Bobcats are everywhere!!!

[itsasmallfarm]

i don't know much about bob cat trapping just from what i have seen online.

also i know you can call them in like a coyote or fox. wonder if that works with lynx? (am more likely to have lynx attack or even cougar then a bobcat)

 

[Howard E]

By coincidence, a couple days ago I happened to be talking to the chap that hunts the 300 acre farm across the road from me, and among other things we talked about the predators he sees on all his game cameras. As per him, the farm has a high population of red fox, gray fox, a big pack of coyotes (including one big cheeky fellow) and then came the cherry on top......about two weeks ago, while sitting in a deer stand, he spent an hour watching a pair of bobcats....this year's kittens.....chasing sparrows in a brushpile.....and then big bad momma strolled out to watch them too. All that took place about 1/2 mile from my house.

I already knew about the coyotes and fox....that is confirmed every time it snows, including this week when fox and coyote tracks showed up in my front lawn. But the bobcats, while suspected, were new.

So I have decided I need to take my own advice and be ready for them. Following recommendations about what coil spring traps to use, it took visits to two stores, but I decided to snag the only coil spring they had....a #2 Duke.

Cost was $12.99 plus tax. Here it is.......

Now what?

 

[Fairview01]

By coincidence, a couple days ago I happened to be talking to the chap that hunts the 300 acre farm across the road from me, and among other things we talked about the predators he sees on all his game cameras. As per him, the farm has a high population of red fox, gray fox, a big pack of coyotes (including one big cheeky fellow) and then came the cherry on top......about two weeks ago, while sitting in a deer stand, he spent an hour watching a pair of bobcats....this year's kittens.....chasing sparrows in a brushpile.....and then big bad momma strolled out to watch them too. All that took place about 1/2 mile from my house.

I already knew about the coyotes and fox....that is confirmed every time it snows, including this week when fox and coyote tracks showed up in my front lawn. But the bobcats, while suspected, were new.

So I have decided I need to take my own advice and be ready for them. Following recommendations about what coil spring traps to use, it took visits to two stores, but I decided to snag the only coil spring they had....a #2 Duke.

Cost was $12.99 plus tax. Here it is.......View attachment 1986293

Now what?

There are 2 types of experts. Those that sound like experts that can only regurgitate what they've read in books and those that can walk their talk.

I walk my talk with results.

Ill be posting more pics on Tuesday after I retrieve my other phone.

Good luck with that #2 trap. It takes some level of skill to make a dirt set even for a bobcat. It's more than just throwing a trap on the ground. Good luck dealing with a rather irritated skunk in the morning. Everything is bigger in Texas and perhaps that applies to bobcat also. I only have night time pics on my game camera of bobcats in my #2s. By the morning all i had was an empty trap. Until you've actually caught a bobcat there is no comprehension for how mean and strong they are.

 

[Howard E]

As far as this thread is concerned, and so things remain civil, lets assume I'm the only guy who lacks experience. As far as I'm concerned,anyone who claims expert knowledge has valuable information and I hope they will share it.

The main thing I'm looking for here is guidance on how to successfully rig and employ my coil spring trap so as to protect my birds from would be evil doers.

All advice and constructive comments are welcome. Emphasis on "constructive".

 

[OhZark Biddies]

As far as this thread is concerned, and so things remain civil, lets assume I'm the only guy who lacks experience. As far as I'm concerned,anyone who claims expert knowledge has valuable information and I hope they will share it.

The main thing I'm looking for here is guidance on how to successfully rig and employ my coil spring trap so as to protect my birds from would be evil doers.

All advice and constructive comments are welcome. Emphasis on "constructive".

I don’t understand why you’re worried about a bobcat getting your birds in the impenetrable woods style coop all of the sudden?

I do like that style coop, btw ... but weren’t you just touting it as a zero loss setup a couple of days ago?

But in any case I see that I’ve been exposed as talker not a walker... man I didn’t think anyone would see through my fakery, lol

I think maybe your best bet is to take that shiny new trap back to the store and exchange it for a 330, a plastic tub, and a Miley Cyrus CD... and then follow the expert instruction of ‘Mr. I caught a cat, let me post the picture as much as possible’

that’s as constructive as I’m feeling at the moment... I think I’ll just leave the show and tell for the walk the walk types

 

[Howard E]

Belt AND suspenders.

Having studied and worked on the concept of effective predator control for some time now, I've come up with my conclusions for what would work best for most BYC types.

But since others say there is a less expensive and at least equally effective way using coil spring traps, I'm intrigued to no end.

I, along with a lot of other BYC forum members really want to know. OP started this thread asking for help of this exact kind. I'm hoping we can all learn something.

 

[Howard E]

BTW, on the concept of using a 330 body grip trap, I would not have a set one on the place if you gave it to me.

For starters, they are dangerous to set and handle and since they are massive kill traps, I'd risk killing anything that messed with it. That means any one of the 6 dogs I know of that are housed within 150 yards of my chicken house, not to mention my 3 barn cats...or the neighbors barn cats......and then there are my 3 toddler grand kids. All on a small acreage. And since it is not legal for land use in my state, it would expose me to who knows how much legal liability if any of those non-targets were to perish in an illegal trap.

So no 330 body grips for me. If it comes to that, varmints get the chickens.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Belt AND suspenders.

Having studied and worked on the concept of effective predator control for some time now, I've come up with my conclusions for what would work best for most BYC types.

But since others say there is a less expensive and at least equally effective way using coil spring traps, I'm intrigued to no end.

I, along with a lot of other BYC forum members really want to know. OP started this thread asking for help of this exact kind. I'm hoping we can all learn something.

Fair enough, I guess.

I’ve considered it quite a lot in the last year or so and have come to the conclusion that I’m not interested in feeding the misinformation fountain that we too often see here on BYC where folks read something and then distill out all the nuisance and reasons for the whys and why nots, and then repeat it back over and over, to be picked up and miss-told again...

But I will say it again, and I know others have said it too: anyone wanting to learn the basics of trapping and making sets, is well advised to visit a dedicated trapping website or forum and read up on the subject, and read a couple books about set making, or maybe even visit YouTube and watch some videos ...

unfortunately there’s a lot garbage trapping vids on YouTube, and it’s probably difficult for someone new to it to distinguish what’s good information and what’s not good...

and that’s one of the reasons I recommend visiting a dedicated trapping site... the good and bad get discussed and mulled over from every angle... the garbage gets called garbage, and the reasons for doing this or not doing that, are brought to the top, rather then being distilled out.

Visiting a trapping dedicated site and spending a little time reading gives a big picture view of it all, that simply can not be had by an article or some posts on BYC...

And there’s just so much information on the subject these days, compared to back in the day when many of us were coming up that it just seems like anyone who is really interested can find it.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

BTW, on the concept of using a 330 body grip trap, I would not have a set one on the place if you gave it to me.

For starters, they are dangerous to set and handle and since they are massive kill traps, I'd risk killing anything that messed with it. That means any one of the 6 dogs I know of that are housed within 150 yards of my chicken house, not to mention my 3 barn cats...or the neighbors barn cats......and then there are my 3 toddler grand kids. All on a small acreage. And since it is not legal for land use in my state, it would expose me to who knows how much legal liability if any of those non-targets were to perish in an illegal trap.

So no 330 body grips for me. If it comes to that, varmints get the chickens.

I think you know I was being facetious in that recommendation, but glad to know that it was rejected...

On the subject of safeness, that #2 plain jaw trap is likely to be rough on the small paws of young barn cats...

there are better options for setting near houses, barns and coops where there is a high likelihood of catching non targets that you would want to release... you might want to look for a padded or offset jaw trap instead.

 

[Howard E]

Forgive me for saying so, but going from a process whereby a BYC person can buy, prep, rig and deploy a $12.99 trap in an hour......... to "go look it up somewhere" does not meet the criteria of a simple, out of the box, effective method for a BYC person to stop the carnage until they can get things in order.

But as luck would have it, I actually began that process a couple years ago when I began monitoring and occasionally participating in just such forums, including one devoted almost exclusively to ADC (Animal Damage Control) work. That was after watching the amazing success of an ADC guy who took 7 groundhogs out from under the house across the road. And he did it with cage traps.

It seems to me the folks doing ADC work come closer to the challenges BYC folks face than the average trapper does. Trying to pick off offending predators in an urban/semi-urban environment......and doing so with no harm or threat to non-targets, which are avoided at all costs. One of their biggest challenges is working for BYC folks with chickens....the absolute worst being the grower who wants the ADC guy to do his job amidst free ranging chickens. The most interesting comments coming from ADC folks who themselves keep chickens.....who recommend against trapping in that scenario at all, in favor of exclusion, and for the same reasons we often see cited here. It's more effective and avoids the need to be constantly trapping predators, who come after your chickens in never ending waves.

But as for the trapping, over time, while monitoring the ADC forums, I began to identify a few recurring themes.

First one is "time is money". These folks are basically professional contract killers and the faster they can catch and dispatch the problem, the more money they make. So they use the fastest, most effective methods they can. One of the tools of choice is an "unbaited" cage trap. A trap set in such a way the animal readily enters or even forces it's way in. Blocking a den entrance with a cage trap is a form of this. And even more funny, one of the most popular of the type is a double ended, pass through cage trap with the same wire triggers as used on the 330 body grip. Except this animal is caught alive and unharmed.....as would be any non target.

Another is their sensitivity to public perception to using traps. This out of fear of inflaming any anti-trappers. They will go to great lengths to avoid any perception of harming animals even if that is exactly what they are doing. They want to hide their traps from public view.....one reason being out of concern of perception.....another is concern over theft of their valuable traps. But perception is a concern. If they lose the ability to trap, they are out of business.

So back to simple, effective and safe trapping methods. Back to a "baitless" cage trap. If the target animal is small, then the ubiquitous Havahart cage traps might work. The problem being the trigger pan being set for baiting an animal. But that can be modified to fit the situation. But if the target animal is more robust or too big for the Havahart, then higher end traps are available. The only real downside is their cost.

At $12.99 vs. $80 to $150......cost difference might seem to be a factor. But $12.99 for a single coil spring is the starting point. Depending on the resources of each individual BYC person......it can go way up from there. At some point the difference in cost starts to blur to the point of no difference.

So until better information comes along, I'm going to stick by my conclusion that a cage trap remains the trap of choice for us BYC types the majority of the time. That is if we employ trapping at all. If we are good at exclusion, we certainly don't have to.