I failed to mention the strips that I use are called sharks teeth and I bought mine a cabellas for 19 dollars. You get three strips that are 3 feet long. Notice in my photo the 45 degree cut is facing down so they will slide down the sharp edges. I have seen coons climb the top of the leg and climb the bottom side of the leg so I bought 2 kits and ran the strips on top and bottom of the feeder legs. I have not had any photos of coons after the blood spot that I found on 1 of the strips. They learned the first day to stay off my legs.

They can still eat the corn on the ground. I always use varmint guards wrapped in chicken wire. Dukes dog proof traps are used for the little bastages on the ground. They work well too. Be sure and chain them up good. I've had raccoons chew through romex that I used. Need to use a cable or heavy duty wire to hold them in place.

We have had our share of coon problem.



Dog proof traps and my boys with .22's put a dent in them.

Holy smokes JustWingem,
I had 3 coons on one camera and caught 18. I cannot imagine how many you actually have (had)

Vigorous and diligent use of DP traps has greatly reduced our coon problem, from 10-15 pics a night to 1 or 2. They seem to fall for it every time. I'm a fan and you should be too. BTW. if you shop a little you can get them at a very cheap price for a set of 5 or more.

X2 DP traps have cut down my coon population to almost zero!

how do you guys bait those duke DP traps?

Honestly I just put corn in mine.....some put sardines or just whatever in them. corn works for me and I don't smell like fish after baiting mine!

You're probably goign to get many different responses, and im sure all will work. The cheapest bait i use are the big marshmellows. Be sure to shove the mellow down on the lever so they have to pull the bait/lever.

But try different things like tuna, sardines, or plain ol corn.

Marshmallows are less messy for sure

Honestly believe this would be a legitimate reason for buying surplus claymore mines.

I've caught 100-140 a year or more over the last 5 years, so i have it down to a science. This year I'm over 150.

Start off at the feeders, if you have access to 3/32 cable use it to tie down your traps. If you use wire you will lose a few traps. I would recommend buying crimpers and aluminium ferrules.
Use cable tie downs it keeps the coons from breaking a foot off in the traps.
Use a simple setup of 4-5 marshmallows in the bottom and any dry cat food on top. Use any fish oil on top and squirt a line along the trail they are using coming to the feeder.

Now this will only work for a short time catching the young and dumb, you will have to get out away from the feeders Use the deer trails coming to the feeder. Coons are hungry making their way to the feeder if they come across food before they get to the feeder, they are more likely to not ignore the trap offering.

All items needed can be found here
http://www.fntpost.com/index.php

At a feeder I will use corn, it is right there, and it is what the coons came for. I am over 300 coons now on corn only.
I only use other baits when away from a feeder. I do not draw want to draw coons to a feeder with sardines etc.
If tying your trap to a feeder leg, double up your tie wire. I had a helper that single tied a few. We lost some traps and later caught some three legged coons, that sucked.

one of my places the LO does not allow taking any varmints (coons, porcupines, bobcat, coyote, etc.) as she wants to leave the native ecosystem alone (barely lets us take a few deer). So I have to use deterrents instead of disposing of the problem. Cages work pretty good, until enough get to hanging on that it starts pulling the screws out, the spring loaded plates work great, until enough get to hanging off the motor box that is starts pulling screws out of bottom of barrel or the motor box slides or shifts sideways allowing 300 lbs of corn to spill out onto the others waiting below for dinner, vasoline on the legs works great until enough try to climb up to where they wipe all the vasoline off or its coated with mud/dirts.

my dad and I used to have about 15 live traps, we would strategically locate in a spoke like pattern slightly outside the feeder legs of one feeder that we weren't hunting the next morning, bait with corn, next morning after our morning hunt have 12-15 coons, served with a 22 & then to the fur buyer, move traps to next feeder ... several weekends of this pretty much wiped out our coon problem and made us some spending morning for more corn.

Cages on feeders make them a raccoon jungle gym

I been trying to catch some for friends that likes them. I have some cage traps and couple dukes. Just catching possums.

Don't have problem with coons other than them eating corn on ground. Did before I used flex metal conduct to proterct solar planed wire running to feeder motor. Use the Moultrie Varmet Guard to protect the spinner. Get pics of them crawling around on feeder but they get no free corn up on in or chew thru the solar /motor line.

I like the duke dog proof traps. I then shoot them and reset the trap. Best way to get rid of them is through eliminating them. The sharks teeth only gave them more traction when I tried that.

Yea I had a couple of On Time feeders that they chewed my solar panels off.

Like Mr.T I trap them. I use the Duke dog proof traps they work great!

Last year i cut a 5 gallon bucket up into 6" sections and screwed it to the bottom of my feeders. The corn doesnt throw far but no coons, birds, or wind wasting corn. The corn only throws in about a 6' circle.

the dog-proof traps and lots of them with marshmallows and sardine soy juice poured on them works wonders. Don't plan on hunting near any of the traps when they are out.

We put a heck of a dent in them. I have 12 of them and I will set all 12 out and almost all of them fill up. I move them around as they catch something and be SURE to tie them down REAL good with baling wire. Strap them to a strong tree trunk.

a few solid weekends of that and you will kill more coons than you care to mention and they really start impacting the feeders less after that.

Gotta do that a few times a year!

Good luck!

Russ

bringing this back up again ... I have one feeder that has a ladder up one side, so the PVC or spike strips aren't going to work. I have a cage on the bottom but they keep tearing it apart, pulling self-tapping screws out of the bottom of barrel, then using the timer/motor box as a trapeze and sliding it down on one side where all the corn pours out ... open to ideas



I am really late posting this (been a busy day) as I am likely heading out to Ozona in the morning to try to get it repaired one more time.

Get you an Eliminator Style Spinner Plate. It will help with them being able to get to corn like they used to. Buy you some 1"x1" welded wire from a hardware store or TSC and make you a large round deep varmint cage. Make it the size of the bottom of the barrel for diameter and then at least 16" deep. Hinge it for easy access also. Secure it well. Hide any wires you can since they will still try to pull them out or off and use wire clips to screw it down securely in as many locations as you can. (make sure the wire is in some kind of condiut or PVC pipe if you can)

wires are already in conduit. if you can tell, the cage is pretty well made, solid, they just keep hanging off of it to where they pulled the screws out of the bottom of the barrel. maybe I need to add more clips & screws into the barrel to secure better for the dozen 30 lb coons that have to be hanging off of it.

I have these style cages on about a dozen feeders and haven't had a problem with any except this tall mo-dinker with the ladder (only one I have like this). I might even take a hack saw and chop the legs shorter so it's easier to work on, its a full 10+ feet to the bottom of the barrel and I have to work off a 10 foot ladder since the built in ladder is too far away from the cage/timer to reach.

but I do have a spare timer box with an eliminator plate I could swap out to see if that helped also.

thanks, will give an update (with pictures) if I make it out this weekend.