I learned a ton last year. Didn’t have any success with coyote but got some fox and raccoons.

Have another dozen traps on the way and this weekend I’ll dye and wax them and store them away in a container. I gathered a bunch of stuff here and there, and I can’t wait until the fall.

Couple questions is how could I set traps in very rocky ground? I found a lot of tracks last winter in the snow after the season along an old railroad bed that runs through my property, the problem is that it’s an inch of dirt over railroad ballast. But it’s a high traffic area. I could make sets off to the side but I don’t know how well it would work out.

Also, does anyone have any luck along creeks and streams for coyote? My property has a smaller creek that runs about quarter mile and the other side has half mile of a decent sized fast running freestone creek that’s about 60 yards wide.

Lastly, I give the animals I catch to a local fella that sells firs and traps himself. I want to learn to harvest the pelts myself. Any advice? I watch a lot of videos online but the only thing I ever skin are deer I kill.

Martin P good job last year! You can dig out your trap beds NOW. I would dig out the trap bed and get rid of the rr ballast and replace it with dirt from around the area. If a guy wanted to he could have all of his locations worked up and heck even pre staked before season. Now I know this can backfire sometimes... I remember pre digging trap beds on several properties before seasonally to have the farmer plow them under or drive over them. But it sounds like the land is yours so you could put the word out to STAY AWAY
from those areas where you have pre worked the ground.

Basically need a pulaski axe for digging beds in hard soil like that. The sodbuster type hammers(sledge hammer with digger blades welded on) are great but you need safety glasses when using them in hard/frozen soil. Not that you dont need safety glasses with the pulaski, but it does make it easier on your body with the longer tool. You can pre-dig the beds as MChewk suggests. But things may change and you might decide to use a different site.

Waterways are always good for canines, the bigger the creeks the better because that creates what we call a soft funnel. Its a soft funnel because they can cross the creeks at any point they wish but they generally will follow it for long periods till they come to a easier crossing, like sandbars or tractor crossing points.

Heres a good channel on fur handing: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJNLvRZsDBpnsgtGynXMCjQ/videos

Thanks. Man I gotta tell ya, I’m torn. The old railroad bed is just filthy with coyote sign all the time but digging in it doesn’t get me excited lol. I have river otters on my property, my WMU in PA doesn’t allow for taking otters. I understand they are pretty rough to release in an accidental catch. I have video of one making a nest under a culvert from last deer season. I guess the question is how likely is an otter to get wrapped up in a coyote or coon set

Not super likely if you’re not right next to the water. Strange things do happen though. You’ll see a lot of odd occurrences on your line if you trap long enough

Gather up some dry dirt to take with ya. Dig trap bed, discard that material, add your dry dirt to bed & cover your trap. Keep trap bed to just size of trap. Only soft spot ya want is over trap pan

If you do end up making sets on the railroad bed, I would highly recommend drags. One, you probably would not like driving a stake through that any better than digging a bed. Two, because you dont want your sets ruined by catches, the drag will save your set locations.

I agree with sniper on drags, but make sure they’re set up right or you’ll be chasing a coyote all over the country. I like mine to have at least 8 feet of chain up to twelve feet, and a minimum of 4 swivels. Some of the country I trap is pretty sparse on vegetation though, you might get away with 6 feet if you have a lot of brush.

I always viewed trapping and fur handling as 2 separate arts. There are alot of educational videos about fur handling. As far as youtube goes, coon creek outdoors has some great fur handling videos that go very indepth. Welcome to trapping!!

It’s definitely something I want to learn. I retire from the navy in two years. My wife and I are having our forever home built on my property and I will be able to dedicate more time into my hobbies. Here at the end of my military career I feel like I have a billion thing I have to do and want to do and very little time to do it.

We are working on designing our home now and I definitely want a detached garage, a really big one that can allow me store all my things to do all my hobbies in one spot. The neighbor up the road has a trap shed he built 50 years ago or more and it’s really cool. Maybe one day I’ll do something like that. But I have to live in suburbia for now but that’s changing in 25 months.