I trap year round so it never ends. Hoping to make some coyote boards, have a pile of traps that need cleaned died and waxed. Another pile I would like to get the chains and swivels swapped out. I like the rod swivels on coyote traps, they bed nicer.

wws

Been working on a system that will increase the number of boarded coons I can hang in my shop. It will be nice to be able to have more hanging at once.

Both types of trapping require a Plan, along with Plan B, Plan C

Don't know if this would work for you but I use unistrut and half a unistrut pipe clamp on the bottom of my boards. I'm going to add another length of unistrut this year.






I can turn the pipe clamp to the side if I need to stand the board up while I'm fleshing or prepping hides for the board. Then turn it down for hanging the board.

That is a great idea. I will have to try that

I like it Marty. Thanks for the input!

It helps that I have 11 1/2’ ceilings.

Went through all my traps. Separated them into keep and sell piles so my kids won’t have too

Touched up paint on body grippers that I used last year
Set up and painted a half dozen new ones

Switched to PIT pans and rod swivels on Bridger 2s and SC 1.5 and 1.75
Boiled off the wax on 4 dozen traps. Will dye and wax when the weather cools off a bit
Dye on some new drags

Made some cable restraints and cable stakes

Organized all my lures

Still need to make up some wax dirt

I am making up 70 or so 6’ trap chains with a big ring on one end for making a loop around a dry pole under the ice…to be quick clipped to a beaver foothold for baited sets, in the event I ever do that again.

Making beaver tail oil, tanning a couple hides, doing some work in the shed for the upcoming season, touching base with landowners and getting my permissions written, I need to do trap prep and get all that stuff squared away.

For me, I would say it is the other way around. I dye and wax my water traps. Or footholds at least, I just dye conibears. That is it, no worries about scent control, just protecting traps and keeping them working fast and smooth. A drowning lock and short chain on beaver and otter footholds and a chain on bodygrips and small muskrat/mink footholds, factory chain that comes on the traps works fine for all of them. Gear and fastening systems, well I carry 11 (or 12, I think it depends on manufacturer what it is called) wire, a pair of pliers and an axe. Cut any stakes I need on site, wire traps off (I use the wire to make slide wire drowners, cut to whatever length fits the situation, on site for beaver and otter). Oh and hip boots, those are an iimportant piece of gear. Set traps bare handed, never worry about contimanated traps after a catch, or from them rolling around in the back of the truck with saw gas and bar oil, traps are set exposed, no need for freezeproof bedding material, etc.

I spend a heckuva lot more time on prep for my land trapping, and pack a lot more gear.

As soon as I can, I clean out all my DPs so the wet baits don’t get crusty and hard to remove. Then I put a piece of stiff polyfil under the triggers of those I won’t repaint. After painting, the rest will get the polyfil treatment. A friend suggested this to give the coon something to snag with their toenails on pull-only triggers. It seems to help.

Then I take a couple of nights to make up 100 or so
Earth anchors.

Next comes snare building. Since I have enough arthritis to make pushing springs uncomfortable, I’ve opted to use snares as much as possible. With snare building comes making extensions.

After making snares and other cable related stuff, I paint my snares with either a dark dip or dull-finish spray paint.

All this fills my time in Jan-Feb. (it helps to be retired.)

In May and the first week of June, any conibears and ‘rat traps get speed dipped.

My partner doesn’t do much to his stuff. I make our snares so he’s ok there. For coyote stuff, he tumbles his traps in a cement mixer with 3/4-inch gravel. 6 at a time for 5-10 minutes. Then he dyes and waxes. Sometimes he just waxes.

For the canine traps I do use, I do the cement mixer method to remove old coatings. Then rattle can spray followed by full metal jacket. The FMJ protects what the rattle canner (me) missed. They’re usually good for a couple to 4-years after that.

Spray paint conibears, dip foot holds in thinned down Rustoleum. Pack everything up nice and neat. Stock up on bait, Usually stuff from the 1$ store. Their wet cat food in those double white plastic containers is a killer for fox and coyotes. I also look for those dog cables. Its the clips on either end with some type of plastic coated cable, usually 10' long. I use these all the time for sets in the tidal marsh. I connect every 110 conibear to a Pogo and push it down in the marsh with a slotted broom handle. This way the racoons don't walk off with my muskrats. It is a bit time consuming, but i hate losing a few muskrats and traps. I also Pogo in Otter/Beaver conibear. Have not had one pulled out yet. Scout, always looking for sign.

Praying for more rain, and riding the side by side.
Of course looking for tracks.
Plenty of water critters this year.

Got two dozen traps left to put machine chain on still (ran out) still need to paint traps and make drowning cables and scout

I think I’m almost ready. Just a few wolf footholds to give a once over.
We haven’t got to extend the line like planned though. No friggin time to get out there. Maybe in the next couple weeks. It’s nice doing it late spring when the frost is still in the ground and a guy can get most places on quad. Now I’ll have to go in on foot which isn’t bad, the bugs will make it much more enjoyable.

Been so hot lately that I have been slacking. Need to go scoop up some gopher mounds for my wax dirt supply and get that all screened and dried. Also have a bunch of 1-1/2s that I need to laminate and extend the chains on. Then on to dying and waxing. Also need to repair the brake lines on my old dodge trapping truck. I hate break lines, I might just replace them all

Starting to get some of my old fox traps ready for this year.