Snares and coyotes....... man there is a book in the making. Yes I know it has already been done. When I first started snaring coyotes about 40 years ago I thought you just hung a 3/32 cable snare over a cow trail, in a heavily grazed, Nebraska pasture and you were in the money. Honestly, I caught a lot of coyotes that way. I am still pretty shocked at how "dumb" coyotes can be one minute and be PhD material the next. Personally I think it is easier to snare coyotes in open pasture ground than open woods. For the original poster I would brush the heck out of the trails and set them. It might take awhile for coyotes to use the "tighter" trails, but they will at some point.

I can't tell how high the bottom of that loop is, should be 12" or so off the surface of the trail. The lock is poorly positioned though. It should be to the side more and they should have to be pulling on it so it moves up over the top before it closes. The way it is, if there a breeze, little bird, or anything that touches it, it will close. It's like adding pan tension to a trap, you want them committed before it fires shut. I'm not saying you won't or can't catch them that way, just that it could be improved upon so it'll be hanging up there when the coyote comes through. Good luck to you. Hope that advice helps. I've been setting snares for near 40 years and there is a lot more to it than some folks realize to get them to preform their best. Feel free to PM me anytime if you think I can be of some help. I enjoy helping out where I can.

Thanks for the tip. I'll make sure to adjust my next sets accordingly. It's trickier to set the loops right than I expected.

And it's between 11" and 13", I just did a rough estimate since I figured a ruler would be overkill.

I would double load it and move the lock back a little so it doesn’t fire with wind. Not criticizing as I don’t have the cable in hand. wind touches it, it may close too early.

As others said, put a bunch out where you see tracks.

Hope you catch a pile of them.

https://youtu.be/hfdZk5VoRZ0?feature=shared


See the above video from Ron. Easier to show you the video rather than explaining it in type.

I have in the past drawn a small line on my forearm 12" from the tip of my longest finger so I can touch the ground and see for sure it's right, especially in grass or snow. I have a piece of duct tape around my killpole driver for quick reference as well. It's surprising how often I have to adjust them once I thought I had them right. lol

I know my hand span and use it for quick measurement. Will add some marks to my tools to make it easy now though.