Good evening everyone. Long time lurker, recently joined & first post. Been trapping for about 9 years here in northern WV. Mostly after bobcats & coyotes, never had a chance to do any water trapping until this year. Missed a beaver in a snare, decided to pick up a few conibears & my season has come to an end for now. Going to paint them, have them primed now. Should I clean the paint off/ wrap tape around the part of the jaw I’m attaching the dog to so it’s bare metal? Or will it not slip & fire randomly with the paint on? Also, when yall paint them, do you clear coat at the end of the process?
Now for bait questions, when setting up a bait station to test, any certain features you look for? The coyotes don’t really hang out a whole lot on the farm. Seems like they travel through, more bobcats it feels like. It’s a mix of fields and woods, high ridge overlooking the fields. Plan to start testing in spring. Just put a dozen eggs in to ferment, never made them but we’ll see what happens!
If anyone’s around & needs help or wants some company preparing traps let me know! Can post pics of some of this seasons catches if yall want. I love talking trappin, just give me a holler. Thanks for the add and tight chains my friends

Welcome aboard! I just use a 50/50 mix of acetone and rusty brown primer on my land and water traps. No clear coat needed. Lots of info in the archives. Eric

Just don't spray from too close you want thin coats of paint and you won't have issues with the trigger/dog. I don't clear coat. For bait stations, I like to look for a kill that's being worked

Welcome to the posting board.
I paint my Water traps , Coni's and MB750's

Rustolium Brown -red primer .No clear coat no taping.

I've done this recently. Before that I would clean conibear from fresh oil, lightly rust and dye This worked for decades for me till I went to primer/acetone. I still have many that are just dyed that still produce fur with no problems

Thank yall for the kind words!

Do you have any problem with paint coming off? Had some of that grey rustoleum primer, sprayed it on & will put a layer of tan over it tmr. Going to leave them set to make sure they won’t slip once it’s cured. Very nice catches! Can’t wait to get one, need to see for myself how good they taste

Honestly I’ve not seen many they work out there. Only time is around deer season when they’re working gut piles. Might be my sign I’ll have to figure something out so they keep coming back to it, thank you for the info