Any tips for catching cottonrails in live traps? I got a bunch hanging around where I cant shoot. They have some payback coming for eating up the garden.

I always used homemade box traps. \

Used corn cobs broken down to shorter sections (1-4" long)
put them in thick bushy areas along side trails.

Nothing hard about it, pretty easy to get them.

We also hunted them at night with a bow at bird feeders in town where shooting was a no go.
Killed a couple with wrist rockets and marbles too.

Rabbits are easy to kill, lots of ways of getting them in a no firearms area.

Cage apples.

This time of year, funnel them into the trap. Not much bait can compete with green grass.

Set on trails, wooden rabbit boxes or cages brushed in to create cubby, drift fencing, fruit baits.

When I was young we raised Beagles and my Dad would trap rabbits for training. He built wire cage traps and was very firm on his belief that the flower end of half an apple was the very best bait.

Moosetrot

Corn cobs

Friend of mine has about 50 wooden traps build three years ago. In the very dead of winter, he set his traps with no bait at all. Rabbits went into the boxes for protection I suppose. He let them go and retired his traps.

As a young teen, I checked my rabbit boxes by bicycle. Sold them alive for $.50 to a man who trained beagles. Carried the rabbits in a burlap sack. Squirrels would chew out and ruin the door. Possums stunk up the boxes and we charred the inside with fire thinking it helped. I think I caught as many squirrels as rabbits. Probably because once I caught a rabbit or two, i set the same trail all winter long rather than moving to new ground.

Salty Apple slices leading in to wood box traps.

I run my own nuisance control business and have trapped hundreds of them.This may sound odd,,but I use apples for bait,,but also a small squirt of red fox urine in my traps.Works great.

That's Not Odd Upstate^^^ I've seen that tip given ,and it does help ...

Grew up box trapping them to sell to guys with beagles as described above.

Always apple slices for me. The cold nights are best as they are looking to hole up and stay warm.

Never make a box out of new wood. Find an old barn that is being torn down or use a hollow log. The more natural the better. The ones made out of a hollow log were the best, but it was hard for a 10 year old to cut a round door

...or try this

I'd like to trap some black squirrels and start a new population where I live. I know of them in Marysville KS, Council Bluffs IA and Lincoln NE.

Here, Exact trap I build
Pattern from L.T.

did that 20 yrs ago and our village still has black squirrels

Cool

I saw a pie ball red on my farm a few years ago. Have not seen it since. I saw a black down the road a mile or two and my friend has shot a few lacks on his place over the years. They are around here but few and far between. Adding a few more would be cool.