# To Dye or not to Dye that is the question



## GREENCOUNTYPETE

Taking Wisconsin trappers education currently , and there seems to be some controversy orver dyeing traps , some speed dip water sets , and boil , dye and wax land traps . 

while others say boil and wax , don't bother rusting , dying and waxing 

some guys worry so much about scent they have scent free tools and reset tools , but admittedly catch , and catch and catch on resets , done with bare hands and tools that were not boiled 

I have to wonder and a few of the instructors have eluded to this , that it is what ever you think it should be if you want to stay up nights worrying about how you can better make a set scent free 

what do you do ?


I am thinking with Dog proofs , I am not sure it matters what you do , just bate and set , some say there has been success with painting them white , ***** like bright it catches there eye then they smell it.

foot hold dirt sets , as long as the scent of the trap is not strong , i think the scent of the lure will be so much stronger , it would be a bit like walking home to fresh flowers on the table and a burnt casserole in the oven no way your smelling the flowers over the more powerful smell.


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## tryinhard

I dye my land traps in logwood dye. It helps get all the nasty smells off the trap. I have never waxed a trap for fear that the wax get contaminated and I have to redo all my traps. I set with bare hands, on my knees in front of where I am setting the trap. All animals smell human scent at one point or another in their life. I spoke with a guy that caught 100+ coyotes in 6 days and he said he only wore gloves when his hands got cold. Location is key in land trapping. Dog proofs and water traps can be painted with a flat paint and will do fine. After 4 or 5 raccoons in a dog proof you can pretty much write off any paint or dye you have used. This advice comes from 28 years of trial and error.


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## rags57078

I trap about like trying hard does , been doing it for 39 years now , if a person stops and thinks a bit a hound can track a person walking or running  well yotes and fox use their noses to stay alive so they will know if your around . just dont be spitting or taking a wizz next to the sets and you will be fine


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE

I kind of figured as much , it's a bit like fishing , most lures seem to be made to catch fisherman in a store and sometimes they also catch fish.

when the instructor demonstrating dirt sets said he , wears gloves for the first set and keeps clean tools for first set , then has dirty tools and uses bare hands for re-sets , but that he continues to catch on them, then he alluded to it's what you think and makes you happy.

I also noticed the instructor with the nicest cloths on had the cleanest looking traps , all speed dipped and perfectly black for water sets and , rusted , dyed and waxed for land.

I think we are going to get some dog proof and maybe a few 1 1/2 coils and make some **** sets to get started


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## littlejoe

Most of what I have trapped is coyotes with occasional cats and foxes. I did everything I could to give me an edge. I did do a very small amount of water sets for beaver, but by that time I was usually played out, and they were more work than I wanted.

I dyed my land traps in juniper and waxed. I tried to keep things as clean as possible...didn't use my setting gloves for lure or bait. Rust isn't huge problem here, but I believe wax does speed a trap up as well as possibly helping prevent freeze down. I kept buckets of duff from underneath the junipers to set in freezing conditions as well. 

Coyotes have a keen nose and you have to offer the best you can, and possibly detract their mind from where you want the foot placed. I still occasionally set with bare hands. Occasionally I had traps dug up enough to expose them, because of a odor loud enough to draw their curiosity. Usually in a flat set.

I do believe it was more curiosity than fear or being trap wise, because I occasionally (but seldom) caught an older yote by a jaw, when they tried to pack a trap off.

I to, do not believe you can totally hide any scent from them. But you can distract them with (more for the moment) appealing odors or visual attractants. The longer you keep them interested, the higher your chance for a catch.


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## K-9

I dip my water sets, lately I have been using Dakota line snare dip, when I use this up, I will probably go to formula one. I paint my body grips, and paint or dip my snares. My land traps are dyed and waxed, on new traps you can just clean them and wax them then next year after you clean them, they will be ready to dye and rewax, this is to protect the trap from corrosion, it has little to do with the odor of the trap. As long as you keep bait and lure odors off your traps you will be fine. If you are **** trapping, odor control is of no real significance as **** seem to pay little attention to human scent. 

The whole scent control thing is way over thought by most people, obviously you don't want to be plum sloppy at the set but there is no way to put in a set and a coyote not know you have been there, the key is becoming efficient at making your sets (pre season practice in the garden or where ever) so that you minimize the time you are at the location thereby minimizing the scent left. Unless you are trapping in some very remote wilderness, that coyote has probably encountered 50 peoples scent in the course of making its rounds that night, if they avoid all human scent, they wouldn't be coming into peoples yards and eating their pets and getting into the garbage and dog food.

A lot of this scent control stuff comes from the old time trappers who had a poor understanding of how scent is distributed from the body, the attributed their success to the great lengths they went to in controlling their scent when actually their great success was due to their incredible ability to pick the perfect location for the set and the superior skill they used in bedding the trap and constructing the set to place the animals paw on their trap pan and their incredible understanding of the behavior of their target animal. This is not to take anything away from their success but they were attributing their success to the wrong thing.

As far as dog proofs, I have white ones, brown ones, and black ones, it seems to me that setting them exactly on location has more to do with success than the color. In my experience, the DPs must be set right in the trail to connect, it doesn't seem that the DPs will pull a **** off the trail like a pocket set will. I do know that I have more white DPs messed with by people that the brown or black ones. With that said, DPs are an incredible tool because they are able to be set in places that you wouldn't want to set a foothold, snare, or body grip and they are so fast to put out it is a real time saver.


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## Homesteadwi5

we dye all of ours,and wax the ones for K9's, i dont do anything with dp's ,if u dont wanna mess with dyeing and waxing,there's a dip called full metal jacket that works very well


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