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Post by steveg on Sept 27, 2012 16:36:57 GMT -5
I want to try using peatmoss this year at my coyote sets but know very little about it or about using it. Is there a particular brand or grade I should look for when purchasing peatmoss for trapping? It seem it will be hard to solidly bed a trap in peatmoss; any tips?
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Post by ronnie on Sept 27, 2012 17:00:46 GMT -5
I just go to home depots garden center and pick up a bag, well, its more like a bale. I bring it home and spread a bunch of it out on a sheet of plywood, let it dry completely then bag it up in plastic bags until ready to use. I get a lot of rain here in the winter so I may do things a bit different than a lot of people. I dig my trap bed a little deeper than most do, drive my stake in, then I put a little layer of pea gravel, a thin layer of peat, bed my trap, put on a screen pan cover, layer of peat to cover, then dust with dry dirt. By using the gravel the trap will bed just fine, also in case of rain the water has a place to go and it will dry out quickly. You do not need much peat under your trap just enough to form a layer. But use the stuff a few times and you will get the hang of what works for you pretty quick.
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Post by wormbobskey on Sept 27, 2012 19:06:30 GMT -5
I buy sealed bales of peat moss and pre-sift every bit of it and store in a large CLEAN garbage can and fill up a 2 gallon bucket at every stop. I try to use as much native soil as possible when I make my sets and try to sandwich the trap in the peat moss with native dirt over top. If native soil isn't possible because its frozen then I'll use dry or waxed dirt with the peat moss in between. You need something over top the peat moss to help pack the trap in. Theres to much cushion in the peat moss to bed a trap solid without some other type of dirt.
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Forrest
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Post by Forrest on Sept 27, 2012 19:35:07 GMT -5
The best advice for peat moss is Longsprings! Bedding a coilspring solid in peat can be a challenge at times.. Longsprings are a snap to bed regardless of the bedding substrate..
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Post by SteelNeckTie on Sept 28, 2012 6:07:22 GMT -5
Very good advice Forrest. I agree. Longsprings seem to jump and break off frozen ground better than coil springs too.
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Post by Furtrader on Sept 28, 2012 8:22:10 GMT -5
i buy a bale of peat moss. (only a couple bucks per pale) if you got the right stuff, it should already be dry. i store the bale in a big thick black contractor style garbage bag. i fill a 5 gallon bucket with a sealed lid to carry around. i try and use as much of the native soil. dig your trap bed, sift a layer of peat, layer of dirt, layer of peat, layer of dirt and make sure you end with the layer of dirt as peat moss will blow away. if it stays frozen, that should be ok. sometimes i use a little salt cuz we get above freezing during the day and below at night. its never constant. 15 degrees at night. 65 during the day! lol that constant changing of hot to cold builds moisture and that moisture will freeze at night and without the salt... im froze in.
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Forrest
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Post by Forrest on Sept 28, 2012 8:55:22 GMT -5
I mix mine with dry sifted dirt to help with the peat blowing away, a good coat of PG seems to help with it blowing away too.. I also premix 50lbs of salt per hundred gallons of dirt/peat as I already know I am going to need it..
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Post by wvmedic on Sept 28, 2012 9:00:52 GMT -5
One major thing I learned last year is if not using a pan cover which I don't if a set sets for a long time in the rain and everything else it will get hard under the pan, I had some sets around a house on the edge of town that had a red fox problem, the lady checked them everyday and called if there was a catch, caught 5 there, anyway I had a few sets that had no action for a few weeks, and when time to pull I use a stick to fire them and a few we're very hard to fire, don't think anything could have tripped it. But I will continue to use as it works very well, just check more often if sets are out for a long time
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Post by Furtrader on Sept 28, 2012 9:07:15 GMT -5
One major thing I learned last year is if not using a pan cover which I don't if a set sets for a long time in the rain and everything else it will get hard under the pan, I had some sets around a house on the edge of town that had a red fox problem, the lady checked them everyday and called if there was a catch, caught 5 there, anyway I had a few sets that had no action for a few weeks, and when time to pull I use a stick to fire them and a few we're very hard to fire, don't think anything could have tripped it. But I will continue to use as it works very well, just check more often if sets are out for a long time try a little bit of polyfil under the pan. that will help keep that peat from settling under the pan.
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Forrest
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Post by Forrest on Sept 28, 2012 9:23:19 GMT -5
I use cut to size blue disposable shop towels for a pan cover.. There so tough I even reuse them at remakes sometimes.. I hate wax paper with a passion!
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Post by wvmedic on Sept 28, 2012 9:41:09 GMT -5
Yeah Polly fill is what I usually use but my partner set those and for some reason decided not to use any, lesson learned, don't think it cost us any fur but it sure could have
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Post by minifoxer on Sept 28, 2012 11:16:32 GMT -5
Like others, a good start is to go to the local garden center and pick up a bale of peatmoss. Definitely a step in the right direction. LOL
After the peatmoss is purchased, it's time to sift, and dry it. After the peatmoss is sifted and dryed, I store mine in large rubbermaid containers. The bedding of the trap, in my opinion, is not so much the packing of the dirt, rather then the shape of the trap bed!
I can bed a solid trap firmly with no dirt over the trap, just by twisting and fitting a trap into a proper shaped trap bed. After that, it really doesn't matter what you bed your trap in. After I have my trap bedded, I'll throw a couple handfulls of peatmoss over the trap and level everything up, and will proceed to pack the peatmoss as firmly as possible. Since peatmoss has a very fluffy nature, packing it helps to firm it up enough so that if the animal misses your trap pan with his first step, he's not sinking ankle deep into the non packed peatmoss. If this happens, you will often have a dug up trap, or an obvious miss. After packing, I'll smooth things out with a nice low spot over the pan, and hit up the whole dirt pattern with a small layer of natural dirt from when I dug the bed. If the dirt is to wet, and is more mud then dirt, I'll sift over the pattern of peatmoss with pre dried larger grained dirt that I will have in my bucket.
After that I will choose to rough up my dirt patern a bit, add step guides, and leave with confidence of knowing that I have a solid trap, in a fairly rain resistant, and freeze proof set.
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Forrest
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Post by Forrest on Sept 28, 2012 11:59:23 GMT -5
Mini.. I break out the peat mid to late season the ground is harder than concrete and has to be chipped away.. No twist and bed simplicity here that time of year...
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Post by dtraper on Sept 28, 2012 12:37:36 GMT -5
Bout the same way I do mine minnie, I sift mine thru a 1/4 in screen and thats just to get the big stuff out , and you forgot to add ..wear a dust mask... hate blownin mud balls.... yall know down here in gods country we dont need a lot of salt and our ground aint to bad diggin in Dec.-Jan. just sayin--D-
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Post by minifoxer on Sept 28, 2012 14:43:42 GMT -5
Mini.. I break out the peat mid to late season the ground is harder than concrete and has to be chipped away.. No twist and bed simplicity here that time of year... LOL, great point Forrest! For some reason I had an Early Season Mind Set when I wrote that! For late season, I'll dig the bed about 2" deeper, and add around 2" of waxed, or regular dried dirt to the bottom of the bed. Still shape of the trap bed is key, IMO, and it takes longer to get the bed right in that rock solid ground, but if I can get it "good enough", and wih he 2" of dirt on the bottom, the trap sill beds nicely. After the trap is bedded I cover with peatmoss, and finish with a covering of larger grained dried dirt, or waxed dirt to dress the peatmoss in place, and add a small sprinkle of salt to the top. Salt also goes down below on he bottom of the trap bed, which makes it really easy to re-bed the trap on a remake, as the salt thaws the dirt to it's normal state!
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Post by cmr2 on Sept 28, 2012 20:11:04 GMT -5
guess a lot of different ways to use peat and to bed ,couple ways are close to mine , and they all work
when the ground is a chuck of ice I do one of two ways to bed ,chip it out a little ,or hammer a bed in ,hammering seem to be easier to then lay a lyar of PM and trap covered with PM and dry dirt over it
I use the poly-fil (wool) under the pans ,have used coffee filters,wax paper, leaves, screens (still learning wire) glass screens ,but the one of poly-fil is the one i go back to
After the first time I shifted peat in the garage into tubs ,that was the last time i wasted time on it ,I buy them early in spring and open it to sit all summer i put it in sand bags for the line and shift it at the set and toss it about(the course) ,figure Im bring'n an an odd smell I dont want it pin pionted at the bed so around the set it gos
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Post by castormaster on Sept 28, 2012 22:10:25 GMT -5
O.k. So the best way to do it is.... about the same as everything else with trapping, no one trapper does it the same..... so experiment, then post the way you found best(which will be different from everyone else) on the forum!
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Post by mark572 on Sept 29, 2012 8:39:20 GMT -5
Make sure you are buying Just peat moss!! there is some brands that are mixed with cow poop!! I know this because i did buy some mixed with poop and man i couldent keep trap in the ground around here from k9's diggen them up LOL(now cows around me) I mix my sifted peat with ant hill dirt.
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Post by lyonch on Oct 1, 2012 8:43:34 GMT -5
Since the question is bedding the trap in peat moss - have you ever pinched the peat underneath the lever of the trap?
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Post by ewoktrapper on Oct 1, 2012 9:50:27 GMT -5
I use peat as a buffer between the dirt and the trap.There is only maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch of peat between the dirt and trap.I pull the dirt in tight to the jaws still.With all the more peat seperating the dirt and trap it beds fast and fires when freezing out. I guess it is hard to explain with out showing......Frank
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