I FINALLY connected with a coyote today after many a struggle this season. I have used just about everything I could think of, and low and behold, I stumbled across the compass set! There is seemingly nothing in the archives about it, just want some input if it should be in the archives.

What I did was went out in a corn field where I had sign (about 25 yds) and found a mellow spot with mostly bare dirt, and bedded my trap with 4 "poke" mouse holes about 9 inches from the center of the pan, in a cross. I used a different type of lure, no bait, in each hole, and in a couple days I was looking a beautiful male in the face! I don't think I would use this set all the time, but it was a real confidence booster for me! Best of luck!

I use them when setting dead center of two tracks if it’s bare or no place to place a pipe. It’s worked as advertised for me many times.

I think it's a waste of time, lure, and money. That's just my opinion. If you need the coyote to shuffle its feet around while it sniffs four holes in the ground you might want to go back to the basics.

...I forgot to mention that I put my lure on a cotton ball, then poked them down the holes. I'll bet I didn't use a pencil erasure size amount of lure on each hole. I'm kind of a cheapskate, so believe you me, I want to waste as little as possible. We'll see how my next checks go, but, if nothing else, it gave this rookie a little confidence! Btw my remake was not a compass set, but I figure I've got plenty of scent there now, which should be more of a draw.

Nice job on the coyote. Any catch is a success. There was pages upon pages a few years back on here about the compass set. It's somewhere in the archives. I've stuck to the good ol basic dirthole. Snow is showing me there weren't many coyotes missed for the time being until more move in. I did reset a few of the locations that had tracks just to see if the old dogs will finally fall for the basics. I don't doubt they will. I've had a lot of returning coyotes to catch circles again this year...most of them died. I bet you'll be surprised how much that set will ramp things up for you.

Thank you.

Cool,I'm going to try that!!

I use the compass set quite a bit. I dip Q tips in lure or bait and put down the hole with the bait/lure up that way if you get a little rain your lure not sitting on the bottom in a puddle of water.
J

ALOT easier and faster than digging a dirt hole IME, at least for an old cripple fart like me.
Don't use any scent in 2 of the holes often
Use 3 holes at times for a Triangle Set
E-W holes are 8" from pan and N-S holes are 12-15" but many folks make them even like you. There is no set distances.

Learn to pick up free attractants like when you find a mouse nest in your workshop drawer or 4 wheeler it should go into a zip lock bag and end up down a hole in the future.

Three different piles of scat set in a triangle work also

Coyote trappers should always be thinking outside the box. Sure, its simple to keep it all dirt holes but look at a guy like Mark Zagger who thought outside the box and came up with a highly successful set. I've tried a lot of odd sets over the years...some didn't work some worked so well that I continue to use them.

I did just that except I took some "Just Mice" bait and put it in a ball of nest and put it in the hole of a hollow log. 6hrs later I had a red. Stepped out the back door with the bino's and looked across the bean field. Bingo!

Just got in from checking traps got a young fox in a compass set. Each q tip was dipped in fox frenzy,dunlap death coyote. ground deer with dobins bait solution and ground beaver in jamesons. My punch hole are roughly 9 inches from pan
J

Nice work! I'm definitely putting qtips in my arsenal!

He’s said himself he’d take a dirthole over a pipe if weather permitted. For the vast majority of weather in Kansas which is where the OP is from a dirthole will out produce a set like that often. I tried them a third year to say I did it. I stopped pounding pipe at 10:1 catches on standard.

I’ve went back to where we killed coyotes a couple weeks ago to pick up what’s left. 18 degree mornings and snow. Simply changed to step down dirtholes and picking up the circle shy coyotes now. I hear often people can’t get dirtholes in. Just swing the hammer or pick ax harder.

Standardized dirthole with one bait and quality urine. I will be driving to the next set while you’re still digging out your Q-tips. More traps. More coyotes. Most people that trap along side me wonder why it happens so fast. Standardized sets, equipment, and bait. Over and over. Can get boring but it produces.

It’s not how everyone wants to trap and I understand that to each his own. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel to catch a coyote though. I haven’t even switched baits and back to picking the stragglers off.

I don't have one home to photograph but make a hay/flat,compass combo set using three 90/90/90 cpvc corner fitting joined by 18" for yotes(14" fox) lengths of pex tube into a triangle. Each corner is topped with a 90 below into which you put your lures. Trap is bedded in hay in center of triangle andI slightly cover tubing. They do tend to get ripped apart at catch but the only more costly part is the corner and they and almost alway reusable. This is my quickest weather resistant set for dry land in winter. I also have a few PVC portable dirt holes but they are harder to make and harder to replace when chewed apart. I don't run hundreds of canine/cat sets though. Another real aid to setting frozen ground is I make custom(almost all my large footholds are same size/shape) silicone trap bed that I just lay on flat frozen surface and just drop trap into-rock solid bedded). Only drawback to this is they take a couple weeks to cure in mould(and I haven't found another material that is as freeze resistant/flexible/durable/odorless(after time) yet.

Are you an engineer or something? That seems a little bit too time consuming (complicated) to me, but I really appreciate your response! I haven't had to deal with a major freeze yet, so when I do, I may have to consider your set...you might try just making poke holes, then driving a pipe down the hole (at an angle if you want), if I'm understanding your set right, that is.

I do that on 2 tracks with grass in the middle. Place a pipe above and below the trap both angled towards the trap.
I understand dirtholes will catch a critter, but there are places I just can’t put in a dirt hole. Compass sets work good for me on dams as well. I tend to over set sometimes, with a pipe or dirthole at the beginning and end of the dam, on opposite sides, and a compass set or two on the dam itself, just depending on the length of the dam.

A lure holder triangle takes about ten minutes and $3 to make. When your ground is frozen down several feet and covered with many inches of snow flat/hay sets become an easier productive set to make. The silicone trap bed lets me set down a trap rock solid in under a minute and the triangle lure holder to put a foot where I want it like any compass set with a single trap. Even on ice(often my best location without having to drill, pound or mess with frozen surface. Many of the devices I make take a little investment of time(that is what off season is for) but greatly speed setting during. It is also a set that canines around me are not yet familiar with. Same with the portable dirtholes which I just place within securing distance of a sapling or replaced staked location before freeze drop trap on a bed in it, cover with dry dirt bait and lure. Bait holder is a 12 oz HD plastic glass that I hide in a low grass clump or wrap in a roll of birch bark(many of my seta are in woodlands. Silicone beds have only ever froze up once when whole set area got submerged covering trap.

Do you have a picture of this?