With fur prices the way they are I find it hard to drag myself into putting much effort into preparation. I think I'll probably stop at about 45 gallons of waxed dirt and I've got a few bales of peat laying around getting dry for the year. I've always wondered if I could run blind trail sets on a majority if not all of my sets and have a productive year. I guess it is kind of a year for experimentation for me.

Realistically I seem to catch just about every fur bearer we have here on blind sets, and the upkeep is quite low for the sets. Lawn clippings for the majority and occasionally waxed dirt/ peat where the ground is bare. You often see people snaring primarily and doing just fine. Why don't I seem to see more people discussing just blind foot hold sets? I can see ways it could be challenging especially in open farm ground like here in the Midwest finding locations that will produce, but I can also see where it would have benefits. No lure/bait/urine costs. Very little trap maintenance. Wide open traps on coon trails and subtle blending when targeting coyotes.

We had snow on the ground most of this winter and I paid attention. There's locations where multiple coyotes are hitting and targeting coons would be like shooting fish in a barrel. I guess I've never quite had the confidence to put down the bait or urine. Maybe I'll give it a solid go this year there's not much to lose. Thoughts?

I've been reading about the blind sets for coyotes. I'm definitely going to give it a try.

I use a lot of blind sets. I found when setting trails, preseason grooming of the trail is a big advantage. As for open spaces like fields, a worn in set of tire tracks is a good place to start. I run a 10' piece of 1/8" cable in the woods so they hopefully don't tear up the trail so it can be reset. In the fields I use a 6" piece of cable to my earth anchor and a piece of rebar 5' away as a tangle stake. Just what works for me
I guess I set more blind sets than lured or baited.

In some situations blind sets take a lot of maintenance as with high deer population areas. In the right situation blind sets are very productive, especially with lured sets close by. I normally wait till after the white tail rut before I set blinds. Tire tracks are killer, as are deer trails and small game trails.

I could see your points Gary. I guess I really noticed here where the deer were hitting one location, and the coyotes were taking another. 6-7 sets of tracks on top of each other a couple days after a snow really makes a guy think. I have a dozen or so already set up on drags which I think would help keep these type of locations producing.

I always seem to throw blind sets out for coons as I'm not going to be throwing down bait trying to catch them, and I try to get them before coyote sets. That being said I always notice I tend to pick up fox, coyotes and badgers on these trails as well. We tend to have pretty definitive deer/predator trails. Some locations on the high banks seem to see a lot of action.

The small game is a pretty big issue for me as it never fails I come upon what's left of the rabbits/squirrels after the hawks have had their way. I think I can negate the small game by simply running more sets. I can drop a blind set in the ground in a fraction of the time it takes to make a dirthole or even a well blended flat set.

Wetdog I've considered cabling in certain situations luckily there's not much pressure where I am currently. I was the only truck down a number of roads for 10 days at a time. I think I could count on my two hands the numbers of vehicles I saw setting this year on vacation. I've already got the drags made up for when it's almost too close to the road.

When you say "grooming" I assume you mean narrowing down the trails before you set them? Honestly I don't know what to expect as we have a number of trails burned down to the dirt in the grass and I've had some crazy catch percentages on blind sets, but I've also had some sets simply sit there with no action. Again I'm thinking if I really want to do it I'll likely have to increase the number of sets to keep up the catch.

Maybe throw large road killed baits out prior to setting and give it some time for the trails?

Blind sets is all I ever used for coons/mink and any place that you can set a snare is a perfect blind set location, what ever the target. Deer will knock down snares as easy as step in the trap.

Seemed like when I ran blind sets, I caught as much bait as coon.

If you have the ability to recognize the natural locations blind setting can add a lot of extra fur to the pack with minimal effort.
Certain species are much easier to target with blind sets,and others are almost impossible to blind set for.Knowing an animals habits well will,help immensely in locating sure fire blind set locations.

Seeing tracks worn into the mud. That certainly helps.

It sure does. Generally it's coon trails from when the corn was in and they made their voyage between the water and feed. I'll see if I can dig up some old pics. I baited coons and had pretty crazy trails when they were worth catching. I found that although they are primarily coon trails at one part of the year by the time season rolls around there isn't much that won't run them. Still waiting on my first blind catch on bobcats (we don't have a very steady population). Definitely the high bank of every creek has these trails where the animals skirt the creek and the field.

These trails first are primarily made by baiting and have different animals hitting them. This first one is yes kitty litter. I had everything but my intended bobcats coming to mark this bucket of litter.



This was a trail made by a combination of coyotes and coons on a carcass pile. I got free scraps from a local butcher, some chickens from the landowner, and eventually deer right before season.



This was pretty much a coon specific trail coming to a feeder although I did catch the occasional fox on camera.

Here's a good look at a location along a pond edge that although I'd have to blend in a set I think I could still pull some blind.



Here's what I see a lot of in our country. Whether going to these piles to eat mice get out of the weather or whatever reason they end up there. This is typical of most brush piles. The rabbits can get really thick in these locations as well which can be troublesome.



If you've never been to a place with these large brush piles it can be interesting. This particular brush pile had four well defined trails out each direction like a compass that had no doubt held coons when the corn was in. Setting with 1.5's can be an interesting deal on those. I caught that coyote in the wide open with nothing but a grass bedding.


You can see the trail here on the left side of me in the dried up creek bed. This was a spillway running to a pond. Trail down to the dirt for a quarter mile. Put a trap on 10 foot of drag and then got to experience what a badger can do with 10 feet of drag.


Here's what I mean by down to the dirt.

Great pictures. On blind sets like that do you suggest dragging, slide wire or chain or staking?
Thanks

If I have a place I can hook a drag up I prefer them. Sometimes that’s not an option, so I just use disposables. You can move them down or up the trail. Sometimes after the first blind catch I drop a pipe in and continue with the grass cover similar to zaggers methods. Drop some bait and go. Don’t spend much time on Coons which is what I’ve primarily targeted like this.

This is a second remake. You can see the zagger pipe and the 1.5 out front barely covered. The coyote fell for the exact same thing after a coon got caught on the blind set.

Imo young folks starting out trapping they would benefit from blind sets in 2 ways,,,, 1 learning travel ways,,, 2 takes all the mistakes out of bait lure usage (contamination)helps folks learn to bed trap and blend a set.
And once proficient with blind set , now a baited lure set will produce better because they on the animal instead waiting for them to come to the sets.

I got out to a couple places close to home today. It rained about half an inch yesterday. In the background you can see a hog unit. There’s what’s left of hogs in the compost pile scattered across this field. You could drop blind sets along this draw in multiple places.

This other picture is of my partner in crime, he’ll show me trails I didn’t know existed. However, this is another hot location for trails. Just to the right of him is a trail on the backside of a pond dam to the spillway. Around here every pond has one and they are top producers.

I stake blinds an remake into a lured set after catches then add another blind. Get a lot of doubles that way. All good points! Their are situations that traps work better than snares for blind sets!

I'm not sure what you mean by "straight." It would not be a blind set if any bait, scent or visible attractor is used. An early to mid season alternative to waxed dirt is to leave a small recess under trap, use a pan cover, then just partially cover with grass strands. Similar covering is used at baited "pipe dream" sets in which a coyote presumably would be looking at the ground. A moving coyote approaching a blind set is highly unlikely to be looking at the ground closely enough to see a camouflaged trap, even if a step-over stick is there.

Straight as in all blind sets. No dirtholes, no flat sets, no pipes etc. No bait,lure, or urine. I simply posted some of the trails to past bait stations because large baits were mentioned. I’m talking all natural trails some of which I’ve also posted.