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Old 01-29-2018, 06:51 AM
parfleche parfleche is offline
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Default Hammer drill

does anyone here use a hammer drill to drill dirt holes in frozen ground ? Or would it make a difference from a regular drill? I dont want to spend the money till I get some kind of feedback.
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Old 01-29-2018, 10:00 AM
antlercarver antlercarver is offline
 
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Default Smell ?

I don`t know if I imagine it, but when I use a electric motor I can smell it. It may contaminate the set with a strange smell.
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Old 01-29-2018, 09:10 PM
parfleche parfleche is offline
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Antler , I have had no problem at all using a drill at my dirt hole sets, I caught eight coyotes in succession in one set and four in another last year and I did not do any special deals , in fact and I have witnesses to it I remade the sets using the same trap . I,m not saying its going to work for everyone but many of my sets are bare hand sets ,and snaring is definitely bare handed ! ,I don,t smoke and don,t chew , I do kneel on a canvas at my dirt holes . I believe the dirt hole set is all about the ideal spot, presentation . the perfect spot is the biggest factor for me .same as snaring! one thing I have noticed is I don,t seem to have any immediate catches at dirt holes , so I assume the scent has dissipated .
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Old 01-30-2018, 07:56 AM
Reddog Reddog is offline
 
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I don’t think you’ll find anything that will do frozen ground by my experience. Dirt holes and frozen ground sound inefficient at best especially considering I like my holes at least as deep as my arm. Have you considered just putting in flat sets? What are you using for antifreeze in this weather?
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Old 01-31-2018, 07:30 AM
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honda450 honda450 is offline
 
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Hilti Hammer Drill will work electric or battery. We have at least a 24 inch bit it might even be 30 inch......... 1/2 inch bore or so, at the shop. Expensive though. But will get the job done.
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Old 01-31-2018, 04:30 PM
parfleche parfleche is offline
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Reddog , if you go that deep you will catch an Austrailian! I never go more than eight or ten inches , but to each his own . I just love foot trapping those animals ! I like seeing the bounce when you get up to them! Snaring is one thing but foot trapping you get the satisfaction of having gone past his nose and the rest of the spider senses!
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Old 02-04-2018, 08:29 PM
7 REM MAG 7 REM MAG is offline
 
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hilti te6c or te30c will drill holes up to 1" easy peasy in frozen ground. dewalt has a similar tool but i don't know the model number off hand
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Old 02-05-2018, 09:24 AM
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KegRiver KegRiver is offline
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I never bothered with dirt holes after freeze up. There are too many alternatives.

A pile of dry grass covering the bait works almost as well once the ground is frozen. Burying bait in snow does pretty much the same thing as a dirt hole.

A mound of dry sand, or ant hill dirt makes a decent dirt mound that will not freeze.

It seemed to me that the point of a dirt hole was two fold; to keep birds from stealing the bait and to make the target animal work a bit for the bait, which takes it's mind off dangerous traps.

I always thought that those goals could be covered pretty well with the alternatives.

But I do have to add, I didn't do much Coyote trapping and even less dirt hole or dirt hole alternative trapping. Marten, Fisher, Lynx and beaver were worth more, easier to catch and as plentiful or in many cases, more plentiful.

On top of that I could pull in as many Coyotes with trail sets, both leg hold and snare as I could with dirt hole sets and with a lot less time and effort.
So for me dirt hole sets were only worth my time before the more valuable fur became accessible. Which was only after freeze up.

My registered line was on the far side of the Peace River from the nearest road access, and it had a lot of wet ground that one could not access till after freeze up. Because of those factors it was not practical to try to trap most of it until after freeze up. So I trapped the few Coyote we had while waiting for freeze up. And after freeze up only bothered with easy sets for Coyote.

We never did have the numbers of Coyote you folks have down south. We still don't. If I took ten a year that was the bulk of the population on my line. I could pick up another twenty or so from the local farms but that was hardly worth it. It meant driving a lot of miles for very little return.
But I did do it some, for the challenge more then anything.

In all honesty, I could and did make more money trapping Squirrels and Weasel then I did trapping Coyote. There were no Fox in the area back then and not many Wolves.
Not like today. Now there are Wolves everywhere and plenty of Fox as well.
But about the same number of Coyote as there always were.
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Old 02-05-2018, 08:44 PM
parfleche parfleche is offline
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Keg You hit the nail on the head about dirt holes . For us on this side of the border , winter hits and dirt hole trapping is a full days work ! Snares are the go to method up here , Dirt holes are ok until the frost hits . The U.S is large on dirt holes because I believe they are likely restricted to traps anyway and they have a little milder weather .I love dirt hole trapping , because of the challenge . If you can get all that iron past the coyotes or wolfs nose THAT is the YAHOO moment for sure!
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Old 02-06-2018, 08:06 AM
Whitetail200 Whitetail200 is offline
 
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Default Dirt Holes

Quote:
Originally Posted by parfleche View Post
Keg You hit the nail on the head about dirt holes . For us on this side of the border , winter hits and dirt hole trapping is a full days work ! Snares are the go to method up here , Dirt holes are ok until the frost hits . The U.S is large on dirt holes because I believe they are likely restricted to traps anyway and they have a little milder weather .I love dirt hole trapping , because of the challenge . If you can get all that iron past the coyotes or wolfs nose THAT is the YAHOO moment for sure!
Parfleche , agree dirt holes are ok till the frost hits , then snares , Keg River mentions ant hills , work like a mound set . Although you have to put more traps around the mound , or use it as a dirt hole set . Early part to middle of November or till the frost gets bad , I used a least 4 or some times 6 to surround the set . I use to use the mound set on a decomposed manure pile which was like dirt . Mound up dirt , Bury the bait in mound , cover lightly with dirt , add lure to top , some coyote wolf suspicion remover around set , then a long distance call a ways from the set to draw them in . You can get double catches with this , worked good for me .
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Old 02-07-2018, 09:54 AM
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KegRiver KegRiver is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Whitetail200 View Post
Parfleche , agree dirt holes are ok till the frost hits , then snares , Keg River mentions ant hills , work like a mound set . Although you have to put more traps around the mound , or use it as a dirt hole set . Early part to middle of November or till the frost gets bad , I used a least 4 or some times 6 to surround the set . I use to use the mound set on a decomposed manure pile which was like dirt . Mound up dirt , Bury the bait in mound , cover lightly with dirt , add lure to top , some coyote wolf suspicion remover around set , then a long distance call a ways from the set to draw them in . You can get double catches with this , worked good for me .
Setting an ant hill sounds like a good idea, if you can avoid the residents but I've never tried it.

Something about ant hill dirt makes it somewhat resistant to freezing, I don't know what that is, only that it works that way.
So I would collect a pail or more of the dirt early in the fall to use after freeze up to cover traps, before there was enough snow to do the job.
Once there was enough snow I never bothered with dirt of any sort.

Back before I was born local trappers used to trap Fox and Coyote, mostly Fox, before the season. They would keep them alive, in special made pens, until they primed up.

Most of them set their traps in sand along the rivers and so the practice was called sand trapping. No kidding.
I learned the technique from my dad but never really used it as such. Instead I used what I learned of the technique to make my inland sets more resistant to frost.

Rather then trying to dig a hole in frozen ground, or to prevent traps from freezing down, I would make a mound over the bait and trap, with sand or ant hill dirt.

One pail of sand or dirt was enough for about four sets so it involved too much heavy hauling for large numbers of sets. It was mostly an alternative to preferred sets when those sets were not suitable for the location.
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  #12  
Old 02-07-2018, 03:40 PM
parfleche parfleche is offline
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Keg I agree its a chore I have used ant hill dirt , I bring it home and dump it slow out of a five gallon pail and have a torch burning the ants as they come out , it works pretty good . The reason ant hill dirt stay s moderately soft is the formic acid the ants make .Good peat that is dried in summer also works , i use it also .
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