Other than “you busted!”

Does my trap smell?? Bedding not solid enough?? School of hard knocks is pretty frustrating.

telling you your trap was in his way

Most times it is a bedding issue. Pack that thing in with clean gloves on just in case you have smells on your hands like lure or blood or food.

I have a set of gloves just for setting and a pair for baiting. I was just trying to figure out if I was too close, too far, stunk, or if it moved. Thanks

Maybe to close, dug the trap out while trying to get to the hole.

No hole. I had this set as a flat aet. Maybe a poor version of one....

Most of the time when this happens its a bedding issue. The trap Must be SOLID.. and covered with at least !/2 inch of dirt.. with coyotes deeper is better.

I wish I knew. I've tried everything I can think of and still get dug up more than I like. I feel like my catch rate is pretty good for the small line I put out but we also have a very high population of coyotes. I won't give all the details that have done to try to end getting dug up but I will say I went to great lengths to make sure I was bedded solid and it still happened too much for my liking this year.

Try using two traps at a set both power bedded and covered with least inch dirt. Waxed dirt if it's freezing temps. Both well blended.

I’ve been doing this 25 years and you sound just like me. Really makes me scratch my head sometimes

The coyote is welcoming you to coyote trapping!!!!
I've had a few dug up, well maybe quite a few, I always figured it was from poorly bedded traps...
.

Could it been a Coon?
Just asking...

No idea....could have been a bigfoot for all I know.

I just assumed it was a yote since it was a flat set lured with fox urine and yote gland.

I've had that happen from more then my share by coyotes. I have pretty much fixed the problem by doing the following. Change out the trap after every catch, bed trap as solid as possible, trap bed as small as possible & I tend to put the trap further away from the attractant.

Alot of times its just the fresh dirt smell. Fresh dirt means food to fox and coyotes, and coons are notorious for this. Ounce I started luring above ground level the dig outs went way down.
We would all be surprised how many diggers get caught.

That coyote smelled something that tipped it off your trap was there.
They live by their nose...

If it is a yote and he keeps coming back he is showing you were he wants to die. Use his self confidence against him. Clean trap , well bedded and try again.

Bedding. Means you wernt packed solid. I use the same gloves for lure and setting the traps and have no problems with digups

reset the same trap and put one in about 6" behind. Make sure that one is bedded well and blended.

Thanks for info everyone.

I did add another trap, but it is another set about 15’ away. Didn’t know if it would rework it or not.

Hoping I have it here this morning....and it’s not a coon. Ha ha. (I did add a few bean stalks to break up and to guide after pic)

You have quite the selection of answers here and not a single one can be taken for 100% because you'll never know unless you put a camera on that set.

For your current set. A flat set should -generally - be completely blended in. Why? In the case of that picture above, you want the focus and attraction to be on the lure on the rock. But the fresh looking dirt will no doubt be an attraction.

Blend it in with the duff and older dirt from the area.

You could have been bedded rock solid but left a conspicuous dirt pattern.

It could have been an animal other than a yote.

That yote didn't think "oh a trap, someone is trying to get me." I'd leave that set as is and move the trap a little. Blend it in real well.

I need to know, though...what lure were you using there and where was it?

Fox urine on the “face” of the pile right behind trap and some coyote gland on a stick pushed under pile of chaf right behind trap.

I have fox urine on trap side of rock and wildcat lure and widowmaker bait down dirt hole at base of rock

When you figure it out please let me no!!!!!

Happens to everybody. Once I started blnsing in my traps like Charles Dobbins did on his video I haven't had as many issues. Use a whisk broom and brush leaves and dead grass clippings and local debri over the trap bed, then lightly broom it out, fanning it. Then the whole set will look just like everything else. Also Clint Locklear shows to cover the trap with a couple inches of good loose dirt once your trap is bedded. More dirt has helped too. Even still, those coyotes and grey fox are slick and I have dig ups. I've had some tough battles but I always catch the culprit. A few yrs ago I was on a property and a young female was going up and down the road thru that pasture and digging up all my sets.. that's when I learned to blend in the sets really really good. She had also begun to approach all of my sets from behind. I set a trap on the back side of three or 4 sets, next day I caught her. I know it was her because the dig ups stopped. She terrorized all of my sets for almost a week before I outsmarted her. Once she was gone I started wearing out the coyote and red/grey fox on that property. I trapped it for a month. The first week was popped trap after popped trap. After that wench was caught I ended up taking 13 Grey's, 9 reds and 7 coyotes off of that property. And 1 bobcat. One of the coyotes I caught had glass eyes and very light light blonde. She was so old her teeth was worn down to nothing. After I caught that old girl it seemed to dismember the clan because I really laid into the coyotes. 7 coyotes may not seem like "laying into them" but for 40acres of property, a month of time.. I felt good about it.

This^^^............can't stress "rock solid" bedding enough.

Scent and poor bedding can be the culprit some of the times (may even be a lot of the time)but I can guarantee from experience that it's not always the reason. I've went to extremes on both and still face the problem more than I like.

I think I'm going to get some trail cams and do some research and see if I can learn somethings from them.

Could also be telling you to set some snares close by because I've had my toes pinched by that thing i smell.

BT, taking into consideration how far the unfired trap is moved out of the bed, I would be willing to bet a coon was responsible for the malicious mayhem.

Most digging coyotes I have encountered inadvertently expose the trap as they are digging.

They never seem to manipulate the trap much once it's exposed.

A coon on the other hand will sometimes unearth the trap and drag it around like a play toy.

I've found that a coon will seldom set off a higher pan tension coyote trap unless he happens to step in it with his rear feet, thus the unearthed trap that is moved from it's bed is almost always unsprung. And in many cases the trap is flipped upside down as well.

When a coon works a set that is dry, he will muddle up the loose dirt in the set area often leaving no distinct tracks behind.

Even if you happen to see coyote tracks around the set, they most likely passed through after the coon dragged the trap out of it's bed.

That’s what I have concluded from crime scenes similar to your photo BT.

Other folk’s situations, observations, and conclusions may vary.

Coon do that a lot.

I use peat as well but too much and that can happen. Seems coon love to dig in it and shove traps around.

Tomlin, was this on the set with the dug up trap?

^^^urine/yote gland was dug up flat set and urine/bait/lure is the dirthole setup on the additional added set

Guessing it was a coon....Rocky was who was waiting for me this morning anyway.

If I had hair, I would pull it out over this canine trapping deal. Thanks for all the info.