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.