The trap may be left unanchored or anchored. Either draghooks may be attached to a chain (preferably 6 feet long) fastened by a swivel to the trap base or to a spring, and all buried underneath, or a steel stake pin ([fig. 1, A and C]) may be used, attached by a swivel to a 6-foot chain fastened to the base or a spring of the trap. If a stake pin is used, it should be driven full length into the ground near the right-hand spring of the trap, with the trigger and pan directly toward the operator. Anchoring the trap is the preferred method, because animals caught are obtained without loss of time and because other animals are not driven out of their course by one of their kind dragging about a dangling, clanking trap, often the case where drag hooks are used.
The next stage ([fig. 2, A and B]) is the careful burying of the trap and building up of a so-called shoulder around and under the pan. This should be so built that, when it is completed, the shape of the ground within the jaws of the trap represents an inverted cone, in order to give a foundation for the pan cover, commonly called the “trap pad.” The trap pad may be made of canvas, of old “slicker cloth,” or even of a piece of ordinary wire fly screen cut into the shape shown in [Figure 2, A]. The trap pad to be effective must contain no foreign odor that might arouse the suspicion of wolf or coyote.
In placing the trap pad over the pan and onto the shoulders of the dirt built up for carrying it, the utmost care must be taken to see that no rock, pebble, or dirt slips under the pan, which would prevent the trap from springing. With the trap pad in place ([fig. 2, A]), the entire trap is carefully covered with the remaining portion of earth on the setting cloth ([fig. 3, B]).
Cover traps at least half an inch deep with dry dust if possible. It is well to have the covered surface over the trap a little lower than the surrounding ground, for a wolf or a coyote is then less apt to scratch and expose the trap without springing it. Furthermore, the animal will throw more weight on a foot placed in a depression, and thus is more likely to be caught deeper on the foot and with a firmer grip. All surplus earth on the setting cloth not needed for covering the trap should be taken a good distance away and scattered evenly on the ground.
B19744; B24416; B19745
Figure 3.—Completed trap sets, with ground made to blend again with surroundings. The small stone in the foreground of A and the triangular stick in B serve to break the natural gait of the animal and cause it to step directly over it onto the pan of the trap; C, place the scent on side of brush or weed that is nearest the trap