I work as a Flight Paramedic with a strange schedule of 5 days (straight through) on duty and 10 days off giving me 20 days off a month to trap. The tricky part I'm trying to figure out now is what to do with my sets during my 5 days on. During these 5 days I cant be more than 10 minutes away from my aircraft making checking impossible and with Wyomings 72 hr check they have to be sprung or pulled during that week. Would it hurt anything to pop them and leave them in the beds during my work week so I can just reset the morning I get off or should they just be pulled?

Thanks!

Morning, Wynot!

First, thank you for your service as a flight medic and as a first responder. You are very much appreciated!

To be honest with you, I would personally not spring a trap and leave it in a trap bed with a lured set. I would worry that it would acclimate them to both a trap being there, as well as the lure/bait used.

I know a few guys out there that utilize plastic lids to "cover" their sets while they are away at work for extended periods of time, thus allowing them to ride by and remove them when they want to bring them back into commission. If you utilize this method, be sure that the animal cannot remove or dig them up and out. I would also make sure that your laws in Wyoming do not prohibit this. Hope this helps.

Good luck on your line!

Why not just make all your sets and don't place any traps until your first day off.
I personally don't think a sprung trap laying at the set would be a problem.

I had cataract surgery last January and was out for over a week, covered my sets with some scrap plywood while unable to run them.

Used pipe as a lure holder so removing the lure was not a problem and it was easy to get back up and running again.

Sometimes I will have something come up and I can't check my traps for a couple of days. I just spring them. I come back and reset, put a little new red fox urine or such, and they catch. Big thing is I only do this on private property that I know everyone that is using it. If not, I pull my traps.

I trap on 500,000 acres give or take of Wyoming desert BLM so trap theft during my time on doesn't stress me out too much just based on how big and spread out everything is, I just don't want to blow out the set if I leave them there. I may just use quick links and pull the trap but leave the anchor to make resets quick.

Thanks guys!

Your question should be addressed to your local warden. Some would say that a trap on the ground needs to meet the mandatory checking requirements.

Personally, I hate coyotes walking by my traps laying exposed.

While it may not hurt you (much), it does absolutely nothing positive for your cause.

Do you have someone who could ride along with you a few times? With a 72 hr requirement, they could just go past and check your traps once in the 5 day period. They would only be needed two days out of the month the way it sounds. Then you could leave all of your sets as is.

We do this every year without issues. Don't put out fresh bait or lure and that sprung trap is not actively trapping and will not have to be checked.
Just place your sprung traps under a sage bush or the like, they will not be exposed and easy to spot by people. We stake with chains or drags so moving the sprung traps is easy, to hide them from view.

Good luck and get some coyotes with those pretty bobcats !!

I’ve done it plenty of times. In my experience, unless they’ve been pinched before at that location , it’s just a chunk of metal.

I’m definitely not an expert but I face the same issue. I covered the trap with plywood with a rock on top and caught coyotes a day or 2 after I uncovered them. I trap isolated private land so theft isn’t an issue.

I read a research paper about neophobia (fear of new things) in coyotes. If my memory is correct (which is a big if these days) they put a lured traffic cone out where coyotes frequented. The coyotes wouldn't go near it. But as soon as it was removed they had to check out where it had been. I'm wondering if a round of firewood might serve as both an effective covering and an attractant when it disappears?

Take your week off on those 5 days.Give you a whole month to trap.

Well Im gonna stick a couple rounds of firewood in the back yard to let the dogs pee on it for a while and put them out and see what happens next time I cover the traps! Thanks!

we have a 24 hr check. If the kids can't check them early with flash lights when we have to go out of town and won't be back early enough to check them I have them spring them all. Never noticed an issue.

But we typically only trap on our farm and for friends to remove varmits so privet land.