Shift work I do, can only have two tardy calls a year.
I'm jobless after that.
4 or 5 day's off I run my line.
Night shift the month of December, will trap then.
Can check before work 2-5 p.m.

I have a really small line that doesn't take too long to check, but I start work at 645 am and have about a 35 minute commute.

So, the way I do it is I check 4 cables on one property in the morning , which basically involves me driving by and making sure nothing is in them, or just resetting them if the wind blew them down.

The other property is about 8 miles away and has a few cables and dog proofs. I check that one after work, the same way as the other. I drive by and shine a flashlight to make sure the traps are empty and then I go home.

So far it works good , I just worry that I might be bumping animals that might work the set, but thats about the only way I can do it right now.

So far so good, and since I am new and not very good yet I don't have to waste much time taking care of critters and making remakes.

Was it a cable or a foot hold? If it was chewed up probably another animal but otherwise I could see a snare or cable restraint doing it if it got tangled and didn't relax, or a snare wouldn't relax and would kill.

I suppose there is always the chance they could die from over exertion if they got too animated in the trap. Maybe a heart attack or something ? only other thing I could think of is if someone saw the animal in it and killed it?

Yeah thats a tough one. I guess animals could have sudden episodes like humans but that has to be rare!

I check mine whenever I have time; sometimes that often means in the dark- which I figure might scare the critters but I don't know what else I'm going to do

Some say it doesn’t some say it does. I just know I’ve ridden up on what I thought was a caught coyote and it run off, the trap was still bedded. I just happened to ride up as he was checking it out.
With that said, I’ve checked in the mornings and go back after work to set and have critters in the trap that wasn’t there that morning. Also have trail cam pics of coyotes and cats after daylight, noon, midafternoon, as well as at sunset. They move and hunt whenever.

Yup. I'd love to run only after sunrise but it simply isn't possible.

In the early part of the season I have to check in the dark before work, I never wait until after. This time of year I'm off for the winter so I check after daylight which I prefer.

If I checked before work I'd risk being late for work

I've worked straight midnights for 30 years just so I can run traps and hunt deer at my convenience the trade off is your usually tired.

I trap my bosses farm that is 3/4 of a mile from my house, come in a 1/2 hour early to check coyote traps. I don’t start a mink/water line unless I get laid off. Getting laid off this week