I live in southeastern minnesota and would like to start trapping raccoons foxes and coyotes if possible. What do i need to get going (i.e. kinds of traps, equipment, etc.) thanks.

I would reccommend you started with the racoons and fox before trying to graduate to coyotes. Coyotes are hard to trap and you will get frustrated if you have no trapping experiece. I like Sleepy Creek 1 1/2 OS modified coil springs. These are a great little trap and work very well for coon and fox. If you are going to try the coyotes I recommend MB-650 IL, yotes can' t tear them up. They are a little hard on the pocket book, but well worth it.
You will need a digging hammer, a heavy duty trowell, a dirt sifter, a whisk broom, pan covers or pads, urine bait and lure. As for stakes i prefer the berkshire disposable stakes, otherwise you can make your own out of rebar with a nut and washer welded on.
I would highly recommend you get the books The Dirthole set, and The Flat set by Charles Dobbins. These are invaluable to the beginner. He goes through equipment, as well as how to set and where to set. Farmland Fur Trapping by Bernie Beringer is good as well for a general book. That one will help you with the coons.
Hope this helps. The best advice I can give you is to get those three books and go from there. Good luck and let me know if you need anything else.

Trapping raccoons can be fun and fairly easy if you can do it right. Some good sets to try are a blind set and a dirt hole set. With a dirt hole set what I find works well is to find a beaver chewed log about 6 inches in diameter and slam it into the mud until you get the depth that you want. Then you should use duck or fish for bait and place a # 1 1/2 pan trap and hide it well. Put this set somewhere so that the animal has to come from the side your trap is on. For a blind set find a trail going through cattails by a slough and put a trap on it. These work very well too but in my experience each trail usually produces one or two coon. GOOD LUCK!

mez seems to know his stuff. 1 1/2 & 2 coilsprings work best for all of these animals. Work around water for coon and intersections between fields and forests for fox and coyote. Good Luck.

I use a 1 3/4 coil spring for all my coon, fox, and coyote dryland sets. They have 8 inches of chain with a mid chain swivle and stake swivel on end. I use 18 inch rebar stakes in heavy soil, and 22 inch rebar in light soil. I like #11 long springs in water sets for coon.