I stick a golf ball on top of all of my dp’s.. here lately when checking them.. some are knocked off and I’ll find them 6-7 feet away.. and the cat food is gone about a inch down into my trap.. one golf ball is completely missing.. what would be getting them?

Fox are notorious for stealing "Toy's".

Abou6 anything really.. look closely sometimes and you'll find tooth marks on the balls[s][/s]

Haha, I had the same thing happening in this bottom, almost more like a swamp. Coons, possums, and even crows were to blame. Sometimes the golf balls would get more attention than the food, lol. Sometimes when a coon was caught another would come along and steal the ball. What was the most surprising was the crows. Don’t know if they thought it was an egg or what, but they would knock the balls off then roll them while pecking at them. A big enough rat will move that ball as well.

I would add squirrels to the list of culprits too.

I quit using caps of any kind for that very reason. Many times the cap or ball would be gone and the bait untouched. I also switched to a big marshmallow under the trigger and a little bait on top of it.

Big foot

Wonder what his handicap is?

And Ravens.

Trailcam will help answer your question.

Sorry, I was getting low on golf balls. Didn't think you would mind!!!

Waste of time and resources to put anything on top of your DP traps IMO. A good bait can handle one nights rain and there are other ways to avoid mice. If you need 3-4 days before a coon comes along, you've set the DP in the wrong location, again IMO.

As for golf balls missing, like everyone has said, there are a number of critters that will haul them off.

Good luck on the trapline.

It must be nice to have that many critters.

No matter how many critters you have, you need to be setting where they are, not setting somewhere at random and waiting days for them to happen along.

With only one or two sets of tracks you set and wait for them to come by.

It’s amazing that everyone thinks everywhere else is like the properties they trap. I’m smart enough to realize that’s not even true in my own county, lol.

Then you need to be smart enough to find where those tracks are coming from and set there. If that's not possible then find another set of tracks to locate their home base. Simple really.

Biggest factor is whether you're running a control line or a production line. Production line, you cant afford to be in places that produce coon ever 4-7 days. Production line fir coon you need to be moving traps fairly quickly, especially if they arent producing. Control line where you're setting every piece of sign , you can let sets stay longer because you're getting paid or you just want every coon off the property.

Getting paid to remove critters…there for 3-4 weeks and nothing is off limits. I don’t trap for a living either, just turkey trip money. I have time to wait on that coon and I’m not walking an entire creek to find where a coon is coming from when I know where he’s going, lol. If it takes 1 day or 3 weeks, I don’t really care, it’ll get caught.
There’s a few on here that aren’t professionals like most seem to be. And some may find it interesting that not all terrain is the same.

Social disorder. Lol

Crows are curious birds and will check out just about anything out of the ordinary, when I was a kid I had a pet one and she would drag home all kinds of odds and ends and stash them in her corner of the garage