I agree that the more grief you put them through, the harder they are to re-catch. I had one of those weirdly colored males that got out as I was transferring it. I caught him two days later in the same style cage, using the same bait, on the other side of the house. And yeah, it was late October. I also believe that their memory isn't real long. I would like to know how many collared raccoons are recaptured a year later.

Not yet, but I've got my eye on a huge colony of them not far from the house here. I've been hesitating to go after them because there is a golf course right across the creek from them and I didn't want to knock myself out of a paying gig. I'll have a muskrat line in a pond on the other side of them and might slip a trap or two in there while I'm busting the rats.

Oh!.... Indecently: Muskrats are good eatin' too!

Muddawg,
IS there any special way you tan your coons, I'm going to try it myself this yr.

True.... We're not allowed to release coon here. Nor are we allowed to release fox, coyote, bobcat, weasel, martin, fisher or anything in the order carnivora. But still, we have city and county dog catchers picking them up from Little Old Lady's house and driving them out to the boat landing and turning them loose.

Nothing special yet. I'm still learning so I'm still following the directions closely.

But, I'm learning some short cuts from a taxidermy buddy of mine.

The last two coons I did didn't come out as well as I had hoped. But I skinned them in 100 degree heat, fleshed them in 100 degree heat, put them in the pickle, three days later pulled them from the pickle and fleshed them a second time in 100 degree heat and put them back in the pickle. When I went to take them out, wash them and put them in the tanning solution, the hair was starting to slip. One of them has a couple of bald spots and both of them lost some hair around the ears.

I guess the biggest piece of advice I could give you is watch you PH levels. I think the pickle is supposed to be between 1 and 1 1/2 PH or the hair could slip. "DON'T WORK YOUR HIDES IN 100 DEGREE HEAT!" would be my next tip.

I've got some different tanning oil coming from my taxidermy buddy that I hope will do a better job than that I was using from the kit. It oiled the hides just fine but, man, does it ever stink? After a while the smell fade sand the pelts are fine but they have an arroma for the first week or two.

Yeah, I read about that bozo. Wanted to be one with the tigers. It reminds me of Grizzly Man, the movie about a California dyed-blonde guy who thought he was the Grizzly bears' protector. No, he didn't lobby Congress or raise dough to buy land - he lived with the bears. In Alaska. In the wilderness.
He got lots of great footage of grizzlies, including the bit (taken by his girlfriend) of the bear killing and eating him (actually, there's no video - the lens cap was left on - but very clear audio of the "friend bear" killing this tasty human).
Three words for these types:
REMORSELESS
KILLING
MACHINES
Bears, sharks, tigers..all are at the top of their respective food chains because they are
REMORSELESS
KILLING
MACHINES.
Hug a bunny if you need to. Don't waste the time of emergency personnel/doctors/zookeepers by being an idiot.

Yeah. I heard about it on the news.

What a MORON! The only way to become ONE with the tiger is to let him EAT you! Then the next day, you'll be one with tiger poop! Or is that one IN tiger poop? I don't know. I'm always getting those two confused.

Like others have said I use a larger cage, a dog sized safeguard with a piece of ply wood on the trigger so they just have to get a little ways in to trip it. It is difficult to catch a trap shy coon. SOmetimes though you put out four traps and catch four and have one hanging around.