Currently in North America trapping wild furbearers is undertaken as both an outdoor sport and a vocation. A great way to get started in such an undertaking is by trapping raccoon. The market for raccoon pelts has been well established for decades and depending on your location you may also find a ready market for the meat. Very little equipment is required to get started, and you only need to learn how to make a few simple sets.
To begin catching raccoons you will first need either a trap or a snare. The great thing about raccoons is that they can be caught in almost any type of trap. Cage traps, footholds, body grippers, dog proof traps, or simple snares will all catch raccoons for you. Now we will go into how and where to set each type to bring the most success.
Raccoons are very adaptive to any available habitat. Like all animals they will require food and shelter. These animals are omnivores and will eat an amazing array of both plant and animal matter. They will feed in crop fields and gardens, on back porches were pet food is left out, and out of garbage cans. They will also take advantage of road kill. They are not just scavengers; raccoons will hunt fish, frogs, crayfish, birds, and small mammals. For shelter they make use of attics, barns, abandoned buildings, hollow logs or trees, crevices in rocks or building foundations, small caves, or any place else they can curl up and sleep the day away without being bothered by predators.
If you have coons on your porch or in your garbage it will be readily apparent. Otherwise search for the trails raccoons use when travelling from den sites to feeding and hunting grounds. Where field edges meet woodlots, banks of creeks and rivers, and culverts under roads separating likely pieces of habitat should be checked for tracks and scat. The places you find sign are the places to set your traps.
Cage and dog proof taps are both very simple to use. Set the trap, place it near an active trail, add bait, and check back in the morning. These two traps are often the best choice when trapping populated areas because they minimize the chance of catching someone’s free ranging pet.
Body grip traps and snares are both used by placing them centered directly in the trail were the raccoon will walk through them as it travels along. If the trail is too wide it can be narrowed down with weeds or brush to help steer the coon into the center of the trap. Also it is sometimes useful to lean a small branch over the top of your snare or body gripper so the coon will find it easier to walk through your set instead of deciding to climb over your trap. Foothold traps can be hidden in the trail by digging a shallow hole to set them in then covering them with a thin layer of dirt. Or they can be used near the trail to make a dirt hole set.
The dirt hole set is simple to make. Begin by bedding your trap in a shallow hole and covering it with dirt. Then dig a hole two or three inches wide and a foot or so deep behind the trap. Bait is placed down the hole and a backing of rocks or sticks is put in place so the easiest approach for the raccoon to get to your bait is by walking over the trap. Whichever trap and set you choose to use be sure to fasten it securely either staking the end of the trap chain into the ground or tying it off to a heavy object that a coon will not be able to move very far.
These two sets can be varied innumerable ways to deal with any situation. Keep an open mind and if you think something will work to catch a raccoon, give it a go. Traps and ready-made bait and lure can be purchased from sporting goods dealers or mail order supply houses. Pet food, table scraps, and raw fish all make good cheap baits. So set out some steel and catch yourself some raccoons. You will be putting to use the same skills as the first explorers of North America. It is a great way to enrich your life and by selling the pelts and meat from your catch, you can also enrich your pocketbook.
