1st ever coyote and she's a BLACK one! WOO HOO!!

Where were you before I skinned her out?

 

OMG That is absolutly stunning I was excited getting your text but was not expecting it to be that beautiful Greg, congrats on a very rare catch Those pics with your boys in them are priceless Your not going to believe this but you saved me some time :D I was going to build you a earth anchor tool and earth anchors like we used to use. figured you had not heard of them, but looks like you have and they have come along way since my trapping days congrats again man!!

 

Greg, this is the first year in a long time that I havn't run a small trap line. Working 2 jobs I just don't have the time. I didn't really miss it until I see your great pics... lol. I usually caught 3-4 coyotes a year, but never seen a black one. What a trophy.

 

Thanks Crick! Yeah, you gotta realize that after bow season last year I started spending way more time on the trapping forums than I was on the bowhunting forums.... I'm absolutely serious when I say this: There's guys in those forums that have probably forgot more about trapping in their life than the whole collective bunch of us on the bowhunting forums KNOW about bowhunting. You wanna talk about some insanely intelligent people when it comes to being around God's great creation? Unreal!

Keith, thanks so much... I appreciate the kind words. It's for people like you that I enjoy putting up these posts.

 

Thanks, Jim... missed your post the first time around.

Yeah, hopefully I'll get to add a bobcat to the total this year soon... Fired off my traps last week before I flew to Dallas for a few days. When I went back to remake one of my bobcat sets yesterday, I saw the big goose feather I used for flagging had been torn down from the fishing line it was floating in the breeze with... When I got close enough to begin the task of the remake, I saw he'd left his calling card as well. Now I'm using his stool as guiding to help him find my pan a little easier.

 

this is one of the coolest posts i have EVER seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks for sharing

 

That's great Greg. Hope you and your boy get alot more in your season

 

COngrats greg!! The first yote i ever saw was in about 2 feet of fluffy snow in shotgun season when i was 13 or so. she was jet black, stopped and looked at me and was gone.
they really are a pretty animal

 

Greg,

I first saw this on the TMan site and see that you made it over here as well. You're having quite the season, fighting the rain/snow thaw here in PA so enjoy the warmer Mo temps right now. How are those thumbs doing? Anything in the remake?

 

Thanks so much FOP... believe it or not, the thumbs still aren't healed -- but it's all good.

Surprisingly, nothing in the remake this morning... but I did finally nab that pesky gray fox on down the line I was after! I'll throw up some pics later... been busy getting the yote ready to ship to the tannery today after I got the fox boarded.

 

Beautiful coyote!

 

Greg, do you leave your anchors or dig them back up/pull them back up? (I'm think I understand how the retrieval wire works.. maybe.) How long of a cable do you have on them?

I used to accidently catch 'yotes in my coon traps every now and then. They would either pop the jaws out of the trap (bad) or pump the stakes (worse).

 

Christine, the great thing about these is they're absolutely reusable -- although they're in the classification of "desposable stakes", most everyone reuses them.

I've got about 18" or so of cable attaching to the bottom swivel on the trap chain, I think... the main connecting cable attaches to the middle of the stake, and second "retrieval" cable attaches to the very top.

After driving the stake into the ground, you simply pull up an inch or so to "set" the cable (by turning it sideways in the ground). From now on, any pressure applied from the trap chain is attempting to pull up the stake all the way through the ground sideways.

When you're ready to remove it, you pull on the cable that's attached the very top, which turns it on its end. It's still tough but if you stand up with your legs after inserting your stake driver through the cable loop, you can get it out without too much trouble.

As far as traps getting tore up... I listened to one of the best trappers in my home state who also happens to be my taxidermist and he recommended what I use as a great compromise for all of my target animals. I've now caught everything I'm planning to use these for, including coyote, bobcats, as well as red and gray fox without any damage to the traps or more importantly the animals. They're all base-plated with center-D rings, four-coiled and have complete jaw lams on them so they're all I want out of a trap and then some.

I'm heading to the biggest fur buyer in the state tomorrow to buy some stretching boards and while I'm there I'm going to pick up another five Lil Grizzes as well for coon... if you haven't seen these since you got out of trapping, you oughta check them out. Talk about slick... and it doesn't get any easier for coon!

It's a very effective system... much lighter than carryng a lot of rebar and double-staking sets for coyotes and the like.

 

Cool.. back when I started trapping we still used a lot of hardwood stakes.

Rebar stakes with welded washers at the trapping conventions were 'new'. Sometimes the person who welded them messed up (over heated them) and the rebar would break when you hammered them into the ground. Then they came out with those stakes that looked like giant nails. Those were pretty cool. (had to use double stake swivels with 'em)

Laminated traps, base plates and four coils weren't even heard of back then. Of course, coyotes were almost unheard of where I trapped back then too.
Man.. I'm old.

You young whippersnappers and your gadgets. :p


I do have some lil griz traps. Some DP coon traps and even some of the original 'egg traps'. I also had some of the very first victor padded jaw traps. The #1 padded traps don't hold big northern coons worth a squat... but they hold stray cats like a champ. :D

 

Congrats Greg, that is indeed a beauty. Had I felt as confident with my bow about 6-7yrs ago as I do today, I'd have likely arrowed one real similar to that one morning while deer hunting. Not surprised you have a few prospective buyers for that hide as it's a beauty for sure. The last 3 I've killed I just left to rot, or more accurately put in a shallow grave to rot as there is no market for them, and I have one already at the house and the wife wouldn't be too receptive to the idea of another.....

 

That is a huge yote

 

Congrats Greg! Awesome!

 

Gary,
That 'Yote is about the same size as the one I killed last fall with my bow, then again, that may be why I was able to hit her.....larger than average.....

I agree, though, that is a BIG Coyote, and a beautiful one as well!!!

 

Good looking Coyote and would make a perfect full body mount. But, I am not a trap fan at all. Really makes me quite sick. I love shooting all kinds of animals, but I like to make a quick clean kill.