But, in a way I am being serious…

I know hunters and fishermen look at some ways as cheating, such as live bait vs artificial baits in fishing and say using decoys turkey hunting vs using woodsmanship and calling ability.

Do trappers consider anything other than say bait or lure or urine or any combo of those as cheating? I’ll give an example, my son wanted to try a scent post set so he got a piece of fat lighter and stuck it in the ground a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t place a set or anything else, just put it near some tracks and waited until after a rain to see if anything was spooked by it or seemed ok with 9” of pine sticking up out of the ground.
When he noticed tracks after a rain he decided to set it this past Monday when they had the day off..

Here’s the cheating part…bedded trap, used a coyote lure to the left, a cat lure to the right, urine at the base of the post, Gusto on top, and bacon grease rubbed in the middle. That was Monday afternoon and had a bobcat this morning. I was ragging him asking, did he not have anything else to put out or was he bored? I told him anyone could catch them with a hint of every smell there was. Of course I was just giving him a hard time, because he’s like me…a catch is a catch.

So any of y’all out there that think that’s like “cheating”? Anyone else throw the gauntlet at them on occasion? What’s crazy is all he saw was coyote tracks at that location and ends up with a cat.

I feel a little guilty sometimes setting up heavily used beaver and otter crossovers.....NOT!!! LOL

That brings up something else…two traps at one set. I did that on a coyote that wouldn’t commit. My son at the time said “cheating.” I told him being smart!

I always thought that overdoing it was counterproductive when using baits and lures with coyote. I do occasionally overdo raccoon sets with trailing scents, so guilty there I guess…..

I don’t think any of it is cheating. Goal is to catch critters so setting on sign and using scents are part of the game. I also don’t think that using bait for fish or deer is cheating either if it helps you get them. If someone wants to challenge themselves to hunt or fish without bait, it’s their own thing. I don’t look down on them either. When it comes to trapping, I’m not sure why someone wouldn’t do exactly what they thought would help them catch the target as long as it’s legal and probably cost effective.

If it works then it is not cheating. I think it is Cheating when you walk 3 miles to check your traps and they are not all full. That is not fair and the critters should be more understanding and sacrifice rhemselves a little more!!!

I really admire when someone comes up with an idea and after a few years the DNR decides it’s an unfair advantage and makes it illegal.
Just to be clean I admire the person with the idea not the DNR.

His goal was to catch a predator and he did just that. I had some coyotes that would not stop at my set so I dug a hole and started dropping table scraps and deer meat scraps in the hole since mid December when I was up that way hunting. They started hitting it but I had to wait till deer season was over to trap. This morning i caught a big male off that hole. Some times if you rubbing the fur the wrong way you gotta turn the cat around.

While I have strong feelings on calling turkeys and not bushwhacking them I don't feel that way about trapping as long as it's within regulation.

The turkey bit is more because who who taught me and the gentleman's rules they held to as a way of protecting "their" birds. Kind of a self imposed limit.

But trapping I've always been a nuisance trapper from the time Dad set me to rat killing in the barn. The regs I guess are to stop folks, like Dad did me, from pouring gasoline down a rat hole. LOL.

Don't see multiple traps, scents, or visual attractors as cheating.

But always prescribed to the idea that one trap per set was enough, unless dealing with a trap smart animal, but would still probably use a snare instead.

Don't really think it's even possible to take advantage of a furbearer if lawfully trapping, especially a coyote, Lol.

I say catch the critter by any means nessceary

I don't believe in giving my enemies a chance. Especially coyotes. As long as jts within the rules, I'm doing everything within those rules to put the cuffs on whatever I'm trapping.

I once dug a hole. Stuck a dead bobcat in it and set 8 traps around it. Caught the 3 toed female I was after.

I don't think hes cheating at all, hes doing the same thing as the rest of us.

I would consider a strychnine jackpot cheating.

That would be illegal in most US states.

Being a NWCO I wouldn't if it was able to get the problem solved without creating more problems.

The more problems is why we have regulations.

Well it depends on if you want to play a game or catch something and move on

In my case I want to catch every coyote that sets foot on my place, first because they eat chickens and got a baby goat once, 2nd because I want fawns to have a better chance of growing up.
I don't care if they get caught by an ear or if I used magic dust. Caught is caught

Now that I sit here and think, other than a blind set in a trail we pretty much "cheat" to catch a critter. Use some smell to draw them, something flashy to get their attention, etc

I call it my bag of dirty tricks. My clients usually chuckle when I say that.

Beaver trapping with longer than a 36 hour trap check and temperatures less than 60 in February is cheating.

There are some die hard coyote trappers that consider snaring cheating.

I have "Roosted a Bird" the night before but that is just to find out the Vicinity they are in. Then I call them and if they are not Henned up the game is on. Later in the day the Hens go to nest and then I can have my crack at him. Now I had a neighbor that USED to be allowed to hunt my Farm until I caught him shooting the Gobbler off of the Roost. I knew he was calling it by the way it kept Gobbling and then Heard the Boom when it was still dark. THAT is Unsportsmanlike and ILLEGAL!! Half the fun is calling them in!!!

Pouring Gas down a Rat Hole!!!! I knew a kid Growing up in Northern Wisconsin whose Dad and He did that and burned the whole Garage down. Lucky it was not attached to the House!!! DUMB!!!

To me running the turkeys down and shooting them is lots more fun than sitting on your butt and calling them to you. Only time I call is when I take a kid, or I called one in and shot it with a bow one time. Otherwise it is run and gun, maybe use a call just to get them to gobble once so I know where they are at.

Roosting one the night before and roost shooting are two different things.

I was taught to listen for one to fly up in the evening then slip in close the next morning and call him to you. The game was on only when his feet hit the ground.

Now I was smarter than that. The hole was out in the yard.

Agreed, just as outlawing gasoline down a rathole is a safety thing.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this yet but I remember, years ago, when there was a lot of people acting like using DP Coon Traps was cheating. It was a thing for a little while. It's in the same vein as what ADC mentioned about hardcore coyote trappers sometimes acting like the use of snares are cheating. I think, prior to DP Coon Traps being more widely used, almost all coon traps were more work than just fire-and-forgetting a simple contraption like the DP trap and people who'd been trapping for decades without them saw them as being "too easy."

That being said, I think they're incredibly efficient and it's a wonderful design and I use lots of them. Doesn't take away from other types of foothold sets, or trail sets, because not all coons are going to commit to a DP so you have to experiment with other sets as well. But, it's worth mentioning because I remember when a lot people were talking about those in a negative light and now you don't really see that anymore.

What is that? The only fanning I am familiar with is with a single action revolver.

Based on an old injun trick.

Using a preserved or fake fan of turkey tail feathers to either belly crawl to or to lure one into range.

It should be obvious the danger of looking like a turkey when turkey hunting.

Wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they banned reaping and decoys on public and private.