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I'm pretty new to trapping as this is my first year out on my own. I was taught how to make bank sets with coil spring traps. But with the weather getting colder than usual early in the season these sets are useless as they freeze up relatively fast. My uncle loaned me some Lil Grizzes and for only having 10 to use I'm having decent success. The problem is that I've got 2 dozen traps I'm not using because of the ice. Traps won't catch anything in the bed of the truck. The last thing I want to do is make a poor quality set and miss coons or run them off. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dirt hole sets.. Coons lovem. Trail sets, if snows an issue set under oaks and conifers, old farm machinery, cliffs, you can dig back in banks and set the footholds up in the hole. Without knowing your geography its kinda general or generic. Under old bridges work great too. Inside tiles and tin whistles. You can build box/bucket cubbys or make them from materials around the set. They are usually used with conibears but i still usem with footholds too. Any old outbuildings are a coon magnet. They love hay/hay bales. Hollow logs.

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Waitin for the leaves to fall...

I agree with Back. Dirt holes and trail sets\blind sets. Flat sets work well too.

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A WISE MAN PROFITS BY THE MISTAKES HE MAKES.
A FOOL NEVER SEES THE ONE HE MAKES. (Harold Warp)

Would someone have a picture by chance?

JT, though standard dirt holes, flat sets, blind sets, and cubby sets all work, remember that you need to set them up more coon specific then what you are likely to see on the net. Most of those sets are done in canine fasion by most folks and though they catch coons, you are better off to tailor make them for coons. Scale everything down for their size, and dont be afraid to guide them to the trap pan with aggressive blocking and guiding material. I like to make the set so in the coons travels he encounters my set and is likely to step on the pan whether he is interested in my bait/lure or not. In other words set it right where he travels, as opposed to drawing him to your set. I dont like to make him turn off his path of original travel by even one foot if I can avoid it. Think of it as if you had nothing but the trap to catch him with, and set up to do so without any help from bait.....then make your set there and add bait. With coon location is way more important then set type, bait type, or how good you can make the set. I've made a simple set by placing the trap like described above in his way, then took a short rebar stake and pushed it into the ground on the outer edge of trail and very close to the trap jaw....then just wriggled it around to form a hole. Cram lure or bait in it as far as you can, place a short limb of 2-6 inches diameter so it is at the holes back edge. Now place a couple step sticks just missing the trap and outside the jaws across the path so coons will step in between them and on the pan. A blind set is much the same only without the hole and bait. Make sure with them 1.5 coils to place the trap so it grips the coons foot, front to back not side to side, as he comes down his trail.

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Here is the only pic I got of a coon set, which happens to be a water blind set that is blocked in tight like you would want to do. The coons line of travel is the edge of the water, but just imagine it's a dry land trail or travel corridor. The only difference would be instead of water covering, it would be dirt... and where there is creek bank it would be your dirt hole and backing or flat set backing up close to the trap. It's really very simple to do and no need to have to be perfectly done. But this will give you an idea of how to go about blocking your trap in effectively to get the coon to step on the pan every time and what I mean by guiding and blocking. Its the same on land as in water.


Here, you can see I used sticks and rocks to guide the coon to go over the trap, and to step right on the pan. It's the same on dry land, only on one side of the coons travel path you would have a hole in the ground with bait or lure, or a log or rock with lure on or under the edge of it and up very close to the trap. For a blind set it's exactly like what you see here only on land.







Another set to give you the feel of it. This one happens to be a bobcat set, but again it's the same thing only bigger as what you would do for coon. This one happens to be a flat set variant known as a scent mound or trash mound. The raked up leaves and debris serves both as guiding and lure/bait holder and under its edge next to the trap. With coons, you would block it up tight like in the first example.




Because it's so effective to just set in their natural travel path, I tend to use blind sets exclusively for coons when using footholds. I figure it's best to be right in their way, and I have learned how to block them in so I rarely miss, so I really don't need any attractants to finish the deal. Too often coons can be picky and will go right by a baited set to go to a preferred food source, and this eliminates that. They don't have to be hungry or want my bait, or work my set, they just gotta get out and about and they are mine. Even with bait, try to set as oft as possible to count on the trap doing the catching not the bait, and you will catch many more that otherwise you would not have.

Some single night catches with 30 traps or less, blind sets every last one of them. Put it in their natural line of travel and make them step on the pan.





Blind sets took this batch and several seasons before this one just the same. All on around 30 traps.

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Amak, I sure enjoy seeing all those put up hides you and Cat Man do.

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