I reached my goal of 15 coyotes this year. I had this snare out since late Dec. and finally caught this young female this morning in the snow. I just hope the prices stay up on these critters during the May NAFA auction. It has been a fun trapping year and this trapping thread has been a blast. Trapping and this thread has made my winter months fly by. No argueing or gripeing, unlike ther deer hunting forum.

Congrats on a GREAT trapping season PB!
And thanks for sharing your journey thru it!

Good job PB, alway nice to reach your goal!!!

Congrats PB on a great season. Next year you will see the reward of catching that many yotes with more deer sightings.

I agree the trapping forum has been a blast to read and participate in.

I caught a skunk in a 220 set on hole in the fence today. I was so worried about keeping the smell off me I forgot to take a picture....LOL h.h.

PB do you have them stretched and dried ? Hope you do good at the sale !!! Good job

Congratulations on a very good trapping season PB. It has been fun, and I really like seeing everybody's catches. Those snares that you have looked at for months, and have always been empty, are worth it when they FINALLY catch just one coyote! Thats what I like about snares. You can afford to just leave them hang all season. Let us know how you do in the May auction.

I already can't wait until next season!

Yep, I skinned them, fleshed them, washed them a little and then stretched and boarded them. I only did not keep one since it looked liked he was grazed in deer season and he was all infected on his back. I am planning on taking a year end photo with all my fur and post it on here.

HH. At least you can say you did not got skunked, or did you... I luckily have never caught a skunk but I am sure in time I will.

PB, Didnt get any stink on me. I used a pair of trap pliers to set 220 conibear with and used them to get him out of the trap. The 220 had him right behind the head and back by his real legs, it killed him so quick he didnt have time to spray....lol h.h.

Well......did you skin Pepi HH???????

Nope....he went for a swim in the ditch....lol h.h.

Great season PB!!!

What exactly did you think you were going to catch in a 220 in a hole in a fence? You do know that legal trapping of coon ended over a month ago right? You do realize that is a wreckless set that will instantly kill any wild or domestic animal and within the relm of possibility a child-guess you don't concern yourself with such things eh?

Since you dont know what I keep on one each side of the 1"x 2" welded wire fence with a hot wire on top, I suggest you keep your snide comments to yourself. h.h.

I knew this thread was going to good....LOL h.h.

Oh, now I see, it was set safely in a hole in a fence and you expected it to catch a ???? which is legal to trap in Indiana in March. But non target animals get in the set-darn the luck!!

Keep up the good work, guys!

Been going to a 8 week course at SEPAC on wildlife management.. Two things Picked up at the class 1= Good predator control does not make up for bad habitat and 2= killing all the coyotes doesn't make any difference in established deer and turkey Populations other than it could hurt Turkey ,s due to the fact that coyotes eat a lot of nest predators

Surveyor,

Better read your regulations. Coyote and striped skunk are still in season. AND, as a landowner, he is ALLOWED to trap for nuisance animals at any time! You think after having the 1'st 8 rows of corn destroyed by coons every single year on my farm, I'm going to loose sleep over catching one??? You ever walked into the barn and lifted up a bale of hay to feed and been sprayed by a skunk?? I don't set for them this time of year, but if they get caught, and killed........

As far as catching a kid......I snared 10 Amish kids in holes in the fence this year!!! Trespassing little chits! I released them all with a good scolding though!!!! :p

I heard them Amish kids can jump 6 foot!

I tried dirt hole sets for them with beer for bait, but they kept jumping over the trap, and getting the bait!!!!

Thro, interesting points. I don't at all buy the point on coyotes not affecting established deer numbers. Not when some guys have set cams on coyotes dens and had numerous pictures of fawns being taken to the den. But then again, I'm not a biologist. But, my problem with biology is that sometimes long established idealisms are simply wrong. For instance, years ago Steve Backs pretty much said turkeys just wouldn't live in areas of small forests or small woodlots. That was the prevailing biology thought. They were wrong and our farm is living proof of it.

They didn't say they wouldn't eat them they said it wouldn't effect the population that much.. But then you stop and think since coyotes came in the picture Deer Harvest have been growing or stable.this year a record, HMMMMMM!!!

Point taken, but in some areas. In areas of habitat loss of significance, I believe the biologists need to do some further studies. On the turkey's, our patch work woodlots over three country mile square blocks have significant flocks of birds where they said they wouldn't make it. All I'm saying is, that as habitat changes and predators become more adaptive to lesser habitat, the biologists need to open to reassessment.

Dont care what predator gets killed in the trap. The two skunks I caught a week ago wont be causing me any more trouble. I dont sell hides so all predators get a free ride down the ditch bank and become food for others.

Heres the last one, he was slipping under the gate by lifting up the second wire attached to the fence. The is also a bottom pole under the gate. Most of the time it keeps predators out but every once in a while they will dig under and then the 220 comes out.

Yaz, whats the limit on Amish? LOL

Throback, I have a hard time believing removing yotes will not affect deer population. I read that 30% of fawn mortality is caused by coyotes, so 1 in 3 fawns that die are killed by yotes.

Ducks Unlimited had a article where they increased ducks by eliminating all the skunks, opossum and coon in a area around their nesting grounds and the ducks increase by 60%.

Less mouths to feed have to equal more game that survives. h.h.

HH.....You are the skunk KING!!!!!!

Sounds like an interesting course Dale. On the turkeys...you are saying that killing more coyotes actually affects the turkey population negatively because coyotes eat turkey nest predators??? So,the more coyotes you kill, less turkeys too?? Well chit! no wonder we can't get the turkeys established in my area!!!

I understand where your coming from. These "studies" are all relative. I can do a study that proves that our red fox population has went to almost nothing because the coyotes killed all the groundhogs, and the foxes no longer have any denning sites. Is there any truth to it??? YES But it it the only reason? NO

Every area is different as we all know, and what the results of a study show may only be valid for the area the study was conducted in due to circumstances we will not ever see.

I agree 100% on your statement that habitat is THE single most limiting factor for deer populations, or any game/non-game animal for that fact. But when you have several limiting factors...ie. habitat, extreme hunting pressure, and predation, it's pretty tough. We do all we can do, and continue to try to improve habitat, but bottom-line is...corn and beans, and cows pay the bills, not CRP. Can't do anything at all about the shooters across the fence. That leaves something I CAN control.....the predation. I can see your point, in a normal, healthy, established herd, predation would have minimal impact. But, in my case.....the coyotes actually WAY outnumbered the deer in our area. When you have 30 coyotes in a area competing with the 1/2 dozen does for the same little bit of habitat, particularly fawning areas, the coyotes are going to win.

It could be circumstance, but after last years thinning of the coyotes, we had several more does stick around our farm to have fawns. I think they finally felt safe to have their fawns there, unlike in the past. They stuck around, and most, if not all of the fawns made it to hunting season. This summer and fall will tell the tail. It will be interesting to see what the deer are after two straight years of hammering the coyotes.

ESTABLISHED Populations Is the Key here And that was pointed out..I have watched Coyotes go after Adult turkeys several times The dogs are looking for something wrong they don't see it they give up... Yaz here's one for ya How much alfalfa does a vole eat in a year?? compared that to how much is saved for each vole that is eaten by coyotes their preferred food ???

Throback, It was late last night when I read your statement and after reading your statement again I better understand your point and agree with most of it.

If you supply habitat and remove predators you get the best results possible. h.h.

Here is something to lighten the air a bit, if you look at the skunk picture notice the right side safety is still on. I rode up and thought hey another skunk, got off the 4 wheeler and walked up to the trap and the skunk moved his head around and looked at me...WHOA.....I backed up real quick! Man, Ive never seen an varmint survive a 220! I took aim over the fence with my .22 pistol and shot him 3-4 times expecting him to spray. I stood to the side of his rear exit hole just in case he let a load fly! After he expired I examined the trap to see why he was still alive and saw the safety on. Im not sure if I forgot to take it off or he pushed it back on when clawing under the fence. I used the trapping pliers to take him out of the trap and there wasn't much smell at all. I figured the trap had him stretched out so he couldn't fire off his load, which was real lucky for me....LOL h.h.

I give up??? But, the coyotes STILL don't get a break!!!! :p That is one of the reasons we have so many coyotes. In the two square mile block where I play, I bet 1/3 or better is rolling hay ground. Lots of hunting for the canines!

Yaz Knew you would like that one LOL

But, if we make it a financial assessment, landowners might destroy all the deer and turkeys. My point is only that once we put $;s into the equation, all things change.

Dave.

Its funny, to this day, I've got neighbors that would just soon see every deer, turkey, goose, crow, coon, you name it...be extinct. Even though, we don't have enough of any of them to really matter. When the DNR made the last release of wild turkeys in Indiana, it was close by in the southern part of our county. I had made mention of it in passing to this guy. Why, you'd thought the DNR just dropped in corn borers on his fields!!!! He went ballistic. Said he'd shoot every one of the "blankety blank" S.O.B's!!! We did have to get a permit this spring to run some geese off the our fields. But, it didn't take but about three times of shooting over their heads, and they got the hint....and flew over to his fields!!!!! :p They worry about very few $$ being lost to wildlife, when they could more than make up for it in farming practices I'm sure. We farm for profit, or it wouldn't be worth it. But we like seeing the wildlife too....they got eat also!

My beef isn't with anyone catching nusience animals, it is with someone posting about setting a 220 conibear in a hole in a fence. I have read a lot on this site the last couple years before signing up, so know the instant ridicule I am going to get by saying my biggest hobby in life is my coon hounds. I am a UKC licensed Master of hounds and president of a coon club. I spend thousands of dollars on my hounds, which are like my children, every year. I know the 220 is legal on dry land in Indiana as much as I wish it wasn't, just wish people would be careful with them. Yaz, no I've never been sprayed directly by a skunk, but have had it all over me from touching a dog that had.

I would think if I were running hounds on prop I'd know if there were any sets to worry about thru communication with te landowner and any other person with permission to be on that property. Trapping is sure a dying breed and don't hear too often of people trespassing to set traps, coon hunting on the other hand is a can of worms I won't open.

Yea, thats exactly the kind of responce I expected-coon hunters are tresspassing scum in the eyes of many on here. The tresspassing part is true.......well kind of-my dogs often tresspass as they can't read or tell where property lines are and keeping them on the property you cut them is difficult. Maybe you don't hear of trappers tresspassing, but I sure do. Regardless the biggest threats to our sports comes from those against all hunting and trapping-might want to think about that. Oh, by the way, I have trapped off and on all my life, and caught several neighbors and family members dogs, all released unharmed because I don't put killer traps on dry land!

Surveyor, the coon hunting issue is a difficult one. I wish the coon hunting fraternity would deal with its own, but basically they won't. What I mean by that is there should be some peer to peer addressing of the "fraternity" when guys are releasing onto five acre woodlots where they fully know the coon dogs are likely going to go off the property onto lands where the hunters do not have permission to go upon. Then it seems like some, not all, coon hunters get all goofy when landowners do something like legal trapping on their own property because they are concerned that their trespassing dogs will get hurt. It would seem to me that if I owned and ran coon dogs, I would know every landowner within a mile, at least, of where I released the dogs and knew specifically if they were trapping. If I found that they were using 220's or in some cases even snares, I think I'd run my dogs somewhere else because if the dog does get hurt, it fault seems to me to reside with the dog owner, certainly not the landowner. I suppose the day will come when coon guys will have to lease a couple thousand continuous acres to safely run their dogs, which might solve some of the issues that come from coon dogs, and then subsequently their owners, going onto property that they are not wanted on by the landowner.

Didn't call anyone scum, I reserve that for trespassing mushroom hunters!! But you can't expect someone to alter there legal method of trapping on their own land. I've never caught a dog hope I never do trespassing or not, but at the same time I would ho

Hope the owners of the dog take responsibility of me catching their dog on the land I have permission to be on.