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Post by rk660 on Sept 12, 2006 23:34:44 GMT -6
not "smoothness" Edge, i said the coldness of the metal might be one reason why guys have better luck on them. More than anything, a pan does get the trigger wires out of a critters face which DOES lead to refusals to greater or lessor degrees. I used to use some 220 with hardware cloth pans, and covered with wet grass in water, just above surface, and it worked like a charm. I know a fella in KS that is having great sucess with 220's in boxes with the trigger wires bent back and llayed about horizontal into box. Both his box design and trigger wire placement I believe lead to his sucess. I do believe when an animal approaches a conibear type set that you are trying to coax them into, as opposed to amushing them in trail sets, your trigger wires are part of the problem many times. Im sure a guy could cover a metal pan with something if the cold metal was a problem, and probibly have a more durable pan. One other deal I have heard of that probibly has some merit too is sliding grass stems over your trigger wires. A guy in Alaska does this on woverine cubbies w/ 330's and says the natural grass over the trigger wires makes a huge difference. Ive been laying my trigger wire back into box or bucket at about a 45 degree angle for some time now, and it does make some difference on buckets compared to straight up and down stiff wires in their face.. I would like to find something different thou as Im still not totallly sastified with bucket sucess. These wood or maybe a metal pan may be the answear. Hardware cloth on 220 triggers is kinda a pain to use, something more durable and easyer to adjust would be nice.
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Post by buckfreak on Sept 13, 2006 0:55:12 GMT -6
Try using adhesive backed sanding discs in about sixty grit and you do away with the metal feel. They don't take water very well but in boxes on dry ground they work.
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Post by gcs on Sept 13, 2006 5:45:13 GMT -6
RK, when you bend back the trigger wires, are they coming up from the bottom like a pan does, or back from the top ?
I made some pans out of doubled hardware cloth, with the trigger wires snaked through and bent over, so far it's pretty durable and has worked in a bucket, but I set very few due to too much people congestion.
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Post by trappnman on Sept 13, 2006 7:43:56 GMT -6
I'll post a picture later today-
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Post by JLDakota on Sept 13, 2006 15:55:19 GMT -6
The pans on bodygrippers have made the rounds for quite a few years and Tom Krause's hardware cloth rendition and the metal pans made by serveral trappers have been used by myself and probably most every body gripper box or cubby trapper for a long time with varying degrees of success. Rod is one of the first to market the wooden rendition and this is at least his 3rd change and in my opinion the best. The angle of the pan (in the area of 20 deg rise) is IMO the secret to the high success Rod has experienced in the box and cubby sets. Larger animals fire with their chin or whatever and the small animals mink, weasel etc most probably use it as a landing place or spring board of sorts. Angled pans of any material would probably work. As mentioned, Rod Scott, is MN trapper with numbers, miles and years behind him. He has experimented with high success on this angled wooden pan on boxes and with most animals one would attempt to trap in 160/220 boxes or cubbies. IMO the pan size can be adjusted to work with most probably any type or size bodygripper. FWIW, IMO, time spent experimenting with the positioning of the front of the box or cubby from a heigth and angle standpoint to make the entrance inviting is time well spent. JL
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Post by trappnman on Sept 13, 2006 16:26:40 GMT -6
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Post by thebeav2 on Sept 13, 2006 17:31:01 GMT -6
Bill Kasten was showing me someting just like taht at the FTA convention.
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Post by coyotewhisperer on Sept 13, 2006 17:33:37 GMT -6
Well now that I've seen them I'd like a dozen but can't seem to get a price out of anybody That $ is just burning a hole in my pocket ;D Jeff
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Post by Steve Gappa on Sept 13, 2006 17:37:28 GMT -6
$9 for 6, $17 a doz
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Post by edge on Sept 13, 2006 21:23:19 GMT -6
OHhhhhhh...........a treadle..........clevah;clevah............
I can see the sleek ones wanting to land on that,then,
!!THAWACK!!
Slicker than owlchit.
I approve.
Edge
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Post by mustelameister on Sept 14, 2006 8:25:43 GMT -6
Hmmmm . . . . what if a guy glued a thin sheath of bark over this bright rectangle of wood, say with liquid nails . . .
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Post by thebeav2 on Sept 14, 2006 8:58:13 GMT -6
Dip It in the dye bath, a lot simpler.
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Post by mustelameister on Sept 14, 2006 12:39:49 GMT -6
Gary, I agree with you if we're talking #220s for 'coon. But . . . I think #120s set up this way, or even #160s set up this way for mink might just score a few more of the smarter bucks that weave their way along the shoreline.
A chunk of bark they're used to jumping onto. A rectangular block of wood they might attempt to leap over. Just a thought.
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Post by thebeav2 on Sept 14, 2006 15:27:14 GMT -6
I agree to a point. As to your statement on mink jumping over the block,.that might be a problem on the bigger traps but i think with the small opening on the 110 or 120 I think the mink may be slowed down so It just might step on the bark covered block. My problem with the wooden coni pan is It's use on 110s or 120s. Will the wooden pan close up the opening on these small traps so you are forcing the mink through a much smaller opening? Lets say the top of the wooded coni pan sets up off the jaw about 1 1/2" that will close off the opening and leave you about 2 1/2" for the mink to enter. I think that's way to small to force a mink to go through the trap. Just my take on things. Now a 160 set up with a coni pan for mink might get It done.
Gary
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Post by thebeav2 on Sept 14, 2006 16:48:06 GMT -6
I just went out and built one. I find It takes lots of pressure to spring the trap with the coni pan In place.The problem lies In If your not right out on the very edge It will hardly go off. The more centered the pan Is the harder It Is to set off. The farther the pan sets out away from the jaws the easier It Is to set off. Will this cause the trap to be more directional? The other thing that happens Is when the trap goes off It catches the pan In the jaws. I don't know If this would be a problem. The one I built was set up on a 110.
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Post by HappyPlumber on Sept 14, 2006 21:11:42 GMT -6
Ask Red Fox how the ones I made last year work. I removed the old trigger mechanism entirely. I made a wooden pan about the size of a conventional wooden rat trap only 1/4 " thick by 3" wide and 6" long. The trigger mechanism was simply 2 pieces of 3/16" square stock on the underside on center with a 7/8"spread. The center an top had a hole drilled (but not all the way through) to put bait in. Red fox said he caught some mink in it. I painted mine flat black but I think the pan needed dirt or sand glued to it. I never tested mine but by removing the old trigger it let more room for the aninmal to get though. I got the idea from the DNR using 10" black drain tile to count the mink movement in an area. They would put a wooden pan in the bottom with some fine dirt on it and then check it once a week and count the tracks. The reason mink avoid metal is because they are in and out of water at below freezing temps. The metal will cause then to freeze tight when touched. HP
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Post by rk660 on Sept 15, 2006 1:34:46 GMT -6
Gary, know what you mean about coni pans getting between jaws. I guess that was one advantage of the hardware cloth pans and I never even knew it till now. They bend and fold when caught and dont cause a lost catch. With a 4x6 pan on a 220 they where deadly on blind sets for mink. shallow little seeps that would get torn up when using legholds and a little big to block, but a panned 220 saved the location and was quicker to drop in and fence. it really was the cat's meow. If you cant guide them into a 4x6 pan to step on, you better hang it up, LOL.
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Post by thebeav2 on Sept 15, 2006 6:47:14 GMT -6
I don't like to rain on anyones parade but a small pan on a small trap won't work.If the mink or weasel steps on the center of the pan It won't trigger the trap since there Is no tipping motion. Now If the pan was built with one edge 4" from the center of the triggered jaw and the animal stepped on the leading edge It will trigger. The farther away from the jaw the more sensitive the pan will be.
The use of the wooden pan set up really closes up the opening on the small trap. This would slow down a mink and make It crawl through or walk through so this could be a good thing, but you still have the issue of a Small light footed animal springing the trap.
RIK660
So Is the pan 4" wide and 6" long. Is the edge of the pan centered on the triggered jaw and then sticks out 6" from that point? If so I can see It working. But If the 4x6 pan Is centered over the two jaws I can't see how It would work.
As long as the wooden pan Is attached to the jaw It will end up being caught between the jaws, there Is no way around It. I don't know If this would result In a lost animal since the mink would be sandwiched between the jaw and the pan surface.
I'll build one today on a 160 and a 220 and see If It works.
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Post by trappnman on Sept 15, 2006 6:52:45 GMT -6
Build them all day beav- they work.
It takes a feather touch to fire the pan on the far edge. Perhaps yours aren't like Rod's?
THey are NOT for 110s.
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Post by thebeav2 on Sept 15, 2006 7:05:44 GMT -6
Like I said I will build one and see. As far as I can tell from your pics mine Is the same. I removed the trigger wires from the trigger body and then used a light piece of flat stock bent at a right angle and then drilled a hole to match the hole In the trigger assembly and re attached the flat stock In said assembly. I'm assuming thats how they are built from the pics you posted.
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