human scent?

[fishdaddy]

OK lets say your trapping coyotes that have never smelled human scent as where i was raised there are hardly any people so not hardly any human scent do you think that they would be harder to catch than the ones close to humans and smell the scent every day.and i have saw coyotes on railroad tracks.so could you trap them with rusty traps as opposed to the ones that are in the wilderness.And dont come in contact with any rust?

[trappnman]

fishdaddy- I find human scent to be a non factor. You will never convince a coyote that you were not there- BUT- he knows WHEN you were there, and knows you are not there now.
Worry more about visuals- if it looks out of place, a coyote will stand back and avoid your sets. Blend, blend , blend.

Not to say don't take reasonable scent control precautions, but when I was collaring yotes, I often had 4-5 people around a remake for 30-45 mi.. and it made no difference in  catches.

Now rusty traps- even in farm country, with a lot of metal in the ground, I find rusty traps- traps that are rusting- to really give me stand offs and avoidance . I change out remake traps every 3 days if no subsquient catch.

trappmnm...a real American

[fishdaddy]

im talking tons of rusty metle ive saw coyotes hunting mice there.

[coyotero]

No not really.I don't think it would be any harder to catch them.They're just coyotes.I have a tendency to be a clean freak with my equipment I know that it doesn't hurt.I'm not sure blending is always the answer.Fresh dirt,disturbed ground is always present at a small animal diggings,gophers,moles,rabbit holes.Through the years I think coyotes learn what trappers teach them.Poor set construction,lure/bait that doesn't really attrack them,trap placement,blocking guiding etc.I catch lots of coyotes in hole sets.I don't guide them,I want the pattern open,use the right size trap and catch them coming in.I use a small backing or no backing.I don't care if I catch them coming in to the set,digging,shuffling their feet,peeing,pooping or leaving.I'm going to skin him regardless of how he got caught.Lots of guys can catch a 100 to 150 coyotes during the fur season.That's the number that seems to hang guys up with.I spent a couple days with a guy that catches 300 to 600 a fur season pretty consistently.That's when things took off for me.I sometimes laugh at myself.I'll be saying "man I can't wait to come see who donates first at this location".I must be getting senile.

[trappnman]

blending doesn't mean you can't use fresh dirt. Blending doesn't mean the set disappears. Blending means that the trap location is not obvious. And I've found- that the #1 reason for set avoidance- is that the dirt over the trap is a different texture, color, etc. Until you have the trap blended into the set, you will have problems.

[coyotero]

Steve   That's not been my experience most of the time.If I us coal shale to cover a trap in a field or sandy area yes they might not work the set.If I top dress it,bang he's caught.Waxed dirt is different in color,smell and texture and the coyotes blow right in to those sets.I leave a depression over the pan sometimes,put a little hump on top of the pan,set the trap in a small trench,reset in a catch circle.Catch circles aren't anything like the surrounding dirt and still catch coyotes.Make a rough pattern,make a smooth pattern,it doesn't seem to make much difference.I'm a bait trapper.I use about 4 different prepared baits and a few lures.It seems to be stuff they want to eat or dig up.I really believe it's the attraction that causes them to blow in to the set.Yes you have to have good set mechanics.A couple of swipes with the back of my hand and the set is finished.I'm more concerned about getting on 100 litters of coyotes than blending.I only want to catch the easy dumb ones and move on(smile).Bill

[trappnman]

Bill- I think you blend more than you think- its just natural so you don't even think about it.

Interesting though- I find it here to be very important. A trap bed that is antifreezed so it is different color- even dry dirt vs surrounding area wet dirt, will cause them to avoid the TRAP, not the set.  Even a different texture over the bed, makes a big difference.

for example- I used coal shale last year in both WY and MN- and I too found If I use coal shale to cover a trap in a field or sandy area yes they might not work the set.If I top dress it,bang he's caught.

If I spray a trap/bed with glycol, I HAVE to overspray the rest of the set area- or every inch of that set will be worked except the trap.

[jim-NE]

I trap farm country in midwest, and my corner of state also has a dense population of acreages further increasing the human contact points in area. I have never found human scent to be a factor here. There are plenty of footprints around, spent shell casings, farmers releaving themselves near the gates, trash blowing around, etc. etc. etc.
I set with bare hands and as trapnman mentioned focus more on making it look natural at your set vs. getting too hung up on the scent debate.
I spent so much time in early years swapping out traps, trading gloves, washing equipment, etc. it was silly. One year I was really rushed for time and broke all the scent rules but still did a decent job of blending sets. My catch rate didn't fall off at all, and hasn't since either. Only place I could see some merit with it maybe on a blind set, but if you have other focus factors at a set such as visuals (dirt hole, post, etc.) or scents like food or lure, the focus isn't on your scent so much any more, I think.
But again, there is typically so much human traffic through areas around here that whether I walk through an area to check sets or a hunter walks through chasing deer or pheasants I don't see how the coyote can tell the difference...and when it is there in my set later on I am convinced that the human scent factor just wasn't a factor around here anyway.
Jim