I have to work hard enough keeping dirt sets working in northern Michigan weather. Since I can't set within 50 feet of water until November I can't see using this set myself but I do see how it could work.

Yeah but you gotta have those cool names to make it legit. A double trap walk through just ain't cool.

I’m pickin’ up what you’re puttin’ down. I too see lots of coyote tracks in the muck around beaver waters. A solid stepping place to get a better whiff of some castor would probably be a great set. May have to try it next year sometime

Tools we used for the water set were a short handled hoe and a pair of needle nose pliers. We always cleared out the spring in the early fall, making the spring about 3 feet across, and clearing all brush and high weeds away, for a distance of 20 feet or so downstream.
To make the set we approached walking upstream in the water, standing just below the spring. The drag (notched rock) was placed a little off center toward where the trap was to be set. The trap was put as close to shore as possible (ideally the sod on the pan looked like a small peninsula) and set so the fox/coyote stepped BETWEEN the jaws and not over them. Using the pliers all chain and trap(except the pan) were covered with watersoaked leaves. A sod about 2 inches in diameter ( we preferred sod to moss as it was a more solid appearing footing) was cut out downstream with the hoe and carried to the set on the hoe, then placed on the pan with the needle nosed pliers. Bait (a quarter sized chunk of cat or woodchuck (semi rotted) was placed on another small sod placed on the trap side of the bait rock, then covered with a water soaked leaf. A little lure was added and the set was complete. Setting time was about 2 minutes.
The advantage of using a spring is that it does not freeze over and the water level remains constant, not rising or lowering because of rain. In some springs Gramp had sunk an old wooden butter tub and some of these tubs lasted 50-60 years. I wandered upon one a few years ago still in remarkable shape considering it was 70+ years in that spring. Eric

I knew a guy that bolted rocks on his pan for this set. You need a high grip jawspread, not low profile jaws when using stones.

Met a really good trapper from PA back in the 80s. I cannot spell his name to save my life. I am pretty sure his first name was Jack, and the last name something like "Scmucke"?
He was with Mike Marysada (sp) who was teaching at a Neil Olson seminar. This Jack showed his version of the spring hole set and I believe he told us he had pretty good luck with the set.
He used different things for the pan cover but the one that I remember was this; he used a thin piece of shale/rock glued to a pan with construction adhesive.
Just a different idea.

There is a guy on youtube, CTtrapper, who has some awesome videos of various styles of spring hole sets. He does not have a ton of videos on his channel but boy he has some good ones. I would like to meet him and pick his brain.

Mac

A trapper that trapped some of the same area I trapped,used slate or thin blue stone on the pan. He developed prostate cancer and could not walk far from the truck so he gave me the locations of a lot of springs. When I checked them out,notched rocks at each location. Nothing like seeing a red fox on the snow caught in a spring set in a pasture.

Is this one of his videos?- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBBeanMWFww
He does have quite a few videos- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA03ien9_0Rzpu5lG-6inXw/videos

Yes, that is the guy.

I was just reading through my current copy of FFG and came across a trap specifically designed for spring-hole sets in the Antique Trap Collecting column. The Blake & Lamb Water Set trap came with four pointy projections on the pan for holding a piece of sod, a brass pan nut and bolt for tension adjustment (instead of the more common rivet) and galvanized pan and shank.

The article contains an excerpt from E. J. Dailey's booklet Expert Fox Trapping that describes how to make a spring-hole set.

X 2

Good to see you posting Old Coon, brings back memories of the glory days at the HPA forum. You always were an advocate of the spring-hole set.

So I'll admit I'm wrong here. After reading Hoofbeats and all the updates apparently the commonly known Mafia set with two traps is a variation ( Locklear was the one ,from what I gathered ). The original did use only one trap with droppings off on side of a trail with the trap in front in the trail. Or the same set directly in trail.

Ttt

I have to side with Lazarus. Craig said you want to give the coyote an offer he can't refuse. It does look like a good set though but you might have to watch out for deer.

"Mafia" is a marketing name for a variation of a set that has been around for probably 100 years or more. In the 1940's my dad made trail sets using 2 traps with a stick placed between them. What's different in O'Gorman's "Mafia Set" is the placing trap levers end-to-end. My dad used 1-1/2 Victor long spring traps with trap springs turned to trail sides.

After some more reading and talking with folks more knowledgeable than i ( some have actually taken instruction from Craig ) and the two traps is not a Mafia set. You could say it's a variation ( that works ) but it's not the actual Mafia set.

I make a few spring hole sets each season.
#3 size traps provides bigger area (moss) for animal to step or feel comfortable stepping on bigger area.

I prefer Cap moss on pan but have used Carpet moss.
Cap moss




Carpet moss