New trapper. Bought a brand new 220 conibear and made a bucket set to catch whatever has been living under my shed and tearing things up.

First night out, caught a large boar coon. The trap got him right behind the head around the neck. BUT he wasn't dead. Fully alive and had to dispatch with .22lr.

I was under the impression these 220s are basically a quick kill trap. Did I set it wrong? Or was it just not enough for a very large boar coon?

did you leave a safety on or did the coon get a leg in there with its head only time ive seen a 220 not kill

Depends on the gap between the jaws on that 220.Right behind the ears or a suitcase catch will kill quicker then a neck catch.

No his legs were free and I took the safeties off.

What brand of trap if I may ask?

There are just some things that happen even when we take all the steps to prevent them. The law of averages catch up with us. About once or twice a year I have somthing unexpected happen.

I catch alot of coon and possum in 160's and as far as I can remember I never had one alive. If your safeties were off and no legs were caught maybe he was just caught before you came along, or like Mainelogger said, one in a thousand.

The jaws seem to work better if the animal is caught behind ears. If the jaws are on side of neck not as good.

Did you cut sluts in the bucket? They could of slowed down the spring if they were to tight.

Bridger

Yes, I did cut slots in the bucket, and I turned the springs upwards tight to the bucket. Maybe I did have them too tight and something interfered.

Never had that when I used a blue bucket lol (an old joke on here Hunter8282)

I've only had that happen once and it was a fisher in a 160. And it was also on the neck.

I settled on thinking it had just been caught and/or was caught with its neck in just the right position.

And as stated, right behind the ears I've never had that problem

You might have just got lucky enough to walk up within a minute of him getting caught. Conibears are generally instant or near instant dispatch on whatever sticks its head through

Some of them big boar coon are tough. If them jaws didn't have a hold of him just right they can last a little while.

I would suspect you just caught him if he was still alive with a neck catch. I've found three critters alive in conibears over the years that I can recall. One was a hip caught otter in an old square jaw Victor 330, and I tracked it coming up the creek in the snow to the trap, probably 45 degrees out and I figured it had to have been within the last hour by the lack of melt in the tracks. Then a hip caught weasel and a fisher caught right behind the head in Bridger 120s (a strong trap) I figure both of them were just caught, the weasel expired while looked for something to dispatch it with, and the fisher I released unharmed. I figured it had been caught within a minute of me getting there.

They are friggin tough, but I’ve got em stone dead when they got their head jammed into a 120. I’ve never come up on a live coon in a BG unless it got its hand caught. Belisle traps only though.