Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Learning to Trap

Taking up trapping is a bad move....next thing you know, you'll be out stringing steel instead of deer hunting, duck hunting, or whatever other
activities you enjoy. Trapping is addictive, especially canine trapping. I can shoot a coyote way out there when I'm calling, but to trap him, I
have to make him step on one square inch of God's green earth. Maybe it's the challenge thats so addictive, but when you connect, its great!

Trapperman.com has an archive of posts containing 100's of hours of reading on everything you'd want to know on trapping. You have great coyote trapping up there, as well as cats IRC

Hi...I'm new here but have viewed this forum frequently and your post persuaded me to join in.
First of all, kudos to you on spending time with your kids. Any time spent with a kid is time well spent and follows with many rewards for all involved. I always had an interest in trapping as a young boy but had no one to show me and I knew no trappers. I have four boys and about 10 years ago my boys showed interest and wanted to trap so we jumped right in. We caught four muskrats and three coons. In the years that have passed my oldest boys have grown into pretty successful trappers. We have caught bobcat, coyote, muskrat, raccoon, mink and otter and it has been more fun than I would have ever imagined.
When we have lines out, we are in the outdoors every day and see more wildlife than the average person would believe existed. You also have to learn the target animals, their habits, where they live and how they travel. The knowledge that you and your kids have of wildlife will increase dramatically, plus it is time you all get to spend together.
The others who have responded to your post have gave you some good information, especially DakotaDeer. I also highly recommend Trapperman.com. There is tons of good information there. I would also recommend any video that you can buy concerning your target catch. One of my favorites is Catching Canines from Hoosier Trapper Supply. That video will save you hours of work and frustration and is well worth the money. The Mark June videos are also very good. There are also some good videos on youtube, especially anything with Clint Locklear.
The first three years we trapped we were only armed with what we could read as we had no one to show us, but after I broke down and bought a few videos we were plumb embarrassed about some of the stupid stuff we had been doing, lol. Our catch numbers started to go up to.
I would also suggest that you buy good equipment, especially if you plan on going after coyotes. You get what you pay for. It doesn't have to be MB's, but get a good 4-coiled trap no smaller than size 2 with offset jaws. You wont be sorry. And cable stakes are worth their weight in gold!
Anyway, good job with them kids. Start em' on muskrats. They're easy to catch, easy to skin and easy to flesh. I've hunted and fished all of my life and probably had more fun trapping than anything I've ever done concerning the outdoors. Good luck!

Thanks again everyone.

Just put an order in for some supplies.

Got some Duke no.2 offset traps coming and some cable stakes.

Gonna try some hole sets first and then maybe some post sets.

Truth^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If you were targeting Cats I could help you Jim but even though I catch a few unintended Coyotes in my Cat sets I don't target them and I know absolutely nothing about water trapping.
You should be fine with dirt holes. That's what I use so I know they'll catch Coyotes and I'm sure I'd catch more if I was more careful about human scent but Cats don't care so I stink up my sets pretty bad. More than once when there was snow on the ground I've seen where a Coyote was walking along, caught scent of my lure and headed that direction but turned away when they got a few feet away from my set.

FWIW....I use four coiled off-set MB 550's and earth anchors.

Good luck to you and the young ones and just so ya know, those big MT pale's are fetching pretty good money right now.

ID Cat season doesn't start until mid Dec so I'll have to wait a while.

BTW.......I'm not sure how far he is from you but if you can you might try to hook up with Laker....he and his snares are a Coyotes worst nightmare.

He is quite a ways east of me, but it would be cool as heck to get some OJT from someone.

I have been able to get some information about foot hold trapping....but so far snaring is still a mystery!


I placed a big order for some stuff after a bunch of research. I will talk to some fur buyers soon. Should not be too hard to pay for a couple traps.

I hope!

Jim, you look a lot like that guy in your avatar.


mike r

Ive been trapping professionally for many years. You've gotten some great info. Websites and the internet are great as long as you can separate the good advice from the bad ( lots of armchair experts out there) I would suggest you get a subscription to one or two trapping magazines, Fur Fish Game, Trappers Post, or Trapper and Predator Caller. The editors of those magazines vet writers and articles carefully so you get some pretty sound advice. Good luck and have fun!

Save the prairie dogs for coyote bait.

I wish I had thought about that!

Left it lay....in the back of my mind I was worried about the plague.

That sucker was gone the next day, and I have seen coyotes working that dog town several times.

I would think a hole set would be a long shot with all those holes around, but there are several fences in and around the dog town.

Would a post set maybe be a better option?

I ordered some stuff that should be here soon..including some no.2 Duke offset traps.

The look on your sons face in that picture is pure gold!! Well done! Though I've never done any trapping, I plan to give it a bit of a try this winter with my two boys over Xmas break.

I've never heard of using bait for Coyote trapping.

Lure yea....but not bait.

School me.

Good luck.

Kids were whining a bit after supper because all the kids in their classes have these damned "fidget" spinners.

I countered by asking them how many kids in their classes are running a prairie dog trap line?

They decided that catching an animal in a trap is more exciting than spinning a piece of Chinese crap on your finger.

I am excited to start trapping that dog town for coyote Charlie.

Do you think that a post set would be better than a hole set? Seems to me that it would.


Would a badger be attracted to a post set? With bait I suppose he would.


I dont want to catch the badgers.

Jim......like I said "I target Cats and use dirt holes exclusivly" so I really can't say.
I just started trapping to kill the time in the winter when I retired so I'm far from an expert.
My advise......try em both.

I actually did try my hand at snaring one year.....the only thing I caught was a young of year Whitetail.

I ate it.

Ha! Best to not let it go to waste.

Is a dirt hole for a bobcat similar to what I have seen for a coyote?

We dont have cats up here, but they do in the hills to the south of me.

Yea.....same thing but Cats are so stupid you can pile debris up and literally make em step where you want.
Course trapping in the timber as opposed to your terrain is going to require different set-ups but dirt holes work for Coyotes too.

You're gonna have a blast though once you figure out what works in your AO.


This is kind of cool......I make all my sets at the base of Pine trees...keeps the snow off and they can't come in from the back side. Then I pile sticks up to funnel em to the hole.
Well I have one tree (I call it the money tree) that I've caught more critters at over the years than all of my other sets combined.

Here's some good pix where you can see how the catch circles have literally cut a bank on the uphill side over the years.

Started out like this.


And now it looks like this.




I even catch a Cat there once in a while.



You and your kids will have a ball and I applaud you for getting them outside and away from the "screens".