Posted By: 7x57
Novice trapper, need some advice. - 09/20/16 07:32 PM
So, I HAD about 10 chickens in my coop a couple of weeks ago and over the course of a few days I was cleaned out by some animals that appeared to be different species on different occasions. I have a skunk, a dog of some sort based on the tracks, and a raccoon that I have now confirmed thanks to my new cuddeback. I figured that once the first one was killed the blood just riled up every predator in the area and they're all starting to visit.
I placed a couple of Duke 1.75s down in a couple of areas, one in front of the entrance to where I know 100% the skunk has been holing up in and another right where he's pictured with his tail toward the camera. I also have a live trap setup behind the stables in a corner of older fence wire that blends in so-so. I used some marshmallows as bait in the live trap and scattered some around the skunk entrance. The one by the chicken coop I left baitless since I still have a single chicken left alive and instead used some logs to try and funnel him to that one spot to dig.
I got the positioning correctly, but I had bent the trigger bar up a little to get the trigger to set because it was bent where someone in the store had dropped it. This caused the pan to not set off the trigger and he instead dug it up and kind of just cast it aside and luckily he gave up before he got into the coop. This works out for me I suppose, because he will not consider the trap a threat and I've never trapped on the 100 acre property before so he's not shy at all. I re-bent the bar and adjusted it for a lighter weight then purchased a couple of DPs and plan on using some mouse based predator bait, but was wondering if maybe there were some better options for coons. I've never trapped before so I just watched a couple of YT videos and rolled with it. I'm sure some of you guys have done this plenty of times and probably know much better than me.
He's a big one though, because those bottom boards are about 10-12" tall meaning he's at least 12-16" at the shoulder. I'm hoping I'll have myself a new hat for the hunting season and that I'll be able to put some more chickens out once I catch god knows what else is there.
I placed a couple of Duke 1.75s down in a couple of areas, one in front of the entrance to where I know 100% the skunk has been holing up in and another right where he's pictured with his tail toward the camera. I also have a live trap setup behind the stables in a corner of older fence wire that blends in so-so. I used some marshmallows as bait in the live trap and scattered some around the skunk entrance. The one by the chicken coop I left baitless since I still have a single chicken left alive and instead used some logs to try and funnel him to that one spot to dig.
I got the positioning correctly, but I had bent the trigger bar up a little to get the trigger to set because it was bent where someone in the store had dropped it. This caused the pan to not set off the trigger and he instead dug it up and kind of just cast it aside and luckily he gave up before he got into the coop. This works out for me I suppose, because he will not consider the trap a threat and I've never trapped on the 100 acre property before so he's not shy at all. I re-bent the bar and adjusted it for a lighter weight then purchased a couple of DPs and plan on using some mouse based predator bait, but was wondering if maybe there were some better options for coons. I've never trapped before so I just watched a couple of YT videos and rolled with it. I'm sure some of you guys have done this plenty of times and probably know much better than me.
He's a big one though, because those bottom boards are about 10-12" tall meaning he's at least 12-16" at the shoulder. I'm hoping I'll have myself a new hat for the hunting season and that I'll be able to put some more chickens out once I catch god knows what else is there.