I never thought I would be so excited catching a whiff of animal urine and musk coming from a package I ordered. I was giddy when I opened my package of traps, scents and baits from PCS Outdoors recently.

Pick up an issue of Whitetail Journal magazine or read any number of articles in the Quality Whitetail magazine put out by the QDMA or research it online, and you can quickly find out what kind of damage coyotes are doing to fawn recruitment numbers in the Southeast and elsewhere.

A few of my hunting buddies and I hunt and manage a piece of property in east-central Alabama (Borrowed Acres) for deer and turkeys. Since last year, we’ve put in a lot of time and money building food plots, opening up the forest canopy to improve browse, bedding and nesting cover, setup mineral sites, and a number of other wildlife improvement projects. We can do all of this work until are hearts are content, but if we’re letting the abundant coyote population thin our fawn crop each summer, then we’re throwing money down the drain.

Now that we’ve put a full year of habitat and wildlife management under our belts on the 500 acres we manage and hunt, it’s time to trap summer coyotes. Last year I had the pleasure of riding shotgun with a professional coyote trapper during the summer months just prior to our fawn drop. I learned a lot of information and techniques for trapping summer coyotes and now I’m ready to put it into action on our place.

The first thing I did was contact PCS Outdoors to order my supplies. John Chagnon of PCS Outdoors is a wealth of trapping knowledge and if you’re new to trapping like I was, then Jon is the man you’ll want to talk to. He can help you formulate a plan for your trapping and let you know the best products to use for your needs.

I went with Duke traps. Duke has been making traps since 1938 and is well known for a quality product. I ordered a dozen #2 coilspring offset leg-hold traps and a dozen #4 coilspring offset leg-hold traps for coyotes. I also got a dozen Duke dog-proof traps for raccoons this fall and winter. Not only are the coons eating up feed that we put out in the off-season for deer, but they are major predators of turkey and quail eggs in the spring.

Over the next few weeks and throughout the summer I’m going to be sharing my summer trapping experiences with you via articles and video. I'll show you how to get your traps ready for the field as well as set ups and techniques.  If you have questions about summer trapping or tips that can get me farther along then email me at molis@grandviewmedia.com or leave a comment below.