hiding your traps

[bobbercrazy23]

I've been trapping coons this winter and have had somebody stealing my traps and the coons that are in them. I know the coons aren't stealing my stuff because I've been using a 30 in stake and my buckets with the bait in them are disappearing to along with the stakes holding my buckets down. What's the best way to hide your traps and catches on a dry ground set.

[outlaw13]

If things were getting stole from my traps along with my traps being stolen i would set up a trail cam on them and see if i could find out who it was or at least determine when they are stealing from my traps so i could confront the theifs.

[logger57000]

Use a large dirt hole set rather than buckets. Then you can use a drag, and let the animal hide itself. Or you can use a slide wire and run it to some cover to get them out of site. As for trap thieves I always thought a hand grenade set up would be nice.

[david]

Logger is right, you are sending up flairs with those buckets.

if you are trapping along roads, set blind sets in trails. Look for the dry culverts, they are usually marked with a roadway stake that might even reflect at night. You will know they are being used by the trail in the grass that leads up to them. Dont set right in the culvert if you got a thief working. Set it back toward the fence. If you can use 220's You can absolutely slay the coon this way. No bait, no buckets. You can put two or three 220s along that trail through the grass, and they will crawl over the dead one to get caught in the next trap.

Have your 220s set on a stablizer stake and wired open so they cant spring closed. Jump out of your vehicle, throw 3 of them in the trail, take off the wires and get out of there. When you check them, grab the caught coon, and do not re-set the trap, you got two more sitting there. grab the coon and the trap, throw it in your vehicle and get out of there. It should only take you five minutes, at the most, to make the three sets, and only one minute to jump out and grab the coon and trap.

Try to stay away from the wet culverts and bridges if you have a thief working your area. Trap the dry culverts that are hard to even see. Trap the dry trails. Look for something like trees on one side, and cornfeild, more trees, or other food source on the other as you drive, look for the faint trails going down into the ditch from the fenceline. They may or may not have a dry culvert to use there, they may be crossing on top of the road.

This method will only skim the cream off your population of coon. Believe it or not, you will be rewarded with a fox now and then as well. I thought they would never go through a 220, but they will. Especially if you set at the fence line. You will have no negative effect on the population and can use the same line year after year. Remember you are only on a site for three checks. If they dont hit, get your traps out of there and get them where they are going to produce. If they do hit, you have your traps pulled already. Move them on. This makes it very hard for a thief to track you. Every trap should be producing at least one coon every three days. Keep the traps on new ground, keep them producing.

[cutter23]

set up trail cams and turn them in! i know in co its big trouble for messin with someone elses traps