I’m always amazed at the western guys that think the pipe is so unnatural that it couldn’t possibly catch a coyote. Hide the pipe , fill it with bait and catch coyotes .

A more simplelified version of this method for bedding traps might get me back to relegating DP traps back to specialty land for trapping raccoon.

Find a coon trail, hammer in as many 1.5,s in the trail as you think is warranted and move on. Doing this heavy on my river beaver lines when I get out to set beaver slides .

Wiley Carroll used a piece of bamboo for bait and lure. I saw it in the late 80s. Have used it. But. I like it drove flat down or a little below ground. 3/4 plastic pipe is a great substitute. You can get = bout 80 pieces of 4 inch pipe in a = 2 gallon freezer bag. I like that!

Bamboo was part of my learning curve, along with Grab and Die sticks, Grubstakes, T-Bones. etc.

The pipe is more durable than all of them, can be used over and over and over (except for the T-Bones, the other items are largely only good for ONE catch......I still have pipes that are 10-12 years old OR older that are being used).......also, I can drive them in directly (even partially frozen ground) WITHOUT the need for a pilot hole.........not true for bamboo, wooden dowels etc.

T-Bones are remarkably tough and can be pounded into hard ground, but alas, they also have a shelf life and either get chewed up, carried away, eaten, or just break after X-amount of poundings...........

If someone wants to dig up all the old Pipe Dream posts, there's a TON of information in all of them......

Zagman

Correct, I use thiss bedding technique with flat sets as well. A little wax sand and salt under the levers helps as well as 4 coil springs . Soils very greatly in regard to drainage. Even on my farm....

My son and I were setting traps on his property last year. 14 day weather outlook was wet with a few dry days scattered in. I used Zaggers method, he used traditional method.
All caught at first. Mine caught towards the of the 3 week period he could trap. 50% of his got washed out…100% of mine stayed functional. Some so much so he had a hard time finding them on pull day.
I don’t use this method all the time. There’s some times during the year we have a hard enough time just digging a regular trap bed. But, if it’s rainy season and that long range forecast shows copious amounts of rain, then yeah, they’re being incorporated into the line.

Although. I have never used the bedding system above. I have my own methods. I can see the value of it in freezing and wet weather. I’m a fair weather trapper now!! LoL! But I like the concept of a driven down pipe. I willl say this though. After 5 or 6 years on the same place for months at a time. You will see some odd behavior. The survivors? They get a little hip to the pipe. So 2 traps and moving placement of pipe maybe nessassary. BUT that’s just part of the game if you play it 365 days a year

Well, Mark's pipe set has a few limitations I guess. From this:



To this...



I guess not rated for 3-4 ft of water??

A 5ft pipe would have that bait smelling fresh!!

First coyote set I ever helped with was a "hay set". Only found out in recent years, the neighbor that showed it to me had reputation of being one of the better coyote trappers around. One of few examples of how he did it is shown in this video. Pretty much the same.......except........was set in crop fields........used a grapple for the drag..........he used two double long springs........I'm thinking maybe #3's.........and hay was used litter from a chicken house. I had to carry an old feed sack full of it out to the set. Grapple and traps went on the ground.........litter dumped over the grapple to hide it....formed in kind of a horseshoe pattern around the traps.........and traps covered with litter about the same as this guy covers his. A dab of lure on a chicken feather set on top.

No digging......no staking and weather not going to affect it much. The double long springs are going to fire. We didn't even cover the pans but I suppose a guy could.

I checked it daily for 2 or 3 weeks, no coyote......not even a tripped trap. Good set, perfect location......no joy. It happens.

When I start getting freeze thaw with Marks set I tend to go a little loose on pinching the sides in on the trap jaws plus a little salt. Another way that I bed that is similar is instead of cutting out the large cavity under the trap I will take my 3 inch auger and drill a hole straight down about 8 or 9 inches then bed the trap over that and anchor off to the side.
J

I take it back! After the water receded, I did nothing to this set. Just kept riding by. Day 3 after three after it went down…

Carolina, was that bedded Zags style with screen?

Yes. Pinched in place by hammering toward the trap, except just a fiberglass screen instead of wire, covered lightly with a softball size wad of grass clippings from summer time.

I just picked one up using the pipe set that was in for almost 4 weeks. It was set off three times by deer and twice by non targets but finally connected with a 38# male. Pipe set with mb550, steel screen and grass clippings.

Was the grass covering screen still in place after that much current.

Good enough to camouflage it a little, but i could plainly see the trap through the rest of the grass. Since i use the fiberglass screen i cut it a little longer so it tucks under the loose jaw and i can clamp it in place.

Nice patience!

I've said it a million times and it is based on my own mistakes:

Guys use too much grass on top of the trap and screen. It's a natural inclination to want to do this..........but it is counterintuitive ESPECIALLY once the snow flies.....

I make a set and walk away and can always see bits and pieces of the steel screen and the trap parts under it. If I could figure out a way to put ONE layer of grass on the screen that was the depth of ONE blade of grass or hay, I'd do it.

This is another reason I like screen......I know plenty of guys that don't use it and just cover exposed trap with grass. To me, to fill in that area inside the jaws and around the pan, requires more material. After it rains, that fluffy dry materials has to contract and I just don't like the look of it vs the steel screen look still providing a nice flat comfy place to step.

The steel screen, with TOO much material on it, especially after rain/freeze/snow becomes an impediment to success.........that material grabs water, freezes, snow piles on it, and before you know it, you have a frozen pancake of grass on top. Trap may still go off, but that steel screen gets pushed up by the springs and is either slowed down considerably OR pushes paw up and out and you get a toe or two......

If I trapped where no snow and freezing weather, I'd consider a different approach than screen......

Dear friends of mine made the sets the way I do BUT did NOT use screen. Just a local leaf or two that was handy. They had someone buy them some screen and now that they've seen the difference, they are largely running the grass covered sets with screen.

With grass covering and screen, less is more........and I guess it just takes some time and experience to feel comfortable leaving the screen and trap slightly visible in an effort to use SO little material.....

MZ

It’s 6 am. I’m eating breakfast. Drinking coffee. And reading about = grass and screen in a Cold sheep camp. Thinking about WHERE I can find some coyotes?? What a life!!!! LoL! Interesting read Mark