Author Topic: another coon & another pullout? (Read 590 times)

fishdaddy · « **on:** December 31, 2003, 05:36:49 AM »

caught another coon and another pulled out. i know it was a coon it left some fur. how does a coon get out of a #2 bridger?

Asa Lenon · « **Reply #1 on:** December 31, 2003, 09:32:34 AM »

Are you sure you don't have an another animal theif trapper checking your traps each day? :? Ace

trappnman · « **Reply #2 on:** December 31, 2003, 10:07:39 AM »

Simple-he was a poor catch to begin with- and simply pulled out. This can be caused by many things- unstable traps, coons rooting, froozen ground- whatever. A good pad catch in a good trap- he will be there in the morning and I don't care how many branches and limbs he can reach and pull on....trappnman

fishdaddy · « **Reply #3 on:** December 31, 2003, 11:26:18 AM »

if it was a fur theif he left another coon in a trap 100 ft. away

georgiaboy · « **Reply #4 on:** December 31, 2003, 03:53:10 PM »

i am with trappnman on this one.i think your problem could be due to a poorly bedded trap.you didnt give any info on your set up so i am guessing but i trap a lot of coons in the swamps of south georgia and it can be difficult to say the least to get a solid bedded trap.i catch 75% of my coons just off the river in cyprus swamps where the water is maaybe a foot deep.i simply smear some jack mackeral mixed with bacon grease on the cyprus tree and "bed my trap in front of it.by bedding it i mean rooting out a place with my boot(the swamps have no real stable bottom at all)and twisting the trap in.i simply make the coon walk over the trap and i have found that smearing the bait on the tree i think he is more focused on it than where he sets his foot.i catch a few grey foxes in this set as well.the swamp water down here is almost black so i dont cover my traps at all.i do know that a coon is pretty good at finding a poorly bedded trap and he will either flip it or you will make a poor catch and he will pull out.coons fight traps hard so you really have to hang them good and swivel them good.i am pretty new to trapping but i catch a lot of coons and have learned a lot from them.they arent hard to catch,but like everything else,you have to pay attention to the little things.evan

fishdaddy · « **Reply #5 on:** December 31, 2003, 05:31:35 PM »

I set mine the same as u cept i cover mine and poke out a little dirt hole i think i will get me some shock springs.
by the way how big are your coon there?

Wackyquacker · « **Reply #6 on:** January 01, 2004, 02:54:45 AM »

Fishy, shock springs a fine, but if you are getting poor catchs they won't fix things. Before throughing money at a problem make certian that all else is correct. The others have given you some good suggestions. By the way once in a while everyone has one get away no matter what we do!

jim-NE · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2004, 02:56:59 PM »

A #2 bridger, if it was a good catch, would actually be a little "high" up on a coon's arm or back leg if the coon had all of its weight commited to the pan when it fired the trap. This is, in my opinion, too big of a trap for a coon trap...but on the other hand a grip that high would have been a very solid catch nonetheless. I agree with the prior posts that this coon was just not far enough in this trap for a good catch to begin with.
Coons are strong, and they have rubbery, tapered feet. They can also swivel their back feet 45 degrees behind them, and they can grasp well with all four feet, too. Give them anything nearby to grab onto, and if the trap's hold isn't very good then its a good bet they will power out of it. If you weren't left with a toe, or partial foot, then it most likely just wasn't a very good hold to begin with.
Also, how long were the hairs in your trap? the fur on their feet is very short. higher up on the leg, the longer the fur length. Belly fur is much longer yet on coons. I'm wondering too if the trap didn't fire underneath the coon and grap some chest fur? how torn up was the set location, too. That is an indicator of how long you actually held that coon before it pulled out. Not much destruction, not much of a hold to begin with. Coons raise hell after a catch if they aren't on their way down a drowner...the evidence left after their struggle tells a lot about the crime scene, in my experience.
Jim-NE

fishdaddy · « **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2004, 04:11:03 PM »

the hair was short and the ground around the trap was tore up pretty good.the reason for the #2 is coyotefishdaddy

trappnman · « **Reply #9 on:** January 03, 2004, 06:04:44 AM »

keep in mind also that in dirt- coon root a lot more than people think. Very short hair could well be a coon caught by the chin hairs, etc.

jim-NE · « **Reply #10 on:** January 04, 2004, 05:14:46 PM »

I use a lot of #2 longsprings for coyotes myself, and we have a lot of overlap in coyote/coon habitat in this corner of Nebraska. Unfortunately, many of my #2's don't have adjustable pans and a flaw with free-falling pans is too light of tension to fire the trap. I use a wad of insulation under the pans and this helps a little. Do you have a way to tighten up the pan tension on your traps a little more? If they have their weight committed, then you almost always get a good hold on anything that steps on that pan heavy enough to fire according to the tension you set.
Only other thing I could think of was if these are regular jaws and hopefully not offset jaws. You would have a difficult time holding a coon with offset jaw traps.
Let me know how things continue at these sets for you. You may not get that same coon to visit this same set, so maybe add another completely different set somewhere nearby and see if you can connect on it. Would be curious to see if that coon shows any "battle scars" from your prior hold on it.

fishdaddy · « **Reply #11 on:** January 05, 2004, 07:14:40 AM »

my traps can be adjusted i havent caught the one that got away.but i caught 5 out of a 200 sq.ft.area .