This set is good for both grey wolves and coyotes:
"One day I went to the slaughter house, got a fresh cow head and took it about three miles away, placing it in the center of a small flat. I set several traps around it and the next morning I had a nice grey wolf, caught by two feet."
"When my father had his cattle down on our lower ranch, the coyotes killed a young calf one morning, so I took four Victor traps and set around it, and by 4 o'clock, I had two coyotes. I reset the traps and the next morning I had another one."
The trapping methods given in the following pages are from expert trappers of all parts of the central and northern portions of the coyote range.
"We have a $1.00 bounty on coyotes and $5.00 on wolves in this state (Wyoming) besides a stockmen's bounty in certain districts, ranging from $1.00 to $2.50 on coyotes, and $15.00 to $35.00 on wolves. I find the best way to find coyotes here is to go out in the open country where the sheep men run their sheep in winter, and when I can find a camp that has just been vacated by a band of sheep, I always figure on getting from one to five coyotes on that ground, as there is most always some dead carcasses left behind, and a good, dry place to set in."
"My method of setting is this, I have all my traps with the chains cut off to about six inches and a swivel on the end, and use a long iron pin about 5/8 inches in diameter. Usually, I take a part of a sheep with the hide on, and so place it as to leave but one natural way into it, where two traps put about ten inches apart will make it impossible for a coyote to get at it without being pinched. One can always find natural runways thru the sage brush, to make such sets."
"I also use the trail set a good deal, and always drag a piece of sheep pelt along from the pack horse. I use a pack horse most all the time, besides a saddle horse, and have two twenty-five mile circles out, with about thirty-five traps to each circle. In this way, I get from 75 to 150 coyotes every winter. The ground is too dry to freeze here, so I bury traps, pins, and use paper over and under jaws."
"A dead sure way to get a coyote every time is this, I can kill sage hens most any time, and always carry some on the pack horse. When it comes time to eat, first dig a hole to bury trap in and build a sage brush fire in it and singe a few of the feathers and some of the flesh in it, and set in the ashes. Who ever saw a camp fire that didn't have coyote tracks around it?"
"My way of trapping coyotes is to go to some prairie dog town and find an unused hole or one that has been filled up. Chop out a small hole two or three inches deep, then dig three trenches for the chains, then three holes for the traps, which must not be too deep nor too shallow. This requires practice and good judgment. They must be deep enough to allow the trap to be covered half an inch with dirt or sand, and still be even with the surrounding surface. Any deeper is too deep."
"Put a large piece of wool under the pan, and cover jaws, pan and all with a piece of heavy paper or light cloth, to keep the dirt from getting under the trap pan. Drive the stake with three traps attached until the top is two inches or more below the top of the ground; put the chains in their trenches and the trap in the holes dug for them. Cover all over with fine dirt the same as it was before being disturbed. Then take a brush made from stiff tough grass, a small brush or the wing of a chicken or sage-hen and brush out all finger marks, etc., then drop the last bait on top of stake and go away."
"The coyote or wolf will not come close enough to get caught the first three or four nights, but don't get uneasy, they will get bold after awhile, if you don't go too close to your trap when looking at it. When one gets caught in a trap set this way, he pulls to the end of the chain and swings around so as to step into another trap, then there is not much danger of him breaking a chain or pulling up a stake."
"In trapping the coyote or wolf, I make a bed some three or four feet each way, or nearly round. I set the traps after I swing the spring to the "dog" side. Then place the trap, say, about ten inches from the outside of the bed. Cover them with about three-fourths inch of soil. I cover the pan with a piece of gunny sack so the sack will be inside of the jaws. I place the pin in the middle of the bed, — everything is covered."
"I use bacon for my bait. After I have the bed all smooth and fine, I cut the bacon in very small pieces, then scatter them all over the bed, say some four inches apart. Coyotes like the bacon. They commence to pick up the small pieces and the first thing they know they are in trouble. I caught in two nights with the eight sets six coyotes."
"I make my beds near the cow trails. I have had better success making my beds near a dead carcass than to set the traps by the carcass. Last October we had an old coyote and five puppies that were killing sheep for one of our neighbors. I set one trap where the herder generally saw them. I caught the five young ones the first five nights. The sixth morning I went to the traps and they were dug up and the bait gone. I reset them and they were in the same shape the next morning. I said to myself, "Old girl, I will fool you." I made another bed some thirty feet from the old one. I set four traps in the new bed and fixed up the old one just the same as I had it before, only minus the traps. The next morning she was caught and had three feet in the traps. She ate all the bait on the old place and had pawed up the ground."
"I do not use scent. I have tried several kinds and consider them no good. I have trailed coyotes where they have been trailing my tracks and found them caught in the traps. I have set traps in the evening and found coyotes in them the next morning. I have been trapping coyotes and wolves for some five years in my county (Billings Co.) I am located on the Little Missouri River a short distance south of the old ranch that President Roosevelt used to own, what is called Bad Land Country."
"First boil your traps, and from the time you take them from the hot water, use gloves till set, gloves to be smeared with blood. Take a pair of old shoes and nail on some blocks of wood cut from 2 x 4 stuff, the length of your shoes; nail them on from the inside of shoes with small nails, use gloves to do this. Now you are ready to start to where your coyotes are, so take four No. 3 or 4 traps and stake 3 feet long, with something to drive it with. Don't let traps touch your clothes while carrying them."
"When you get to your place that you have in mind, put stake thru all four rings of traps and drive down to the level of the ground; put your traps out each way so as to form a square, and bury each trap, chain and all. Make everything look as natural as possible. Put a small piece of wool or cotton under pan of trap and cover all well with dirt; take what dirt you have left from digging to set trap and carry away. Now leave your traps set till next evening, and then take a piece of beef liver or fresh hog lungs, put on your same shoes with blocks on and go put your bait in center of trap, (keeping gloves on), and don't expect to catch your coyote the first night, as he will likely come up close and take a look at things and go away again, but the third or fourth night, he will try to sample your bait, and when you catch your first one, the next one will walk in a lot quicker."
"I have caught as many as eight at one setting. Now mind you, in going to trap and resetting them, wear your shoes and gloves. I always bury my gloves and shoes in dirt to keep off human scent. I have caught lots of them this way, although, I have other methods. The main thing is to keep human scent off of trap and the ground where your traps are set."
"I saw a coyote jump over a sage brush about 6 rods from me one day, and shot at him as he struck the ground with No. 6 fine shot and killed him. As I went to pick him up, I found his hind foot in a No. 2 Newhouse trap. I took him out of the trap, took the trap, and followed his track for about one-half mile toward the top of the Butte, and found a dead horse. I left the trap, went back and skinned the coyote, took his hide over to Mr. Muma."
"About a week after killing the coyote, I went over the Butte, and found a man at the horse covering up some traps. I told him of killing the coyote and where to find the hide. He caught 11 coyotes at this horse up to February 1st. They set their traps from 10 to 30 feet away from the horse, between sage brush, where coyotes would be likely to walk in approaching the horse. They had eight traps set at this place, fastened each one to a limb about 3 feet long. I think they put some scent on the horse to keep the coyotes from eating him, as I did not see as they had eaten any of it during the time they had their traps set."
"I will give some good coyote sets, altho the season is about over now, March 8th, but some coyote trappers will trap most all summer in order to get bounty. I find that this thing in handling your traps with gloves on is all foolishness. Well, to begin with, take some lard cracklings, say a half dozen. Go to some brush where there is a trail going through, take your cracklings to the trail and scatter cracklings along trail, and set traps one at each end of brush in trail. This is a set hard to beat, boys. Another way is to find some old cow path, and if you see coyote tracks in this set a few traps along in it, cover traps, first spreading some brown paper over trap then some dirt. Take an old coyote foot, make tracks all around your trap, and you will have another good set."
"Here we have the coyote in larger numbers than any of the furry tribe, and he is here to stay, for his cunning is a match for the best of trappers, but many a one gets his toes pinched every season and his coat is worn the next."
"The best method that I know of to fool the cute chap is to find a carcass, and if they are feeding off it, then take about six or eight No. 3 or 4 Newhouse traps and set well back from bait. Set in trails leading to and from the carcass, but be very careful and leave no signs, for Mr. Coyote is very careful to look all around before partaking of his meal, and while making this tour of inspection (if you have your traps rightly and neatly set) he will get his foot caught."
"Never fasten the trap solid but to a drag so that he can drag it off and not prevent all the others from coming to the bait, and also he makes his hardest fight immediately after being caught, and if your trap is staked solid and happens to have a weak place, or your coyote is not securely caught, you are very apt to lose him."
"Find an old badger hole with a large pile of dirt in front of it. Take your traps, and everything needed to make the set with, walk straight up to the place and don't move out of your tracks while you set the traps. Put the bait, fresh meat of almost any kind, in the hole, so that the coyote can just see it. Set one trap about six inches from the mouth of the hole, a little to one side and another on top of the mound of dirt. Bury the toggles carefully the length of the chains from the traps and dig a hollow for the traps to set in. Be sure they rest solidly in their beds, so that they will not tip over if the coyote steps on the jaw. Cover neatly, with, first a piece of paper, and then fine dirt. After the set is completed, use a skunk's tail for a brush and smooth out all signs except your tracks. Have it appear that you have walked by there without stopping. The No. 4 Newhouse trap is the one to use, and the more coyotes you catch in one place, the better the set will be."
"Around most ranches are hollows, ditches, or strips of brush, along which the coyote approaches the ranch to catch chickens. Along one of these places, about a quarter of a mile from the house is the place to catch a coyote."
"Take the entrails of a hog or other animal and go up the gulch until you find a place where the ground is loose and there is no grass. Set two traps about four feet apart and place the bait between, and about one foot from one of the traps. If the animal tries to eat the bait, it will be caught in this trap, and if it is suspicious and walks around the bait, the other one will catch it. Take a piece of the bait and erase all signs that you have made in setting the traps, so that it will appear that you have only come there to dispose of the bait."
"Look at the traps every other day, not oftener, and never go close to a set if it can be avoided. These may not be the best methods, but they are good ones, and I have caught many coyotes with them. When you get thirty or forty skins, you will think that they are well worth the trouble necessary to secure them, just to look at."
Where wolves and coyotes are plentiful and natural conditions are favorable, blind sets are very successful, especially for the wary animals that refuse to take bait. Conditions must be favorable in order to make blind set trapping feasible. There must be plenty of good clear trails traversing the country, and a comparatively rough locality will be found to be the best as, on rough ground, the wolves are more certain to walk on the trails.
It is only, perhaps, a small per cent. of the trappers who are able to make a success of blind sets, for it requires one who is very observing and a diligent worker. To make a fair catch requires that one runs a long line of traps, for he must depend on putting his trap just where the wolf will step, instead of decoying the animal into the trap by means of a bait, and no matter how careful he is in this matter, he is certain to set a lot of traps in bad places.
On the other hand, if food is plentiful and the wolves do not take bait well, or if they have become shy and wary because of persistent trapping, one is more likely to make a showing if he uses blind sets, in part at least. Then, too, he may be more certain of pulling in the "old veterans."
The reason that the blind set is more certain for the wary animals is that there is no bait to arouse the suspicions of the intended victim, and it is taken when completely off its guard. Such animals as the wolf, coyote and fox are always suspicious of a bait even though there is no trap there, and will sometimes steer clear of it for several days, simply because they think there may be something wrong there. They approach a baited trap warily and if they detect any disturbance or sign of human presence, they are off for good. With the blind set, that would not occur and if the trap is in the proper place, the trapper may be pretty certain of the animal when it comes that way.
In all parts of the wolf and coyote country, trails of some kind are to be found. On the Western Plains the stock trails are numerous and offer great possibilities for blind trapping. In the mountains, game trails are to be found and as such trails invariably lead through passes and other natural passage-ways they make excellent places for wolf sets, if on the animals' route. In the northern forests, moose, caribou, and deer trails are plentiful and good places for blind sets are to be found.
Main trails are the best always, unless one finds that the animals are traveling on the branches. The trail leading to the crossing place of a deep washout is an excellent place in which to set a trap. Unless the trail traverses a natural pass or leads to the crossing of a ravine, it is always best to be sure that the animals are traveling the trail before setting traps.
A narrow, well defined portion of the trail should be selected, and if there are bunches of brush, cactus or weeds on either side, so much better. A single trap may be used but as the animal is likely to step over it without springing, two traps are better. They should be attached to drags of some sort; either stones, chunks of wood or the pronged, iron drags. If the traps are staked the captured animal will tear up the trail and the next one that passes that way will stop to investigate and may locate the trap. With other sets, it is sometimes better to let the captured coyote or wolf scratch up the setting but with the trail set, it is best to use a drag.
A piece of canvas or cow or sheep hide should be spread on the ground and the trapper should stand on it while making the set, and should also use it as a receptacle for the loose dirt. A hole should be dug for each trap, the same shape as the trap when set, but a little larger, and of such a depth that when the trap is covered, the covering will be even with the surface of the ground. A narrow trench should be made for the chain and a hole in which to place the drag. The drag should be buried as far from the trap as the chain will allow.
The traps should be set with the jaws lying lengthwise of the trail. After filling in neatly with dirt around the springs and the outside of the jaws, a sheet of clean paper should be placed over the trap and covered with from one fourth to one half inch of fine dirt, covering the edges of the paper first to prevent it from sagging. When finished the whole should be brushed smooth and the surplus dirt carried away.
Sometimes one can find a long, deep ravine which is practically impassable to wolves and coyotes. At such places one may find small branches running out to the side and wherever there is such a branch, there is sure to be a trail at the first crossing place. Such a trail is sure to be used by the animals when traveling along the canyon for when they strike the lateral branch, they are certain to follow it to the first crossing place. That is the place to set a trap for them.
One of the trappers who is located on the coyote range of the Northwest, writes: "There are several ways of trapping for the coyote but none of them will hold good very long. The coyote will soon get on to the way you trap, and know as well where your trap is as you do."
The most successful way I have found is to take two No. 3 and No. 4 Newhouse traps and wire the rings together hard and fast. Set them in trails that are used by the coyotes. Dig a hole in the trails the right size for the traps. Double the chains up and put them under the traps, cover the traps lightly with dust, leaving everything as normal as possible. Two traps together make your chances double for a catch, and the loose trap answers for a drag. The coyote will not go far until he becomes entangled for keeps. I never use bait only to draw the coyote to some place where there are lots of trails leading in all directions. These trails I monopolize with traps as just described. I set it in the most likely looking place, then take a large sized bait, fasten it in a thicket in the vicinity of the traps, and your chances are good for a catch."
Another trapper gives his method in the following: "In setting traps for wolves and coyotes, I set them mostly on the trails made by stock. I use steel pins made from rake teeth. With a short handled axe I cut out a place in the trail so the trap will be level with the top of the ground when covered. I use paper over the jaws and set two No. 4 traps at a setting, putting them fourteen or twenty inches apart. A wolfs foot is good for brushing the dirt over the traps so as to make everything look as natural as possible. I use a pair of gloves in handling my traps and set them where the trail is narrow and on a little knoll, or where the trail goes around a bank or between two hills.
"Leave all wolf and coyote carcasses near the traps after skinning them, as they make a good decoy. A good plan is to throw your rope around a piece of meat and drag it from your saddle horn. Take a dozen No. 4 traps and go up and down the dusty trail and set them on the drag mark. If you hide them well, you will get Mr. Wolf or Coyote. I do not use bait in warm weather and not much in cold weather. A grey wolf is hard to catch by bait, unless very hungry and he is seldom troubled that way where there are cattle and horses on the range."
When the ground is covered with snow, trapping for wolves is exceedingly difficult and there are few, if any trappers who can make a success of it. Throughout Northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as in Canada, a few are caught by the most persistent hunters, but the winter catch never amounts to much.
It is difficult to make a set in the snow and leave no signs when the set is finished, and even if one can make a neat set it will seldom remain long in working order. This is the rule, but there is one exception, a set which is successful, but can only be used in places where the winter temperature is such that the snow will remain a long time in a loose, powdery condition. In other words it can only be used successfully in the North, where the weather is very cold. The method referred to is the one used by the northern Indians for trapping both the fox and wolf. It is made as follows:
Having the trap attached to a heavy clog, and well cleaned by boiling or washing, go out onto the ice of some windswept lake and scrape up a pile of snow. Make it cone-shaped about three feet in height and six or seven feet in diameter at the base. Bury the clog, or drag, in the mound, and stretch up the chain, so as to bring the trap to the top. Make the mound hard by beating it with a snowshoe, and in the top, scoop a hole about five inches deep and somewhat larger than the trap. Line this hole well with dry moss or cat-tail down, the down is best, and place the trap in the nest. Fill inside of the jaws, and under the pan with cat-tail down and after the trap has become cold, so that there is no danger of the snow sticking to it, sift snow over it, to the depth of an inch. Do not touch this snow with the hands or it will freeze hard and the trap will not spring.
The bait should be cut into small pieces and tucked into the sides of the snow mound, where it will be out of sight of the birds. Brush out your tracks as you go away and the wind will soon erase every vestige of signs, leaving the snow as smooth as it was before the trap was set, but the mound will freeze hard and no amount of wind can drift it away.
Such a set will remain in working order as long as the weather stays cold. A fresh fall of snow will bury the set for a short time but the wind storm that always follows a snowfall will blow all loose snow off the mound, leaving just a sufficient amount over the trap, as that will be sunken somewhat below the level. The human scent will also pass away in a short time.
This set is practically the same as setting a trap on the level and scattering the bait about, the only reason for setting it on a mound being that it will not be buried by the falling snow.
While the set described does well where wolves are making an occasional trip across the country, for places where the animals are plentiful, some other methods must also be employed.
If one can find where the wolves have killed some animals and are feeding on the carcass, he will note that they have trails where they approach. One may put out a large bait and they will beat a trail about it at times. These trails make excellent places for snow sets.
The best way to make the set is to fasten the chain of the trap to the end of a long pole clog, and having set the trap, split the end of the pole and pinch one of the springs in the split. Now slip a clean paper bag over the trap and stand the pole and trap against a tree somewhere in the neighborhood of the bait, for a day or more, to allow the foreign odors to pass away. This is not always necessary, but it is best. Then go and make the set by pushing the trap under the snow in the wolf's trail, standing as far away as possible and without touching the trap, or the end of the pole that it is fastened to. If the set can be made while it is snowing, or just before a light fall of snow, so much the better. After the trap is set walk back stepping in the same tracks and brushing the footprints away with a bunch of evergreen boughs tied to a stick.
This set is good if the wolves are visiting the carcass regularly but will not remain in good condition very long, as a heavy snowfall will put the trap out of commission.
One of the professional wolf catchers of the western mountain regions, gives the following set: "When there is snow, I cut a piece of soft cloth, white preferred, the size of the jaws, when open, and lay it over the trap, being careful not to let it get into the corners, next to the springs; then cover lightly with snow. The cloth will prevent the snow from getting under the pan of the trap and thus prevent it from springing. It is also a good plan to put a brace under the pan, so that the birds cannot spring the trap. A small forked willow will do, but a better plan is to drill a hole through the pan, near the edge, and place a match, or a tooth pick slanting through the hole to the bed of the trap."
"I use the No. 4 Newhouse trap with long chain, for coyotes and wolves. The bait, I cut in small pieces and scatter all around the trap."
One of the coyote trappers from Saskatchewan, Canada, says: "I will give a snow set for coyotes that an Indian showed us and we proved its merit. Select a good hard snow drift, set your trap and lay it on top of the drift, then with a knife, mark the snow around the trap, remove trap and dig out the snow to a depth of three or four inches, replace trap in hole so that the pan will be about two inches below the surface. Now go a little distance off and cut a cake of snow large enough to cover hole, in which lies the trap and scrape it as thin as possible without breaking. This requires care. Now place the cake over the trap and sprinkle some snow around the edges so as to leave all smooth. The chain and clog of course, should be well buried in the snow."
"I have caught a coyote in a set like this after a big storm, the snow having blown clear over the drift and not injuring the set in any way; all I did for bait was to set my trap by a little bunch of grass. Of course, it is evident a set like the above will only apply when it is cold and there is no chance of a thaw. Another important point to be remembered in setting traps is to give them a firm bed. When a trap is sprung it kicks back the same as a gun but when on a firm bed it has the greatest chance of a high grip."
In portions of the North, snow sets are used considerably. The sets given here were sent by a Minnesota trapper who claims to have used them successfully.
"I have trapped wolves a good many winters in this part of the country, but they are very scarce here now. As to my way: I use a No. 4 trap and set under the snow. If I can find a place where their paths come together or cross, I select it as a favorable place for catching them. If there are a couple of bushes near together with the paths between, I set my trap there, pushing it under the snow from a couple of feet back of the path, taking care to make as few tracks myself as possible and to fill those up and brush with a bunch of twigs or weeds for a distance of twenty feet or more. I sift snow over the trap also and leave everything as natural as possible. This method I have found very successful in capturing these shadowy pests of the prairie."
"When ponds, lakes and rivers are frozen over and the snow is deep, wolves are apt to travel on the ice; any dark object out on the smooth expanse of snow on lake or river will at once attract their attention and they are apt to go and examine. A crow, rabbit or bait of any sort; let it be up where it can be seen at a distance. Place two or three traps around the bait at a distance of three feet, put pieces of white paper, one under and one over the trap, then cover carefully with dry snow by sifting it with a piece of wire screen."
"When traveling an old trail or timber road thru the woods, reach out to one side as far as possible and place a piece of bait with some of the scent on it or near it, and place two traps half way between bait and trail, also one directly in the trail. Set and cover it as on the ice. It is a good plan to scatter a few beef or lard 'cracklings' along your trail. No. 3 traps are about right for wolves, and the No. 2 1/2 Newhouse otter trap makes a good wolf trap if the attachment is taken from the pan."
"To sum up, the trapper who makes a success of trapping wolves must make a study of it and must often contrive methods suitable to his particular trapping grounds."
The following extract from a letter received from a Canadian trapper, tells of a very successful coyote set.
"One day I found a dead sheep in the pasture, and dragging it down to the edge of the lake, I set my traps around it, covering them nicely with wool from the sheep. I told the boys I would have a coyote in the morning, and so I did. On the second morning I had a red fox, on the third morning a coyote, on the fourth a fox and on the sixth morning another coyote. Then I did not get any more for a week from which time, I caught one now and then until spring. I think I caught 23 coyotes and 2 foxes at that one bait. When the snow got deep, I set the trap on top of the bait. When a coyote came along he would smell the bait and would dig down through the snow, into the trap. I wore skis when looking at the traps and never turned around near a setting."
"My last winter's catch was as follows: 69 coyotes, 5 lynx, 2 red foxes, 5 badgers, 12 weasels, 12 muskrats and 2 mink."
"I want to tell you how I catch coyotes," writes a North Dakota trapper. "I set two or three No. 3 Victor traps around some dead horse or cow, cover the trap with a piece of paper or cheese cloth, then throw snow over that, having it look as near like the surroundings as possible. Sometimes I use a fresh beef head, but the coyotes are so shy they will not go close enough to get in your trap for sometimes a week, unless they are starved to it."
"I think the coyote is as shy as most any other animal. I do not think they can smell the steel traps for the strong smell of the fresh meat or carrion but they are afraid of your tracks, and naturally suspicious of everything. When I first tried to trap coyotes, I drove up within a few rods of where I wanted to set my traps, went and set them, and did not pay any attention to destroying my tracks. I would never catch any until snow filled up my tracks."
"Now I set my traps off of skis or snow shoes or drive up close to where I want to set my trap, and drag some fresh meat over my tracks; they are not afraid of a sled track for they will travel for miles in sled tracks when the snow is deep."
We will conclude this chapter with an article written by a Canadian trapper, telling how he caught his first coyote:
"This is my second winter in Alberta and I must say that we are having one of the good old fashioned kind. The snow is over two feet deep on the level, and the thermometer on one occasion, went on a strike. It was only 36 degrees below zero this morning.
"Last winter, which was very mild, was a poor year for catching the sly old coyote. He was too well fed and could get around so easily that he never suffered the pangs of hunger, so was constantly on the watch for danger. We had a cow that committed suicide by falling into the manger, and I thought she would make good bait. So she did until I set some traps around her and from that time the coyotes would come and look at her, but would not venture near. However, I succeeded in catching three large dogs.
"On January 5th, I changed my boarding place, moved to within a half mile of Battle River and Lake. The coyotes were quite numerous around the lake and river, and made nightly excursions up around the buildings, feeding on a dead horse, cow or calf. The boys had a couple of traps set beside a cow, but the cattle would spring the trap while feeding at the straw stack where the dead animal was. Then I took a hand and set the traps on runways used by coyotes. I set them with great care, but all I found was a footprint about two inches from the pan of a trap. Sometimes they would go as far as the trap and would turn around and retrace their steps. One night they actually scratched the snow off of the trap, as if to show me that I needn't try to fool them because they were on to my game.
"However, my turn came. There was a little old straw pile that they seemed to like to run onto, to see if the coast was clear. There I set a trap, covered it and the drag nicely with snow, brushed out the tracks with a twig and made some nice tracks right over the trap with an old coyote's foot. I also threw a little piece of meat up on the stack.
"Friday morning I ran down to my trap and was surprised to see it gone. I saw some blood on the snow but could not realize — no doubt on account of so many disappointments — that there was anything in the trap. However, I followed up the trail and you can imagine my delight in finding a big, fine, dog coyote in the brush. The next thing was to kill him, and I assure you that they are the hardest animal to kill with a stick an inch in diameter that I ever tackled. I pounded him on the head until his skull was crushed and still he breathed.
"On Sunday morning I took a walk down to a trap I had on another straw pile and when within a hundred yards of the stack I saw a coyote rise up, take a look at me and then start to run. I ran, too, and when I arrived at the other end of the stack there he was fast in my trap. I thought that was pretty good for I had actually chased him into my trap. Two coyotes in three nights was pretty good, with only three traps, and I was quite proud of myself, but that was a week ago and number three only came last night. I am in hopes of more before spring, but never will I have the thrills of pleasure like those I had when I found my 'first' coyote."
If you are using small animals for bait, use the whole animal, if your method will allow of it, and do not skin the bait, as that will make the coyote or wolf suspicious. Leave the bait, if possible, looking as though it had died a natural death and you will be more successful in your trapping.
Do not, if timber wolves are expected, stake a single trap on smooth ground, for the captured animal will be almost certain to escape if you can not visit the trap soon after the animal is caught. This is especially true when using the smaller sizes of traps. When using the regular wolf trap, it may sometimes be fixed solidly if desired but it is better to use a drag of some kind.
If you find some animal that the wolves have killed, do not fail to set traps there at once. While it is possible that the wolves will not return, there is a chance, and then one is almost certain to catch coyotes if there are any about.
Wolves are sometimes suspicious of a large bait and will not venture near to it. In such cases one may sometimes make a catch by setting a trap somewhere near by, using a small scrap of bait only. The trap may be placed in the open side of a natural half circle of brush, and the bait placed behind it. The tail of a skunk is said to be an unfailing lure in such sets.
Sometimes a badger will be caught in a wolf or coyote trap. If so, do not skin it, as they are worth but little; kill it and let it lay on the spot, setting the trap by the side of it. The trap may be set in the loose dirt that the captured badger has dug up and there will be no signs of human interference. It is almost certain that a wolf or coyote will be caught there, within a few nights.
When you find where the animals are traveling on trails, if there is not much stock about, to interfere with the traps, make a set on the trail, without bait. Such a set is very good for the old, wary animals.
As a general rule, it is best to use blind and scent sets in summer, when the weather is warm and bait soon becomes tainted. The wolves are likely to pass tainted bait by with a sniff, although the coyote is not so particular, and at times prefers carrion. In summer, too, food is more plentiful and the animals are not likely to be hungry. In winter it is best to use bait, as then it will remain fresh for a considerable length of time and the wolves are hungrier at that time.
Of meat baits, horse flesh is perhaps the best, and next in order comes antelope. Beef, pork, mutton, and the flesh of all game animals is also good for bait and the young animals are always preferred and selected, if the wolves do the killing. They do not like the flesh of old or diseased animals. Jack rabbits, cotton-tails, prairie dogs, badgers and sage hens make good bait for wolves and of these the jack rabbit is preferred, perhaps because it contains so much blood.
It is a good idea to have some small traps, No. 1, with which to catch prairie dogs for bait. The animals are rather wary, however, and care must be used in setting and covering. A 22 caliber rifle is also useful for procuring bait.
When tending the traps, one should carry a long range rifle as he will get shots at coyote, wolf or badger nearly every day. The animals killed in that way add considerable to the income of some of the western wolfers.
There will be but little chance of making a catch as long as any human scent or signs remains about the setting. The scent will pass away within a few days, but one should always guard against leaving signs. A rain, or a fresh fall of snow will sometimes help the trapper out, as it removes or covers all signs of human presence. Some broken weeds or a freshly crushed lump of ground will alarm the animal, and through such apparently trifling causes, one may fail to make a catch.
When looking at the traps go on horseback and do not dismount unless it is absolutely necessary. On horseback, one may ride up quite close to the trap and the wolves will not be alarmed. If, however, it is necessary to go on foot, do not approach the traps nearer than necessary to see if you have made a catch, also do not go oftener than need be.
Sometimes a coyote will uncover a trap, or dig it up from its bed. There is no way to prevent this and the only hope of catching the animal, is in having other different sets in the same locality. Some other method may catch him. For the same reason we would advise the trapper to make use of different sets when putting out the traps, for the method that will catch one would not be successful with another.
Do not depend on a few traps alone. Have all that you can look after. If one chance is good, two are better, and those who make the largest catches are the diligent workers, who run long lines.
Wolves, like all other wandering animals, have a regular route of travel. While they may vary somewhat from this course, they are sure to continue in the same general line so that when you see tracks in any locality, you may be certain that the animal will travel somewhere near there again.
When setting a trap, never leave it until you are satisfied that it is as near a perfect set as can be made. If you do that way, you are sure to be successful.
Whenever possible, make the set on the windward side of the wolfs route, that is, on the side from which the prevailing winds blow. In that way the animal is more certain to scent the bait, and will easily follow it up wind to the trap.
Some wolfers make it a practice to burn bones and other animal matter near the camp at night, believing that it will draw wolves into the vicinity.
All of the foregoing rules will help, and should be kept in mind, but what is more important than any of them is that one be industrious and observing, always endeavoring to learn more of the habits and nature of the animals he seeks for. Such a one is bound to make a success of wolfing.
The accompanying photo shows the writer holding up the skins of two mighty greys; either wolf would have weighed a hundred pounds, and measured six feet from tip to tip. Little does the average person know of the great damage done by these destructive and blood thirsty desperadoes of the western stock range. Cowardly and evasive, when coming in contact with men, yet when these two blood thirsty companions were running at large, were capable of torturing a full grown cow to death; sometimes a bunch of them will destroy good sized horses. The swift footed and aggressive range steer, equipped with nature's weapons, his long sharp horns, falls an easy victim to the powerful jaws, sharp teeth, and the wise generalship of these terrible brutes.
Five wolves have been killed in this community last winter, and there is but little sign of others, and no complaints from the stockmen. Billy Clanton claims to have lost about 40 head of cattle, mostly calves and yearlings in the last eighteen months and he blames this small bunch of wolves for that loss. The great state of South Dakota pays the miserable sum of $5.00 bounty on grey wolves and $2.00 on coyotes. Last year the bounty claims were paid 80 cents on the dollar, as the claims were in excess of the fund appropriated for bounty purposes.
I have heard of wolves attacking persons in the woods of the Northeastern States; I have no reason to doubt this — they may be a different wolf from our grey wolf, or buffalo wolf, as they are often called. I have seen them in the Panhandle country of Northwest Texas, in Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana and Canada and they are all the same, as far as I could see, in looks, size and habits, and I have never heard of them molesting anyone in the above mentioned places. Of course, there is the coyote, he is everywhere I have ever been and some call him a wolf. Fur dealers call him prairie wolf; frequently some fellow will tell me about a black wolf, or a big white one, but I just let him run it over me; I don't tell him he is a prevaricator, neither do I get angry and try to kill him. I permit him to think he is telling me something and try to look unconcerned and solemn, but I think he has looked down on the back of a grey wolf from high ground and he looked dark and the more he thought about it, the darker it became, until he became almost too black for anything. The same wolf standing on a hill above you, will show the white and yellow on his breast and belly and that always looks so much like that big white wolf. I do not doubt but that there is an occasional black wolf, but I have never seen one.
I want to see every wolf and coyote in the country with his hide nailed up to dry. I did not encourage others to trap when I was wolfing, as I wanted to know how to work my range to the best advantage, and beginners often make them hard to catch; their work is too coarse and the wolves get wise. To the boys who inquired in the July number about methods of setting and baiting for wolves, I will say I will give you the best I've got. While an experienced wolfer can give you some good pointers, he can do you no good, unless you are an early riser and an energetic worker with lots of patience, for successful wolfing is not a lazy man's job. Of course, I do not know anything about trapping in the woods or in the country east of the Missouri. No. 4 Newhouse traps are the best where you are trapping wolves and coyotes both.
A prairie dog town is a good place, especially if the country is rough around it, as wolves come to catch the dogs. Make a blind set on some smooth mound, set about three traps close together. Kinsey stakes all three to one pin, probably to save time, but I always stake them so that they can't quite pull them together but it takes more work. The wind generally blows from the northwest and wolves generally come to a setting facing the wind, and you will see the advantage in having your traps set on the "windward" side or set them in a triangle with bait in center — a prairie dog cut in several pieces and then put together to look natural. In picking the pieces up, he is liable to step around some. If the dog is whole, he may carry it away without being caught. It is not always necessary to bait after you have caught one, as he leaves scent that will attract others. Get traps in bare ground, don't chop out places in the grass. In trapping along trails and creeks always remember the wind; this is important. Roll up a bunch of wool to put under the pan and cover the whole trap with dry dirt, especially in winter.
If you have been covering your traps with paper, cut it out — wool is more convenient and the mice do not uncover your trap and the wind does not uncover it so much. If you are bothered by having cattle spring your traps at a carcass, set your trap under the edge of the carcass where stock will miss them but when the coyote rears back to pull off a bite, it is right where he will put his front feet. I have often killed "Big Jaws," old horses and cripples and then set traps on the trails they follow to feed on the carcass, but seldom set the trap at the carcass. Good strychnine is good if one knows how to use it. If you want to make drop baits, cut up small pieces of the paunch and roll the poison up in it. They like that part of an animal and if they swallow it while it is frozen, it will unroll in the stomach and give the poison a chance to act quickly.
I often use a light wagon in setting traps and sometimes carry dirt to cover with. I throw a wagon sheet out to stand on and do all the work without stepping on the ground, as one should always leave as little scent as possible. I think that most kinds of scent are good or anything that smells rotten enough, but the old grey is certainly cunning and hard to trap, especially if he has lost a few toes. There are grey wolves that do not kill cattle; when I commenced to hunt wolves, I studied them very carefully. I opened and examined the stomach of all I caught and instead of finding them loaded with fresh meat, I found over half without anything in the stomach at all; others had pieces of bones, grass and old pieces of hide stripped from old dry carcasses and I found rabbits, mice and gophers and this was in the lower Musselshell Country where there were thousands of cattle.
I have tried hounds, and have had some of the best that I could get but they were never successful. I never had hounds that would kill a grown wolf, but they often stopped the wolf until I could shoot it and I never knew them to make a good fight more than once, besides dogs knock their toe nails off on rocks and get crippled up with cactus and often a whole pack will almost ruin themselves by killing porcupines, the quills getting in the throat and sometimes will work through the head and into the eyes and blind them. I can take traps and beat any bunch of dogs I ever tried for both wolves and coyotes.
A wolf hound is often very stupid and does some very laughable things. I had six good ones on a trip in Canada. I was going down the Medicine Lodge Valley, had team and the hounds; on each side of the road about three hundred yards ahead were a bunch of cattle, near each bunch there was a coyote. I tried to send the dogs after them but they could not see them, as they were sitting still. Just then the dogs saw a badger about a quarter of a mile down the road, and they were not long getting there. As they passed the cattle, both coyotes started after the dogs and followed them to within a few steps of the scene of battle, where the six dogs were tearing at the tough skin of the badger. The coyotes seemed to think it was "heap fun" and then one coyote jumped into the fight and out again and then the other and they repeated it several times, when at last a young dog discovered one of the coyotes and started him over a hill and the other coyote following at the heels of the dog.
Finally the hound found that he was out-numbered and went back; the other five never knew that there had been a coyote in the valley, but were still tearing away at the dead badger as I drove up. Well, I felt like saying something, but I didn't.