Working on some feeders last night after dark and we walked up on this guy in the feed pen..

maybe that's the bastage that stole my dukes coon trap!

Guess you found the one I trapped last weekend that chewed its leg off and left its foot in the trap.

Land owner leases to a trapper also, as soon as the regular deer season ends he starts trapping. He's after Bobcats mainly but catches other animals also..

It is amazing what a coon can do with a foot missing.My hounds ran a coon about two hours one night and treed him in a leaning tree so I shot him out to the hounds only to find he had both front feet missing.I still don't know how he climbed that tree.

If you trap enough you will have at least one steal your foot trap.

Had two dukes traps walk off in one night. Keep waiting to hear chains walking through the woods.

If you trap enough you should use earth anchors and never have an issue what so ever. When you have pull outs and breaks it's due to entanglement and your trap not being able to swivel.

I'm trapping at feeders with pens around them. I'm securing the traps with chain to the T-posts now.

There still going to get tangled up in the panels and everything even more, drive an anchor into the ground with 1/8 in aircraft cable about a foot in the ground with a loop just barely hanging out the surface, attach your trap with a quick link and your done. That anchor will stay in the ground for years, when your ready to trap the feeder again just attach the trap to the quick link and your done. You want to anchor the trap where there's nothing the coon can reach in the catch circle. Never have a problem whatsoever. I use wolf fang earth anchors. Look em up. Only way to go

Thanks for the info and that makes sense. Curious, what is failing and breaking when they get tangled up? Is it the trap chain or what it is attached to?

The swivels aren't able to function correctly when that animal is rolling, etc.. the coon will break its leg at a joint with a trap that can't swivel then pull or chew at the break and then your left with a foot. If your loosing traps then your using a faulty anchoring system. Never use wire or anything that can can be cut. Use that cable and decent ferrules to make your loops and you shouldn't have any equipment malfunctions. Hammer your ferrules to tighten, with about an 1/8- 1/4 tag end sticking out. Don't crimp em just use a hammer, its stronger that way I'll take a picture of some set up.

Yea I had a trap last week with nothing but a foot in it. Figured that coon just wanted out real bad lol. Thanks.

Yup those swivels are on your trap chain for a reason

One last question, I looked at the wolf fang earth anchors, how deep do you drive them?

You need to buy the anchor driver and weld that to a 5/8 rod or rebar, I've used both and I like the 5/8 solid rod with a big nut welded on the end better than rebar but they will both work but you have to weld that driver tip on to something. And it just depends on how hard the soil is, I've driven em in 6 in of hard dirt and you can't pull em out to save your life and I've put em 3 ft in mud and they pull right out

Coyote ugly?

I wonder if his friends called him TexasLefty.....