Has anyone successfully tried digging a 3-inch wide hole, “burying” a DP and seeing if the DP was worked as an alternative to the normal way DPs are set? I’m thinking when coon get DP shy, do DPs set with the opening flush with the ground work better? Recently I heard someone was experimenting with this set up but I haven’t been able to find the results.

I have not found a need to try that.

One of Jonesie's last podcasts talks about it.

I got a few coon cuffs that I will set flush with the ground....no steel exposed. Finished set makes me wanna stick my paw in the hole.

Interesting, but seems like extra work for an animal that could care less, as the effort to get the food is the same.

The soup can traps work well for this. Bury them in the bank a few feet above the water, smear some mud across the front of the trap and they disappear. I use them in high theft areas.
Soupcancoonin.com

Iowayote I was going to post same thing.
I do this with the soup can trap and had much better luck with them set in that fashion. Same with the coon cuffs, and it's the only way I can get catches with the duffer's dp trap too. All of this models have a flat face with reach through hole design. Duffer's model has a pull trigger only and burying the trap and packing it in tightly gives the trap resistance to the pulling by the coon. Plus on each of these models the working parts are pretty much inside or behind that hole in end of the trap. On other models like cylinder type reach ins the working springs are on outside of the trap and you would need a big diameter hole so that the springs can pop outward to fully engaged the catch and also have room for the dog to open up and swing away when fired.
Those traps especially if they have their own stabilizer stake are better off when set up above ground and not impeded by the surrounding hole if they were placed down in a hole.
Jim

out catches the standard set. takes less time to put in than bedding a foot trap.

Been using a bulb planter which makes it easy peasy

Big enough hole to let the spring open ? Never thought to use that LOL

Kinda takes away the eye appeal for me .

Hard enough to keep the mice out. At ground level they'll be spring boarding into the tube.

I set some of the dukes in a creek like pockets this year and it worked pretty good. But the duffers I have to burry. Thats the only way i can catch with those ones.

May as well just buy a coon cuff. I prefer they trip over the dog proofs on a trail. I've kept a small arsenal of them for places I can't use the average foothold, but I can catch a coon with an exposed 1.5 blind just as quickly as I can set a DP in high numbers.

Wouldn't be a good idea once the ground started freezing.

That's why I make my holes in Oct but don't set til Jan, after deer season.

how do you find 'em in the snow?

Rarely snows here in Hades......we get more ice storms, so they are easily findable.

With snow, probably wouldn't pre-dig, just plunk the DP in the snow.

Like any DP freezing has to be thought of and dealt with before hand, be it sticking it in the ground, or digging them in. I use safe step, grass or peat down in the trap hole or safe step down in the peg hole when it starts freezing.

As far as eye appeal a dug in trap or mound set, if on location you can't get any more visual. I have to laugh when I hear trappers that use dirt holes or flat sets say to me digging a DP in you loose eye appeal LOL. I use grass or hay around the traps when dug in, which adds more eye appeal down in the hole, plus smell of fresh dirt. if needed, flagging over the hole adds. I have coon walk right past DP traps stuck in the ground the standard way to work Dug in traps, pocket sets and Mound sets. my 3 most used.

If ground is frozen solid or snow I go to hay bale sets, rotten log, leaning tree or fence post set . I have 13 different sets using DP traps for every weather type location, situation and freezing. Again 80% percent of the coon out there is going to be caught in a standard set. and if the trapper is just skimming the top and moving, then the kiss system will get it done, but if the property owner wants the coon gone a lot of human traffic and theft or you want the bigger coon that are in the 20%, then maybe the advanced systems would be better to learn and use.


One more thought with traps dug in when done right it forces the coon to reach in deeper extending it leg which seems to aid in trigger pull and better catches.

Interesting post, Ron.

I agree it's interesting. I absolutely hated the DP traps of the past that were designed to be buried IF you buried them. (coon cuffs, bandit busters, duffers, yancy's, etc...) Way too much work for me for raccoons. May as well dig a dirthole set and get my incidental fox and coyotes and such. HOWEVER if in fact they do up your catch % and you have the desire (or a better coon market) I can see why folks would like this option, especially on trapline with a limited number of traps.

~ADC~

YES your right ADC! But not in New Jersey,where we cant even own a foot hold trap.(thanks to the liberal democrats)
We here in New Jersey were forced to THINK OUT OF THE BOX.

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX:
Jonesie has developed new snaring methods,took the cage trap to new excreems,worked the DP trap into a more efective tool.
Who have heard of snaring mink. Before Eric Space ?

Lots of these methods have been given away FREE. Some of the newest developments are still kept close. Only learned through personal instuction.Also at the SOUTH JERSEY TRAPPING and SNARING SCHOOL.

Still seems like a lot of screwing around to bury a DP unless you have to. And the soil conditions you have to work with will have some bearing On this burying deal.

I don't have any problems with just using them the way they were Intended to be used.
Even zip trying them to sticks and using them as a fish stick set seems to work just about as good as a fish stick set using foot holds.
What about when the ground freezes? But If It works In your area I would say go for It.

Does the words SOUTH JERSEY have any meaning to you Beav ?
We dont live in THE NORTH
Yes it freezes here. But that not the norm.
And most of our ground is sand.
Sure it may not work in Wisconsin.You haved trapped in Mississippi. Surly you have used methods down there. That would not work in Wisconsin.

That's true Newt.
When I trapped In MS Dps weren't even invented yet. Well The little grizzs weren't.

Why would anyone want to live In South Jersey. LOL

Beave we are stuck here, but southern jersey is better than north jersey lol Beav also I can dig in a dp pocket set, mound set or no see um set (dirt hole) as fast as you can put in a foot trap, most likely faster if soil is not frozen. And when it is cold I use anti freeze just like any foot trapper.

I have had a raccoon dig up and turn over a foot trap without setting it off. Was it trap shy or just a spaz? My vote is spaz.
I have had refusals at DP sets. I would say that it was from a full belly rather than from being DP shy. I have had a grown one get caught in one DP, then drug the drag over to another DP and stuck its foot in another DP.
Was he looking for the key to unlock the other DP? My bet is he was just acting like a typical raccoon. Greedy as a Pennsylvanian deer hunter. (No offense to raccoons. )
My bottom line on using DPs is getting out as many sets as possible in a given amount of time. I can set 3 times more DPs than I can make foothold sets in a day. I won't have any of them stepping on the pan and jaw at the same time leaving me with empty traps.
Foothold traps may have a higher catch rate due to raccoons investigating the set even if they aren't hungry, but if I can only set 1/3 as many compared to DPs, my total number of catches will be lower.

If coon prices ever come back to their worth trapping I might just have to bury a few to see how they work.

Beav if the prices come back I would prefer no one digs the dp trap in a hole, mound or pocket set. Trappers don't need to advance their know how and understanding. Just keep doing what works for you. I saw somewhere that the average trapper catches less than 50 coon a season.

The Beav's been working towards that goal most his life now. Maybe adding the DP to his 'coon line will help push him up and over the big five oh!

If I only caught 50 coon a year I would give up. I catch that many when I'm not trapping coon. LOL
Now 50 coon a day when we could trap the ROW was a no brainer. And we didn't run any freaking DPs either.

If the coon market ever comes back there will be so many coon it will be mind boggling because I think guys were just starting to know the tricks to dp’s when the market took a crap.

Pretty hard to beat a body grip placed In coon trail to put up big numbers.

No kidding. Big lots of possums, skunks, rabbits, etc... you even catch a raccoon once in awhile. LOL Now is you were using a snare your incidentals are just mostly fox.

The good old days ...

You made your point. LOl

WE can't do the snare thing but 150 160s In trails leading to culverts will put some coon In the truck.
Now that the ROW thing Is gone were going to have a coon population explosion.

And along with it...a distemper out break.

That's become an annual event down here.

Sometimes, nothing in an animals world will get their attention quicker than fresh dirt.

So since the fresh dirt thing has come up. Will a coon dig out a DP that has been buried In pocket set or how ever you bury It? If so with that DP laying on the ground will It still catch that coon. Or maybe a fox or coyote will dig It up then what.

I would say anything is possible with coon, but I have no 1st hand experience with the question you ask beav. All i know is they love to dig at a canine set with fresh dirt.
I have thought about taking a shovel and dig a small divot, make it look like you spent 20 minutes doing it and put a dp in the divot or on the overturned sod, and I can about guaran-darn tee you a coon will atleast check it out. Lol

I did a great deal of the initial testing for the old con cuff when them, duffers and the egg trap were the main dp’s On the market. Unless they where pinned down sold or completely covered with sticky/clay soil coon would just dig/pull them out and toss them to the side. My best luck with them was when I pinned them into a tall tomato juice can and baited with a loud fish bait. I caught 500 coon in January using 3 dozen traps one winter using the can method. If you have any old trapper and predator caller mags around the coon cuff maker talked about my catch in his add.

In all the years the coniber has been around I have never heard of a1000 plus coon catch using strictly them. In the short history of the modern dp I know several guys that have caught 1000 plus coon using dp’s. Like I said if the price of coon even fakes like there might be life there will be an avalanche of coon.

Fun fact maybe 7-8 years ago when the coon market was pretty good, not even the crazy good years of 2013-14 I gave away 100 dozen duke dp’s to customers and made my money back probably 5x’s with coon that came back.

An auger in a cordless drill and a coon cuff is hard to beat for simple and fast. Some stinky fish in the hole. Drop in trap. Cover rim with a bit of dirt. Lure. Tieoff and gone

I’m going to try burying some DPs this fall. My sense is coon will work the holes as they go dirt holes. By then I should have photobucket figured out.

Last week I got a couple 2.25 inch opening DPs and will try them for mink. Rumor has it they worked well.

The guy who made the coon cuff also made an enclosed mink trap like a bigger coon cuff. I believe me and Gerald Schmidt where the only people to ever use them. They did work but if there are any coin around they will clean them out

Actually, these bigger DPs were made to see if they would work for fox, with a push-pull trigger. I’m waiting to hear if they’ve worked for that.

Yes but for me most of the time it is red fox that digs them out.

I am looking for a max 2 inch opening pull system.

Got any pictures of the these bigger opening dps? Where can I get one for my dp collection?

If we didn't have all these 24 hour BG checks In WI a 1000 coon In BGs per season wouldn't be a problem.
Dead and down Is the way to go.

Should they still be called, or considered a dp if trying to catch fox? Just asking

I visited Neil Ziegman at his shop in Iowa. He’d made up a bunch of the bigger DPs to see what else they’d catch. You could contact him to see if he’ll send you some.

RPMartin, that’s a good point.

Do some states have a size opening restriction on DPs? I can't find my WI regs but I thought we had a size opening restriction.
I found them 1 3/4" In Dia

I suppose burying the DP's has it's application given certain State regs. For me where I trap it would defeat the main purpose of the DP which is speed. I can put in a couple of DP's in a minute and be on my way down the road or river. Give me another minute or so and I can have them both on cable drowners. Like said above down and out is the way to go especially on public ground.

I doubt I could replicate my speed if I was burying them. I doubt I could match the speed of setting 1.5's blind on drowners burying them.

Maybe with a little practice?

It'll be something neat to try a bit on the line this season.

ShaneT I can make a bury set faster than I can put in a dirt hole with foot trap. I can't use foot holds in my state so I use the DP trap in it's place. I dig the hole and put the trap in it or dig a pocket and put the trap in it or make a mound set and put the trap. May take me 30 seconds longer. The bury sets are not used every time I set. I only use them to catch the 20% or to put them in places where there are people. Just like every method there are places and times to use them. If the trapper just wants to skim the top and move, catch what ever is going to get caught fast, then putting in an advanced DP set is a waste of time in many minds. And that is OK. The key for me is, do what ever I have to do to catch in any situation. Right for me maybe wrong for others.

Beav yes My state has a 2 inch max opening and a pull system only. I may not like it I would rather have a push pull system, but I have to learn to work with what I have and make it productive.

Teacher can you please e mail me the phone for Neil Ziegman

Call 'em ETs (enclosed trigger) instead. They never were "dog proof" just marketed that way. Absolute dog proofing is determined by bait choice.

Has anyone caught a canine In DP? I caught a few cats but never a canine.
You would think you would be able to catch grey fox In them.

Greys can be caught in them and some red but most are little red.

They weren't caught by the paw.

Actually some were. I have several pictures of foxes, red and grey, and one coyote caught in DP traps.

I could probably find a picture of Red Fox and Otter, very rare. Very common Skunk, Cat, Squirrel, using sweater type bait will almost eliminate the last three.

Don't for get mice, rats and possums John.

Makes perfect sense.

I was referencing Canis familiaris.

Yep.

I have caught 2 red and 1 gray fox in standard dp traps. All by the paw. I don't trap a whole lot either.

what is a sweater bait?

I think it was a typo, but meaning sweeter type of bait.