Picked up one of those humane catch and release traps for raccoon, opossum and ground hog.

I setup the trap and baited it with cat food. In rapid succession each of our three "outsider" cats were trapped, one at a time. The outsiders aren't interested in the trap any longer. In fact, they give it a wide berth.

Following cat training the trap was reset (around dusk). A few minutes later I looked out the window and saw a big fat raccoon (they eat a lot of cat food so they are large.). It smelled the food from three sides of the trap and then walked in and was trapped. I released that raccoon to coon heaven.....

I have security camera video of 5 raccoon munching on cat food left out on the patio. So, there is more work to do.

I really like live traps. They have really worked great for me and are a lot more forgiving on the family cat than a 220 conibear!

Coons will wise up in a hurry. Mine learned how to trigger the door, then reach in and grab the food. I kept seeing empty traps with no food left, phantom coons.

So, I staked the trap with rebar to the ground to keep them from rocking the cage and triggering door.

I covered the back 1/3 of cage with 1/2" hardware cloth to prevent them reach into cage for food.

These modifications worked, so far.

What trap and you using TJ?

Mine is a Havahart 1081. If they trip the door from the outside, they couldn't get to the food because the door is shut.

I recycled the carcass. It was a male and weighed 31 pounds! Glad I bought the XL trap.

Dwight
So you ate it? How was it



Pat

I have several traps like that, ranging from skunk/squirrel size to fat raccoon size. When I bought the last one, the perky young lady at the checkout counter congratulated me on getting a humane trap. She said that I could then take it out to the country and let it lose.

I let her know, rather sternly, that the raccoons I was trapping probably got to my farm that way.

After "dispatching" one in the trap that died of sudden lead poisoning, I threw it on the backside of my dam. By the time I got back to the house, the vultures were already enjoying it.

I think a young raccoon might prevent me from starving to death, but a 31 lber? I'd rather eat the trap.

That good Sparkie?

Mmmm

Since it's almost suppertime and I have a smidgeon of decency left about me, I will refrain from trying to describe the smell while cooking.

I tried some of a young one an old neighbor lady cooked when I was growing up. IIRC It's an oily meat. Never had a big desire to try it again!

Marshmallows are good bait. Coons love them but cats don't.

Haha!!!!!!!!!!!!

They really aren't bad if prepared properly, and if they are fairly young - probably 7 to 10 pounds.

There are two absolutes when cooking coons. One is removing the scent glands, just like with a squirrel. After skinning you will find four of them. Two are under the front arms, and the other two at the top of the hind legs. Once it has been gutted, it is best to quarter it so you can remove every last bit of fat, which is the other absolute.

Then it needs to be brined or marinated for about two days. Alternatively, I prefer to par boil it in a pot of water. Twice for about 15 minutes, each in clean water is the best. Then you can fix it just like squirrel or rabbit. It can be grilled, dusted with flour or battered and fried, stewed, etc.


I've gotten old and lazy and haven't done one in a long time. But, with spring coming on ....

Go for it man. Now if it was young groundhog for dinner, I would pull up a chair!

Strong second on Ken's advice regarding the scent glands and fatty tissue.

Strong second.

I'll just stick to my wild pigs and maybe an Hoover Hog or two!

Bill do you like Hoover Hogs?

My preferred method of obtaining meat is to somehow contact the local butcher. This new telephony thing is quite wonderful and makes it so much easier. I hear that this guy named Gore has invented an alternate method to contact your local butcher. Not sure how that's going to pan out, but it's quite possible there may be greater detail and understanding when you place the order. I think they have eliminated writing stuff down. That caused quite a bit of confusion dealing with the shorthand x method. I'll give it a try

Okay, but when the alien overlords return and obliterate all earthly technology you're gonna' get awful hungry!

Not me I'm no stranger to violating the RoHS Compliance.

Got another one; only 24 pounds and female. I haven't tried eating one and probably never will.

I thought the whole purpose of the catch and release traps is to save on bullets. Am I in error?

I don't think of them in terms of catch and release, rather it's a case of catch and hold em' still. So, by allowing for a more accurate shot placement, you probably are saving ammunition.

My son has spent the last few weeks getting set up with bee hives. Attended meetings and etc so he does it the right way. But a skunk or coon took out one of the hives night before last and now he is out for revenge. Set up elec fencing, we already have several on hand and he set out traps, we should know what hit his hives and bees. I am thinking the animal will meet up with a 22 mag shortly. We have a few blk bears in E Texas and I know they will tear up feeders and bee hives, but I think most likely a skunk

Tracy

I use a 22 long target load. At a range of six inches it doesn't matter much......

I have a friend who lives nearby who trains coon dogs and hunts coons. When I catch one I call him and he comes and gets it. Uses it for training purposes. He has even taken dead ones and he creates scent trails for tracking.

"Coons! My mama used to just take a broom and sweep them off the porch." Forrest Gump

Ever hear of a coon Colony trap? I will try and post a link latter.

Kind of similar here. I've got a box of miscellaneous 22 shells, some of which are probably over 40 years old. It includes shorts, longs, long-rifles, copper coated, hollow-point, etc.

I usually put the end of the barrel inside the trap. Accuracy is not much of an issue at an inch or two.

A neighbor has a rope on his trap that is similar to mine. His trap seems to somehow fall off the end of his dock when he baits it there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flLQd4ne57U


cool video, could be a lot like catch and release fishing!!! and fun with a game camera

My sister employs the same method if the trap falls in the water, but the trap somehow has to move a great distance before it can fall into the pond. Always seems to happen tho.

Since last report 2 more have floated down the Rock. 1 Male, 3 females. Any bets that number 5 is a female too?

According to security video of the back yard there is only one left to go.

I have had to do a bit of repair work on the trap. Nothing major, but these are big angry critters!

All 5 are dead and gone as of this morning. Set the trap 7 times; 5 raccoon and 1 feral cat.

TJ _ if you would like some trapping training, let me know.......

Dwight, I tried the trapper training bit. he needs a longer refresher course!

I removed 18 one year that were targeting Mom & Dad's bird feeders.

Yep, first few are pretty easy, a lot like Kindergarten math. When you start doing long division, feel free to contact me. I promise I won't broadcast it on the forum.

I used to think the raccoon was a cute furry animal. They are pretty viscous and would probably tear your hand off if you put it in the trap to pull them out. Note to TJ, send photos if you give that a try.

I used to coon hunt back when there was money in it. I have shot a coon from the top of the tree, had it fall out hitting branches all the way down, slam into the ground with a thud, and still get up and begin whipping the snot out of two grown black and tan coonhounds that were waiting for it at the base of the tree.

They can be absolutely vicious. Don't ever let your dog follow one into water that's deep enough that the dog has to swim.

My XFIL lost a dog that way. He said the coon got up on the dog's back and drown the dog.

My turn!!!

Those miserable masked masqueraders. Over the last three nights they have gotten into far more than I would have ever expected.

They opened the two 40 gallon garbage cans in the garage, and pulled out and scattered everything. Lots of other nastiness too, including leaving big foot prints on my car and my wife's car.

Worst of all, they ripped into two fifty pound bags of 10-10-10 fertilizer. I had opened one of the bags and mixed about half of it with compost for my 30-plant tomato patch. As a big thunderstorm approached yesterday afternoon, I put the half-full bag of fertilizer on the passenger-side floor of my side-x-side UTV, which I moved into the tractor barn before the storm came through. The miserable critters (I can tell they were 'coons by the foot prints) decided the bag should be emptied on the metal floor of the side-x-side. It was leaning against the center console, which includes the shifting mechanisms and cables. I pressure washed the area, and emptied a full can of PBlaster in the whole area. Hopefully, if any fertilizer is left, it won't destroy anything serious in my UTV.

The other fertilizer bag was/is on my potting bench outside the basement door, which is under cover. The bag is now about half empty, with the fertilizer all over. I've attempted to clean up it with brooms and brushes. I'll power wash the rest of it in the morning. I just don't like putting that much fertilizer in my driveway -- I hate brush hogging the driveway!

So, I'm now headed to the barn to get my two largest "Hav-A-Hart" traps. I hope to have a few hearts by morning. By morning, it is possible there could be some heart-stopping and sudden lead poisoning or accidental drownings.

Miserable critters!!!

SSS for now.

I feel your pain cat, those same critters have eaten about a foot up the cedar trim on one of the windows on the porch! Why would anything chew that much 1x4 rough cedar?

Ken, when I was fishing on the big pond we'd use a product called Salt-X to stop salt corrosion on the tackle. It worked very well. There's a lot of salt in the fertilizer.......

I'm having a problem with cats. Not mine, and not any of the neighbors. I'm finding more and more things that are in the barn showing signs of getting "marked" by them. They are getting into stuff too, like a partial bag of AM600. I did the same thing Ken, set a live trap. One less yesterday morning, nothing today but Kate chased one, so I'll re-bait it and see what visits tonight.

I had to put a ratchet strap on the galvanized garbage can lid to keep the masked bandits from opening up the can to get at the fish food.......

I caught a cat! I'm assuming it is a feral cat, but I let it go.

However, at least one coon visited. He left muddy footprints on the garage floor.

Scott, thanks for the tip on Salt-x. My son goes right near that place every Wednesday. I'm going to have him pick up a spray bottle of the stuff.

Got one overnight. I felt sorry for it, but ...

It was just a little one. Maybe 4-5 pounds at most. Nothing like Dwight's behemoths. I guess I'm getting really softhearted in my old age. It was so calm and cute, I had a hard time "dispatching" it. Thankfully, it turned its head away from me as I did so.

It sure needed a bath. My garage, my UTV, the cage, and I all smell as bad as that poor little critter.

Not that I have used this method wink wink, but I have heard that coons love Purina Monkey Chow.

Got 5 update:

After further review it appears that one of the females had already had a litter and at least one survived. It has been eating the seeds that drop from the bird feeders. It hasn't figured out the cat food yet though I have been leaving it out at night to tempt it. Then the trap comes out......

When I was in high school a classmate of mine had the Youth National Grand Champion walker coondog...his family was REALLY into the sport.

Around my sophomore year a big bull coon drowned that dog in a creek. It was not a happy time in that family let me tell you.

Total to date this year (by the barn).

1 feral cat
2 'coons

Male cat - there's a lot of things around here that were starting to smell like cat.......

There's still lots of muddy 'coon prints on the feeder, but since they can't get to the food I don't worry about it.

Last year I trapped and dispatched 6. This summer I am up to 7 and know of three more in the area. They like the black sunflower seed that falls from our 5 bird feeders. They show up most every evening to eat them.

Last year I used cat food as bait and caught and released a few of our outside cats until they understood. It was all raccoon after that learning process.

I switched to black sunflower seed for bait this year. Seems to work better than cat food and no cats in the trap so far.

Marshmallows make great coon bait in a live trap. You also avoid catching cats because they don't like them.

I was installing an aeration system this weekend and the client had eliminated 32 in the last 2 weeks...

My trap sits beneath the fish feeder. Once in the trap the coons tend to rock it back and forth. The back and forth rocking tends to walk the trap down hill.. The results speak for themselves. The turkey vultures love me.. (20+ coons in last two years). I still have visitors every night. There must be 100s of them.