By far the best response. You are always leaving scent. Store stuff in a bag and it will smell like a bag. Take a breath at a set, you are leaving scent. Walk to a set and you are leaving scent, doesn't matter what you do to your boots or what boots you wear. Burry a trap, you are leaving scent, trap dye has a scent, and wax holds all kinds of scent. So no matter what you do, you are leaving scent.

Don't stress about scent. Do your best, but you can't stop it. Give your sets time and don't lose hope in them. Let then soak, and if they are in a good spot, they will get worked eventually.

Absolutely When I see fresh trcks crossing y trail they turn and go down the trail following my scent cause they know my scent as a food source,same way fox will follow wolves.
And lots of times I have a catch or two on the way out.
It makes the hair stand up on your neck when you double back on your trai lin winter and see where wolves have been following you just out of sight on your backtrack.
One year a moose hunter in a tree stand told me that he observed 3 wolves on my backtrack following behind me as I was walking across a clearcut to a wood reserve where I had a Jackpot.He was quite surprized,I told him it is not uncommon.He said they were close but used the topography to remain out of sight of me.

It may also mean that your trail is a easier route. Like a snowshoe trail or a snow machine trail.

No or they wouldnt only follow my trail when I was there.
The only reason they have to follow my fresh track is to find some goodies.They know that I am a natural entity out there and my scent is ambient not induces why they are not spooked.
Trappers need to study and understand ambient versus induced scents.
I use induced scents as a diversion tactic to re route animals into hidden sets also.
A lot of furbearers especially canines will stay on the path of least resistance unless forced off and into secondary rougher trails where you have your snares.Induced scents at the correct places will achieve this type of diversion.

Don’t compare wolves to coyotes and what a guy can get away with.

We’ve proven we can extirpate wolves.

Coyotes, not so much.

This is a good advice, although I've not seen the totes with gaskets, I just use regular totes, but hang my traps out in the trees away from the house after they are prepped in the off season. I have went to using the 7 mil disposable rubber gloves you get at Harbor Freight (the 5 mil ones feel way thinner and I rip them constantly when making sets) rather than regular gloves. Grab a clean pair of gloves and make however many sets you are going to make at a location when gang setting, then go back through and lure all the sets with a different pair of gloves (or that pair, but then they are never used to handle equipment again) when you are done rather than changing gloves at each trap. When making snow sets I switch gloves if I get any dirt or debris on them, even though they may be scent free I want clean, white snow at my set, no dirty snow to attract their attention. If I have any suspicion the gloves might be contaminated, or after setting a few traps, those gloves become lure gloves, then after they've been used for that a while or if I'm handling bait directly with them, as soon as I switch to making non baited sets (I don't want strange odors like bait odors at a pee post, for example) they get discarded (or possibly saved for handling trapped animals, skinning, etc.) I always use gloves when luring sets, I've always wondered about the videos where guys will stress scent control, use gloves and a ground cloth when making their set, then peel their gloves off and grab a stick bare handed, dip it in the lure bottle and place it at the set. You've just introduced a bunch of human scent directly on the object you are using to attract the animals nose. When trapping areas where the animals are used to human traffic, logging roads, snowmobile trails, (probably farm roads in your instance) the animals are used to human scent being there, fuel scent, vehicle exhaust, humans walking down the road, etc. whatever is normal for the area shouldn't spook them, but anything abnormal like your scent walking twenty feet off the traveled route, or a vehicle stopping and idling will put them on alert. If I stop where I have set I immediately shut whatever vehicle I am using off, and don't start again until I am ready to immediately drive off.

Like others have said, some animals aren't wary and you can catch them without all these precautions, but not the wary ones. But make all your sets for the wary ones and they'll catch the unwary ones also. Just don't spend too much time at a set being too anal about scent control or you will defeat your purpose by dispersing your scent everywhere just by being there.

As Yes Sir says, human scent dissipates with time, do what you can to eliminate leaving it at the set, but often times your best course is to make the set a few days before you expect the animal to come back through and time will dissipate any incidental human scent you left before the animal visits the set. And if at all possible check from a distance and don't spread more scent at the set when checking. I might drive right next to a set if it is on the edge of the road (or directly over it in the case of one set in a snowmachine track) but they expect to smell vehicle traffic on a road and as long as you don't stop, you don't leave any abnormal scent. This could work for walking also, if you are making sets right on or next to your trail where you pack bait in to a baitpile (what Boco calls a jackpot) don't change your route, continue to walk in the same trail, even if you have to step over your trap, the animals are acclimated to your scent walking there and any deviation you make may put them on alert.

True to an extent. But in my area wolves are trapped heavily, coyotes virtually not at all. The only trap wise coyotes are generally those that have been educated by wolf trappers. As a general rule, the wolves here are much more wary than the coyotes. Now when they first opened the wolf trapping fifteen years ago, it was the opposite. But they learn, and being a pack animal the old often teach the young.

I would also add that the only way they extirpated the wolves was with extensive use of virtually all means, including several, like poison that aren't legal today.

We used to poison coyotes. Everything we did to wolves we did to coyotes too.

They’re still here of their own accord.



We had to bring wolves back!

Bearcat, I also hang my traps out in the trees after prep. I like the cotton gloves just because of the small insulation factor they provide, I used to use the black rubber gloves you get for mechanic-ing in the shop, but it's not super fun to handle traps in them when it's below 0. I do something very similar, I'll make multiple sets, then lure and bait them in the same gloves, then that pair is burnt until I get it washed in baking soda water.

Anyone that has worked baiting bears knows what I am talking about.Think pavlovs dog.
Not just wolves.You need to learn to differentiate induced scents as opposed to ambient scents.Scent by itself is irrelevant,The fact it is inducead as opposed to ambient is where trappers run into problems.Think of a dirty trap at a new set-induced scent on trap -problem-out of place.Dirty trap at remake-ambient-not a problem.That is just one example of many related to scent control/
There are no coyotes here they get exterminated when they show up..
And yes,wolves will not tolerate human overpopulation.

I’m aware that I’m a little different on this subject but I don’t generally care about scent. I bait bare handed while I use gloves to make my set and set the trap. I catch multiple hundred coyotes a season. Maybe I’d do better if I cared. I accept my chances.

I set bare handed and use gloves for bait.
You can do it either way around regardless it will keep you from inducing scent where it would be counterproductive.
Animals dont care about human scent per se.Humans are just another animal in the environment
Animals can learn though as pavlov discovered.An animal can correlate a bad experience with a human scent,and conversely an animal can correlate a human scent with a positive experience,like a free meal.
Some species are always initially wary of new things induced into the normal environment.
I notice a change in behaviour by reading sign in the snow if I bring someone along on the line.it takes a while for them to get back to normal behaviour.Often they will leave the area for several days.
A bunch of trappers have discussed this and are familiar with it.

… coyotes like the way I smell