We’ve had snow here the past few days, just wondering as a second year trapper how much foot prints in the snow will scare off animals from your sets.

I’m very anal about foot prints to avoids traps being stolen but also curious how much of an effect it will have on an animal committing to a set.

Animals don't know from footprints, but they are wary of your scent!

I dont have snow but I 100% obscure all of my footprints on public land. I even do it to animal tracks sometimes.

MattLA, Why?

I try and wipe out my tracks in the snow when I make a set. Why? I don't know it is just some I do. But I don't have a lot of luck using footholds when trapping in the snow. I even wipe out my tracks when hanging snares. Just something I do.

I wipe my tracks out with a branch from a pine tree. I have seen coyote tracks following a trail and got to my foot prints and immediately turned parallel to my tracks and took a different trail they normally don't use to get where it was going. Fox will walk right down my tracks but not coyotes. If I pull a sled behind me the coyotes will follow that trail. I believe some coyotes are skittish of human tracks. It could be individuals or regional, I don't know for sure.

Depends. I try not and leave them if unnecessary, or obscure/brush them out. But, if you are leaving more scent trying to obscure or avoid leaving footprints you are being counterproductive. If possible I try and doing everything I can shortly before it snows more, so all footprints and activity are blurred and blended by the new snow.

Wolves don't like human footprints, but they'll follow snowshoe tracks, snowmobile tracks, sled tracks. They see footprints they gone though. I hung more snares yesterday, but I'm not expecting much til next week when the snow blends everything back in. I wiped out my tracks with a pine bough, but I won't be confident in the sets until snow obscures everything again.

Check everything with binos if you don't want tracks tipping people off to your set locations though.

The hard part about new snow is it changes the height the cable is above the surface.

Smoothing out your tracks is just another activity that peaks their attention.

Usually. Other times I've had them walk step for step in my boot tracks. Had one do that a couple weeks ago, had made a couple sets and brushed my tracks out, but didn't bother brushing them out walking down the skid road past them. Dang wolf walked step for step in my boot tracks for a couple hundred yards, the next day, even walked my brushed in tracks over to one set (snow set) but stayed back a couple feet and wouldn't step out on the blended in snow where the trap was. It was snowing when I set and there was about an inch of fresh, but boot tracks still looked pretty much like boot tracks. If I would have just shoved a trap in one of my boot tracks I would have had the dang thing.

I like to brush stuff out with a branch also, looks pretty obvious disturbance right then, but get an inch of snow over it and it really blends in. Best way I've found to blend in boot tracks naturally though is to run over them with a snowmachine if possible.

I remember seeing devices to make coyote tracks at a set and laughing because I don't think a coyote can see a track on bare dirt.

Snow on the other hand I would think where anything had stepped would possibly be a place they would put their foot

I definitely meant public land, but I do that so people who are not as dedicated as me wont be able to find where I am setting my traps and I like to try to throw off what I consider good locations. Anybody worth their salt could see what I'm doing though if they stopped to look.

I once had a coyote walk parallel to my snowshoe trail for a distance before he got enough nerve to jump over the trail.I've also had coyotes walk in my trail hours after its was made.But more often than not their shy towards trails.I've had coyotes follow my snow machine trail for miles but I've never had them do that to a snowshoe trail.

If I’m even fortunate enough to leave tracks where I’m trapping, I’ll brush the area out. Not to cover my tracks, to see if something comes by and I didn’t catch it. It’s pretty cool to see an area with dirt or sand two tracks and see tracks leading to a set.

I feel like a lot different reasons I cover my tracks, trying to blend the set, trying to ease any timidness from anything committing to the set but mainly so I don’t have traps stolen. Just was wondering how far back I should really have to worry about blending. I know beavers won’t commit when they see footprints and I’ve had foxes follow my tracks down to water sets and steal muskrats, and I’ve had bobcats walk past my truck and footprints on job sites upstate in the mountains. Just wondering about coyotes and if they get spooked from your tracks

If there alot of snow and you want to cut down on more tracks,walk back in your tracks

I do that in between where I wipe away tracks from the road and from the trap, the in between looks like a 4 year old playing floor is lava

The bottoms of your boots hold a myriad of odors none of which are likely favored by the critters you seek and are trying to attract to a trap set. A wary animal will likely avoid those strange and foreign odors and over time and with repeated encounters, could associate the odors with the appearance of your boot impressions along a trail or at a trap site. Leaving as little noticeable sign and smell of your presence in the woods especially near your trap site would likely be best.

I have cellular trail cameras on many of my trap sites and have occasionally watched as an old doe or buck put his/her nose to the ground where I walked, then backed away.

Frankly, I don't like to see human footprints (mine or other) in the woods where I trap or hunt. When leaving the truck, I scuff and grind my boots into the fresh dirt or mud to help reduce odors. When leaving a trap site, I will kick dirt over my boot tracks or brush them out. Reducing any visible sign of your presence can only help.