Ol’ Wile E. singing the MB 550 Gang Set Blues....

Here is contestant #3 to round out the triple.

This is the second catch in four days for this set.



Young Female – Flat Set

The War Wagon - 1985 Chevy

i would love to have atruck like that i miss mine tons. could handle everything and when something broke was easy to fix and parts are cheap. gas is not though lol and mine was always thirsty. guess we had that in common

Great pic Tejas!
I agree Mike! Good looking trapping truck but with Pritzker's gas taxes around our state ...just too thirsty.
I love that soil Tejas!

I hear ya’ Mike & MC.

Had an 85 Chevy short bed I put over 400K miles on.
She never left me on the side of the road.

I had a 65 step side with three on the tree as well.
They were both great trucks. I wish I still had both of them.

This is one of three misses in one night at the same location.

The last triple was caught on the same night in the same spot.

Extra sets helped insure those three coyotes didn’t walk away.



Notice the wedge shape track pattern on the downwind side. Keep it in mind for later reference.


Now notice the set pattern itself

What is, and more importantly what isn’t at ground zero can play a huge role on how a coyote works a set.

Probably 95% of trappers would have used the tuft of grass on the left as backing.
They do that mainly to guard the set and get the coyote to work the trap side.

I’ve found that an obstacle does little to deter or persuade a coyote to work a set the way a trapper wants them to.
In many cases it can elicit the opposite effect.

Through set comparisons over time I noticed that the use of backing promotes a lot more back door and side approaches.
I’ve seen it over and over again. It’s like the use of the backing itself encourages an approach from the rear.

Had that tuft of grass been used as backing you probably would have seen a lot of back door traffic with zero chance of a snag.

Here is a question for the T-Man Coyote Crew.

I’m sure we have all run into this scenario countless times.


With what set looks and situations do you notice the most back door or side approaches?

When this happens what is your solution to the problem?

Relatively inexperienced here, only 7 years trapping but I have noticed multiple times a coyote will backdoor a set I made with backing. I chalk it up to I left too much scent where I wanted them to approach so they worked where my scent wasn't? Enough interest for them to not be deterred by my scent but they were cautious enough not to work it from the front side. Sometimes I will make a set from the backdoor, hoping they will work from where I want them to.

Dirt hole sets will give you the most back door and side approaches from what I have seen.

I'm a little different Tejas. I would have used that tuft of grass and still feel confident in catching most coyotes. Years ago, I read a study that said 9 out of 10 coyotes would approach from the downwind side of the set and approach at a 45-degree angle to the attractant. So, I would offset my trap a little off center for the correct approach. I was having success but noticed a lot of coyotes would almost come in at a 90-degree angle or as you put it, "side approaches." I was missing those coyotes approaching from the side, so I just started blocking in the sides with subtle, natural material from around the set. That corrected the problem, and I still take that approach to this day with very few misses.

I don't have very many back door approaches either. Maybe 3-5 a year. I feel that's when the wind changes and blows the opposite direction, so it gets worked on the back side. Sometimes, I have seen when a pair of coyotes come in and one is caught the other set 10 - 15 yards away will be approached with caution. Scratching at the trap bed, exposing trap, and then work from the back side if it really wants what is in the hole. To remedy that I just cover trap and add a little different smell to one or both sides of the dirt hole. Sometimes that's enough to throw them off and catch it on the next go around. If it returns and works the backside again, I then just add a trap to the backside.

I like walk throughs myself. Of course I'm usually in thicker terrain than you are. So I am often setting on the side of a road or trail (or right in it). In that scenario I pretty much know where he is coming from or going to. So setting on the edge of or in his travelway I don't have a lot of issue with backdoor approaches. Although it does happen. But usually my "backing" is more a "siding", he is coming down the trail and there is brush on the sides, I will pick something that sticks out to my eye, rock, tree, your clump of grass, whatever. Then I set my trap in front of it for a "walk-by" and put the attractant at it. All he has to do is walk on that side of the trail while he sniffs it as he walks by.

I find I have more back door approaches when I set in open areas like your picture. With or without backing. Doesn't mean I won't set there if that is where they are using, I just am aware that I may have more circling or approaching from the opposite direction that I desire.

I don't recall ever having a backdoor approach when I use a large tree (2+ foot diameter) as a pee post. Which is a little bit interesting because I have observed them circling such trees that are natural pee posts that I have never approached, I've seen snow completely padded down with tracks all the way around them, but I've never seen where they have came into the backside only of one I've set.

Gooid Stuff SPC !
Sounds like your countermoves work like a charm.
Folks would do well to try your approach next time they run into this problem.
Keeping them guessing always results in more catches.

I noticed the same thing when it comes to dirt holes.
Three & nine o’clock approaches to the hole were most common.
I think I might get more digging here simply because of the loose sand.
Pawing at the set was a common occurrence here at one time due primarily to set and attractant choice.

Good pic and post Tejas!
Here we don't have your BEAUTIFUL soil conditions....it is usually plowed fields, grassy areas or rock hard two tracks to work with....lol
And yes my eyes went directly to the grass tuft...lol IF we have a harvested soybean field to set, I can sometimes find tracks
in the dirt. When working in picked corn fields the odds drop. Both field conditions however sometimes produce situations where
droppings are found and I set the up. Snow covered ground also allows me to find tracks and scats but then you are trying to reduce YOUR SIGN
when setting. A Catch 22. Since I am a gang setter I'd set up both the droppings and the tuft and put them on drags...pre-hooked if possible one hooked in one direction
the other in the opposite direction. If there was NOT suitable entanglement, I'd make a slide away set up using a one way staked slide system that would allow the
caught critter to make its way away from the other set.

Thanks MC !

MC, I always pondered this about drags.
Maybe you and some other folks can shed a little light on the subject.

I realize there are many good reasons for using drags.
One reason that I hear is to preserve a good set location.

We all know that an anchored catch tears up an otherwise good set location.
The general consensus is in some instances that is not a good thing.
In other cases the circle is a gold mine of great interest.
In either case a coyote is very interested in that circle of smell even if he wont step foot I it.

Now, when a coyote takes off on a drag to parts unknown he eventually gets hung up somewhere.
That entanglement site might be close or far away from the original spot.
In either case you now have a hot spot created that draws attention away from the original location where your sets are.
You know any coyote that gets a whiff of that circle is not going to pass it up.


In this case do you usually make a set wherever the coyote happens to get hung up to snag strays?

BC2 you make a really good point on backing and how it pertains to road sets.

I've seen a few instances where real savvy coyotes picked up on the repetitive pattern that most road sets have in common.
In this instance the trap almost always guards the space between the road and the attractant.
They figured that out came in through the back door on every set on the entire road.

I showed them a 180° every third set and that ended their Reign of Mayhem.

It is always good to take out an up-and-coming male.
He is no longer a lean, mean, fawn killing machine.




This was the third catch in six days for this set.
Two females preceded this young fella.

Flat Sets remain the house special in Cactus Country.




This coyote had a good look to him.
He was pretty photogenic.

Any debris left in a catch circle can be a real distraction for the coyote’s eye and nose.

It can and will cause a lot of problems in many cases. Clean up the area.

As skittish as a coyote is, it is easy to overload his senses.

Minimal visual and olfactory cues at a set are often the answer.




Smoothing out the set area and making it uniform and flat makes for a good presentation.

Uneven ground with terrain change along with debris scattered about can cause a lot of headaches.




Give the coyote a single visual to focus on along with an open playing field.

Combine this with proper pan placement in accordance with wind direction.

That combination will reel in more coyotes than backing and blocking ever thought about