I’m right there with you. I’m hoping to do some more trapping in the future. I just bought my first house and there’s a small barn I want to set up partly as a fur shed. I’d like to get into coyote trapping. We’ve got a ton of them here and even though they aren’t worth much a lot of times people will let you on their land to get rid of the coyotes and it opens up other doors for hunting or firewood. Here’s a pic off one I got Saturday while deer hunting. I blew her apart pretty good with the deer rifle
Nice shot! Coyote trapping is such a challenge. Lots to think about to ensure success. The coyote does not fool easily. It’s such a thrill checking coyote sets. Here’s the last coyote I caught a couple years ago. Out back on our hill. Padded MB 550s set on both entrances to a small “pen” I built up in some young hemlocks. Took three weeks for that set to produce. I didn’t sell any of my furs that season. Kept them all and decided to get them tanned. Have since sold a few to people looking for tanned fur but I like having the rest of them hanging in the man cave as a reminder of my best days trapping. Couple pics from the end of that last season:
Nice catch! I heard the MB550s are the way to go for coyotes. Minnesota trapline sells a coyote starter kit that I might look into for next season. It has about 6 mb550s and all the other equipment needed to get going and it costs less than buying them separately.
They do work well. Just have to prep them well and work hard at being scent free at your set locations. If snares were legal here I would like to try them out. I actually agree with them being illegal for use though - not so much in this corner of the state where the population density is pretty low, but the rest of the state is so congested and people’s dogs wander. It’s an accident waiting to happen that would almost certainly bring enough attention back to trapping to the point where it’d be quickly banned. Very delicate topic here in CT. We are tiptoeing around enough with footholds. The only reason we are still allowed to use them is because people’s cats and small dogs keep disappearing to coyotes. But trappers are only hanging on by a thread these days.
