When you miss a critter. For me it depends on the circumstances.

For instance, this morning I missed a coyote and am a little disappointed but didn’t get to mad about it. At another set I missed a bobcat. This made me mad at myself and very disappointed. It’s the second time I’ve missed a cat at this set in the past couple weeks. Last time I made a few minor adjustments but still had a miss this morning. Tracks on top of both jaws but didn’t step on the pan. I’m pulling everything this coming weekend and not sure the cat will come back through before I do.

I did catch one coyote this morning so that made me feel a little better but still thinking I should have two coyotes and a bobcat in the back of my truck right now.

Can't catch em all. Doesn't bother me unless I'm at a beaver job that calls for complete eradication. Then if a miss that one last beaver I get down right "rankled" and have to out think ole' bugger.

Lets put it this way, I never worried about over trapping a spot, there was always plenty of seed left !

I took some trail cams with me this year down south. Only had a couple misses but I learned a lot. Next year I will have more cams.
I have one video off an otter launching off the bank and slamming the top of a 330 knocking it over.
Yes I got lazy and didn't have enough debris on top to encourage him not to jump. The good part about is i got to see it and learn.
So not all misses are bad if your learning.

I missed a huge Tom back in January.
I had tried to force it where it didn't want to step. I shouldhave had a backup set . I knew there was another trapper down the ridge about 5 miles.
The cat had taken 3 weeks to return so I figured I had one more Crack at him unless he got caught.
He never returned as far as I could tell. Very well could have ended up in my competitors set.
Can't get them all. But complacency got me on that one I believe.

When I miss a catch, I get motivated to improve the set. I usually add more blocking. If it's a coyote that seems trap shy, I will often add an extra trap or two farther back from the point of attraction.

Keith

Disappointed but want to learn from my mistakes.

If I have a miss, I take it out on the next catch. lol

I take it personal lol bothers me when I miss cause I know that I had the animal there, and I just didn’t finish,

I kicked off some traps because of potential ice storm. Wasn't much of a storm but I put off setting them back a day because of time constraints. Of course when I returned there were cat tracks all over my sets. I just chalk it up to if I were a good bobcat trapper I wouldn't have delayed the reset. Disappointed more for my sloth than not catching the cat.

I get mad if it’s my fault, disappointed if it’s the animals fault, and somewhere in between when it’s something odd. I had a cat caught the other night and had a trail cam send me the pics. I went over there at 5am to get him out. Stepped out of my truck, turned on my head lamp, and then watched him make one more lunge for freedom. I wasn’t mad or disappointed, just regretted getting out of bed that early

Very True