to fur trapping, just coyote trapping, and catching as many as I can in 7,10,14, or 21 days what ever the contract job will pay. Im usually done by Oct 15 th or so. Then its off to guiding deer hunts.

Good Stuff from ST!

Badger, I find that in my area flat sets generally produce much better than posts. The catch rate between the two is not even close.

When it comes to inadvertently digging and exposing a trap, keep in mind that Lucero wasn’t big on dirt holes. 99% of his sets were flats. There was a good reason for that. As J.L mentioned in his book, dirt holes become a comedy to educated coyotes.

If you run a bunch of hole sets for consecutive years on the same properties, more than likely your catch numbers on adult coyotes will drop drastically over time. They sure did in my case.

I believe the decline is mainly due to set association. The flat set does not have that distinct identifier like the hole set does. This makes a big difference on properties that have been trapped hard like in ST’s case.

I'm definitely enjoying reading everyone's responses and explanations as they're very detailed and explained. I'm hoping that my book comes sometime this week. I sent out my check to Mr. Lucero last week. I'm dying to read this book.

Chad

TheBig1 . I think you will enjoy the book , when you get it. The picture illustration are VERY good. Special for a 1988 book. To many coyote books have old pics of sets in them. They are very hard to see, because of shadows,angle, and older camera's of their era I like the way they are drawn out in James Lucero's book

I have a lot better luck using a BIG hole for my dirt holes. Back In the day I would set every chuck hole In the area and any large den. Fox and coyotes see these type of holes every day and will work them better then one of those 2" holes every one makes. The natural ones are what seems to work better for me. But In most cases they are far and few between on your trap line. But with a little work and a post hole digger or a tile spade you can make them just about any place you want. In this case It's all about pre season work and digging them on location. When the season starts just freshen up the dirt around these holes and get to catching some critters.

Beav. You can use a BT-45 earth auger . I have a 4 inch auger bit. I can get it up to about 20 inchs deep. I just dont see wasting time with post hole diggers or tile spade. Its just to slow for me . Think how fast you could dig hole IF you wanted to pre dig them . 1 tank of gas does me about 40-45 holes 4 inch by 20 inch deep . But for now I will just stick to Flat and Post set for summertime work