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  #31  
Old 01-20-2017, 06:10 PM
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Truth be told i hung a ton this year doing nothing to them. Just made hung outside for a week or so and set. Had some refusals of course but so has everything else, some baking soda and some painted. More than likely half out there now have nothing done to them and still catching about the same. Reading on here ive became a real minimalist with blocking and have seen a drastic reduction in refusals.

Still think the refusals right at the snare are scent. The ones where they vier off 5-10 feet ahead i believe are visual.
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  #32  
Old 01-20-2017, 08:50 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Good point about the daylight hours, Keg! Not a lot that you can do about daylight except to blend your snares into the terrain. Most movement happens at night but last year I bumped a coyote out of the bait site right into one of my snares.

Usually I set on sign so I pick locations where the undergrowth provides natural blocking and camouflage. If there's not much undergrowth I don't put up a lot of blocking, I find that it just seems to spook the coyotes and they'll find a different way around it. I routinely place long grass, Alberta Wildrose, etc on the side(s) and/or over top of of the snare to break the outline. I also prefer a location on a bend in the trail where the Yotes won't see the snare from a distance, like on a straight stretch.

All that I do is boil my snares with baking soda to dull them. The farmland coyotes around here don't seem to care much about scent so I don't go out of my way in that regard. Recently I made some wolf snares for someone and he asked if I could throw in a couple of handfuls of spruce bows into each batch when I boiled them in baking soda. I was impressed with how the spruce bows darkened the snares. If that's what you want it might be a cheap alternative to store bought stuff.
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  #33  
Old 01-20-2017, 09:46 PM
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Keg , I've painted snares white and tan as well as some with just baking soda. For me I won't paint any more white , yes they work great when the snow is around but unless you plan on changing them out after the recent chinook we had , you just as well have lights on them The white ones stand out real bad now . I like the tan colored ones better than just baking soda because soda ones still have a bit of shine to them . A ll tan next year with maybe a splash of gray thrown in to break up the circle. I talked with the guy from Dakotaline and he says even tho the dye works good to cover , don't use it on 1/16 snares as it has a tendency to gum the locks .
I like the tan idea. Thirty years ago we didn't have a lot of options but now there is some real good flat camo paint available.

Where I trapped there wasn't a lot of grass but there was plenty of brush. Willows, Alders, Berry Bushes and second growth. It was relatively easy to camouflage a snare in among the twigs if it were dull gray but I can sure imagine that tan would be a far better color anywhere south of Westlock.

If I wanted a darker snare I would sink them in a muskeg or rank beaver pond for a week or two. I did the same with my traps.

Some beaver ponds did a better job of blackening a trap then any commercial product, and Beaver water, (sewer) is a very natural smell just about anywhere. And it's a strong enough smell to drown lesser smells like well worn gloves or even bare hands.

I found that only some beaver ponds are good for this, but once I found one that worked I never had to worry about there not being enough and there was no clean up to do after my snares/traps were treated.

I also waxed traps and snares I intended to use for Fox, Coyote or Wolves.
Then I would hang them to air out.

The way I figured it, one Coyote/Fox/wolf that backs out of a snare or digs out a trap is one educated critter that could come back to haunt me.
Besides, the next animal that comes along may also get an education if I haven't fixed the set in the mean time.


I don't know how much Coyote and Fox learn from each other but I know very well that Wolves do and they learn a lot that way.

Back around 1985 a young wolf stuck his nose into one of my Marten boxes. That trap must have really stung his nose cause he jumped backward about fifteen feet. For the next several years any wolf following my trails would stop in it's tracks when it saw one of my Marten boxes and they it or they as the case may be, would do a huge detour around my box.

My big brother had a similar thing happen on his line.

I don't know if Coyotes would learn the same way but I wasn't about to chance it.
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  #34  
Old 01-20-2017, 09:47 PM
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Still think the refusals right at the snare are scent. The ones where they vier off 5-10 feet ahead i believe are visual.
Makes sense to me.
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  #35  
Old 01-20-2017, 10:01 PM
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The farmland coyotes around here don't seem to care much about scent.

I found it wasn't the scent per-se any Coyote that lives where humans do is running into human scent all the time, and it's not the scent of steel either because there is pits of steel all over the country. Even a hundred miles from the nearest human activity.

Bits and pieces off seismic equipment, old homesteads that no one remembers, trash from past hunting parties and trapping operations. Even bits of space junk or possibly fasteners off airplanes that flew over that spot fifty or a hundred years ago.

But Coyotes are smart animals and they learn fast. Anything unfamiliar will put them on alert and one slip up will educate them. Even a odd combination of familiar scents can and sometimes does cause a smart Coyote to back away.

When I was learning to trap my Uncle had a trap wise Coyote digging up his traps. He figured that sprinkling a few iron cuttings around would make it impossible for that Coyote to figure out where the trap was so he did just that.
I was with him when he checked that modified set for the first time.
The tracks told quiet a story. The Coyote had came in straight as an arrow till he was only a couple of steps from the trap. Then he backed out and circled around and come in from behind. Again he backed out and tried a different approach. After third time he backs out and left.
He never robbed another set so far as I or my uncle knew.

I learned to never underestimate any Coyote. We all know how dumb pups can be, but even they can learn and once stung they get ten times harder to catch.
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  #36  
Old 01-20-2017, 11:50 PM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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Do you guys boil your snares in lye befor using them?

I'm wondering why Coyotes would spot your snares in the moonlight.

And I'm wondering if they can spot them in the moonlight, wouldn't it be ten times worse in the daylight? How can one be sure they aren't spotting them in the daylight instead?

That is why I always boiled my snares in lye. So thety wouldn't be spotted in full sunlight.

I've heard of people painting their snares white to make them harder to see and aside from possible paint smell issues that makes a lot of sense to me, but where I snared a dull finish was sufficient.
Keg, I boil my snares in baking soda and once I set them, they are completely invisible. The only way I can find them back is if coyotes get caught in them. Otherwise there would be no possible way to ever locate them again. It sounds like soda treatment must be similar to lye.

Snare refusals are a fallacy. A figment of every trappers imagination.
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  #37  
Old 01-21-2017, 11:45 AM
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Keg, I boil my snares in baking soda and once I set them, they are completely invisible. The only way I can find them back is if coyotes get caught in them. Otherwise there would be no possible way to ever locate them again. It sounds like soda treatment must be similar to lye.

Snare refusals are a fallacy. A figment of every trappers imagination.
We used lye because it was better at removing oils but I'm sure baking soda would do the same thing. For us it was more about availability. Back then every hardware store sold cans of lye but baking soda was only available in grocery stores and in small quantities. One can of grocery store baking soda would do maybe a dozen traps, a can of lye would do several dozen for the same price.

But lye had drawbacks. I could cause nasty burns if one got too much one ones skin and it could damage equipment, snares or traps if the mixture was too strong. I'm sure baking soda would not have those issues.

I'm not sure what you mean by snare refusals being a fallacy. I know that snare avoidance can be a very real issue.

I don't think the animals recognized the snare or trap as dangerous, to me it looked more like avoidance of something out of place or unfamiliar.
In other words I think it was more about scent or perhaps shine where it didn't belong.

As mentioned, human or steel scent is something wild animals encounter almost daily and we all know that water reflects light very well at times.
So it's not about the scent or reflection alone. It has to be something more and I think that something more is scent or reflection where it doesn't belong or in a combination that spells trouble to the animal.

Like the glint of a scope from a bush spooking a Deer.
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  #38  
Old 01-21-2017, 01:01 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Keg, I boil my snares in baking soda and once I set them, they are completely invisible. The only way I can find them back is if coyotes get caught in them. Otherwise there would be no possible way to ever locate them again. It sounds like soda treatment must be similar to lye.

Snare refusals are a fallacy. A figment of every trappers imagination.
There must have been a sarcastic moon last night, I was effected by it as well.

Invisible maybe, but I know that you know where all your snares are and gather them all up at the end of the season.

Keg, WRT boiling in lye......I'm guessing that breathing in the fumes from the steam wouldn't be very healthy. I don't think that it'd be my first choice but if that's all that's available like you said......
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  #39  
Old 01-21-2017, 08:20 PM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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Nope... it makes them invisible. If the coyotes can't see them, then they must be.
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  #40  
Old 01-21-2017, 08:50 PM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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Dang, my iPhone just won't upload my Super Moon single location video that I shot last week. It wasn't 18 but was a nice Super Moon stop.

BTW, I'm as good at finding my snares with my eyes closed as open. It's no different with the soda on them as it is with my eyes closed.
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  #41  
Old 01-22-2017, 03:26 AM
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Keg, WRT boiling in lye......I'm guessing that breathing in the fumes from the steam wouldn't be very healthy. I don't think that it'd be my first choice but if that's all that's available like you said......
You do realize that lye is really just concentrated alkali don't you.

It's the base ingredient in many soaps and cleaning agents like oven cleaner and drain cleaner.

Mixed properly it is no more dangerous then very strong soap. Something in the order of car was detergent.

The greater danger is chemical burns while handling it, unmixed or during mixing.
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  #42  
Old 01-22-2017, 07:28 AM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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I think we should tell Trump to boil all his fighter jets in lye and baking soda. That would be better than trying to develop cloaking devices.m $120,000,000 planes??? foget it, there's a $2 fix.
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  #43  
Old 02-08-2017, 11:47 AM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Set Your Alarms! A Full Moon, Comet, AND Lunar Eclipse Will All Appear This Weekend

Dust off those telescopes, because three breathtaking astronomical events will occur on the same evening this upcoming weekend. From the evening of Feb. 10 into the morning of Feb. 11, space observers will be treated to quite the stunning show, as a snow moon, lunar eclipse, and New Year comet will simultaneously light up the sky.

Each of these occurrences is individually awe-inspiring, but all three together? We can hardly contain our excitement. To fully understand this phenomenon, we're breaking down what each of these celestial events entails.

Snow moon: This is basically a fancy term for February's full moon. The name derives from the fact that February is usually the month that sees the highest average snowfall in a year. The snow moon will rise at 5:33 p.m EST on Friday and set at 7:22 a.m., and it shouldn't be too hard to spot it in the sky.

New Year comet: Named because it began moving across the sky at the tail end of 2016, the New Year comet is set to shoot across the sky on Feb. 11. This comet is only visible every five and a quarter years, so the fact that it just so happens to arrive this weekend is pretty darn cool.

Lunar eclipse: Not to be confused with a solar eclipse, lunar eclipses occur when the sun, Earth, and moon line up. When the Earth aligns in front of the sun, the moon is covered in a shadow, which makes it appear red. Anyone in Europe, Africa, and most of Asia and North America will be able to view this somewhat eerie yet stunning event. The shadow will be mostly visible from 7:43 p.m. EST until 9:53 p.m. on Friday, according to AOL.
Set your alarms and get your cameras ready, space buffs, because this weekend is about to get lit.

https://www.popsugar.com/tech/When-F...lipse-43120114
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  #44  
Old 02-11-2017, 12:24 AM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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Wow Dave, I had no idea! I see the comet last night for a short time. Nice and bright out there now, but not while I finished up my last spot for early evening, 11 coyotes there. Sure glad nobody knows I'm in there besides the landowner!
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  #45  
Old 02-11-2017, 01:02 AM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Well, I'm glad that you did well, I caught......0.

I only had about 30 snares out and I put another 15 out today. I check every two days at the most so I don't usually catch in big batches.

I wanted the comet to go by so I decided to hang snares today rather than yesterday.
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  #46  
Old 02-25-2017, 08:10 PM
Ted V. Ted V. is offline
 
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Super Moon + AC Virus = True Disaster
Super moon + AC virus + NDP = game over
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