The pan of a NO BS is roughly where the outside edge of my hand is, had a pair come through and missed the blind sets I had in the trail junction, they investigated the pile of moose bones in the brush nearby, but all 3 footholds I have around it were exposed (wind blew the snow off them). Frustrating to say the least, but I got everything squared back up how I want it, hopefully they cruise back through

That is the kind of luck I have, had a grey fox leave a nice print on the trap jaw hinge area of a 550 on a dandy trail set 2 weeks ago, hasn't been back thru yet.

How long is your season? You will pinch them next time thru.

Season runs into April, I'll be done by the second week of March. I'll probably trap some beaver once ice is off, beaver season ends in the middle of end of May depending where

To bad.Maybe next time.Big tracks

I had the same thing last weekend but not that close. Loner came down the sled trail, but it's none the wiser.

From the what the tracks tell they didn't notice the blind sets at all, I pushed some brush from the edge of the trail in a little bit to try and keep them over the traps next time. The bone pile set they circled from about 25' out and didn't get closer. So I moved 2 of the 3 traps out to about that 25 foot mark, I left one where it was about 6' away.

Perfect!
You don’t have bird problems that close, or pan tension good n heavy? I’ve got crows right now hopping around one little bait site, but the tension is pretty high.
One of my snowmobile trail sets was guided with 3 sticks, it stepped right over… didn’t break stride. Mr Heart who was teaching at a wolf course said that he guides heavy.

I have caught crows at hay sets more than once. One I checked from a distance and only found what was left, made it into bait under the hay, caught a gnarly female with one more check day in the season. Give me lemons I will put in more sets....that smell like lemons

My pan tension is high enough that they won't snap unless something sizeable steps on the pan (bigger than a fox anyways). I have birds, weasels, fox, and probably some marten wander all over my wolf sets without getting caught

That sucks. Hope they come back. It always hurts more when you miss wolves than other animals, because they range so far and erratically that you never know when they will be back. Wait forever for them to come through and then you miss or your gear isn't working. Frustrating.

I'm kinda hoping they don't come through by my sets until after Friday, we haven't had any fresh snow in almost three weeks, and had a few warm days and then been having nights around zero, so it is all ice under the trees and burned and crusted hard in the open sun. My sets are covered, but I don't like the looks of them, and some I've had to recover and leave tracks around. I think most of them will go off fine, but haven't gone close to some that could be questionable, because an tracks or disturbance I leave will be there until it snows. Plan on redoing most of them Thursday and letting it snow over them that night if the forecast remains the same.

I set all mine off and replaced wax paper to make sure they're still working with all the weird weather we've had recently. I had to pull all my otter sets but 2, it warmed up and rained a ton, so we're having flooding issues and ice breakup and I didn't want any conibears getting washed away. It's cooling down again though and it's supposed to stay froze for the month my weather app will let me see right now. So I'm gonna keep plugging away until spring thaw starts for real, then I'm gonna pull everything and start trapping some beavers

Hang a bunch of snares for your wolves..

There's a couple dog mushers that use the same main trail as me, so I haven't been placing any snares. Not to say they're likely to turn their dogs loose, but I'd just as soon not have any issues with them, both of them have been good trail neighbors to me.

Maybe you can get them next time.

Well I joined your frustration today. Hard to believe they managed to miss the pan.

They have an amazing knack for doing that, it feels like something heavy got set on your chest when you walk up to that. Hopefully you'll get another shot at them soon

Haha! Me too. They missed 6 in one spot and a couple more near their marking spots…lol. I reset the couple and going to check the other 6 today. I don’t think I’ll reset them. We haven’t had snow and it’s been consistently cold here since I set them.
But this year, these ones are coming around a lot more frequently. They are learning though, snowmobile tracks or free food mean danger. More blind sets now.

Good luck their next trip back around.