No such thing as “cheating” when it comes to trapping. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is whether or not the coyote is dead. How it got that way is irrelevant

Yep its frustrating
This was a charred wood set with gland lure on it. Coyote even took the chunk of wood .

Moved trap to the right , where the coyote told me to, and next time through she was mine.

The prevailing wind and subtle guiding are your friends. It's been said many times we learn more from misses than catches, and snow is the best at humbling trappers.

Unless you're in south Ala'bam !

Then, it's sand

WHY would you NOT want to trap in sand!!! Good stuff!! LoL!!!

That it is, we don't see snow here very often

I’d LOVE to trap in sand!

Lol, me too! We have gumbo, and clay here!

I'd be willing to try but have my doubts. As much as I hate our clay at least it has some good qualities. An earth anchor ain't coming out and once packed you can't get a more solid bedding for a trap.

Chipping out a bed and then the jaws cementing open aren’t good qualities, lol! But you are correct, this clay could hold a grizzly!

Haha! I went down one of y’all’s “black roads” once after a rain. Truck sat where it stopped for the next six hours while I hunted. Got back to the truck and rode out in 2 wheel drive and kicked up dust, lol. Y’all got some real weird soil, slick and STICKY when wet and hardens like cement once the sun comes out. I noticed even the farmers didn’t drive down those roads when wet!!

That's fine until it freezes!

Wannabe, i don't know where you were, but if "out west" it's more Sandy there. Here in EC KS the dirt is WAY different! But yes, if wet stay off the dirt.

I was hunting the Mankato area…about dead center and near the Nebraska line. Actually called a bird across state lines and killed it, lol.

And our clay don’t freeze, at least not down here. It bakes in the sun and hardens like cement though.

I HATE clay. Just skim of the top native soil. Put that on tarp. Dig out clay. Throw it away. Replace with sand. Put top dressing of native soil on top. And keep on rolling

On the rare night that it does I can just wait until the sun hits it and by midmorning it's working again.

Most of my trapline is sand. There are some spots with that gumbo clay, the kind that turns into an ice rink with 1/4 inch of rain lol. Nasty stuff. I’ve been stuck in a half inch of that junk, just fills up every tread and creates a slick on the ground and you ain’t getting anywhere till it dries. Any place that isn’t sand or gumbo is solid rock.

Sand is a very good teacher. Snow is too but I hate that stuff

Put in your natural guides and let the coyotes get used to them until you return

I like natural guiding, not placed. If there is a rock sticking up or a pine cone or stick already there, I will leave it on the edge of the trap bed or if I must remove it, try to replace it in the same place when I am done. I want my flat sets to look like I was never there, but I have better luck/less misses, if I have natural guiding to direct their foot into the trap. Local canines seem to have an amazing memory for what the terrain looked like in the past if they are spooky and don't shy from guiding that was already there, but if you move the exact same pine cone a foot to use it for guiding they might.

Yeah, that's what i was getting at. I know we all have adversities we have to deal with...not trying to whine, just comes across that way, lol.