I just came back in from shooting a big fat coon in a trap outside my grown up ladies' pen. I dinged his partner in crime, but it was able to run off. I hope that's the last of them for tonite!
I've been using sardines and canned salmon- oddly enough the barn cats eat their fill of wet food before I put the trap out and they leave it alone, but when I use marshmallows I end up catching a lot of cat butts.
My daughter's bantys were killed last week, our first predator attack, and the next nite I caught a big fat coon in a live trap I had placed at the scene of the crime. The next nite, I shot a opossum and the nite after that I had three small coons up a tree (with my dog's help). I shot two of them and my husband happened to get off work around daybreak, so he finished off the third.
Whew.
What I've learned about traps so far is to make sure they can't snitch the bait out of the side instead of walking in, tie the trap on a short enough rope to something near by so that the raccoon can't flip it upside down and crawl out of it and try to position it on flat ground with natural cover.