I have been trying to target coyotes with mb 550s and duke 550s this year. The pan tension is somewhere around 2 to 3 lbs on most of my traps. I did catch a big ol boar coon last night by back foot but coons, possums and skunks are rare to catch with this pan tension. These small critters are digging sets up. Its not my goal to catch them but aggrevating having sets messed with. What are some possibilities? Between deer snaps on urine and small critters digging, this trapping stuff is hard. Dogproof traps? Just deal with it? Just really don't want to half pinch a coyote and educate him and make him that much harder to catch.

Check your bedding. I catch rabbits in my MB550’s. 2-3# of pan tension is plenty for small critters such as coon, possums, skunks, even feral small critters.

If I understand your question correctly you want to just target Coyote? On the digging make sure you don't get any lure or human sent on your traps, make sure they are bedded solid, I would set pan tension to 3-5 pounds if only targeting Coyote, you will get a hundred different options

A lot of the times, the trap is not dug up. Just dirt hole dug up and extra dirt put on trap, bait stole, or flat set moved around. Like fishing in leaves or grass and pulling the weeds off the hook every cast.

are you putting a grass wad over/into the dirt hole over your bait?

to avoid small critters, raise your pan tension to 4 1/2 - 5 lbs.

Sounds to me you have a non target critter stealing your bait w/o getting caught. Had that happen to me this fall, eventually caught a small skunk and things stopped. Maybe less pan tension to catch the culprit.

10 4. Thanks

If your pan tension is 2-3# then it has to be a rat, because that tension will catch anything in the woods including Fox Squirrels. My 550’s are right at 3# as well.

Caught a pack rat once in a coyote trap with 4-5 # pan tension once.
All 4's

I just watched the Predator Control Group videos on how coyotes behave around a set. Very informative. The coyotes do not behave at a set like you think. In one instance, they had a coyote spend several hours at a set and never stepped on the pan. Often the coyotes got at the dirt hole from the sides or even behind the backing, digging and scraping everywhere but on the pan. Also, the coyotes almost always stayed on the high side of the set, even if that's where the backing was.
Might just be a coyote stealing your bait and making the mess after all. When I got into trapping I imagined the canines coming right up to the hole, sticking their face in it like a hungry dog and stepping right on the trap. Not so in the videos. I don't have much experience myself to say for sure, but if you think that's what is going on, you could try adding a couple traps to the sides or even behind the backing. And you might try rearranging the set so that the trap is where the coyote would be if he works the hole from the high side.

I also caught a coon in a Duke 550 that I had set for canines. This was before I saw the videos. I added a DP several feet away from the set in the direction where I thought the coon came from. I have since caught another coon and an opossum in the DP, but still nothing else in the original 550.

About the only real way to find out for sure is to put up a camera or two.

There is many different critters that will steal your bait. I have a big issue here in some areas with shrews. I dont think they steal it but return often down the hole and eat it.

Got one of the possums night before last. One less to deal with.