DIY Box Traps for Raccoons

When I started trapping in the 1950s, money was scarce for a boy growing up in the country. We built our own box traps for small animals, mainly rabbits.

There were many designs to copy, but nothing was said about bigger box traps for bigger animals. Coon, skunk, and possum were caught with foothold traps.

Sometime in the mid-1970s, I started getting requests from local farmers who wanted me to remove coon that were raiding their cattle and hog feed. The one stipulation was that they did not want their dogs or barn cats hurt in the process.

Suitable cage traps could be bought at the hardware store, but I felt the price was too high for a self-sufficient woods loafer like me. I built most of the other things I needed, including the smaller box traps. I didn't see any reason I couldn't design and build a wood box trap for raccoons.

I tried different versions and would like to share one I designed 40 years ago and have been using successfully ever since. I will not provide diagrams with exact specifications because I make them in different sizes for different locations. Anyone with knowledge of how a box trap works and basic wood carpentry skills should be able to understand the design and make one by looking at the photographs while reading the captions and story. What I will do is give you some tips so you do not have to flounder through the same learning mistakes I made.

 A door in the roof of the box makes the trap easy to set. Just be sure it is securely made and fastened. If a coon gets it open, it will squeeze through.

First of all, do not go out and buy all of the materials you think you need. The No. 1 reason for building them yourself is to save money. Most of the houses, barns, outbuildings, and chicken coops I have built over the years have been made with rough cut sawmill lumber from trees I felled myself, most boards being 1-inchthick pine, hemlock, or spruce. They worked just fine for wood box traps, too.