This is a video I took at the arkansas trappers association workshop. this guy catches over a hundred coyotes every year in Texas in two weeks!! This was one of his favorite sets. I’m sure many of you have seen a step down dirt hole but there may be some beginners that haven’t and don’t know the advantages or even what it is so I’m posting it here. Give it a watch and i hope you learn something.
https://youtu.be/cZpRXmEzH2c

Thanks for sharing simple and effective

Those thank you for that how did you do that

That's my go to set and have good luck with it but one needs to remember you need the population and lots of sets to catch high numbers. Good video.

This set is about all I use. Naturally guided and when they commit, they are done.

All i use for coyotes and Bobcats seem to love it to

He did mention he catches several bibcats as well.

I never thought of that that’s awesome

It's incredible how everyone catches 80-100 coyotes in Texas.

I'm usually much less than that in two weeks with 1-2 caught per square mile being my goal, no matter the size.
Sometimes less. Sometimes more.
But coyotes in TX don't commit suicide and jump in the truck. You have to find them, especially on ADC jobs where they get a bit "willy."

To catch 100 on an ADC job you need to kill 4 coyotes per square mile in every one of 25 sections, or 16,000 acres.
Tough, tough, tough to accomplish in two weeks @ 13 checks @ 8 coyotes per day.

And that's with perfect weather conditions....

My favorite set for remakes when all the backing and any natural guiding is gone. The 2 disadvantages to the set I've found is some of smarter one won't step in it and it doesn't take weather very good

My thoughts also. Maybe instead of digging into a bank or flat, have it going down hill so water runs into hole and trap is highest point. ??

He said himself he doesn’t always get it but he said that’s his goal and he’s done it several times it’s also him and his trapping partner so technically two people are doing it.

Step down DHs are a real mess in rainy weather. Regular DHs already bad enough when hole fills with water and bait and lure floats out and settles on the trap bed and trap. Take a look at SteelTraps post here on Tman for coyote sets that will withstand a lot of rain.

2 trappers catching 100 in 14 days is much easier to accomplish than 1 trapper catching 100 in 14 days.

Any trapper than can maintain a 2 or 3 coyotes per day average is absolutely killin' 'em!

Great set as long as it’s dry. Unfortunately we can be in a drought until I make my first set. After that, I can about guarantee it will rain 3-4 days a week for the remainder of the time I trap. I pull and we’re back to a drought.
I have better luck digging the trench shallow to deeper away from the hole and angling the hole like he does (almost parallel with the deck) and putting my set on the high ground left and/or right of the trench. I’ll actually bed the trap then dig my trench and put in the hole. It’s more weather proof for me and you still catch critters.

Man that ground sounded rocky .

Works great for remakes, use it a lot.

I like this set in loose soil. Most places around here you can’t hardly put in a hole. Grounds hard and rocky. It’s a killer in the right ground though

It all depends on were your at. 2 or 3 per day average would suck in some areas if ur going at it full time.

This

& remakes

I'll have to use that in our pastures

I've usually put sets just outside

Ok, this may seem like a dumb question lol, but I'm not much of a yote trapper. With sets like this, is it possible a yote might not commit as planned but would from the backside of the set? If so, would putting another set behind the DH be at all productive?

Trappers have used step down sets for fox for awhile now. Canines love that slightly lower spot in front of a hole.
This is a larger scale of it. They will commit

Thanks. I might try it for bobcat next month.

Kinda makes ya wonder if it'd work on fisher

It does. Caught 4 last year but had to release them as it was before our season.

I'll probably try one for Bobcat and Fisher this year but I don't think I need to make the hole very deep

That step down set does look rather simple.

Hi Larry!
100 coyotes in 13 checks = 8 per day is surely possible and is sometimes done. Sometimes. For 8 per day, running 100 traps, you'd of course have a 8% catch ratio and an 8% catch ratio is way above average. 6% will keep you in the more normal range of things in excellent fur territory but we rarely ever hit that in ADC work because ADC work is more sniper fire than shotgunning the herd of coyotes.
If you're in density rich coyote country as parts of Kansas are, 100 in two weeks may be on the light side actually.

I trap a lot. And I trap predator control more every year. And day after day, during 13 checks on a ADC line, the catch will not be robust unless you've got low fence, migrating dogs, little mange, no distemper, mild canine lice, and decent weather. That rarely happens.

As far as Marc Bekoff, I was trained in the era he was but Marc is about a 15 years older than me and is the leading animal activist and most prolific writer on canines in our lifetimes. I've read much of his work over the years, and I always remember has animal advocacy bias when I read his research. His hooey has resonated in our wildlife management field (I'm a biologist) and every time I hear, "If you take out coyotes from an area, they'll just repopulate"..... I know it's Bekoff..... and I tell the person telling me this, "Hooey. It's plain hooey." The research was biased and the researcher is against harvesting.
"Hire me and in a 3 year project, I'll increase your herd production exponentially. Guaranteed. How? Year #1 = Kill coyotes. Year #2 Kill coyotes. Year #3 = Kill coyotes."


Sun Tzu.... Know the enemy, know the terrain, to win the battle.....

Good post!
Blessings,
Mark