Coons Figured out Paw Traps

[Paycheck]

A guy at our lease runs them sometimes. He had one loose a leg in the trap. Then sometime later caught the 3-legged coon. That coon did not learn his lesson.

[Lincoln Hawk]

A guy at our lease runs them sometimes. He had one loose a leg in the trap. Then sometime later caught the 3-legged coon. That coon did not learn his lesson.

My neighbor, who has caught 200+ trash pandas over the years, has caught at least 3 that (presumably) chewed off a foot prior.

[AggieSportsman]

Is there any suggestions to clean the traps? Not for scent control, but more for functionality. Ours have seemed to become less "easily triggered" and have a bit of rust and left over bait in them.

[Hockley]

I just bought some and planning to run them at the lease this weekend. In for tips.

[E.TX.BOWHUNTER]

My raccoons stay clear after a week or so. I do some damage during that week and they stay away for a couple months. I left traps for a month on a feeder. They quit catching after a few days. I began finding my traps pulled from the ground and emptied. The traps go out when they start climbing feeders again. So yes I think they learn. I don’t have near the problem some of you have with them.

[knighttime]

Ive noticed the same thing, except when I put them out the coons flat disappear.

I actually noticed that this weekend that's why I was curious about human scent. Because when I was there over the weekend we only saw a few coons on camera. Last night I had an average of 3 coons per feeder on like 6-8 of our cameras.

Some good tips in this thread that I'm going to try. Might even try some body trap sets. Have a friend of a friend that runs these sets and has pretty good luck once they get educated on the paw traps.

[TD2000]

We find the coon cuffs placed on the outside of panel fencing do better than the ones inside the pen by where the feeder throws

[knighttime]

We find the coon cuffs placed on the outside of panel fencing do better than the ones inside the pen by where the feeder throws

Interesting, but still attached to the tpost for the fence panel or on their own individual stake?

[TD2000]

Interesting, but still attached to the tpost for the fence panel or on their own individual stake?

We attached to tpost used with fence panels on outside

[Bard]

There are times to just get rid of them and the simplest solution I came up with when trapping hogs are some coon bombs. Large marshmallows, open them up, sprinkle in some gopher bait (pellets) and put the two halves back together. Go set them around. I like to keep them away from deer or foxes etc.. by putting them on branches and such in the area. I assure you that your coon problem will diminish rapidly.

[gtsticker]

Got on a lease in Cisco last year and we are slap covered with coons. We've been running Duke's traps pretty heavy and were having really good success rate in the beginning with cat food. As the year has gone on it seems like the rascals have become leery of the trap. This weekend I setup on a feeder that had 5 coons at it most of last week. Put three duke's out with marshmallows and fruit loops, and they checked them out (cell camera caught them lurking) but no catch. So I reset the traps with sardines and tuna the next night, again they lurked around but no catch. Same thing happened on another feeder that had 3 coons at it. Then last night with the traps gone they were back to their usual, raiding our feeders.

Has anyone else had issues with coons becoming privy to what that little trap is going to do to them? I'm wondering if I can break up the silhouette of the trap with something else so that I can peak their curiosity again and get them to reach back into the hole of doom! A lease mate suggested maybe we zip tie them to the tpost of the feeder pen horizontally so that it's a different look for them instead of it being stuck in the ground.

We've trapped with everything from corn, protein, cat food, tuna, sardines, marshmallows, dried bananas, etc.

I am north of old glory and have the same issue. went to regular leg holds and catch them. Try peanut butter also.

[gtsticker]

you can acid wash your traps and they will look like new. A bath in dawn and hot water and a good rinse. Then wax them. makes them function better. This is what we do with our coyote traps.

[kry226]

May wanna look into Z-Traps too. They have a push-pull trigger vs Duke's pull trigger. May help catch a few more critters.

[knighttime]

you can acid wash your traps and they will look like new. A bath in dawn and hot water and a good rinse. Then wax them. makes them function better. This is what we do with our coyote traps.

What do you use to wax them? I'm going to give them a dawn bath next time I'm out there.

[Hornfan]

Caught a skunk in one of mine a few weeks ago. That was interesting.