Coyotehunter.net

1Shooter wrote:That #3 bridger is a tough ruster! I plan on putting out a bucket set or two today, will let you know what I find!

I thought you were running duke traps??

Meant duke but see bridger mentioned so much I just get to calling them all bridgers. Yeah, duke is what I meant.

Vinegar water will really put the rust to em fast. Ive used salt water too, but you have to watch em or you'll get some serious pitting.

I just cleaned up a new batch of #5 Bridgers with some degreaser from wal-mart.....purple power I think its called. Soaked em in about a 1:4 part mix of the degreaser and hot water and it cleaned em right up.

Debating now whether to just dip em or boil em.

I will always boil myself!! That dipping process just seems to be way too much of a mess. Just my opinion though.

Boiling definitely does a better job IMO. Dipping is messy (wear old shoes and jeans as youll inevitably be wearing plenty of it) but is more convenient and faster IMO. Especially if you dont have a convenient place to boil (like in town with anal neighbors).

When I trapped more seriously I always boiled. But I have dipped more than a few with decent results. The biggest thing is airing em out, I let em hang outside for a couple months after dipping.

I refuse to use a gas based speed dip. In my un-professional opinion I think a coyote can still smell them years after dipping and no matter how deep you bed them. I talked to a guy that dipped and he said it took him 2 years of boiling and bedding his traps with 1" to 1and 1/2" of dirt before he felt a coyote couldn't smell them.

I dont know, ive caught enough fox/coyotes with dipped traps (gas based) to not worry about it. But I do air em out quite a bit, regardless of what I do to protect them.

Ive also seen guys go to load the pickup in the morning and grab a bunch of traps/snares with their bare hands. Heres your sign.

I know guys that will set with bare hands in the summer. liberal use of urin and rubbing your hands down with sage can make a huge difference. I know guys get coyotes with speed dipped traps, I would assume they are well aired out. I can boil my traps in log wood crystals and set them the next day.

So what my old man taught me is this, and he caught 100 coyotes a year for a decade. We have an old fat rendering pot that he would layer sagebrush then traps then more brush and so on till it was full then pour it full of water. Boiling the traps with the sagebrush turns them black, and removes the scent then he would just hang them in our wood shed till the fall. Back then we didn't have a pressure washer but he said that he would probly steam them first now that we have one. So thats what I've been doing for the last couple of years even though all I'm after is bobcats but I've caught several coyotes in them as well. Same go's for snares. Pretty cheap way to go. I also just inherited a big propane turkey frying pot so I'm gonna try that out instead of feeding wood into the rendering pot. I'll post some pics when I get around to doing it.

thats it you got it...........been done like that for hundreds of years. Still lots of guys doing it that way. cedar and juniper berries work great as well.

Some guys even use walnut husks for dying a trap. I have never done it, but have hear of a few guys doing it that way. I prefer to grab my bag of logwood dye crystals and just throw them in my big boiling pot. I'm all about the efficiency when it comes to trap preperation.

Sage and sumac and even spruce needles will work i just think that the logwood crystals do a little better job. But if you're in a pinch there has certainly been thousands and thousands of coyote caught with just natural things around coyote camp used for dying

Do all of these natural dyes help prevent rusting like the commercial dyes are supposed to do or do they just color them and help with scent control? I've heard of guys dyeing with maple leaves and maple bark.

When i have done it is Sage brush they don't come out quite as black but i think it does just as well as far as scent control.

Big mess when you are done