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comanche

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Everything posted by comanche

  1. comanche
    Poor old Clem had reached his sell-by date. We were not sure how old he was but his teeth were going and at close to 300lbs his old legs and feet were showing the strain. The consensus amongst thosr that claimed to know was that he woukd taste like a dead fox and be tough to the point of being inedible. Mince or burgers seemed the popular option. I wasn't so sure and decided that he deserved better treatment. Especially after talking to a friend with a Ghanaian Sister in Law . Apparently proper superanuated mutton is virtually unobtainable in this country. So there was one
  2. comanche
    Box the cage trap in with wood so it can't scrabble at the bait through the wire and simply has to use the door if it wants the food.
  3. comanche
    Must be all the rain. My two pumpkin plants and two Japanese squash plants seem to have turned into Triffids!
  4. comanche
    Hello Wolfdog. The trap is just over five feet long . Barely the minimum size for a fox cage to my thinking but l only a limited supply of (free?) material to make it. I think most designs for fox cage traps are flawed anyway . They all seem to be too small and based on the run-through type of cages with doors at the end . I can't help thinking that a much bigger cage with some of the panels being solid , and most importantly , a side door would be more efficient. Not unlike those old wolf traps where bait was placed in a round pen . The wolf circled the perimeter until
  5. comanche
    We do occasionally build something over here? Though my efforts are a bit sad when compared with your traps. I made this a years ago from old shelving that came from a shop refit. Its still surprisingly ( considering it's something l made?) in one piece and a few days ago caught the culprit that was sniffing around my chickens . I could tolerate it coming round at night when the girls were shut away . According to a neighbour it was seemingly waiting for me to go to work and spending it's day planning an attack on my hens. I've only two hens ,they are old and don't lay much . I
  6. comanche
  7. comanche
    Thanks for the peek at the catalogue. I recognise several of those trap designs as the sort that turn-up in local sheds and gardens .Now l know why. Fir some reason I didn't associate Fuller's Engineering with Rudgwick (The address is now listed as a dog parlour ) . I had it planted on the industrial estate in Horsham . It could've moved. Or l could be wrong . A quick pick through a couple of books indicates that in1986 it was operating from Worthing , and still in the trap makng business.
  8. comanche
    "Not made in China." That set me thinking. At one time even my home town had a small part to play in the trap making industry . I remember the squirrel multi catch cages didn't really live up to their name and that Fuller made a neat little box housing a built-in spring trap for squirrels that's often referenced in trapping books. Fuller is a common local name and a garden machinery outlet and repair workshop still operates as a family business under it. They even dabbled in making remote controlled cars at one point . With this multi- facetted approach to busin
  9. comanche
    A customer gave me cage trap today; " Had it years never caught anything." Not surprising really when in an effort to catch the squirrels raiding his fruit cage he had baited the treadle with a single rasberry. Not a particularly good rasberry at that. But then l couldn't fly a plane like he did for a living. Each to his own and vive la difference , Nikki le singe est sur le poste de television. Anyway l caught some squirrels for him and he gave me the trap. It brought back a few memories .Just how do they fold? Fumble "Oh yeah. " Weird ,l've posted it in Old Trap
  10. comanche
    ??l know the gummed-up air valve scenario too well. Teach me to leave a Jimny standing for six months; hence the carb cleaner!
  11. comanche
    One baby left home two days before the others. I don't think there was room for all five in the nest but the parents fed it on the shed floor . After they dispersed l found a casualty in the garden but the others seemed to survive. But....just when l thought l had my shed back , today l realised the parents have decided to go for another brood!
  12. comanche
    I had a flurry at the begining of June . Then nothing until the end of last week when l did half a dozen when the Sun came out for a couple of days. Hopefully it will become s bit busier. Lots of foraging hornets about though so l'll polish my armour for the end of July?
  13. comanche
    "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?" That line ,credited to a rather notorious Actress of the Classic Hollywood era , can still raise a smile today . Though the firearm aspect of the quote has generally been replaced by a less subtle reference to a banana . Yesterday l set forth into the woods with not a gun ,or a banana , but a fishing rod in my pocket . A little forest ghyll that is for the most only a few inches deep and a couple of feet wide had been dammed many years ago to provide a local water supply . I had no idea if it even held any f
  14. comanche
    I had barely crawled out of bed yesterday when the phone rang. It was a lovely elderly lady . Her little two acres of wilderness in the middle of town seems to be the the place where any mangey fox on its last legs chooses to hole-up and die. It helps that the garden can't be overlooked due to its high walls. I get regular calls to help them on their way and usually go home with a pot of jam or honey and a small financial reward. I arrived ,parked the van just inside the gate and snuck towards the spot where the fox - a very bald and scabby specimen-was said to be having a nap
  15. comanche
    After a couple of cancelled trips we finally managed to get out boat fishing. The catch included mackerel,bream,bass ,conger and undulate rays. Though l didn't catch any conger or rays myself l did end up as Tope Catching King. All day long the mini-sharks ,mostly between 10 and 20lbs, kept hoovering-up my badly presented baits. What made it fun was that l was using an old cane rod and a reel that is best described as a quirky but well considered bit of British engineering. Made by Grice and Young ,The Orlando looks like a simple drum reel apart from a weird sticky-out th
  16. comanche
    Last year l couldn't use my bicycle because blackbirds nested in one of the panniers . My mate who had left his Landrover parked on my front lawn while he worked on it couldn't move it because another blackbird decided his engine bay was a great place to raise a brood. This year l have a nest in my shed.Luckily the parents are of the tolerant sort and put up with me creeping in and out for tools and work gear. It probably helps that l try to make up for any disturbance and buy their confidence by scattering a few worms on the lawn every day. Even though do try to time my visits w
  17. comanche
    I had a pile of old rebar offcuts and chicken mesh. Metal Micky the local scrap man doesn't like wire. So l made a Birthday present for a friend. WARNING ; proper metal fabricators wishing to avoid trauma should not enlarge the picture to examine the atrocities that pass for arc-welded joints.?
  18. comanche
    Once pulled into a farmyard to see a bloke wearing shorts and a tee shirt precariously balenced up a ladder injecting Cymag into a wasps' nest with a little brass hand pump that took both hands to operate. So no protective gear of any kind ,all alone , perched hands-free on an unsecure ladder dispensing a , by then, illegal and rather dodgy chemical at less than an arms length into a nest-full of angry jaspers. That could've been a dangerous situation. It was OK though ; he obviously knew what he was doing ,coz he had his eyes screwed closed and had turned his face away
  19. comanche
    The aging memory plays tricks ,but l'm convinced that years ago l heard that a couple chaps involved with the original trials of phostoxin tablets almost came to grief. Even though they had been screwed shut a part-used tub leaked enough fumes into the back of their vehicle to kill their dogs . The operators just managed to drive to hospital in time to save themselves . After that the tablets were coated in wax to slow their reaction with damp air. One story l know is true involves a tin of Cymag erupting on a pumping machine ,probably from a build up of pressure in a blind t
  20. comanche
    I don't know if the people following or contributing to this trap thread have seen the little trap video in the Country Crafts section of the Forum. If you haven't , have a look at the second bit of film in the "Olden Days Tools and Traps" thread?
  21. comanche
    It's the intrinsic strength and quality of the things that is a testament to their makers. Even today the springs still hold their temper and rust is often only supeficial . The modern view seems to be to use as little material as possible . Then give everything a quick dip in something silver to hide the fact that it's made of something with the iron content of a dog biscuit . Here's one l spotted in a customer's garage this very morning. A sort of middle sized one. One from my shed. And the same one . *Event reconstructed by an actor .
  22. comanche
    That tale in itself needs to be incorporated into any book that does surface on the subject . It's part of Fenn History ! Rodent Lime £6 for a half pound tub 9 I guess Mr Fenn was referring to the Springer. Had he forgotten to renew his patent? The same catalogue lists the Mk4 and Mk6 Fenn Specials . I guess it was the stainless steel treadle that nade them special . And you could save yourself 25p by ordering the trap without a chain .
  23. comanche
    ?So by the time the Mk111 came about, the patent had been granted.
  24. comanche
    Can't work out from the photo if Phil's Mk111 wire-framed Fenn has the four little holes in the plate that mine has . Both my ones have the same patent numbers on the trigger catch even though they are different .
  25. comanche
    Yes. The little bird trap . I pinched that one from my brother as well? I've one somewhere in the loft that's still fitted with the mesh for enveloping its victim.
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