So I have 10 DPs set On this property. It's a run down farm and there are trails leading all over. So far I have caught 7 coon but I have yet to catch a coon In a DP that's already made a catch. Is this a common happing when trapping with DPs?

I have always wanted to take notes on secnd catches in same trap but i never have. I am pretty sure when i was in Ohio running bait station style i called them dog proof bombs i would get better hits on the clean traps i sure thought set in a circle around a bait bucket. Say 8-10 set around a bucket. Seems like every trap would get one hit for sure. I am interested if anyone has done the numbers on it though. I wish i had when i was running bigger numbers on dog proofs. I like to think it does make a difference if they gte blood on them especially the ones that get a lot.

I shot some so I had blood In ten catch circle. And some I put down with the BG on a stick method. So far no repeat catches.
I never had that problem when catching coon In BG set In trails. But maybe It's the catch circle with the DPs.

Now that you mention it...I don’t think I have in a DP. Footholds yes, all the time. BUT, I swap a foothold out after each catch. I’ll spray it off after each catch and put them back in rotation. May need to start doing that with DP’s. I’m starting a farm the 19th with a major coon issue...I’ll keep notes.

Wanna Be that is what my bait stations would look like on camera. It is insane when you get numbers coming in like that.

I dispatch all mine with a 22 and this year I had numerous catches in traps that had produced already and had blood in the catch circle. I do, however, think I do better the first time around with everything clean. I had thoughts of moving traps out of the catch circle but was just too busy to move them.

I never noticed a problem with any of mine. On hot spots I will catch one after the other with same dp. And there's blood and catch circle. But I have some places that severely overpopulated.

Maybe Ron Jones will come on here to describe his DP methods. I’ve watched him and he knows where of he speaks.

I haven't had a problem with the same trap cathing multiples .

Every other day, after a catch, at the same set for me. Seems like always a day or two in between.

Some traps are that way beav, then the next one will catch a coon everyday for two weeks. Try moving it out of the catch circle or swapping for a clean trap... of course you still won't know for sure. It sure does seem like new traps catch awfully well, maybe coincidence. ??? I've used a lot of DPs for a lot of years now and still scratch my head at times.

Beav, not sure what is going on. I catch them repeatedly in the same remakes. A couple weeks ago I caught 20 in a 20 yard area in 4 days. 5 DPs and 3 MB 450’s. All remakes. That being said on a small farm after 3-4 good days of catches it usually goes to zero or maybe one a day. I just figured they are spooked. Do you use a trailing sent?

I have caught multiple coo n in the same dp. I shoot them and blood in area doesn't seem to bother them

No coon today.

Caught 2 today In traps that had caught coon before. Both were In non blooded catch circles.

So I may need to just move the DP out of the catch circle...it’s just strange that a foot hold in a catch circle doesn’t seem to bother them. Thanks for the info!

I posted the same thing a year or two ago. I never caught a second coon in the same DP in the same location. If I moved the trap down the trail, I caught coon so I don't think it's a "dirty trap" issue. I don't have a lot of DP experience but noticed that trend right from the start.

I have had this problem in the past when I was dispatching the raccoons in the trap and letting them expire there also in the trap/circle. They bled in the circle and on the trap. For the past 2 seasons I have been using Steinmeyer's Death Ray and have had MULTIPLE, MULTIPLE, MULTIPLE repeat catches, in a row, in the same trap, as long as there is no blood on it. I had one trap that had a raccoon in it for 6 checks in a row this season. If the trap gets blood on it, I put a fresh one in its place. I am convinced that coons will shy away from a set with their kinds blood on it or near it. I've had too much of a difference in results to not believe this. I am 100% using DP's for coon, no foot-holds.

I’ve only got a dozen DP’s so my sampling is small, but I’m agreeing with what most everyone is saying here. Blood in the catch circle equals no coons for at least a couple days. Coyote sets it doesn’t seem to matter quite as much, I have coyote sets catch 3 coons 3 days in a row, then go dead, for a week, move the set ten feet away and start the process over again.

So my pondering on the whole thing is... dog proofs could be a slightly sub par capturing device, but a guy could combat that with ease of installation and number of sets put out. Or does an inch of dirt cover a lot of sin on the dirt holes.
Or are my coyote baits so attractive that the coons and possums just can’t resist them and I should be using them in the DP’s lol

I've got a few DPs out, and 4 of them have taken their 2nd and 3rd coon from same location. Dispatched on location. The catch circles are getting impressive though.

I'm not a fan of using pure DPs only for a coon line I like to run a mix of traps, but the DPs are pulling their own for a change this year. Some years they lag WAY behind other traps and sets for me.

Jim

I bought 100 if the original Griz Getters when they were first offered in '99 or '01. can't remember the year exactly, but Gary Bonnet brought them to the Nationals in Iowa. I had been working on a DP design too but when I saw his i threw my hands up in defeat. I used them for that year and he had a large add in the T&P Caller about the springs being weak. I sent 96 back and he replaced the springs and threw in 4 traps to replace the ones I lost. Good Business I thought. He asked me to write an article about my success (which I cordially declined) and told him he had the "better mousetrap" so it was only a matter of time (that I wanted to enjoy) before everyone in the U.S. was "made" a coon trapper. I have as many years experience with DP's as about anyone. There are probably smarter trappers and harder workers out there but year in and out I've paid a few dues. I have tinkered with them from the best stake/anchor, to best baits, to mouse exclusion, to positions, to push/pull etc. for 20 years. About 10 years ago I noticed what Beav is saying and have kept track of repeat catches (unofficially) and here is what I do now. I stun the coon with a rap on the noggin, release the foot and euthanize it at least 10 feet from the circle --- no muss, no fuss. I have some catch circles look like a badger catch and I use a small rake to spread and level the area. If you have an extremely high coon population like northern MO or southern IA then my dispatch method is probably a waste of time. If you have lower populations (like I have) then this procedure seems to work for me. If I get heavy with opossum catches I will replace the original and simply creek rinse the "opossum dirty" trap and then put it back in service. If I set 3 traps and they are all full at check time I am disappointed as I always try to have a trap open for all comers and if they are full that means I could have missed some. Sorry, I'll get off the podium...... my take the mike

Many times I will catch 2 or 3 coons in as many days in a DP trap then it may go dead. I will take the same trap and present it differently and catch more coon if they are there. I believe there are 2 reasons for this. First when I say if they are there, coon will be on a circuit. In areas where the coon is high in population densities, it is hard to see this, because there is so many coons running the same trails the trapper can not tell which coon is what coon, but where coon numbers are not high it is easier to see. There will be a bunch of tracks for a few days, then nothing new for a short time frame, then a lot of tracks again. or catches. Every area will have a different circuit depending on the food source and amount, time of the season and other factors. In my area, the sows and family units will be on a 5 to 8-day circuit and the Boars will be on an 8 to 10-day circuit. The second reason I believe this happens and really shows in the early part of the season before the den up is. I think the coon when caught will show negative behavior in the trap. So when at a bait station or in the family group, the other coon sees's this negative behavior at that spot. Watch your dog and how it acts if another dog it knows gets hurt when it is there. So after the 2nd or 3rd coon caught there in that spot, and the others seeing the negative behavior they avoid that spot. I see this behavior with cage traps also. I have videos of coon family groups where 2 or 3 get caught in the cage and the last 1 or 2 will not go in the trap. By changing the presentation of the trap or moving it a few feet down the trail they do not associate any problem. This is why I can set traps for 5 to 8 days make catches and goes dead, Pull, then I go back 3 weeks later and catch more coon. This is also why I change the DP trap presentation when I see the coon are there but not working the same stupid set.(advanced system) everyone blames the bait when things go dead but I just change the presentation with the same baits and the coon work the traps. Just what I do and think. Also turning the trap so the trigger is horizontal to the coon rather than vertical will increase catches at least it did for me. I can not own let alone set foot traps so all I have is cable, cages and DP traps for land trapping..

No circuit here It's a bunch of dilapidated farm buildings surrounded by a corn field. It's cold here now and the coon are staying close to home. I'll try moving the traps a few feet out of the catch circle and see what happens.

I sure don't do the numbers you guys do, but I have noticed that "dirty" DP's don't seem to catch like clean ones. This year I am swapping out the dirty trap for a clean one and I have noticed fewer days between catches.

Wife, I like that dispatch idea, might try that. I do believe the blood hurts in a DP setting.

DP's are sure different than footholds at dirt holes.

Caught another big boar today and that's 3 out of the same trap. The other thing Is that the 3 coon out of that one trap were all boars. Is It possible that the young of the year coon and the females may be a little hesitant to work a catch circle?


Ok so I moved a few traps out of the catch circles and used a different type of bait. Will see what happens tomorrow.

So was that trap in the same spot or did you move it out of the catch circle each time after a catch?

Same spot. Never moved It.

So, Beav, my question is the trap “clean”? Yes , I think boars are more aggressive and will hit a set time after time, but not with a bloody trap.

All 3 coon were killed by a BG over their head. No blood so the trap was clean to a point.

I really think that’s the key. If you have the inventory, throw a new trap in there if the old one gets messy, take the dirty one home that night, wash it up and get it ready to put back out the next day.

Got two more this morning, both are 3rd coon from same DP same location, all dispatched at the set and I reset both and expect more from these two sets. I dont clean up blood or anything just reset the trap and rebait it, jam it right back in middle of the catch circle.
As mentioned earlier I'm not an huge fan of DPs usually other traps out produce coon for me but so far this year the DPs are carrying their weight fir some reason. It's almost mid december and as season gets later DPs usually do nothing here for me so I'll switch to 160s, and my catch rate usually goes back up. There's a point in the season that food doesnt seem to be as interesting to them here. A good coyote or fox gland lure at flat sets, or just plain blind trail sets with 160s are my go to late in year.

I’m being a smart butt here but I don’t see any snow! It’s gotta feel good not having to deal with winter yet.

Yep, hammer coon here before it flies...and our corner of state has been lucky so far.

Jim, I was raised in the Southeast corner AND you are always "LUCKY" weather wise in the winter. Summer not so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. the mike

Caught another big old boar coon today. It was In a set where I had moved the trap out of the catch circle.

good job!

Just curious what your ratio of boar to sow is? Looking back over notes, in an area that gets trapped heavily, I generally catch 8:1 boars to sows. And boars mean any male...young or old.

I catch more boars then sows, but I use gland lure at the sets so that may be a reason.

Out of the 11 coon I have caught 7 were boars.

That’s pretty good then...almost 50%. Down here I’m trying to rid the properties of coons...all it does is make more for next year. Don’t know if they realize the population is down and spend some productive time in the den or others move in to an unoccupied area and set up shop. I can catch enough that landowners wont have any on camera for about 3-4 months then they start sending pics of 6+ at their feeders. Never ending battle.

I can't give you exact numbers, but my percentage is way higher for boars than sows. In the 70/30 area I would estimate..

I know It's a bit early for the breeding season. But I wonder If the females are living In these buildings year round and the males are just starting to move In for the winter. It's common knowledge that the males do more wandering then the females.

I’d say your on to something Beav, I’ve been mostly catching boars in the last two weeks or so. Probably a 90-10 ratio.

No catch today. Either I have caught them all or It was just to cold for them to venture out last night.

Beav get your self a plain ticket. Jonesie will show you. We still have a opening in our school .SOUTH JERSEY TRAPPING ans SNARING SCHOOL

Newt with the price of coon I can't afford a ticket To Jersey to learn how to catch coon In DPs. LOL



Single digit temps last night. No coon today but I did have one DP sprung. I'm thinking the dry cat food has become moist and froze up and has slowed down the traps action. Probably going to pull tomorrow.

After thinking over my last post I don't see how the bait would effect the trap being sprung with no catch.
I broke all the traps free from the frozen ground yesterday so It wasn't a pull out. Any thoughts on the sprung trap?

Beav I get sprung traps primarily for tow reasons. Mice is the first and likely main cause of all of mine. second and very far second i have seen sign that Mr. trash panda will play with the trap either in the ground or pull the stake out if it is not firm in the ground. Just bumping the dog and trigger will set it off. There are likely other causes but these are my main two causes of tripped DP's.

Makes sense.

Oh and dogs will set them off. I forgot that one. Sniffing around and hit the dog with their nose. In the pheasant ground i trap coon in i get a decent number of traps set off by dogs smelling bait and inspecting while they are supposed to be hunting birds.

I tried waxing my DP's this year and found out real quick that I had to scrape the wax off the dog and trigger contact point. If I didn't, the trap would spring itself, sometimes not right away.

I've also had mice and deer set them off.

This coon is 2nd from this trap, location. Set it right back in catch circle and check it again in morning.

Beav is it the coon are not moving or they are not there or is it the coon are not touching the traps? For me and may only be right for me, when I set up, I always do things so I can see what is going on. maybe I have a camera, maybe I have things to monitor the coon activity ( there are many ways to quickly see coon movement and activity). Just the way the trap is baited can do this. I need to see if I am missing coon (not working the traps) or seeing if they are not there. That is in fur trapping or ADC, I am the same. In fur trapping, If the coon is not there, I don't want to waste time with set traps not catching what is not there. In ADC I have to figure out the circuit so I can solve the problem. In your situation, if you are helping a farmer out with the coon problem then you are doing ADC. You may not think of it this way but you are doing ADC. Your pay is fur prices. If the cold has shut down your coon then I would need to see it and pull with a plan to come back and catch them when things are right. Checking empty sets cost the same as catching, you just are not getting anything in pay. If they are there and not working the traps, I need to see that and figure out why. Teacher has said to me Jonesie you look at coon trapping differently than most. LOL and yes I do. 40 years of doing ADC, catching/controlling coon at almost 50 percent of my income forces me to see it differently. It bugs me to miss a coon LOL and I do miss coon and a lot of coons, more coon has kicked my tail than I want to admit, even though coon are easy to catch, LOL well the 80% are, the 20 percent can make a trapper pull their hair out. In fur, when you miss you are missing 6 to 10 bucks so who cares, skim the cream, right. but for me, if I miss a coon I may be loosing xxx.xx bucks so you can see why I am over the top when it comes to catching the coon, and that same hate to miss a coon bleeds over into fur. If you are now there, to see what is happening and to learn something that you may not know, then think out of the box and set up so you can know if the coon is denned, not there. or not working the traps. See if in fact there is a circuit happing. By the way, I have never not seen a circuit in coon when I took the time to see it. your pay will be knowledge.

Thanks for you input Ron I agree with you 100%.

I caught big boar today. Last nights temps were In the 30s and we had a slight drizzle and a bit of fog. Perfect weather for animal movement.

Some things are just hard to figure out. I have 3 DPs In this beat down trail and It's so beat down Ray Charles could catch coon In It. It runs from the house to the corn field the traps are 10 feet apart. I have yet to catch a double but I have caught 4 coon out of 2 of the traps but the middle trap has never been touched. Same bait same lure It's just hard to figure.

I did have another sprung trap today and I think I got the problem solved. I used sheep wool In several traps and I stuffed It under the trigger. Since sheep's wool Is pretty matted and Is hard to pull apart I'm thinking they had most of It out before the trap was set off and I could see some of It above the traps mouth. I removed the wool from those traps and baited and lured with out It.

I don't own any trail cams but that would be the way to see what's going on.

I had a trail like that and set 160s on TIGHT spots at 3 locations. Nothing for 4 days. Put 4 DP's out, had 3 coon the next night. Maybe I suck at setting 160s in trails, who knows. Maybe the coons (boars) finally made their rounds.

Can you blind set footholds in the trail?

I'm not going to fool with frozen ground and foot holds. I have killed 12 coon of this property so far so I think I've caught the majority of them.
I'm going to make a few more checks and see what happens.

Beav, where do you plan to sell your coons?

I have a private source who Is a furrier.

For those of you that have ever set say 3 traps on the trail maybe within 15 or so feet of each other. this is not absolute, but I will catch 2 or 3 sows and or first of the year coon, in those traps in a day or so of each other until I catch an older boar. I have seen in those spots (just from memory, not notes) that it seems, if I catch a 2-year-old or older boar in the first trap and also the other end trap, I can't remember catching anything in the middle trap for a few days until the 2 end sets air out or rain /snow. This also holds true it seems, again not absolute, if I have 2 traps leading from a den site. The first trap (Closest to the den) catches a boae and the 2nd set out if it is close to the first, may not catch anything. Also in my area, Except coon with early family groups, my coon is solitary after a year old. So unless I have a bait station or deer feeder. single coon is walking the trail at the same time. I believe that if the big boar is caught in the trap first, then the sows and family groups coming down that trail will walk out and around the caught boar and avoid that spot for a while. 2-year-old boars don't care and will actually be attracted to the spot. When I have a hard run trail and the coon are there and not on a circuit, yet not working the DP traps, I dig one in or set in a mound or pocket set, and that will most times get the coon working again. until they go on the circuit again. I Just my thoughts many will disagree especially those that have more coon then corn stalks LOL

Good points Ron. A lot to digest when It comes to DP trapping coon. Maybe you need to set a fresh trap just outside the catch circle like when trapping coyotes. If I hadn't already caught 12 off this location I might be inclined to try some different set ups but you can only catch them once.

No coon today but I did catch a really nice grinner. And groney isn't buying grinners. LOL

For me, I will take the same trap that caught the boar and set it just a short distance out from the circle, if and or when the catch dies off and will catch sows and first-year coon in that trap. I have no proof, but I believe it is all the boar smell at the catch spot that alerts the sows and younger coon. I personally never clean my traps just reset them. I have even taken that trap, dig it in and not rebait it, just whatever smell is in it and have coon that was rejecting it get caught when I do that.

We all have heard about the boar killing pups, and I have seen the aftermath of the killing sprees many times with the customer telling me the sounds scared them so much they wanted to leave the home when happening up in the attic at 1 am in the dark lol. This past spring I actually went into an attic and witnessed it happening first hand. Pups were dead all over and the sow was fighting the boar to try to save the last pup that was already dead. I went up through the hatch and will confess thinking do I really want to do this with the sounds that was coming from up there. I popped up through the hole as fast as I could, as I did not want my head in a bad place LOL The sow and boar was rolling and the sow was getting the best of him, I startled them and the boar took off away from me, and the sow came right after me. I had to hit her with the pole snare at 2 feet to keep her from getting me LOL I am telling this because the first 9 months of those young coons lives, the sow is training and protecting them from those older boars. So my thinking when those older stinking boars spend that much time in the trap, there is a lot of smell concentrated at the one spot, the sow will avoid it as much as she can and she trains her young to do the same. Barren sows and 2-year-old boars have a different attitude and I think have no problem at those catch circles or very little problem anyway. I see this same behavior with cages that have caught older boars. Move the cage and I catch the coon. I believe there are other reasons why coon rejects the trap but will not write a book.

That makes a lot of sense. Since I have nothing to do until I get some snow maybe I'll do some more experimenting.
But with 12 coon caught that might be all of them. I only caught 2 coon that I would call young of the year so maybe they are just staying out of trouble.
Are coon like coyotes and turn on a trapped individual? I had one big boar that was ripped up pretty bad. It had one healed up wound but he had a reap fresh wound when I caught It.

I might have to borrow a trail cam or 2.

I see older boars kill and rip the belly out of other boars in snares, I think neck caught more than body caught really puts the poor thing at a disadvantage to the other coon, and older boars kill young coon. I honestly can not think of a time finding a sow ripped up and killed by another coon in a snare, dogs, and coyotes yes, but not another coon. But I can not say it doesn't happen. maybe others have have seen it happen. I have witnessed first hand 2 coon dismembering a squirrel in a cage trap. One on each side of the cage reaching through the mesh grabbing the squirrel and pulling it apart. happens a lot, and most of the time when 2 coon are together as older coon it is females before their first heat cycle. It looks like a blood bath. most times the only thing left in the cage is head and rib cage. I might add I would rather grab a boar coon any day over grabbing a sow with my hands. and no I don't make it a practice, that happens in the OH S&^% moments. if a boar charges me in an attic I know it is a false charge, and I can grab it with the pole, When a sow charges me she may false charge or go all the way. If she doesn't stop at around 3 feet then she means business, not fun on knees balanced on ceiling joists and hard to grab with a pole coming straight at me LOL, This is where the hat slapped in her face comes in handy. while she is chewing on the hat I can get out of the way and maybe get the pole on her. I will do coon vocals with my mouth to try to pull the coon out of the hiding place. If she comes, that means there are pups in there. I find that most coon that fall into the 20% are sows. so maybe the sow will take advantage of another coon in a trap.

I'm trapping coyotes for a woman and her son with a small cow calf operation. They have a few calves penned up to feed. Asked me to trap the coons too. I had already caught several in coyote traps. There is a big cottonwood not far from the calf pen. Old tree. Den tree. I put two DP's at the bottom of it. They are about 5 feet apart. The same trap has caught every coon I have caught there. I havn't moved it. Just rebait and reset it. There are no coons "living in " that tree now. Most of them were already caught in coyote sets before I set there. I'm catching the ones passing through that show up to spend the day there. No telling how many in a 5 mile radius of it know its there. Anyway I dont think coons spook off remakes. If anything a big wreck makes them curious to go see what happened.

Beav, when I am in situations like you are in, I will hang cable 6 inch loop 6 to the bottom of the loop on the trails out and insides of the dp's I will also place cage traps in the trails. If I could use killers on land here, I would set killers in the trails and coni boxes also. Cover all the bases, and give them every chance to get caught. Coon can be pressured harder than k9.

Thank you to all for your information. I too was having issues with not getting 2nd catches in DPs and was wondering why. This year was the first year I set 2-3 traps in trails and caught some coons. I pulled after 3-4 days and came back in 2 weeks and got a couple more but I have also learned many other aspects about coon from this thread.

1. Coon circuits are longer than I anticipated, which means there are more coons travelling many of my trails then I thought. (don't know how this factors in as we get colder weather.
2. Set a bit heavier then I have in the past and move clean traps to the ends of the trails where catches have been made.
3. Change presentation, more so then bait
4. Keeping better records about what gender I catch will probably help me catch more or manage differently.
5. I have been dispatching with Belisle and will keep doing so.
6. If I have other places to set, pull after a few days, set those up and return later.
7. Presentation is more important then changing up baits. Coons recognize what in methods or procedure may be harmful more than I thought, but food is food to a coon.

Bryce

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