Name that toe

[Painted Calls]

So ya I set a couple traps at the old trusty entery point and caught a coon that night. He was big and angry but had all his toes so I knew he was just a soldier.
I interrogated him mercilessly for hours but he didn't break. Strobe lights, smacking him around. I even played two full Backstreet Boys albums and made him watch Harry Potter. Nothing.
I then bought 3 more foot hold traps. I set one baited with the partial chicken they left behind and nothing. For two nights I set 2 at the entery hole and set up a bait cockerel in a cage surrounded by the rest.
I've never seen anything like what happened. Every trap was either dug out and set off or drug out and out of the way remaining set. The second night one set off trap had blood all over it but no foot or toes left behind. That was a bit odd but the lab results came back that it was chicken blood.
The SOB spread chicken blood all over a trap to throw me off. To make me let my guard down.
Moony is no fool. I contacted a couple ol boys that deal with these strange cases for a living for some advice.
View attachment 3170775

Good grief. Get to the pics!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Good grief. Get to the pics!

Hey, who's telling this story me or you?

Pics of how I find the traps.

Blood on the one.

 

[room onthebroom]

Zoinks! He’ll never get away with it now that you’ve brought in those meddling kids.

Pro tip: You should split up & sneak over to your greedy neighbors house. I bet you find a raccoon costume with a missing toe over there.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Zoinks! He’ll never get away with it now that you’ve brought in those meddling kids.

Pro tip: You should split up & sneak over to your greedy neighbors house. I bet you find a raccoon costume with a missing toe over there.

I'm waiting on a trapping expert to get here with some ideas on some other directions I may want to go. Gotta cover all the bases.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Time for a stake out?

 

[Chookwagn]

Time for a stake out?

Or a steak out?

 

[WallyG74]

Or a steak out?

Mmmm…. Steak

 

[SheaLoner]

Showed these pics to my father, old trapper that he is. Said you should boil the traps clean. Thats how it found them all, by scent. My rec would be to try eggs as bait. Have had no luck with carcasses but a pile of eggs drew them right in.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Showed these pics to my father, old trapper that he is. Said you should boil the traps clean. Thats how it found them all, by scent. My rec would be to try eggs as bait. Have had no luck with carcasses but a pile of eggs drew them right in.

How's he recommended blackening them?
I've done the walnut thing. Idk if there's a different way.
Thanks

 

[SheaLoner]

How's he recommended blackening them?
I've done the walnut thing. Idk if there's a different way.
Thanks

He used wood ashes in the boil to strip the oils and then used sumac berries to blacken them.