My 14 year old son and I set some goals for this trapping season. One was to catch a badger and a red fox for his fur display. We aren’t exactly loaded down with either in our area but we’ve already managed to catch both. Our next goal is to catch a grey fox for his display. So we are planning a week long out of state trip the last week of December right after Christmas. I need some help, advice, tips on how to trap grey fox in the Mark Twain in southern Missouri. I’m assuming our No BS 1 1/2 coils are enough trap and can also hold some incidental cats/coyotes. Sounds funny calling cats/coyotes incidentals. Any way, anybody from that area of the country that could point me in the right direction as far as lures, baits, sets, elevations, habitat, common sign, etc?

Cool display. I hope to have something similar one day.

They are easy to catch. Basic dirt hole will fill your truck if you are on them. Brushy areas and old woods roads are good locations. I would say any commercial bait would work. I've caught them on bream heads and I've even heard of one being caught on juicy fruit gum.

Yes 1.5 coil is plenty.

Loging road and especially logging road junctions. I caught alot when I was his age on whole frozen mice or grey squirrel chopped up with a hatchet put down in a dirt hole. Small food plots are good too. I caught 6 in 6 days once in the same set. It was a dirt hole at the base of a mound of dirt that was about 3ft tall and 5ft across. Good luck you'll get them! At that age i always used hawbreakers grey fox gland too.

...you’ll want your pan tension on the lighter side...they will work a set hard. When you catch one reset in the circle and you’ll usually have the mate the next day... set might go dead for awhile after that if they’res not another pair overlapping the area. Home range of grays isn’t much more than a few acres .... cuts through thickets and briar patches usually pay off if they’re around


.. they got thin around here ... used to be around every bush in the day

..still like to see them turning flips in a cat set though lol ... they won’t pass up cat gland lure and a hole

I live in Ozarks in northern Arkansas. I have caught a few this yr. We have more bobcats and coyotes than fox. Just because there so many bobcats and coyotes than fox. I would use a #2 fully modified .

Crowd the hole with the trap. Greys work in tight.