That's the secret!

PM received.

Bite and chew marks on the top side of the neck...


Looks like someone took hair clippers to it!

2 weeks of season left here....'coons are runnin' again. Still some good 'coons out there....most will be rubbed though.
With cage traps,(and I have hundreds) you can still "selectively harvest" raccoons!

[quote=beachcomber13]Don't expect to catch coon when the weather looks like this



that kinda of weather is when i get the most

Really.......quess no one told me that!

Last couple days I have been out looking for tracks have yet to find any coon sign. Saw some fox and yote tracks, but no coon sign. ten years ago after I retired from the Army, I got back into trapping to help the game birds and turkeys have better sucess nesting. In the early years, we caught lots of coon and possum, no so any more. May be my trapline is starting to have an effect on the coon population.

like most have said it pays to use all tools available to you when targeting coon. here is one modification i feel would help all dp's on the market. during freezing weather we all know it is not good if the trap is froze down after the catch. as far as bait i make my own. roughly 2 gallons of dry dog food ground to a course powder, 1 can jack mack, 1 cup bacon grease and enough used cooking oil mixed in that once all ingredients are blended together it makes a semi dry paste. i have not had a problem with it freezing down to 20 degrees. it may below that but around here the coon pretty well hole up when the temps drop.

not sure if it helps but i dip my traps in some left over white paint. i thinned it down with water. in the pics below the trap needs to be redipped. it had caught 7-8 coon at that point.


notice on the second pic, on the ground is some "crumbs" that fell from rebaiting. if for some reason i don't spill any (doubtful) i will purposely dribble a little around the set.

That's ack's version he makes himself. Where you been LT?

There's a step by step pictorial in the archives ack put in there last year and on the OSTA website. I stole his idea and made up a dozen this year after talking to him briefly at the NTA convention. They work well and can be made for about $4-$5 bucks a piece or less. I'll probably make up a couple dozen more over the summer.

This is ack's post below. The most frustrating part of making them was getting the bend in the dog properly and finding where and how to clamp everything as you are building them. It took me several before I picked up on everything. I did do a few things different with mine as the springs I used had shorter tines on them. They still work excellent and are stronger than any DP trap on the market.

http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthrea...tml#Post1033242

I'd like to contribute to this thread and will post some of my methods this week when I have more time. I normally trap raccoons for only a 2 or 3 (at most) week period before I have to start catching muskrats in numbers. I'm also not a big numbers raccoon guy like some but for my area and location, I put up more than most based on a per day average. I usually end my 2 or 3 weeks with a 10 raccoon a day average. Some days more some days less but 10 a day is what I seem to end up with on average. Thsi is running around 40 sets the first day and adding and pulling after the 2nd or 3rd day. I end up running around 50-55 sets but I work full time, take college classes a couple of days a week, and have a family to work in also. This is about all I can handle with skinning and putting up fur. So actually around a 10 coon average is pretty good for the number of traps in my area of Ohio. It's actually a break for me to quit trapping raccoons and run 75-100 muskrat sets. Here's a few pics and I'll chime in later on how I operate...

Nice coons

thanks pocketjax. yes Lt its my design.

I'm guessing after fur season!

you should have seen the sucker i caught a while back, it weighed 25 lbs. i am sure there are bigger ones out there but i thaught this thing was huge, whats the biggest coon you guys ever caught?

i caught my biggest round 15 pounds i would say.

Probably big for a La. 'coon?

May want to check to see if the 'coons are still there, as they move over the course of a season to different food sourses ...that and it's breeding season!

yes.

I just beat my head against the wall....