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

Ttt