Trapping a coon

S

scobrey

New member
I've never tried trapping but after the slaughter of my kids' chickens I'm about to start. All signs lead to coon. What is my best bet? I've got a camera up and will take the easy route if I get his timing down. Any suggestions are welcomed.
 
FWIW, it's been my experience that you never have "a" raccoon. When I got chickens, I started trapping them, and a year later I was over 40 raccoons.
 
coons are fairly easy to trap. we catch them fairly regularly with standard drop door live traps to help control them in the barns. we use all kinds of stuff for bait. catfood, dogfood, tuna fish.... dad also uses dinner table scraps - chicken bones, fat/gristle off steaks, batter off fried seafood, tails/shells from cocktail shrimp, etc. they seem to go after just about everything. we have one of these set and baited almost year round in the two of our barns that are closest to the house and that mom and dad are in daily.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/hunting/trapping-supplies/traps-snares%7C/pc/104791680/c/292649580/sc/288163080/havahart-174-easy-set-traps/742046.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse.cmd%3FN%3D1109397


a couple friends who trap for fur are also big fan of the "dogless" leg traps. they use a single nugget of dog food at the bottom and when the coons reach in there to get it, it locks on their front leg.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/hunting/trapping-supplies/traps-snares%7C/pc/104791680/c/292649580/sc/288163080/bridger-dogproof-raccoon-trap/1651218.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse.cmd%3FN%3D1109397


they also have the distinction of being significantly cheaper than buying a traditional drop door live trap. you can probably buy 3 or 4 of these for what a single drop door trap will cost you.
 
Originally Posted By: jimmy917FWIW, it's been my experience that you never have "a" raccoon. When I got chickens, I started trapping them, and a year later I was over 40 raccoons.


we used to have about 200 laying hens. it was a 24/7/365 battle against the racoons and opossums back then. like you said 20-40 a year was fairly common.


we used to shoot 2-5 a weekend by leaving scraps out in the back yard under the yard light to help keep them under control. i've killed hundreds and hundreds of them over the years between trapping and baiting/shooting. i still bait/shoot whenever i go up to visit to help manage them out of the barns too.
 
Good advice. I forgot to mention which type of trap I used. I also used the drop door type live trap. The only downside to those is that the little buggers will try all night to dig their way out, and will pull 10lbs of dirt into the trap with them. I try to trap them on a piece of plywood or stone now. Also, I've had them clean out my traps, as they seem more comfortable reaching in than entering. In which case I would put the bait UNDER the trap, near the trigger plate. Put something heavy on the trap, like a log (I like something natural). So the only way to get at the bait is to go in. As PlantOne said, they're easy. Heck, lately I've been getting day old marshmallows from the Amish salvage store and bait for a few days. After 3-4 days, I sit in the woods with a red led headlamp on as it gets dark. When I see eyes, they get the kill light put on them, followed by a suppressed .22. Usually at 15-20 yards. They'll practically crawl over your legs to get to marshmallows.
 
Was planning a drive to cabelas tomorrow, checked Amazon and was shocked they had them. 2 pack of leg hold on the way and will be here tomorrow. Thanks for the quick responses. I know we have coons behind the house, bad thing is I've seen an occasional fox too.
 
awesome!

keep the traps baited - you're probably going to need them anyway, so might as well be proactive from here forward.
 
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