Trapping coyote is a difficult and dangerous part of predator hunting.
Coyotes of course are predators themselves, and they’re hunted for many reasons: for sport; for the protection of livestock and other animals; sometimes even for meat and fur; and sometimes just to take a problem animal out of a location where they interfere with the lives of humans and domesticated animals, and ship them to somewhere else.
That means there are different sorts of traps for different sorts of coyote hunting – deadly traps, immobilizing traps, and traps designed merely to keep the coyote caged until they can be dealt with by human authorities.
Watch where you’re stepping, hunter, and let us pick you out the best traps for coyote on the market.
In a hurry? Here’s out top pick.
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Our Pick
Best Traps For Coyote - Comparison Table
Rank | Product Image | Product Name | Buy on Amazon |
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4 | Duke 0470 Coil Spring Animal Trap | ||
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Best Traps For Coyote - Reviews
The Redneck Convent Versatile Snare Kit lives up to its name – allowing you to snare a range of game and problem animals.
Each snare is 60 inches (152.4cm) of 3/32nd 7x7 cable with a 9-gauge HD end swivel, polyethylene plastic support collar, lock, and 12-inch (30.5cm) loop stop limit.
That means you can catch any animal from raccoon to coyote, and from groundhog to gray fox, all with the same snare kit.
State laws and hunting regulations are complicated, and in some areas, there are requirements for deer stops so that any deer snagged can be freed.
The Redneck Convent kit comes with a nut that works as an optional floating deer stop, to help you stay on the right side of the law if you snag an accidental deer.
Snares are straightforward trapping mechanisms to begin with, but the Redneck Convent kit lets you create a slip knot, anchored to a nearby tree or fence, so the snare comes down reliably and fast.
The Redneck Convent snares are also loaded, putting tension in their loop and making them snap closed faster when coyote go through them.
For reliable snaring, careful thought in design and for adding precision to your coyote trapping, the Redneck Convent wins itself the top spot on our list of best traps for coyote.
Pros
Cons
Going more hardcore and moving from snares to traps, Duke #2 CS Offset Traps with a 5.5. jaw spread work well for more than one animal.
Duke has a strong reputation in the market – and it’s a company strongly represented on our list – so the sturdy steel construction should be no surprise. The CS Offset Traps won’t rust, even after years of use, and getting a pack of four adds to the value for money of this pack, pushing it higher up our list of best coyote traps.
The CS Offsets though are traps to be reckoned with. Where the Redneck Convents score highly for their ease of use, the CS Offsets need some elbow grease and a few muscles to set up. You’re going to need some power in your push to set the CS Offsets up properly, because their effectiveness comes from the tension in their mechanism. If you don’t have the power in your hands to force them open, the CS Offsets might be more your masters than your servants.
Though less straightforward than the Redneck Convents, and despite not coming with rubber pads to minimise harm, the CS Offsets don’t immediately kill the animals that get caught in them, giving you the chance to decide what happens to the prey you catch.
To trap prey and nuisance animals though, they’re relentlessly effective, and good value for money in the four-pack, allowing you a handful of chances to catch a particular coyote or the opportunity to see what other prey or nuisance critters are in your vicinity. Chances are the Duke CS Offsets will give you years of reliable trapping, but be sure to adjust the pan tension so they work to their maximum efficiency when you first get them. Find more great products like this by checking out our guide to the best coyote trap bait
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The Humane Way 914083 Live Animal Trap will do at least most of what it promises.
It’s a trap designed to leave the animal alive, safe and unharmed so you can decide its fate.
It’s a sturdy trap, and in the X-Large size (42x18x16), it should be large enough to deal with most coyote.
Humane Way builds its traps out of thick wire, and reinforces their doors and latches, so even a feisty coyote shouldn’t be able to escape once it’s been trapped.
All the wires in the trap have been galvanized and powder-coated, to prevent rusting and corrosion – especially important in this full-body style of trap to avoid the possibility of the coyote wounding itself when trapped.
It’s also painted with an anti-glare coating for camouflage in the dark – necessary when dealing with a trap as large as the animal it’s intended to catch. The mesh of the trap though is small enough to prevent coyote from stealing bait from inside without triggering the trap.
The door is gravity-operated, which reduces air resistance as it closes, to make sure the coyote, once inside, can’t get out again before the trap closes.
It’s easy to set up – Humane Way claims it goes from nearly flat to assembled in seconds without the need of tools – the trigger rod’s on the outside, and there are handles on both sides, to make carrying the trapped animal easier.
This all sounds great – so why isn’t the Humane Way 914038 higher up our list?
Mostly, that’s down to a few cautionary tales from users.
Some claim the idea that it’s easy to put up doesn’t match their experience. Others that, despite the edges being supposedly rounded before the trap’s sent out, it still had sharp edges that were dangerous to the caught animals.
Most of all though, some users claim the door didn’t close or the trap wasn’t sprung, so the bait was eaten without catching anything.
Be aware that your mileage may vary – the 914038 is supposedly built for coyote, and some of those who claim it didn’t work for them were trying to trap significantly lighter animals. But having several users claim different failure points pushes the Humane Way trap further down our list than it would otherwise be.
Nevertheless, plenty of coyote trappers also report good results with this trap, proving it certainly can do what you’re paying for it to do. Check it out when you’ve put it together, feel for any rough spots, and make sure you weight the trap for coyote, and the Humane Way 914038 should give you the results you want. We have also reviewed the best coyote calls, so check them out as well.
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Duke 0470 Coil Spring Animal Trap
Our rating
The Duke 0470, like other traps on our list, can be hard to open at first if you’re new to the art of trapping.
In fact, if you’re new to the art of trapping, the 0470 might not be the first trap you’ll want to put into your basket, as it comes with little to no customer support or instructions.
Once you’ve grown accustomed to it though, the chances are you’ll find it easy to set up and use to trap coyote.
If you happen to have a problem with, or a desire to trap, foxes too, the 0470 could be especially useful to you, as many users have reported both members of the dog family being reliably trapped by the Coil Spring trap.
Made from quality steel (like most Duke traps), it’s designed to be exceptionally effective for a low price. Its size, ability to be used for several types of trapping and many types of prey, from small to medium, and its grab-and-go versatility make it a trap you can’t afford to ignore if you’re aiming to trap coyote.
As we’ve said, if this is your first time trapping, there are better options on the market for you than the 0470 – try the first two products on our list before you test your strength with this one. But if you’re reasonably experienced, and particularly if you’re trapping for population control rather than necessarily to kill the animals, its versatility, reliability and price point might very well make the 0470 your new best friend. Check out our review of the best coyote mouth calls for more picks.
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If you’re looking for a coyote trap that goes in all guns blazing and kills the coyote instantly, you should be looking at the Duke 330 Double Spring Body Trap.
Another all-steel trap from Duke, you’re looking at a 10” jaw-spread with the 330, and as you might expect, it’s an extra-strong trap, designed to make no bones about its business, but to kill coyote effectively, efficiently, time after time and year after year.
You might call it the sneakiest rifle you’ll ever own.
As with most traps on our list, this is a contraption that takes some effort to open and set – so much so that even experienced trappers advise using the setting tool to get it ready. That’s especially useful when the trap is new and the springs are factory-stiff.
Don’t fool around with a trap this powerful – get the setting tool and use it so that you can set it up properly and get the results you want.
As the name of the trap makes clear, you can use it for other prey or nuisance animals besides coyote. It’s been used reliably for beaver, bobcat, otter and others.
On the other hand, it’s an indiscriminate killer – anything that sets off the trap is likely to be dead seconds later, so it’s not by any means the most sophisticated trap either on our list or on the market. It’s a catch-all, kill-most, nine-times-out-of-ten meat-maker.
The only time there’s really any chance of the Duke 330 not turning a live animal into a dead animal on contact is when it comes up against some of the larger and heavier coyote. That’s the only animal users say the Duke 330 didn’t kill immediately, so make a judgment call on how large and heavy you think the coyote you’re out to trap might be. If it’s bigger and heavier than usual, even the Duke 330 may not be enough to absolutely, positively deal with your problem.
For most coyote though, and certainly for everything smaller than coyote, the Duke 330 is ruthlessly efficient and effective, for all it’s indiscriminate and potentially messy. It’s a trap that needs treating with extreme respect, but in doing what it does, and in the reliability with which it does it, it’s practically impossible to beat.
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Best Traps For Coyote - Buyers Guide
If you’re trapping coyote, the product you need will depend on lots of factors: the reason you’re trapping them; the care you want to take to ensure their survival; your level of experience with trapping wild animals. All of these will play into the decisions you need to make to ensure you buy the right trap for the job.
First, Catch Your Motive
Know why you’re trapping coyote. Do you want to keep them alive for transport out of your backyard? Do you actively want dead coyote? Do you intend to trap them in an area where local laws or hunting regulations apply to the preservation of other species like deer?
If you need to keep them alive, you’d obviously go for a trap that ensures that, like the Humane Way or the list-leading Redneck Convent snare kit. If you’re happy to kill them all, employ the heavyweight execution skills of the Duke 330. But if you’re trapping in a deer-protection region, check the law and the hunting regulations before you click the ‘buy’ button, because that might stop you from deploying an indiscriminate killing machine in the area.
Do You Feel Lucky?
Trapping is not a pastime for the dumb or the reckless. It can though be a pastime for beginners as well as old hands – after all, you can’t become an old hand unless you start somewhere.
Assess your level of confidence and competence with trapping and snaring, and see what’s more important to you at your level – ease of set-up, certainty of result, or power of trap. Don’t kid yourself you’re more advanced than you are, but go for a trap or snare that will help you as you are today, trap coyote. That’s the only way you improve at this – by doing it successfully, time after time. Pick a trap or snare that helps you do that.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I set the tension on a coyote trap?
Carefully. If there’s a tool to help you, don’t be proud, get the tool – it exists for a reason, and that reason is to make your life easier and safer.
Set the tension according to the type of trap or snare you’re using. You want it to be fast, so it traps the coyote in spite of the animal’s predatory instincts, but not so fast it’ll take your fingers off if you have an accident with it.
Some snares, like the Redneck Convent, are weighted for extra snap and speed. Make use of the in-built features of your trap or snare to minimize the risk to yourself.
Where you have to set the tension by hand, be bold about it – some traps can be extra-stiff when they’re new. Use the strength you have and be the trap’s master.
What’s a reasonable price for a coyote trap?
That depends on how many coyote you’re dealing with, how many other critters you’re looking to trap, and whether you’re trapping as a once-off or as a yearly activity.
If you’re going to be trapping coyote year in, year out, don’t be afraid to pay for quality materials and even for an established name. It’ll pay you dividends by being re-usable, by not rusting, and by reliably doing the job you need it to do, time after time.
