Triggered cage traps???

T

Todd Osborne

New member
Hey guys, I have a question for some of you more experienced cage trappers. This is my first season trapping and Im having some success so far, but ive had my traps robbed a couple of times. And it has me stumped. I bait my traps with a whole duck impaled through the carcass and wired to the back of the cage. On two different occasions Ive found an empty, triggered trap, just a few feathers and the wire still tied to the back. Ive only come up with two plausible theories. Something large enough, probably a Coyote, that its [beeep] end is hanging out of the trap allowing it to back out of the trap. Or there is a Bigfoot with a sense of humor messing with me.
 
I have had ducks and pheasant eaten in my cubby's. Just feathers left. I saw one ermine running out of a set the other day.Hungry and not big enough to set off the trap I was useing. They might set off your cage trap and can still get out.
Just an idea.
 
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What's the back end of your trap like? Pulling an entire duck out of a trap might be a stretch, but I've had coons pick apart bait through the back of a trap before. Obviously, when they rattle around reaching for the bait, it shakes the cage enough to trigger. I wrapped the back end of my traps with heavy gauge 1/4" mesh wire screen to prevent "reach through".
 
The trap is wrapped in wire that's probably around 1 1/4 squares. I could see coons doing something like that. But surely more than a few feathers would be left inside?? Now that deer season is pretty much over I may put trail cams on the traps.
 
There should be some evidence on the floor of the trap. Footprints of the dog or coyote ripping your bait out, upset cage bed or a worn down floor left from a trapped animal who was there long enough to eat your bait and then escape due to a poor lock mechanism or too big of gaps between the door bars..

Crazy stuff. Thats why they call it trapping I guess and not catching.


ML
 
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