The Pipe Dream Set explained

So I see there is a post about once a week asking about this set and alot of confusion. The link below is a podcast of Mark explaining in detail what when why and how it works and so on. It's 100% free to listen or download. You can listen in your phone computer iPad or what ever . So if you wanted to listen from the horses mouth here you go.

http://trappingradio2.com/trapping-radio-123-trap-coyotes-mark-zager-pipe-trapping-system/

UPDATE: the man him self made this video on the pipe dream set.
Set construction from scratch starts at 19:30



Thanks!
God Bless !

I'll be the first to say thanks since I posted the most recent post on it!

The video I have coming out will HOPEFULLY clear up any confusion..........its so easy, its stupid! That said, I think trappers are often visual in nature and once they SEE it, the light bulb goes off! Thanks for posting!


MZ

Zagger in 2024.

Someone PM'd me and asked: Why are all of these Pipe Dream questions on the original post, pushing it to 2 million hits????

I said: I dunno!

Lots of questions, hope to keep helping clarify!

MZ

Like you state in one video..”it looks a little amateurish”... That was the hard for me to “get over” was the light coat of covering where you can still see parts of the trap. It was my best performer this year. As a newbie that is still trying to figure out all the different BS, maybe the “amateurish” part is the best part. Thanks Zag!

Because just about every YouTuber out there uses a pipe and calls it a Pipe Dream set.
Can’t wait for the video. Probably 80% of my sets are bedded Zagger style, whether used with a pipe, scent post, or believe it or not a dirt hole.

Depends on definition of “light covering”. This year I only broke up the trap. Standing over could still see the outline of the trap. I know this is against “the rules” but it worked. Maybe Mark will chime in on this.

I just use a few grass clippings that I collect when they mow the roads during the summer. As long as it blends in with the surrounding area then I don’t worry about it. I think the less covering the more natural it looks.

I carry a set of Wiss scissors and cut cover from grass that is on site. By “light covering”, I mean I can see parts of the trap/screen like Mark’s article vs a dirt set where everything is covered. Like I said, I’m newer at all this...

This country would be even better with president Zagger at the helm. ''Mark Zagger, Make trapping great again''

Theres a video already on youtube by a student he shows the whole set.

Lots of pipe dream sets on YouTube, and no doubt they all catch critters, but none I watched do it quite like Zag.

I don't see one on there from one of my students, if that's what you meant? Perhaps its under a different search name than Pipe or Pipe Dream?

MZ

I'm like Wanna-Be I pretty much bed all my canine and cat sets with a version of the technique. Down here where it is so wet all the time having the space under the trap is very helpful. I also stake in the hole and even put drags in it with plenty of room. I had a guy tell me my hole was too deep. I told him if they come out wearing a bracelet and have a stamp on their foot from Chinese immigration it's just about deep enough. I have found that good screen pan covers have served me well so far. Like others I usually just use whatever is at the set to cover/blend it.

Yup Zag, none of those YouTube videos have the Chelada secret sauce

Fox in the Pipe Dream set. You can see the pipe under his rear hams. Used the log as a backing...and yes the trap was set way back.

Nope. Not the same. Missing the sauce.

Zag you run 100% pipes??? what percentage DH???

I keep hearing about this secret ZAGMAN sauce. Sure wish he'd make a batch for sale. I know I would pre order.

Sign up for CoyoteU. You will get all the secret sauce you need..

Where's the info or link on the 2020 Coyote U schedule?

Just get in touch with Mark through this site, or www.coyoteu.com has his contact info

Wow, that is a nice website.

Oh man.......don't temp me!

MZ

No, not 100%. More and more each year. Just hard to dig a hole when you know it'll fill with water and/or snow. My "hole" sets are usually in big 90 degree banks OR basically my pipe dream set with NO pipe and two small "poke" holes in the grass tuft. But again, at that point, why not put a pipe in knowing it'll hold and protect your stink better than just to wobble holes that won't do as good of a job.

Again, if you live in an area that gets less rain and snow than we do, perhaps traditional holes make more sense. When we trap in Kansas, we are 90% traditional holes......but the area in Kansas we trap gets LESS than an inch of precip per month on average! One inch of precip is a slow Tuesday around here!

So, to the question, I'd guess I am 80% pipes and/or T-Bones around here early season.....the rest being poke holes, bank sets, blind sets, blended flat sets, etc.

I have guys that told me they've benched their augers and no longer make ANY dirt holes because the pipe and grass (in hay fields) or leaves (in the woods) is so dang easy and fast and weather resistant. I'd never advocate that at the outset, but can't argue that there's an evolution with my own approach, and from what I'm told, by others that have drank the Kool-Aid! LOL

MZ

Mark,
I haven't used the set until this year and it's now my go to when I see "Wintery Mix" in the forecast. I haven't caught enough coyotes to draw a correlation over coincidence but my experience so far has yielded a higher first night catch ratio. When I make a traditional dirt hole or other conventical set, I have first night hook ups but typically 2-3 + days is the norm.
Has this been your experience and others also? It seems that the yotes are more enticed to work the pipe set.

This mornings result of a Pipe Dream set...only issue was I couldn’t find my screen in the dark. I can sometimes get a couple uses out of them.

That's good to hear.....I don't think I can confidently point out a higher first-night percentage than I have with other sets......in the end, the more traps I set up first day, the more I catch the second day!

MZ

Mark I’m headed in that direction. While I can’t pass up a bank to put a hole set in. My flat ground dirt holes are a mess. Only trapped 3 locations with problem yotes this year. Caught 24. 6 in dirt holes and 18 pipe or flat sets. Had two flat sets produce 3 yotes each before I had to move the set. . Haven’t carried a sitter in years and now the augers may stay home most of the time as well.
Move attractor and repeat. There is a pipe in there somewhere I promise. Lol

Rob for a guy that works 24 hours a day you sure do find a way to killem. Keep up the good work !

Don I hope to retire before long and really put it on them.

Yup, one of my buds gets over 300 canines a year and pretty much quit on holes......all pipes. I have not QUITE got there yet.

What I like about your pic is it also shows an evolution for me. Years ago, I would have normally set in the dirt on the left with a hole set vs. trying to blend into that grass field. I never like trying to blend a dirt set into a hay fields, but I liked how I could do it in dirt. Well, dirt turns to mud eventually! Sure, you can get muddy coyotes in hay fields and I get plenty, but they will be even MUDDIER in a mud field, I promise you that! Pipes have me going in the hay vs. the corn fields when possible.

That said, I won't go OFF LOCATION just to set in the grass, but if I have the choice, I kneel in hay to make my set!

Good to see you bud!

MZ

ya ever get a couple days off from all you do Mark,love to have ya come relax,fish or somethin and stay in the guest house.welcome anytime for all you do for trappin.little gas money is all ya'd need.

When you say 300 K9s are they fox or coyotes

The guy with the videos came up after Ed Snyder or Coon creek. he skins off the front of his truck has videos from the class also.

Both.........fox and coyotes....mostly fox.

Go to YouTube, open the video you are talking about, and copy the link here.

MZ

My 1st pipe set, this 1 being for bobcat. A cat walked by here a week or 2 ago, so figured I better get a set in.

I caught 6 bobcats in ONE day all in pipes. Honest. In Illinois.....and we had to cut them all loose..............

It was a freak show, because I have caught many cats at all in my lifetime.

And YES those were all coyote sets that the cats just stumbled into.........but they were pipe dreams nonetheless............

MZ

I caught 13 bobcat in pipe sets this season and this is the first year I have used the pipe and also the most bobcat in a season. All coyote sets also. Last year I caught 5 in dirt hole sets for coyote. I also had to let al but one of those go each year. I think the set made the difference but also believe our cat population is booming right now. Will have to see what next year brings.

Great thread.

Fox seem to like the pipe too. Actually the second fox in the same set with the same screen. First one tore up the natural backing so I put one of my logs there. Pipe is right at the edge of the pic.

The pipe concept seems to be revolutionizing trapping

Looks pretty good. You've blocked the cat from coming in behind and you got the guiding in place. All you need is a cat to come strolling by. Flagged?

A cherry coke can hangin in left side of pic with a loud call lure (Trapper Art's Nitro) smeared on the pop top tab.

If someone knows which video or trapper he is talking about, I'd love to see a link to it, as I cannot find it. Everyone I see is NOT one of my guys......

MZ

I cant find it right now, he was using big montgomery traps, his other videos had piles of mink.

How many of those sets would have caught critters If It had been a regular dirt hole Instead of a pipe.

Beav I did a new one today. Drove a pipe in a small dirt hole. It’s just above flush with the ground. Different and I was bored. Draped some grass over it slightly. That set has been froze down for a while and worked pretty hard. Wanted to give them a different look. We’ll see.

31.65% of course.

I haven’t caught any in a flooded dirt hole set...but I have in a flooded pipe set.
I set according to the forecast for the next 10 days.
Whatever the % of rain is % I set pipe sets.
We had NO rain forecasted for the 8 days once I started this new property and forecasted our coldest temps yet...majority are dirt holes.
We have rain coming up next week, so after a catch this week I’ll move the trap over and make a pipe set.
It’s not “the” new way to trap or meant to replace any of the tried and proven methods. It just leaves sets open for business during inclement weather.
And this is just my take on it...take it or leave it.
I will say this week, the dirt holes are killing it!

ADC is wrong! Correct answer is 31.78%. wannabe nailed it.

So no one uses flat sets In rainy weather. Wouldn't a piece of bone a skull or a tuft of grass work the same as a piece of pipe?

Lol, it’s not the “pipe” it’s the way it’s bedded. You can use a deer leg if you want. A pipe just keeps the bait above ground and “generally” not flooded.

So you can't bed the trap the way Zag beds his trap at the pipe set at a flat set?
Maybe we should do the can on the stake that Clint uses. LOL
I think I'll ask Robert how many pipe sets he makes. I already know the answer and He's now working In flooded conditions.

Not saying the Pipe set doesn't work. I used a chunk of bamboo 20 years ago to hold lure/bait at the set but I still had the dirt hole.

I wish I could find a weather forecast that accurate. Weather forecasters are great people & talented, but in my area I don't look more than about 2 days ahead, maybe ~3.

The trouble of course with a bone is that we have to cover it (based on my legal interpretation) whereas a pipe doesn't have to be covered per se, as long as feathers or bait aren't sticking out of the pipe.

Beav, I know you are playing, so I will play!

When I am in Kansas, like Robert, pretty much 100% holes except for sand blows where we can't get a hole to stay, well, a hole. The pipes allow us to make a "flat" set with our stink above ground. We leave pipe sticking out so the sand (like snow) doesn't cover it.

People go west to trap because of a general plan that it'll be dry. The east and Northeast is NOT the west. We dig a hole here and the hole fills with water from the ground, not rain. If not rain, ever heard of Lake Effect Snow. I live in an area that gets snow Oct-April, 100-200-300 inches a year.

I've said a 1000 times, the pipe was the LAST thing I added to this approach.........I used bamboo, T-bones (still do) Grab and Die sticks (wood dowels wrapped with wool or felt) with my bedding method and steel screen and grass. Bamboo (one time use) T-Bones eventually break Grab and Die one time use. Can't drive bamboo into hard or frozen ground without pilot. Same with wood dowels.

Pipes? I have hundreds and hundreds of them, many 10 years old or older. Its cheap or free to most guys.

In the snow and heavy rain, it gets my stink above ground and I simply do better with it than traditional dirt holes.

Many many good trappers I know did NOT use pipes initially. Then, when their area finally got the rain and snow that I do in NY, the light went off. I guess until you trap in mud and rain start to finish perhaps it doesn't resonate with you.

I made the video mainly to answer the millions of questions and also to show guys how I make it once and for all. If you picture a pipe sticking out of the ground that you can see from 30 feet away, well, that's not MY Pipe Dream Set! My pipe is buried in a grass tuft, only 2 inches or so sticking out, but enough to be a place to put my stink. Once its in there, its protected FAR better from the elements being inside that narrow plastic pipe than if you just put your stink in the dirt in the hole. No big deal to do that in arid parts of the country, but with 4-5-6 inches of rain a week on average, I have found it better to protect my stink.

Its a tool in the tool box. An option. Nothing more. The way I make it, I'll put it up against hole sets if only for ONE reason: it stays operative longer than a hole set here in mud and snow country.

I won't fight you on what Robert is doing and any thought that from this day forward there's only ONE way to trap coyotes.........if any trapper came east and tried to get numbers of any sort, I bet they'd eventually come around to a similar approach. Loads of respect to Robert to tackle this monumental challenge. I've trapped Kansas, and everyone seems to be heading there. That said, I'll take 150 coyotes in New York over 400 in Kansas any day regarding a challenge!

For every hard-headed old timer that WON'T try it, there's 300 open-minded guys that do! LOL I can live with those averages!

MZ

great post Mark

I still cannt find that video but the zag dirt hole used some type of plastic bedding tool that you sell. Can you elaborate what the plastic bedding tool is used for and is that in your new video?

About the only time I don't use Marks bedding system is if I'm in loose sand in the creek. Last year it was snow then rain seemed like for the whole season. I ended up putting on a set of chains on my 4 wheeler just to get around in the slop. Even though I don't catch big numbers the pipe and bedding system were my main producers and their my main producers this year I have a mix of flat , dirt hole and pipe. One example of how well Marks bedding style works. On our farm last year I put in a compass set and bedded the trap like Mark does in a mowed path next to my neighbor fence line wasn't any sign but just looked like a good intersection. That set sat there for 25days about the only thing I would do was give it a hit of fox pee a hard rain. I not sure how many rains that set went through some were real p pounders 3 to 4 inches but it was a bunch even though we had some snow early on the ground never froze. Day 25 had a big female coyote bouncing I know most people would not leave a set in that long if it wasn't producing I had to drive by it everyday so I just let it go to see what happens.

The only thing that will hold me up is a layer of freezing rain we just had a little bit of it last weekend and I had to go around and loosen up a few traps. If the ground is water logged and freezes up I will get some trap jaws pinched in from the expanding dirt. This is my own fault I tend to really pack them in tight around the edges and sometimes I get just a little bit of a lip over the trap jaws.

I have offered to show some of my trapping friends here at home the set and bedding style but they would rather pulls set and remake later on. I prefer to do my remakes after making a catch.
J

You got me Mark LOL Hey you need to stir the pot to bring out both sides.



Freezing rain puts all sets out of commission.

MZ...amen!

This explains why it works and why Mark is right on in his description and responses. Even his references to trapping in other areas. The information can be proven with science.

Where in the heck did you find that???? LOL

MZ

Mark
Here is a video from a few years back. It shows why yours works better when comparing the two. They both work.

Notice he uses dead grass to cover trap. Same as you. But no salt. Where you excel is using a PVC pipe. He gets almost the same results but not quite. He covers his portable pocket by placing dead grass over it and fastening dead grass to it with a zip tie. That covers the radiating magnetic field. He places lure in the covered area. By you using a PVC pipe sticking 2-3" above ground there is no emitting magnetic field and the scent is directed at a smaller area allowing for a better percentage of catches.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXF8xFgrSHk

Had lots of trouble with this set. Wind and elevation wrong and kept missing. To lazy to pull it and couldn’t guide them any more. Drove a second pipe as a loose jaw guide almost flush with the ground. Second night catch.

Ttt

Zag,

Can you explain the exact placement of the small hole you drill in the pipe, please? Is the hole usually below ground level after the pipe is driven? And why or why not?

Thanks!

[quote=Kirk De]
Mark
Here is a video from a few years back. It shows why yours works better when comparing the two. They both work.

Notice he uses dead grass to cover trap. Same as you. But no salt. Where you excel is using a PVC pipe. He gets almost the same results but not quite. He covers his portable pocket by placing dead grass over it and fastening dead grass to it with a zip tie. That covers the radiating magnetic field. He places lure in the covered area. By you using a PVC pipe sticking 2-3" above ground there is no emitting magnetic field and the scent is directed at a smaller area allowing for a better percentage of catches.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXF8xFgrSHk

So a grass covering will eliminate the electric magnetic field while a dirt covering won't.

Beav: What I have discovered is real. For you to denigrate something that’s real especially something that relates to the trapping industry the way that it does.How do you not understand the wording, maybe if you got someone to read to you you can understand the words. You sure haven’t read my bookMaybe you have read it and you’re one of the businesses that are affected by it. They’re afraid of it. It will change the way things are made. A magnetometer use correctly does not lie. It simply shows what you need to do or where you need to make corrections in your sets. How do you make those corrections improves your catch.

Mark, you know anyone that has caught a wolf on the pipe dream set? I've caught several coyotes with it. Figure I'll try it on the next level canine.

Dooger- the hole was just a place for water to drain. so wherever. I think the last Zag demo I saw he said he doesn't drill the hole anymore. Some of his pipes still have them but the new ones do not.

Mitch is correct.

Yes on the wolf in a pipe! A guy from Michigan and guy from MN minimum....

Correct on drain hole.....I stopped doing it. It can't hurt, but I lose track of the holes when they fill with mud and after a while just stopped.....plus, I have 100's of pipe already cut and just don't want to drill all of those holes! That said, I certainly have pipes well over 10 years old that still have the holes AND they are still being used. Some stink so bad, no need to even really add any more bait or lure to them!

MZ

Thanks Mark!!

Mark. I must applaud you for your set. It is very good and effective. I use numerous others. But the way that one holds up in brutal conditions in itself has proven itself. To me, imo, there are other aspects as well. The scent perfurates very good above ground. Paw placement on the matted down chaff/grass. And, though I've never seen any work a set. I would imagine there feet move alot constantly going back and forth to pipe trying to pull it out. Again, thank you for your unselfishness. It has really done me good

Yup, you nailed it. Once you give them a taste AND assuming its something they want more of, they will make a lot of tracks to TRY to get that pipe out OR to get what's in the bottom of it.....

Like giving me an ice cream cone for a taste and THEN taking it away! LOL

MZ

When you find a pipe chewed beyond use, laying in the middle of a road 3 months after you pulled your set, you can figure it works. Apparently I left a pipe at a set and they finally got it up.
I have a spot I can’t get the pipe up, drove it between two big roots, and I catch multiple coyotes on it every year. It’s almost chewed even with the deck, lol.

You need to give that pipe a pet name............

MZ,

The hardware is all out of 1" PVC pipe. It's either Covid-19 or Zagger.
I'm blaming Zagman. Thanks a lot bro!

Hope all is well in NY.

Blessings,
Mark

Ha! I do what I can to affect the GNP!

MZ

Most of my pipes are chewed up really good. Not that it matter. I've broken a good amount of them hammering inn ground. Don't matter Pvc is cheap.

Ttt

Anyone ever have trouble with deer when using haylage as trap cover?

I haven't noticed any difference between grass covering and dirt regarding deer. If I use urine in a high deer density area, I'm asking for frustration regardless of set..........

Haylage is just grass, there would be no reason for it to attract more deer than anything else.

No issue with deer using grass. Really no issue using urine...unless it’s fox urine. For some reason they are attracted to it more than any other.

Depending on the stage that it’s in and what kind of Haylage it is could really affect it. Case in point would be high relative food value alfalfa hay Haylage. Whether it be wet or dry. They want to eat it. They’re hungry they’re looking for something to eat.

If the question is about deer and the grass I use on my Pipe Dream, no way IMO there re any issues with deer. I mean I use a pinch, like the size of a tennis ball MAX.....I am only covering the steel screen and jaws of the trap, and a little on the levers. And like only an 8th inch or less......I can see bits and pieces of the steel screen and trap through the grass covering.

There ain't enough grass to feed a gerbil, let alone a deer! LOL

Even when I make a traditional winter "hay" set and spread a pile of hay out, I never noticed any issues with deer......we have a lot of deer, but I know that's a relative term.

People also accuse me of having a lot of coyotes in my area! LOL

MZ

Wolf dog thanks for starting this been very interesting And glad Mark is being a huge part as well

I am nowhere as prolific at catching coyotes as alot of these outstanding people. But in my observation. On my line. When I'm using waxed dirt in late winter when the ground is as hard as concrete. I notice coyote, fox, coon when approaching set, at times, feels the difference on its paw if does not step directly on pan. Probably takes its attention of attracant and on the bed. Even had dug up when trap as bedded rock solid. I do sift a little natural dirt over top. And alot of times provide guiding. I just know that in the freeze time of the season. My pipe sets greatly outperform all others by alot. So it really makes me think about why that would be. Last season my pipe sets where only about 25% of my sets. But produced 80% of my coyote/fox. I wonder Mark. Would 2 pipes be a good idea? like a double dirt hole. A little more foot movement. With weather as cold as is. Wanted to experiment with a bait in one. Than a call lure in the other

Try it and let us know....they way I look at the Pipe, by putting something in their that they want, it makes them linger, and makes them move their feet a lot as the try to get to goodies out. They pull and tug and lick and bite and just have to make a lot of tracks. I use grass on on my pipe sets as cover especially in freezing conditions........but I cant almost always get these into a sod field....you may not have that same opportunity based on your local. Perhaps you are in the Sandhills?

I rarely use bait AND lure at the same time....but since I skunk-up my bait this time of year, I guess I am, in reality, adding call lure to my bait. They still want it, and I haven't seen a need to NOT do it OR to add a second pipe.

But, like I said, try it and let us know!

MZ

Zags I played around with 2 and 3 pipes at a set. All ended up producing but didn’t set the world on fire. What I did have to excellent results with was taking a small 1/2” conduit pipe and driving it flush with the ground after poking a hole for it to start in. Then I would cover it. Holds the stink but not visible.
Object was to get the feet moving. I used it as a jaw guard with a tiny amount of lure in it. Mostly with double dirtholes or double pipe sets. Worked best on remakes.

Well, there you go! More than one way to skin a cat!

MZ

Don’t worry about not catching them in a remake. My 5th coyote from the same pipe set didn’t mind it at all. Neither did the other 4 and 2 foxes before him.

While I can remember the article, this is the first time I can remember (actually) seeing a video on the subject and this one by it's 'inventor', Mark Zagger.
The film was nicely done, using a variety of camera angles and edited film /photo inserts, which made it a joy to watch.
I have seen several 'You Tube versions' of the set, which were almost painful to watch, being that the trapper making it, butchered it so badly,
I was astonished that they called it a "Pipe Dream".
Look, if you're going to make a " Pipe Dream Set ", at least make it the way it was intended. . .not the way, you think it should be done.
I am not a big fan of You Tube trapping videos, due to the fact that for every good video out there, there are a dozen more with amateur ideas and methods, that,
IMO, do more harm than good.
It is hard to 'argue with success' and Mr. Zagger has cleanly shown the 'beauty of this set' wet, muddy and (somewhat) warmer conditions.
If my memory serves me right, (and it doesn't always) I remember him saying he ran hard for about three weeks or so and then, pulled up.
Here where I am, the bastardly conditions of winter, bring us rain, sleet, snow, freezing temp in the single digits and then a thaw, with more freezing rain throughout winter that a set even touching mud, can (and will) run a huge risk of being frozen solid if only along the jaws.
While I do use this set, I alter it in those conditions to where the trap is 'suspended' off the trap bed, while still being below ground level.
Once shown, this gives one a whole new perspective on trapping in frozen conditions without using salt, waxed dirt or other types of antifreeze methods.
Another method I have employed at this set, ( and actually anywhere one is blending in a set using dried / chopped grass) is to 'blend in the blend', meaning
a light top coat of another type of natural material, to break the outline of the first covering,
While that may seem excessive, those that have seen how I do it, will attest to how well it conceals the trap.
I have had a number of students bed a trap only two foot away from an (already concealed trap) without detecting it there, only to be shocked where I fired off the trap, after they were through.
In any event, I am happy to see Mr. Zagger do well with his 'Coyote U' in helping trappers become better at 'clamping a bracelet' on ol' Wiley as the coyote populations
in many places are simply getting out of control.
Thirty to forty years ago, we had a thriving fox population. Not so today. I seldom ever kill foxes and when I do, it always a regret and usually a mistake.

I do have one question to Mr. Zagger, if you're listening :
Where is the shot placement on the trapped coyote from I (assume) a .22 ?
It appears, (and I say "appears") from the film footage to be 'direct on', but I never see a lot of blood . . .and I have shot enough coyotes in the skull, to know that most bleed like a 'stuck hog'.
Just wondering if you are using 'stingers' and a temple shot or another shot placement.
Personally, I have gone to a lung or double lung with a .22 short. Most last but a few seconds with little blood loss.

Anyway, continued success with Coyote U and wherever life takes you !

LT G

Hey LT Grey!

Thanks for the kind words AND the "Siskel and Ebert-like" review of my YouTube video!

I did it for several reasons, one of them being what you pointed out: The other "pipe dream" videos on there were often cringe-worthy, and I felt obligated to show it the way I make it and why and how it works for me.

You pointed out something in your post that's quite interesting.......guys are always trying to change it, even before using it for the first time! There's a thread on here with over a million hits somewhere, and many of the questions from years ago when the article first came out were questions about changing it! Trappers are tweekers for sure, but my goodness, try it my way first! LOL

Of ALL the days I could have a producer ride with me! It was "Indian Summer"! It had rained most every day prior! Good for filming but NOT really showing the weather-resistant angle and why I developed the approach.

I live in Lake Effect rain and snow country. When you throw in elevation, we get freeze-thaw conditions even in early November. The freezing rain and snow is the type that even snare men hate vs. nice deep fluffy white snow. While that video doesn't depict it, most of my coyotes are muddy OR muddy and frosty vs.dry and fluffy like in the video! Heck, I was even remaking all of the successful sets, which RARELY happens! To that point, we've had snow cover up here for over three weeks, and its going no-where fast. This is why I get my coyotes "early" before deer gun season (five weeks long) and before the Lake Effect snow machine kicks in. If I don't get them early, I don't get them. Oh my, if we could EVER use snares up here.........I can only dream!

What people get hung up on is the dang pipe.......and that is only ONE component of this set. The bedding method, steel screen, and grass covering all are things I'd been doing for a decade or more before coming out with the "Pipe Dream" set. I wish I'd have left the word "pipe" out and just called it the "Dream" set! I made my T-bones, Grab and Die, poke holes, grass tuft/scent marking sets like this forever.......the pipe was the epiphany I had one day and started experimenting with it. At the time, I'd NEVER heard of any one using plastic/PVC at COYTOE SETS.
Of course, NOW that this set has had some traction, I've had a few people say on forums and such that they'd "been using pipes for years, nothing new!" LOL

That said, to your point......I use a LOT of salt with this set....even in early fall. I salt the top of the ground right on the 90-degree edge of the trap bed all around.....some of it falls into the bed....and while I've NOT found a way to salt the vertical walls as well as the horizontal top, I do try to get the salt into that dirt. THEN I hammer-bed it into place.

I do NOT feather-blend the grass outside of the bed.....in hay stubble, once it rains, my little 5 X 5 bed looks like a small place where hay was left in the field and flattened the stubble right there. It creates a perfect place to step as they approach my stink.......I know this is counter-intuitive, but I like the way the set looks AFTER a rain or heavy dew vs. dry, fluffy grass right out of the bag!

On the dispatch, glad you noticed that......YES coyote bleed like stuck hogs......and many do, but some, like in the video, just show a drop or two.

I use low-velocity .22 rounds.....CCI LR CB was what I used for years......no louder than a hand-clap. They've since come out with the CCI Quiet which seems to be the same round.

I did over 100-New York coyotes again this year, largely with this set and approach. I no longer make waxed dirt......just grass and peat moss for my dirt sets. One bag of yard grass can make 30-40 sets for me.....and it weighs about two pounds! And its free for most of us for the taking! Our ground is often rocky, which can make it a challenge to get a real good hole set in. Maybe I am getting lazy??? LOL Grabbing a pipe and a bag of grass is just so gosh-darned easy,

There are other parts of the country that don't get the moisture we do......and perhaps a guy doesn't have to dig the deep bed I do to "elevate" the trap off the bottom of the bed. Dirt and freezing dirt is the enemy, and my approach has the least amount of metal touching dirt as I can do while still having a solidly bedded trap.

Thanks again!

Zagman

Continued Success , again. . . and thank you for the reply.

An old maxim applies to Mark Zagger’s system - “I can explain it to you, but I cannot understand it for you.

Here is a 24 pound tom I caught this morning in a pipe dream set. The set is dead center in a UTV two-track, right where the UTV trail leaves a hayfield and heads into the woods. Plenty of coyote sign there, but I'm happy with the cat.

I like those locations Anthony T! Looks like perfect grass for a PD!

MZ

Mark, it is perfect grass for it - maybe 4" high at most and plenty of clippings scattered around from the last cutting. You could not see the set after I sprinkled clippings over the trap. The pipe was driven down into a thick tuft of fescue and was not visible. I did place a dark piece of a dead log behind the trap to make it act more as a walk through set, but even that didn't look out of place. I'm sure I'll catch either a coyote or another cat there in the next couple of days. He really sprayed the place up.

Up for H2ORat

I use 2 inch black plastic pipe i leave about 12 to 15 inches sticking out of the ground i shove a wad of grass about 6 inches down inside it then put the lure in it this keeps there eyes and focus at the top of the pipe and not so much on the ground works well for me