I thought it only happened to other trappers...

Checking sets the other day I had a nice coyote bouncing in the trap, pulled up to it, got out and opened my back door for my gun and glanced through my truck window only to see my coyote sprinting toward the wood line. He stopped, turned around and smiled at me and slipped off into the woods. Catch circle indicated he'd been there a while. I'm sure I'll never forget that one!

Oh man that’s gotta be the ultimate slap in the face. Coming up to a catch circle with no animal is bad. Watching it run away has gotta be worse! Lol

That was polite of him to smile - I always get a smarmy smirk...

I have that hat, and tee shirt from that very same concert.

The smarmy smirk... sticks in your memory for many years. I vividly remember pulling up in a mini bike when I was 11 or 12 to watch a monster coon escape.

Twice in one day.....1 hour apart...toe caught coyotes.

It's painful to watch.

...and talk about...

5 guy's standing there watching me on a grey fox.gun shot,miss from 2 ft,100 yd dash to a big woodchuck hole.

Me too - only difference was it was a red fox.

Grandson and his father checked a coyote set missed on first shot only had one bullet in gun and coyote got out stopped 20 yards to wink good bye.

Happened to me with a mink in a coil spring blind set. He took off just as a got there, running straight at a 110 in a trail. Figured I'd get to watch him get caught. He wiggled thru it and kept going. Looked at 110 and the freezing rain we had that night was enough to coat the trigger in ice and keep it from going off.

I had it happen to me with a coyote once. It was a snowing one day I had caught a big male. I had stop to get my phone out to get a picture and the next thing I knew he was pumping the stake out .I couldn't get the rifle loaded quick enough .Then the foot chase started for a 1/2 mile. I finally found him tangle in a fence,but somewhere in the chase I had lost all but 2 of my 22 bullets. But he ended up taking a truck ride home. That's when I quit using rebar and started using earth anchors.

Problem is he won't forget the lesson either -

Happens though -

Happened to me once. I always have gun loaded and ready when I pull up to a set and I always check the hold I have before I do anything.

I hollered at my buddy "We got a big tom down here." He came in a hurry with his camera and ruger mark 1. We moved in filming and pistol at the ready. The big tom made a lunge. We got some poor video, two quick shots with the ruger and a toe. Hard to watch $400 bucks running down the wash.

Happend to me last year. Had a coyote in a 1 3/4 coil pulled up to him thinking I was the smart one. big mistake! As I was reaching for the revolver I watched him bend down and bite the trap. Evidently he got the base plate in his lower jaw and a louver in his upper jaw. Out he popped he ran about 10 yards and look back, like how did I get out of that mess. Ok I'll just shoot you then, wrong again. I took aim with the revolver squeezed the trigger "click" the gun was empty. He trotted a quarter of a mile crossed a picked bean field looking back casually now and then, like aren't you going to do something about that smart guy.

I found one with 30" snare stakes halfway out, snare too short
Anchors all I will use on traps

Trappin back in the days when coilsprings wern't very good, I used to drive up with the shotgun hanging out the window. Boy I used to eduate a lot of yotes back in those days. Couldn't count the times I've had that happen. Had a tom bobcat do that earlier this year. Was standing at the edge of the circle ready to slip the death ray over him, he made one more run across the circle and popped out of a mj600. Anything can happen when your trappin!

2X on reds this year... how come it's never the 'possums and skunks?

Did it on a double once. Dispatched the first one and started walking down to the second and watched it pop out and run about mach II to the next county. Didn't know what to say except to curse a lot. Walked back to first one and noticed the mange spots on it. Have always wondered if I should have hit the other one first.
And hey I agree I have never had a possum or skunk lunge and pop out sure wish they would do that!
Jim

a good release like that was the biggest bob i ever had to release.was getting ready to put the loop on him and he rocked back and put the final touches of destruction on a old 2 sq jaw.just slowly walked away like nothing unusual.

Lost a cat once while trying to get a photo. I now keep my pistol under the seat (CCW) and am ready to fire when the door opens.

When I was still pretty green I walked up on my first coyote catch ever! Man I was excited to see it was a black one. I felt like the best trapper in the world and wanted to share that with everyone I knew. Soooo, I reach for my camera to get a good shot of him..... I should have took a good shot at him with the .22. Two bounces and GONE! Pulled the jaws right out of the trap. (I learned about modifying right after that) Even worse than seeing your first black yote hightail it away at 200MPH, is realizing you didnt even get the picture you were after in the first place!

that would be the worst. It's a lesson most don't have to learn twice.

I pulled my truck up to a coyote double, the traps were only 20-feet apart, on opposite shoulders of the farm trail. I switched the key off, grabbed my gloves and looked up to see only one coyote there. I scanned around and there was #2, blazing 200-yards across a wide-open hay field and all I could do was wave goodbye. He never stopped to wave back. Me and the other one just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. LOL

-NC

Have had a few red fox over the years do it, actually have a picture of one running away across the field. This year took the cake though. For 20 plus years now I've trapped with my brother, each making a set at each location. This year he caught a nice red and our policy has always been, you catch it, you dispatch it. I take a pic of him with his catch and he goes about the deed and places the fox in the bed of truck. Same process we've each done hundreds of times without fail. Check a few more traps on that farm and then roll to the next which is about 10 minutes away. I'm driving when we roll up to the next location, step out of the truck and go to grab my gear and here stands his fox staring at me. We scramble for guns and anything we can find but the now alive fox is near most of it in the bed of the truck. The fox then leaps up out of the truck bed and runs off, we give chase but never do catch up to him, last we saw him he was trotting away across the field headed for cover. And, at the location we had stopped at held a double on reds, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows all in one spot. Much like in turkey hunting, you always remember the ones that got away more so than the ones you got.