Catch a spring bred female, or a female that’s already whelped here and there won’t be an intact tooth left in their head.

They will work and work and work the trap, the chain, and anything else they can reach, absolutely blow the catch circle up, and fight till the end.

If you got a weak spot they’ll find it!

H e l l hath no fury sort of thing.

Boone,I do not doubt that for a second. That makes perfect sense to me.
I'll have to go through my photo records, as it is painfully apparent when they have been hammering the trap.
I usually make note of aggressive behavior in the written record as well.

I've trapped a healthy number of big adult females well past breeding season over the years.
I just do not recall any exhibiting that frantic behavior post breeding in this specific area.
I don’t recollect any obvious signs of bleeding or broken choppers on the ones I came across.
All adults are checked for tooth wear.

What I do remember is having a good number of adult females caught right in the middle of the rut.
You could tell those girls wanted OUT in a bad way!
I didn’t witness trap chewing or any signs of it, but instead they chose to focus primarily on the caught foot below the jaw.

I only remember seeing this during the rut. It was almost exclusively adult females, but I do remember some big males doing that as well.
I know a rutting male can get hyper-focused on the prize, so I can see why they would fight like heck to get loose.
No younger coyotes showed signs of that behavior.

Thanks fellas

Hopefully it will help a trapper or two reel in a few problem children and prevent creating more of the same.

I wanted to reiterate the importance of the way the bed is cut.
This simple step can really cut back on mayhem and increase your catches.

When a trap bed is cut to size at a 90° it somewhat guards against negative interaction.
A swipe or paw is more likely to contact the hard surface around the trap bed protecting the softer bed dirt.
A dig on hardpan will be short lived in most cases. A exploratory dig on a soft surface is highly likely to continue.

The digging tool you use makes a big difference in what your bed ends up looking like

You cannot cut a precise bed like this with a clunky wide chisel 3 lb. hammer.
The wide/thick blade tends to break up the 90° edge which is crucial to guarding the trap.
The masonry hammer retains most of that sharp edge.

I have used a masonry hammer from day one.
It has a straight chisel that is narrow for much more precise cuts.
Chisel strikes do not kick dirt in your face like the angled chisel with the wide blade.

Here is another key component that should always be deployed when set making.


The tarp is possibility the most important tool you can use on the line.
It helps increase you effectiveness in so many ways I can’t imagine not using one.

Notice how the tarp crowds the bed.

That protects the original surface & edge at the six o’clock where the coyote is likely to approach.
It also prevents fresh bed dirt from being scattered out front causing a dig.
Excavated bed dirt is put on the tarp instead of on the ground.
Any perspiration is likely to hit the tarp instead of right at the foot of your set.

I am very grateful for the knowledge which you have shared.
No doubt an untold number of coyotes will be caught with the tips from this thread.

X2 on the masonry hammer! Best change I made.

Here is another solid Adult Female.

It’s not often I have a MB 550 anchor chain foul up.
When it does, it loops over the dog end of the frame.
This takes away the D Ring swivel and shortens the chain.

I have found that a coyote will often dig on the side of the circle from the direction it entered.

This can be a good indicator of where to concentrate ground recon.