A 330 puts their lights out.
Although I never set a 330 for coon,the ones I caught on crossovers when trapping nuisance beaver up south were poleaxed double struck.

Not too many states will allow you to set dry land 330s.

Regs vary all over the continent.Do your due diligence.
Some places dont allow footholds,some dont allow snares-so what.

What ever Boco.

But In my opinion a 330 Is a very poor trap choice for coon work. Your bound to get a fair amount of hip caught coon and that's not fair to the coon.
When we use to to be able to use 220s for coon I figured I could push those trigger wires off to the side a bit so I would miss some of that junk stuff. I'm sure I did miss some junk but I also caught a fair amount of coon that were hip caught. And I will say It again It wasn't fair to those coon.
Just because you can use some type of trap doesn't mean It's the right thing to do.

I know when I trapped In Canada we would kick a hole In snow drift and put a chunk of beaver meat In It then stabilize a 330 In front of that snow hole. It was a real fox killer. But we were In wilderness situation.

Quick update on my test. Possums keep coming in early to steal the bait, so finally set a live trap to deal with those. Was using the trigger pattern recommended for boxes in the 5 x 5 coon DVD:



When set, this looked pretty good. Open look to encourage entry, yet at tips, there may not be 3 inches of space to get under. Looked to be impossible to get past without firing.

If purpose was to snuff me a possum, I got that done. Trap suitcased him with a neck AND thorax strike and he never moved which was a surprise that he got in that deep.....they had been moving the triggers upon entry and triggers are tuned to the point of not moving more than 1/2" before trap fired. Trap was right where I left it, except it now had a good sized juvenile possum in it. Curious thing was the bait was gone. Either a different possum came in over the top (none showed on game camera), or this guy got all the way past it, ate the bait and triggered it backing out. And of course game camera recorded him sniffing, but cut off just as his nose got to the trap. It was the last recording I had for the night.

Didn't find out much, but got rid of the bait stealing traffic so we can give a coon a chance to see what he does.

he probably told you but you forgot to look
if the wires were towards his butt, he was going in
if they were towards head, he was going out

Paul teaches us to pay attention to those things to help with future sets

are there any air flow holes in the back?

When I posted before, I had only gone to the barn to see what I had. Now that I've had a chance to pull him from the trap, 99% certain he was the one who cleaned out the bait and was backing out. He was halfway through the trap when it fired. Bars with dog and to inside of trap caught him on top of back and behind front legs....... bars with trigger wires and to the outside caught him in front of back hips. Trigger wires pointing straight up, but were in front position, so would have traveled with / trailed front bars that caught on over the back hips.

So juvenile male possum half the size of even this year's coon kits, but still can't believe he got that far and spent that much time inside the trap without it firing. And I tested it again, and tips of triggers didn't move 1/2" and trap fired.

BTW, have several videos of at least 2 different possums going through this trap and all videos have possum stepping on the bottom bars....with one foot just below their chin...as head passes through the trap. With a possum, seems like a foot and leg inside the jaws is more likely than not.

How far do the trigger wires move before the trap springs? This Is a critical adjustment. You need a minimum of a inch or so to get good base of the skull hits. To far and your going to get body catches.

It the tips of these trigger wires move much more than 1/2", the trap fires. As BG's go, this one has a nice crisp trigger on it.

This trigger pattern was what was mentioned as being recommended in that 5 x 5 DVD for coon boxes. The pattern looks good in theory, as these guys routinely go under wires like this. Watched a cage released kit go under an electric poultry netting a few months back.....was no gap....he made one with his snout. He didn't even slow down. But to get trap with this trigger configuration to fire, crown of his head is gonna have to push on the short drops.....not much leverage there.....or push up on wires as his head passes through. Looks good, but jury is still out on this one.

I was wondering if anyone would mention using pans...they did and is far my favorite in a baited box set, cubby or bucket !

Boco, I have seen the same thing with 330 caught coon - suitcase and dead right there. I don't set them for coons, but a set in a shallow run, a bait stick set, or a crossover set will take plenty of coons in the south. I have one ditch that is as wide as a 330 that connects a large stream to a pond. It is a long ditch and I always have 3-4 sets in it as it is a beaver and otter hotspot. Coons run that ditch too and it is not uncommon to double or triple on them. They are always dead right where the trap hit them and it is often still on the support sticks. I run my 330 triggers on the bottom and a coon will usually hit it with its shoulders resulting in a hit behind the head and a hit lower on the body. A really big coon will bump it with its chest and get hit behind the head or across the chest, but it takes a really large coon to do this.

Did you have many reach in, poor catch, problems as suggested by The Beav?

Videos continue. Have reset the restraint wires, so trap will set....but when it fires, bars only move 1/4" or so....(trap fires with a dull thud vs. the big bang you would get leaving this to the safeties).....so nobody gets hurt (yet)....but am still able to document what happens when coons come and go. Again, this is a CTM 5 x 5 trap. It is a hammer.

Of course....small possum got there first, and watching on video, it got all the way in and trap had not fired. It stayed low to avoid the trigger wires.....and video didn't catch him leaving, but trap had fired by then.

But shortly after, good sized coon showed up. Box sides are 9" tall....to give some perspective of scale. Turns out when coon goes in......as opposed to easing in slowly as possum did, coon punched his way in with some force....and likely would have fired the trap about here......ears just passing past center of trap....



Coon lowered his nose, so front of face was nearly vertical going through......would likely set off most trigger wires. Not sure what would happen with a pan. That is on the horizon to test as well.

But also found out that this good sized coon can get all the way through a 5 x 5 if he wants to....at one point he was hip deep.



In every instance......if food was within reach, would sit outside and reach in.....under, around and through the trap. If food is almost in reach.....say halfway back, he eases in with feet under his chin like a possum does. If food is all the way back, he punches in face first.

Good solid information, thanks for taking the time to experiment and post your results. Gary.

In every instance......if food was within reach, would sit outside and reach in.....under, around and through the trap. If food is almost in reach.....say halfway back, he eases in with feet under his chin like a possum does. If food is all the way back, he punches in face first.
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This conclusion supports my suggestion to place a pan trigger trap close to the bait recessed deep into the back of the box. Yes we may still get some reach in catches but they should be minimal compared to other trigger set up reach in catches.

But In that first picture the coon would have been dead before It's feet even reached a pan set up. I really don't see a need for a pan when trapping coon.
For marten and mink and fisher I can see where the pan option would be a good thing.

They dont fire a pan with their feet.
A proper pan set up in a box,the pan is angled up so it is fired with the neck/chin area.

The trigger wires are there for a reason. If a coon has committed to that box a trigger wire or 2 won't stop him.

I agree beav,I wax all my bodygips. Wire triggers on a waxed trap work as well or better than pans.
Trick to waxing bodygrips is to adjust dogs and triggers to fire crisply before waxing.
If triggers are shoddy or have been worked to fire easily before waxing they are not reliable when waxed.
A properly adjusted trigger when waxed will take a slight initial force,but will go all at once suddenly without any movement or sustained force.

One of those yellow wax carpenters pencils work. Just wax up the dog and trigger assembly.