dog proofs are a little out of my budget so I want to run footholds next season what are the best foothold sets for coons?

#11s in blind sets

1.5s in trails. Preferably double jswed. In the water pockets and trail sets .

If you're buying new traps Duke 1.5 doublejaw coilsprings are an excellent choice.
Pocket sets will catch about every coon that comes along. They will also catch bonus mink and muskrats.

foot holds are the back bone of coon trapping. there are more books, videos, and how to's on using this tool then most other traps for coons

Trail sets and double dirt holes are what I use.
Jim

what do you put in the dirtholes?

Any good meat bait designed for coyotes work. You can go cheap and throw sardines or fish chunks in dirt holes as well.

Something different in each hole. I get few misses on coon at double dirt hole sets. Set the trap a bit farther back like width of my hand and make one hole straight down and other at a low angle. Use either a big backing.

what do you use for bait?

what if i used catfood down the hole with some good lure?

raccoons arent generally picky so you can use about anything you can get your hands on. Earlier in the season they like the sweet stuff more as theyre putting on fat for the winter. later in the year, they like more protein and more attracted to gland lures from any animal(beaver, muskrat,coyote, fox)

Perhaps you could attend a local trapping convention this summer and pick up a few good used DP's?

Not a bad idea. It's good to have some DPs, but I think you will catch more coons with footholds than DPs.

If I go to the effort to make a double dirt hole set for coon, it’s a coon set with coon bait. Dry cat food is for DPs. The dirt holes alone will have eye appeal but the coon bait and lure should be even more attractive. Dry cat food alone doesn’t have a ton of appeal. Works in DPs but works better for me if it’s got some odor to it like adding molasses, fish juice, etc. so save that for DPs.
My dirthole sets get a chunk of carp pinned deep in one hole and a shot of fish oil or shellfish oil in the other, and use a good coon lure in between the two holes.They will smell the oil in the one hole but never get a taste of bait from that hole no matter how hard they work the hole. Lots of foot movement while working the hole and that’s a good thing over your bedded trap in front of the holes.
Catch fish in off season and freeze chunks of it for bait in season later. I put up a lot of carp for this purpose. It’s free, it’s oily and fishy smelling, and we have a jillion of them around here fun to catch.
blind sets (trap bedded right in the coon trail) use no bait just catch them where they are walking anyway. Those work very well with footholds on coon.
Jim

My parents can’t take me,there working and I’m not old enough to drive sadly so conventions are out of the picture

What if I blended some tainted ground beef with enough fish oil to smell fishy but not overpower it and add that down a hole with some good lure. Would that work?

Dirt holes.

Coon are not picky.

Shorelines I used dirt holes baited with fish or trail sets to and from the water. They both work in the field or forest also. Set right on their travel routes.