"A dead sure way to get a coyote every time is this, I can kill sage hens most any time, and always carry some on the pack horse. When it comes time to eat, first dig a hole to bury trap in and build a sage brush fire in it and singe a few of the feathers and some of the flesh in it, and set in the ashes. Who ever saw a camp fire that didn't have coyote tracks around it?"
"My way of trapping coyotes is to go to some prairie dog town and find an unused hole or one that has been filled up. Chop out a small hole two or three inches deep, then dig three trenches for the chains, then three holes for the traps, which must not be too deep nor too shallow. This requires practice and good judgment. They must be deep enough to allow the trap to be covered half an inch with dirt or sand, and still be even with the surrounding surface. Any deeper is too deep."
"Put a large piece of wool under the pan, and cover jaws, pan and all with a piece of heavy paper or light cloth, to keep the dirt from getting under the trap pan. Drive the stake with three traps attached until the top is two inches or more below the top of the ground; put the chains in their trenches and the trap in the holes dug for them. Cover all over with fine dirt the same as it was before being disturbed. Then take a brush made from stiff tough grass, a small brush or the wing of a chicken or sage-hen and brush out all finger marks, etc., then drop the last bait on top of stake and go away."
"The coyote or wolf will not come close enough to get caught the first three or four nights, but don't get uneasy, they will get bold after awhile, if you don't go too close to your trap when looking at it. When one gets caught in a trap set this way, he pulls to the end of the chain and swings around so as to step into another trap, then there is not much danger of him breaking a chain or pulling up a stake."
"In trapping the coyote or wolf, I make a bed some three or four feet each way, or nearly round. I set the traps after I swing the spring to the "dog" side. Then place the trap, say, about ten inches from the outside of the bed. Cover them with about three-fourths inch of soil. I cover the pan with a piece of gunny sack so the sack will be inside of the jaws. I place the pin in the middle of the bed, — everything is covered."
"I use bacon for my bait. After I have the bed all smooth and fine, I cut the bacon in very small pieces, then scatter them all over the bed, say some four inches apart. Coyotes like the bacon. They commence to pick up the small pieces and the first thing they know they are in trouble. I caught in two nights with the eight sets six coyotes."
"I make my beds near the cow trails. I have had better success making my beds near a dead carcass than to set the traps by the carcass. Last October we had an old coyote and five puppies that were killing sheep for one of our neighbors. I set one trap where the herder generally saw them. I caught the five young ones the first five nights. The sixth morning I went to the traps and they were dug up and the bait gone. I reset them and they were in the same shape the next morning. I said to myself, "Old girl, I will fool you." I made another bed some thirty feet from the old one. I set four traps in the new bed and fixed up the old one just the same as I had it before, only minus the traps. The next morning she was caught and had three feet in the traps. She ate all the bait on the old place and had pawed up the ground."
"I do not use scent. I have tried several kinds and consider them no good. I have trailed coyotes where they have been trailing my tracks and found them caught in the traps. I have set traps in the evening and found coyotes in them the next morning. I have been trapping coyotes and wolves for some five years in my county (Billings Co.) I am located on the Little Missouri River a short distance south of the old ranch that President Roosevelt used to own, what is called Bad Land Country."