Trapping Paid Off

[makeithappen]

Last year, i decided to start trapping raccoons in an effort to see the turkey population return. I had only seen one turkey between two small properties in 2020 and both offered decent habitat. A friend that owns 5 acres was losing chickens to raccoons so i offered to trap them. In turn, he let me deer hunt (I've taken two nice bucks there between last year and this year).

I started trapping August 1st 2021 on 12 acres and the 5 acre place. By March 31st, i had trapped 129 raccoons between both places. This made it very apparent why turkey recruitment was failing.

Still no turkeys but Rome wasn't built in a day.

I started trapping September 15th this year on just the 12 acres as we've moved and with work, it's not feasible to check traps at the the other place (he's not lost any more chickens). I'm up to 29 as of today. Mostly juveniles, which tells me a lot about the population.

During rifle season, i saw my first turkeys here! 7 walked to 10 yards and flew to within 4 yards, over the neighbour's fence (he's told me to hunt the fence line).

Yesterday, i put out some stuff for deer in the backyard. An hour later, the turkeys were there! They walked right up to the house before continuing their journey. A flock of 7 in the winter is terrible, but it's better than before and I'm looking forward to another year or two really showing a return on investment here.

 

[Tin Star Firearms]

Awesome work. I hate chicken thieving raccoons.

 

[retrieverman]

You’ve done good, my friend!!! Congrats!!!

 

[HoLeChit]

That’s awesome, and has to be extremely satisfying to see.

 

[makeithappen]

It's a lot of time invested but totally worth it.

Duke DP traps staked with J shaped 12" rebar. 5-7 pieces of dog food in it with a full sized marshmallow impaled on the trigger, which prevents theft of the bait without a catch, 99% of the time.

 

[Shinneryfarmer]

158 Racoons since August 2021, that's is incredible on 17 acres total. I thought I had them bad about 13yrs ago when I caught nearly 39 (IIRC) in 3 weeks. But then went another 3 without a thing so I quit and my problems went away. Great job by the way! Marshmallows are a coon trappers best friend, vanilla extract is a good lure also.

 

[makeithappen]

158 Racoons since August 2021, that's is incredible on 17 acres total. I thought I had them bad about 13yrs ago when I caught nearly 39 (IIRC) in 3 weeks. But then went another 3 without a thing so I quit and my problems went away. Great job by the way! Marshmallows are a coon trappers best friend, vanilla extract is a good lure also.

I've been really surprised at the numbers myself. Figured i would get about 30 and be done for a year or two.

 

[Dorkus]

I see them all the time on out property in my cameras. This seems like a good strategy I should try.

Nice job!

 

[tynyphil]

I see tons of them on my trailcams. I never thought of them devastating the turkey population. We have turkeys but they are inconsistent visitors. I suppose the trapped coons could be used as coyote bait and take care of 2 problems.

 

[Dorkus]

Here is a question, how do you trap them but also ensure you don’t get animals that may or be of interest? Just use live traps or jaw ones and roll the dice?

Interesting topic and one I have not considered before now.