Oklahoma coyote trapping

Looking into a possible trapping trip after the holidays. Started rounding up a few properties East of Shawnee. Is there any tips or advice I should consider before spending 12 days digging dirtholes?
Thanks

Make bunch of signs? Do you still have to mark you sets with signs in Oklahoma?

Have to post signs on entry gates so everybody knows where to steal good trapping equipment. And don't forget your offset Jaws.

Quality of yotes not so great in that area. Quantity on the other hand is there

I'll second that Flint Hill. The further east and south you go in Oklahoma the more they look like German Shepards but they do have a lot of them.

Not to concerned with the quality. Heard there were a bunch and I'm thinking it would be a blast checking full traps. Would love to get a triple or quad pic. I double stake with 24" rebar in Michigan, is that doable in Oklahoma?

Short on time use Wolf Fangs cut and go would save you time.

My soil here in the NE is good for rebar. I've never trapped the "red dirt" portion of the state so I can't confirm, but I would imagine you would be fine there too.

I don't know if Shawnee and east is red dirt country or not... I know the border is between Tulsa and OKC... You can see the change if you pay attention driving down 44.

They've relaxed the signage requirements a bit from what they used to be. It's still a requirement though, which is a bummer. Not sure what your schedule looks like but if you can get signs out before you set traps, it gives the riff raff time to go and look for traps that aren't there and they'll give up. I don't think I've ever really lost a trap due to the signs, but it is a possibility.

I've never understood the sign deal since houndsmen are always so quick to point out that dogs can't read "No Trespassing" signs, it stands to reason they can't read "Traps" signs either. Lol

Good luck.

Mike

How far east of Shawnee? Just get the land owner to sign a paper with a lease agreement to get around the sign law.

Agree with what others said on quality/quantity.

It's pretty country on that side of the state.

You could also go get some jump traps and forget about the signs...

Thanks all for the tips, definitely some odd restrictions but I think I can tweak my current set up and should be good to go. Still a few T's to cross and I's to dot. The weather will be a nice break in January and new ground is always fun.

Well, hotel is booked and tags purchased. If things go as planned, I will be in Bethel Acres from the 14th to the 24th. My connection is a local farrier and he tells me he has "lots" of land lined up. I'm not sure what to expect but I will be bringing 3 dozen K9 Jrs, a few dozen DPs, and a 22-250 for calling. Regardless of actual harvest it should be a good time away from work and Upper Michigan temps. Thanks to all for the tips.

Should be a fun adventure,look forward to seeing some picture's.Wish MN would change their laws so we could do some out of state adventure's other than hunting,good luck.

Well, 2 checks left to go. Definitely a rookie at trapping the Oklahoma ground. The weather is just dumb, was sweating in a t shirt Tuesday and it was 16 degrees this morning blowing 25 mph. The wind switches direction pretty much daily. I will have to rethink skinning off of the back of the truck for next year. I hate skinning coyote the way it is, add the cold temp and wind and it's kinda miserable 😆 I have 36 yote/cat sets out and 2 dozen dps kinda guarding the coon and possums from plugging my land sets. Most days a good number of dps are full as well as 5 or 6 yote/cat sets. Haven't kept track of the numbers as a lot of the catches are not worth a ride in the back of the truck. Coyote average is 2 per day and had a double on cats which is a first for me. They were smallish and I didn't feel like messing with getting them tagged so after a couple pics they were turned loose. Of course they both ended up under the truck and proceeded to growl at me the whole time I remade the sets. If I can figure out how to post pics, I'll bomb a bunch shortly. Definitely some weird restrictions here but hopefully I can make this a yearly deal.

Apparently posting pics from my phone is beyond my skill and ability. If someone could pm me there number, I would send them some kinda cool pictures that they could hopefully post for me

"Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain..." And never stops... Until August. When you pray for a breeze.

See! You guys don't believe us when we tell you the weather down here can be a miserable son-of-a-gun. Lol. You get a day or two of warm temps with the wind howling from the south... Then the front moves in and you freeze to death with north winds blowing down your neck. Our weather is pretty much a revolving door of ridiculousness.

If nobody has PM'ed you yet, holler at me and I'll get you my number and post the pics for you.

Mike

Maurob is the ground dry enough to keep your sets working or did it get tight on cold nights ?

Was dry enough for the most part. Only a few spots that were wet enough to get tight. Yet another lesson learned for next year

Got the pics... I usually have to crop them a hair to get the sites pic thing to work... There's a bushel of them. Give me a few.

Mike

Amen. Was in Oklahoma for the first time this summer. We were impressed, not what we expected.

Great pictures! That cat double is awesome maurob

Big thanks to Mike in A-Town. Great guy

Great pics and adventure! Congrats man! I now hope you can do it yearly too, lol!

Come back down anytime. We need more folks who like trapping here.

Mike

Guess I didn't do my homework on cats down here, back home a good cat is upper 20s into the 30 pound range with a few over 40. If the next 2 days yield anymore I will get them tagged and give them to a few locals to be mounted.😆

I didn't want to say anything... But yeah, the cats were worth keeping. Now you know. Catch some more.

Mike

Yeah kinda what I was thinking when I saw the cat pics. Those are two pretty nice Okie cats. Great work on thinning out the coyotes and nest predators too. Maybe give our quail a chance again.

There are some revisions to our regs being considered this year. We are slowly getting away from the dog men dynasty on our wildlife commission. Don’t know if we will ever shake the signage regulation on public though.

Thanks maurob, for sharing your adventure. And Thanks to Mike in A-town for posting your awesome pictures. Looks like a fun time!

Looks like an awesome trip! Thanks for sharing your photos!!!!

Would you care to elaborate ? I always thought our trapping regs were very antiquated.

Clynn,
You can go on the ODWC website and look at 2022 proposed regulation changes. Among others they are considering conibears on private land, allowing trapping on some WMA’s that have been off limits to trapping, actually defining what offset is and changing the wording so that 4 coils are legal.

Thanks , will do !

I hate to admit it, but I am willing to compromise on signage for public land... But from day 1 it has stuck in my craw that I have to advertise that I am participating in a perfectly legal activity on private land.

I have a lifetime so I am exempt from the 20 trap limit... But in all my years I could never figure out how that was even enforceable.

Agghhh... It just aggravates me to even talk about it.

One year I even helped draft proposed changes to the regs... I think we got a few small concessions but not enough. Hopefully these new proposed measures pass... I'm tired of passing up prime beaver trapping spots because bodygrips can't be used.

Mike

Mike do you know who helped with the proposed changes this time? Whoever it was knows enough about trapping to help clean up some of the grey areas. I don’t really know who is pushing for colony traps in OK though.

No Forester, I have no idea.

Hopefully the definition for offset isn't too much of a stretch or I'm going to have to fire up the welder... again. I'd like to see it changed so that only traps over a certain jawspread SET ON LAND have to meet that rule... Offsets for a #11 DLS are just plain ridiculous. It's like requiring 4WD on a bicycle... Makes no sense.

Mike

Unfortunately its becoming common that people in charge of regulating have no personal experience or even secondhand knowledge, of the thing they are regulating. Department of Transportation is another.

Any concerns or ideas can be shared with the oklahoma fur bearers alliance or to Jarod Davis the fur biologists. He and the ofba have work hard the last 2 years try to get some changes.

Maurob I want to hear some of your stories. Your story about the bobcats was good. What was your most unusual encounter? Did you meet any interesting characters?

I ran into a goat farmer that borders one of my properties. I noticed he had 2 great Pyrenees as I was hanging my "traps" sign. Thought I would give him a heads up. After a hour and a half I knew everything about his life and what's wrong with society. The people here are very trusting, I haven't met most of the landowners. When word got around that I was trapping people would call and give me the address of the farm and said have at it. Onyx was worth every penny. It seems like the yotes hear are more aggressive here than in Michigan. Most are at my end of the chain rather than cowering and timid. For whatever it's worth, almost all have been male. 8 degrees this morning and only 1 mangey coyote

Have you met any game wardens? Sounds like you are having a great time.

Thanks Matt. Do you have an email for Jarod? PM me if you want.

I can't believe I'm considering giving this another stab. But my mom and wife both will tell you I'm a tad stubborn.

Mike

Amen. Hopefully, in the case of us Okies, we can make some folks see a little light. I think the biggest issue for decades wasn't that folks were ignorant, they were just flat out against what we did.

Mike

Holy smokes! Just checked the Dept. website and saw a listing for a fur buyer down the road from me. I think I'll give him a call and see if I can at least make my gas money back on beaver... If I can, I guess I'll dig out the waders and my #5's and go make a few sets tomorrow.

Mike

Pm sent Mike. Let us know what the buyer said. Most I have talked to is mainly interested in buy whole beaver and I like selling the castor separately.

Got it Matt. Thanks. Waiting to hear back from property owners first... Pretty much have a standing invitation, but I always ask first. If that's a green light then I'll call this buyer and see if it's worth gassing up the truck.

Mike

I haven't seen any wardens yet, kinda figured with the signs I put out that they would be waiting at one of the gates. The rules seem counter productive and the license is not cheap but the number of critters and the ease of getting private permissions sure makes for a great time.

400+$ license?

$541 for the license. Pull day today and 15 degrees to start with. I'm embarrassed by how many sets were slow to fire or frozen completely. Pretty sure my normal 4 coils would have made it through without issue. Still had plenty of coons and 1 skunk as well as 2 more coyote. Helped my connection down here harvest pecans, kinda cool to see. I feel like I was productive catching down here but I don't think I put a dent in the populations. Definitely a great trip.

Nice pics Congrats!
I'll be retiring on November 25.
I plan on taking our daughter and son in laws advice and come down trapping with them.
They live just outside of Washington Ok.

looks like you had a great trip. thanks for taking us along