I must have caught him late last night when I heard them yipping nearby. Come towards trap this morning at probably 75yds and he makes a lunge for it and pulls out before my eyes. Heart sank. I had one rolling around in the same set the night before likely (smelled like coyote and trap was sprung) so I reset the sprung trap and added another beside it.

These are in new-to-me victor offset 3ns. I didn’t think the springs were particularly weak. Is this why people are selling them? I heard they were awesome but now my confidence is destroyed. Do I need helper springs? I don’t know how he was caught. Maybe by a toe or something. There was a small bit of blood at the edge of the catch circle.

I’m hoping this would have happened with even the best traps but not sure. I got dls for the longevity and low maintenance but question my decision.

Very likely a toe catch but I have no experience with LS and coyotes. I'd guess it has happened to everyone at some point.

Without actually seeing how it was held it's all a guess on what really happened. This is why it's called trapping and not catching.

Never had that happen with a coyote but did have it happen with a big bobcat. Got a picture of him and went to get my dispatch pole and when I came back he lunged and pulled the jaws right out of the trap. Heart breaking for sure.

Two things I've learned. Always have the gun loaded and ready when I pull up to a set and always check the position of the foot in the trap immediately upon arrival.

No trap catches and holds 100% of them 100% of the time,especially if its a toe catch.

Buck thats 100 % true. You catch coyotes for 35 years and you will see odd stuff Like = took me 33 years to catch a deer. Caught on short chain staked down MB 550. In Pearsal Tx. Caught a coyote by the mouth 1 time. Posted that 2 years ago. Had 1 caught by hamstring in MB 550 by back leg. Post on here West Texas last thread. Dont know HOW it held. Have never caught a piglet over 30 lbs in a MB 550. Till last year. Caught a 100 plus lb pig in West Texas. Has to bear its hoof out with masonry hammer. My point??? Trap long enough strange things will happen. !!! DONT bear yourself up over it!!!

Yes Sir makes a good point. Especially on bobcats. Not going to ly. Had 1 last year escape from a MJ 600. Pulled up. Dead end road. Cat was jumping and flopping. Turned around at end of dead end road. Past bobcat. Again. Open tool box. Got choke stick. Reg say must release. And bam!! End of the 30 inch MJ 600 chain and gone. Didnt think -++ toe catch

Some good advice here! Also I prefer to approach the coyote from the down wind side when possible? Keeps them a little calmer sometimes. At the time 3Ns DLS where the best coyote trap made and they are still a good trap when you learn how to adjust pan tension on these traps. Not trying to start a Fight. But the modern Dogless #3 offset coil spring traps are a Better overall coyote trap IMO, Based on many catches with both traps. I am not saying sell your 3Ns! Just get better at setting & adjusting them. This will reduce toe catches.

Mark. After 35 years of coilsprings. I can say I love MJ 600 Sterling traps!! But in West Texas. I had the chance to set some 3 &1/2 LPCs Longspring for coyotes and some # 8 LPCs latter on for mt lions and I must says = LPC is a fine Longspring. True its the modern version of what a Longspring should be pur still agreat trap. Very Well made. MR James Lucero agrees. He likes the LPCs 3 &1/2 Longspring traps and used them and still has them today

Steeltraps. Those are well made LS traps for sure!

It wasn’t the traps fault, those are good traps. Sometimes it just happens. Check your pan tension, in my opinion most toe catches are the result of pan tension being too light. If you need help raising the tension I believe there are threads in the archives about it. I forget the name of it but I like to file a v notch in the end of the dog and file the end of the pan latch to a point so it nestles into the dog notch. Takes some testing and filing but once it’s done it’ll fire nice and crisp with enough tension to eliminate a lot of toe catches.

Don’t lose faith in the victor 3n

It happens. As others have said trap long enough and you will see about everything. Makes you appreciate what really all has to go right in order to catch them! Its mathematical probability at work.

Animals will escape from any live holding device from time to time.

It happens two years ago I had one pull out of a Sterling,re caught it about 10 days later with 100 yards from where it pulled out.In another Sterling both were flat sets.

I’ve got PIT pans and tension around 3.5lbs. Y’all may be right about it not being the traps fault, but I guess helper springs wouldn’t hurt right?

I’ve been finding lots of sprung traps dug up lately which doesn’t help to inspire confidence.

If you’re finding dug up traps then you need to look at a couple things. Could be that your traps have been contaminated with bait or lure or some other interesting smell. Or it could be that your traps haven’t been bedded solid enough and the animal feels it wiggle under the ground and digs it up to investigate. Also, what are you using for pan covers? The stiffer the material the farther the animals foot can be from centered when the trap fires.

Definitely possible on the contamination. Traps are solidly bedded being longsprings in pretty moist clayish soil. I use a trappers cap - no covers.

I use fresh wax from hobby lobby and no gloves when setting. I’ve been using cotton gloves to apply lure. I’ll say though that I had lure bottles and traps in the same bucket at one point. I tried to keep them separated by other gear like sifter/stakes/hammer but maybe that caused slight contamination. I need a bucket boss organizer or something- didn’t want my clothes pockets smelling like s*ite and now I’m paying the price.

If you had lure bottles in the same bucket with traps you’re almost guaranteed to have contaminated traps. No matter how careful you are there will always be some lure on the outside of the bottle and cap. As far as the toe catch, if your traps are bedded solid, your ban tension is correct, you’re not using a stiff pan cover, the trap isn’t on a super fine hair trigger, then the only other thing it could be is sometimes, despite our best efforts, weird crap happens on the trapline lol. Sounds like other than the contamination you’re getting everything right, I’d just chalk it up to crap happens and move on. If you trap long enough you’ll have a lot weirder stuff than that happen lol

Haha thanks for the tips. I’ll pull them and boil them and try again.

You say “Definitely possible on the contamination.”
You explain why.
At that point nothing else matters.
You are educating animals.
They are smelling the contaminated traps.
Pull everything.
Scrub, wash, scrub, wash.
Clean and boil your tools too.
Boil in walnut hulls.
Wax properly.
I would wait from pull to reset a week.
When you reset stay away from where they were set before.
Others will disagree, clean gloves and tools to set clean traps.

Each of my “dig ups” were sprung traps. How can they dig and spring the traps each time without getting caught even once? I would think out of the 6-7 times it happened that one would get caught - even if only by a toe. Or maybe that would just take a LOT of luck - someone more experienced tell me.

I stuck my hand in my trap and it holds pretty well. Especially if I’m caught behind my finger joints. I also run shock springs which I would think helps with holding.

Good call on cleaning my tools. That’s probably more likely what’s contaminated more than the traps

Are u sure they are being dug then sprung? Maybe deer firing them?

Cameras tell the tail. I’m setting on a trail the landowner swears he sees coyotes on. All I’ve got so far is the trap tripped 5 out of 9 days and all by deer. May not even set it when we get back from the beach if I don’t see anything besides deer and turkeys.

This is a possibility too, That one slipped my mind. Used to happen to mine all the time when I trapped areas with a high deer population

Usually if it’s a deer the trap bed will have minimal disturbance, trap sprung, chain pulled tight, no catch circle or claw marks. If you’re using urine at your sets, try a few without it. They like the salt.

When you pull up to a catch look first at the hold. This is why my Rugar 10/22 is dead on at 20yards. Good swivels overtime pay for themselves over and over. I had a rear paw toe held energetic coyote escape last season as I pulled up even though I had it rigged right. I missed lol.. Steeltraps is correct, you trap long enough stuff happens , and you loose some coyotes no matter what trap you use. The key is use a good trap that is set up right. I've lost more coyotes with 1/4 inch offsets that all combined. That's why the Alpha has 3/16th offsets. And no I have not lost any coyotes in Alphas out of 65 coyotes but it will happen, maybe... The trap must move with the animal and not put excessive strain on the paw especially when some roll. At times long springs won't allow that reason being the springs stick out too far.

I think OG mentions in his book that it was standard procedure for him to approach every trapped coyote with a 12 gauge at the ready back in his 3N days.

Personally, I don’t get the hoopla about them. Sure they’re a historic trap (they were the best option……..50 years ago). But why one would use them today for coyotes when there’s so many better options out there is beyond me. Whatever floats your pole I guess.

Amen Boone. When I am loading the truck for a winters worth of coyote trapping the CS traps and snares get to go and the LS traps stay home. You may not believe this but with good CS. traps and waxed dirt toe catches are quite rare!! OK we can Fight Now, Lol

No argument here Mark. I think it was Ray Milligan that told me that you'll lose some coyotes no matter what trap you use. The key is use the best trap you can afford and set it up right to control it. We now have the best choices in the history of trapping. Make you choices wisely...

Well said Trappergbus. When you have and use good equipment/traps then you can concentrate on all the other challenge's of trapping. Yes we all miss some and loose some. I enjoy the challenge!!!

I wish I could tell you that never happened to me . . .

I now approach a trapped and/or snared coyote with a .22rifle, ( and on nuisance coyotes, at times a 12 gauge ) for that very reason.


I've lost more coyotes using B.A.D. s on trail snares that I care to admit. . . some of them, as I approached.

It's not a good feeling, to be sure