I think the thing other trappers need to understand is how easy it is to bed the trap and how solid it is. I have waxed dirt, cover hulls, peat moss all ready to go. It wasn't until season almost started that I looked at and studied the pipe dream set. It was supposed to be just a test to see how it works and I found it works so well in almost any environment that I don't really see the need to set any other way in the near future. To make it clear, I can bed in dirt and am pretty proficient at it also. I can catch animals that way also. I caught a couple fox with a dirt bike and a trap bedded in dirt with polyfill under the pan the way I learned from Mark June's videos. If lived in an area that had no rain or snow I might have never tried the pipe dream set. Not to take anything away from Mark June but I think you one upped him on this set. Lol you both have been inspiration to my trapping methods along with some local trappers that helped me. I have 2 pipe dream sets out right now that got about 4 inches of snow on them and I can't pin point them from the road with snow but I expect to find a coyote in one of them soon. A little footnote, I still use the MB 550s and other trapping equipment I bought from Mark June a few years ago. They work great I the pipe set.
Don't sell your auger yet, let alone your waxed dirt and other stuff......you need a bigger sample!
No "one-upping" going on here unless in your own mind......this set evolved over, frankly, decades of playing in the rain, mud, ice and snow. People get hung up on the pipe, but the bedding method, grass, steel screen, hammer-bedding were all done by me on sets using T-Bones, bamboo, Grab and Die Sticks, or just grass tufts my dogs marked. The pipe was the last thing added and the MAIN advantage of the pipe vs. the other items is its durability. Its a multi-set lure/bait holder, with T-Bones being the second my reusable (meaning after a catch). Bamboo and wooden dowels were usually "one and done".
I'll say it again: I think a DH is a "better" coyote set largely due to the visual appeal that the pipe (the way I make it!) does NOT have. That said, if the dirt hole is out of commission due to the hole being filled with water (welcome to New York!) or the hole and bed filled with snow (welcome to New York!) then I think the Pipe Dream takes the lead. Getting that stink ABOVE ground and the trap UP TOP and NOT on they bottom of a bed filled with water (above 32 degrees) or ice (below 32 degrees!) keeps it operative longer and through tougher conditions that hole sets.
This is NOT based on a small sample! Decades, thousands and thousands of sets and more than a handful of successful coyote catches in crap......
Zagman