A friend and I came to western ks coyote coyote trapping the night after we set our traps it snowed 8 inches. We do not have much experience trapping in snow. The coyotes do not seem to have much interest in our dirtholes. We have cleaned the snow out of our holes but left the snow over our traps to insulate them from freezing. My plan is to remove snow from an area around trap tomorrow as the temperature is supposed to rise and rebed them in dry dirt. Tomorrow we plan on making more sets. Should I make my sets stand out in the snow or make them as inconspicuous as possible. Should I make sets other than dirtholes. This snow is new to me so any advice will be appreciated. Also this place sees a good amount of pressure.

Best thing to do with snow on fresh sets is nothing for as long as you can. When it gets sunny they will start freezing up at night. The snow getting hard enough on top the bed the trap wont fire even if not froze down. They crust over. Think bridge. Some will work and some wont. At that point you have no choice but re bed them. Some coyotes will spook off. Some wont. Your going to make a big mess at that point so just go in and fix the set and get out.

If the snow forms a crust on top you’re gonna have to at minimum sweep the snow off the set, might have to completely rebed depending on how wet the snow is and what you are using for freeze proofing. If it’s a piwdery snow and it doesn’t melt and refreeze at all leave them alone. Snow is great for canine trapping, kind of a pain to deal with sometimes but it gets em movin. Plus it lets you see exactly how things are moving and it makes your misses clear as day, so you can fix mistakes quickly. I had nine sets that were untouched for 7 days, then one night we got a bunch of snow and I had 4 coyotes the next morning. I hate snow but there’s nothin I can do about it so look on the bright side I guess.

think snares too. its like fish in a barrel with snow on the ground

We are 500 miles from home and didnt bring any snares with us. When we left the forecast was good. I have 80 gallon of waxed dirt at home but didnt bring it I kick myself in the butt for doing that.

If your traps are waxed you might use regular table salt to keep them working. Brush off the snow and sprinkle over your trap.

If you can, find an overhang on a creek bank or go under a bridge and get some dry dirt. I just use non iodized table salt and dry dirt. When it snows, I leave the snow over the trap unless it crusts or is a wet snow.Then I take a shovel and scrape an area so there isnt just a 6" spot of dirt. I rebed with dry dirt and salt and move on.

good luck I been trapping for 40plus years ,and cant fine a way to trap in snow that always work even 50% of the time , salt here will get every deer in the area to come to set, we have a lot of freeze an thaw ,I'm going to try plastic bags today ,the cheap thin ones from dollar store

Have you tried calcium chloride? I don’t have any trouble with deer or rodents getting into that, and it works well through freeze/thaw cycles.

We get below freezing here 24/7 and for that I make the set with dry dirt and when done I fine spray a mist over the trap area. Lightly. Takes seconds to freeze and keeps anything from penetrating deeper. If a heavy snow comes brush most of the area away so cold can penetrate and keep your ice shield working.
This is for larger traps coyote/cat size and bigger. I have seen foxes step thru it as well.

To the OP... have you thought of masons sand in the 60 lb bags from Home Depot? It’s generally dry and can be worked with out of the bag.

Osky

I don't believe any one technique works all the time at this time of year.I personally have up on the chopping trap beds out of the frozen ground along time ago,I try to work with snow as much as possible,if it warms up that creates problems,I have used the straw set successfully.But while I've caught both Fox and coyote using straw I've had refusals too.I don't use hay because of our deer population.Trail sets do work as long as the snow is workable.

The snow makes it hard. I use pete moss to help out. You should be able to get that.

We were lucky enough to get snow before the ground froze hard. I can still dig out a trap bed without a great deal of effort. I pull the snow out from under evergreens and find dry duff to use as a trap bed and covering. Works so long as we don't get a lot of snow or freezing rain.

I can still make a set in some places, but our ground is pretty solid now. I do the same thing though, just grab some dry dirt out from under a juniper. Biggest problem here is we got 3” of snow, and then 40 degrees for highs and teens for lows.

Up here every foothold we set is in snow. No dirt involved so I dont know how it would work with your sets, but I use thin foam covers ( laminate flooring underlay) underneath, and on top of my foothold sets for wolves. The foam underneath keeps the trap from freezing down, and the cover on top keeps snow from drifting in under the pan. Dont see why it wouldnt work for a dirt hole, but I've never used them in dirt.

Yukon do you cut to size? Somewhat over size? Pan notch?

I remember you discussing this before but can't recall the details.

Thanks!

The problem isn't snow so much as snow melting. If it snowed and stayed cold, like Alaska, keeping sets working would just be a matter of keeping them from getting buried too deep. When you have just a few inches of snow and it stays cold, you are golden, but that hardly ever happens. Instead, it's cold, then warm, then rain, then snow. Hardly anything works through rain, then cold, because it crusts over the top, even with peat or grass, so you have to skim it off and redo and maybe add some antifreeze. Salt sucks, in my experience. So I guess I will stick with lightweight materials and remake when needed, maybe add some glycerin on top.

I cut discs just a bit larger than the trap.

I like that Yukon. When it gets deep here I will try that.
When it’s frozen ground a battery Milwaukee hammer drill makes a trap bed in seconds.

Osky

Make big tear ups and get rid of any snow and you will be better off.

Trapping in snow there 2 ways Danny's way or Beav's way
If do cover your trap in snow is temperature dependent, if a a warm air is coming Beav way works as well as anything. On a fresh snow over trap' s that already set theat pretty well freeze proof let it sit until it starts to melt want to put on a crust, clean off then. But snow already on the ground then setting trap Beav way shovel off make your set. Imo or what I do

It makes sense. It gives the animal more of an area to sniff out and become at ease with.

We just got a 1/2 of fresh powder on the sets here a couple days ago, nothing better than that. Easier to check them from a long ways away also. When we get to much snow on top the sets I have done like Beav has said. Get in tear it up with a little dirt thrown on the snow and remove the snow around the set for a ways. I then re bed the trap if it is necessary with waxed dirt. Got frozen ground now and the waxed dirt seems to be working so far.

I set in the snow and the biggest challenge is the changing temperature. It is what I consider an on-going battle.

If it is cold enough you can keep your set from freezing using snow alone and this with little to no problems. You simply need to cover up your trap with the top layer. This thin layer is what I consider dry snow. This top layer tends to prevent your set from freezing.

If you try to cover up your trap with snow below the top layer it contains more moisture and this will contribute to freezing.

Simply use a small broom and a dust pan to collect this snow. . You can also cover your pan with crumpled wax paper or thin plastic bag found in the produce section of your local grocery store.

During time frame ranging from January to February I use combination of peat moss and snow. In recent years I had more problems keeping snow on my traps. The peat moss will prevent the pan from being exposed as temperature rises.

However, I have to keep maintaining my sets and frozen traps are not uncommon under these winter conditions.

There are many good tips given by others and there is nothing wrong with trying different things. You simply need to find something that works for you.

Hope it helps.

We embedded our traps in dry dirt today and removed the snow from around the sets. It warmed up pretty good today but the soil is very sandy so it drains well. We managed to catch 3 today and are hopeful it will pick up from there . Thanks for all the advice that was given.

I just reset some traps today in the snow. I followed around and looked where the coyotes had blown out our dirtholes, from our earlier trapping. If you’ve ever seen what a coyote does to a dirthole that doesn’t have a trap in front of it in the snow it’s like a bomb went off.

Although I didn’t find too many places we left coyotes I did find a few. I just kick the snow off and make it look like they do. Like a bomb. I’m sure some coyotes will shy away but it looks pretty similar to what they do. I’m not there to get them all but I’m getting real close.

If you’re just using dry dirt that might work for a day or two. Until it gets above freezing and the snow melts. Then your dry dirt will act like a sponge and suck up all that moisture and freeze hard overnight. The freeze/thaw has to be one of the hardest parts about keeping footholds running in the Midwest.

I personally use table salt and peat for the greater majority of my sets. I doubt you have peat dried out so you might just have to use some driveway heat from the local Wally World and clean your traps well when you’re done. I did run a little bit of wax dirt today but without more moisture the dried peat will hold up to the freeze thaw quite well.

Bump

Learned a couple of things at Coyote Days this year. Pea gravel works great for bedding traps and coal shale dirt as well. The shale dirt will not freeze they said.
We use wax dirt mainly and have to trap in snow quite often.
Various types of pan covers are used as well.