Freeze-Proof Fox Sets

“Nowadays, I bed traps in buckwheat hulls, cover sets with peat moss, and spray a liberal amount of glycol on both.”

- Ralph Scherder

My fox trapping used to end when the snow arrived. If I got lucky, a January thaw might let me get back out for a week or two, just long enough to put a few more fox on the stretchers. But I didn’t know how to trap fox in ice and snow. As with any new venture, there was a learning curve. My first attempts at winter fox trapping were truly humbling.

One morning dawned with 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground, and I followed a set of fox tracks right to one of my sets. The fox had sat right at the edge of the dirt pattern, somehow worked the bait out of the hole, and then ran off with a chunk of frozen meat and also my pride. The trap was so frozen down I could have driven my truck over it and it wouldn’t have fired.

If you hope to trap fox in the winter, you’ve got to freeze-proof the sets. As I got more determined about winter fox trapping, I experimented with a number of methods. To some extent, they all worked. But a combination of methods provided the best results.

Nowadays, I bed traps in buckwheat hulls, cover sets with peat moss, and spray a liberal amount of glycol on both. The peat moss covering may be replaced with waxed dirt, anthill dirt or whatever else I have available. But for bedding traps, I like those buckwheat hulls.

Yes, a few “name” trappers say buckwheat hulls can spook fox, and I agree. That’s why I typically use them in combination with peat moss or another covering.

But I’ve also caught a fair amount of fox in sets where buckwheat hulls were the only bedding and covering. The trick to using hulls for covering is to take a hard look at each set after it’s made. If it needs to be covered and blended in with something else, then do it.