Body grip traps for mink

[Guest JohnGalway]

Hi folks,

 

As you are all no doubt painfully aware by now from my recent rambling I'm getting into trapping a few mink. At the moment I'm using single entry live catch cage traps. These work but I have two problems, they're on loan so they're not mine, and culling the mink is presenting it's own problem.

 

After a chat Snareman (top bloke as always )a few different types of traps have been suggested to me. One being the body grip type trap (the others were konibear (spelling?) and fenn (I have two). I'd like to try out these body grip traps as they are not out of the way price wise and will dispatch the mink for me

 

As I have no experience myself of using these I'm asking around for tips and advice. First thing I need to know is what size bodygrip trap is best for mink?

 

Second thing I would like to hear about is the settings that different people use them in. I believe that in the UK these are like fenns that they need to be set in natural or artifical tunnels. I plan to make some wooden tunnels to use them in, the mink researcher has told me that on his mink rafts they use a hole of 75mm which has kept out non target animals thus far, so I'd use one hold like that on each end of my artifical tunnel. If you have a better idea which works for you with mink please let me know

 

Any other useful information would be appreciated. As I am a complete green newbie to this don't think anything to be too basic

 

Thanks all,

 

John

 

Edited to add, links to pictures would be helpful also, they tell a thousand words I'm led to believe.

 

...and is one brand better than another? I know I'll need a setter also.

Edited November 24, 2007 by JohnGalway

[micky 3,325]

Hi folks,

 

As you are all no doubt painfully aware by now from my recent rambling I'm getting into trapping a few mink. At the moment I'm using single entry live catch cage traps. These work but I have two problems, they're on loan so they're not mine, and culling the mink is presenting it's own problem.

 

After a chat Snareman (top bloke as always )a few different types of traps have been suggested to me. One being the body grip type trap (the others were konibear (spelling?) and fenn (I have two). I'd like to try out these body grip traps as they are not out of the way price wise and will dispatch the mink for me

 

As I have no experience myself of using these I'm asking around for tips and advice. First thing I need to know is what size bodygrip trap is best for mink?

 

Second thing I would like to hear about is the settings that different people use them in. I believe that in the UK these are like fenns that they need to be set in natural or artifical tunnels. I plan to make some wooden tunnels to use them in, the mink researcher has told me that on his mink rafts they use a hole of 75mm which has kept out non target animals thus far, so I'd use one hold like that on each end of my artifical tunnel. If you have a better idea which works for you with mink please let me know

 

 

John,go to MURRAYS LURES AND TRAPPING SUPPLIES ,they have everything you need and even with postage there very cheap.I use Bodygrips on trail legs for rabbits [there deadly].I use setting tongs to open ,and close the traps ,and always use safety grips when siteing and adjustng he trap.I have caught two mink in this set up[my total] and

both were dead mickyl,

.

[Guest JohnGalway]

Thanks for that Micky, I'll check out Murrays

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

John; A 'Conibear' is a Body Gripper / Species Specific trap, mate. Just named after the guy who's credited with inventing the form.

 

Regards which make? Like I was saying in Chat; Cheap traps are a disaster. I've handled a Lot of different makes of Coni'. I'll personally always go that extra few cents and buy Belisle. 'Probably the best BG in the world'

[Guest JohnGalway]

Cheers Ditch, the Conibear in the list was a brain fart. I meant Kania!

[Guest JohnGalway]

Thanks CW, he looks to be at a dead enough level for my linking lol.

[OldTrapCollector 376]

I'm not the best person to ask about BG's, John. I never caught on to them and they came after my time catching vermin on a large scale. I always used the Fenn traps almost exclusively, with the odd Juby or Imbra thrown in for good measure. I would think that the usual tunnel/cubby/blind/pocket etc sets would work for them as they did for my old Fenns. I have a few BG's in my collection here and can say that they vary greatly. The BMI Magnums are the only legal ones over here and are easily man enough to do the job as Chalkwarren pointed out earlier. I know Ditch prefers the Belisle from Canada as they are so well made and the Approval Order for British Traps doesn't apply to you as such over there. What I would say though is to be wary of cheap imported BG's, the springs are poor and the entire trap is of lesser quality. I am looking forward to experimenting with the newly approved DOC traps from New Zealand when they get here, the DOC 250 looks like a decent enough mink killer (from the pictures I have seen and the humane tests that were carried out on it.)

 

OTC

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

The BMI Magnums are the only legal ones over here and are easily man enough to do the job as Chalkwarren pointed out earlier. I know Ditch prefers the Belisle from Canada as they are so well made and the Approval Order for British Traps doesn't apply to you as such over there.

 

 

OTC; Just as an aside here mate ~ but a Very important one ..... I can't imagine it's been you, I and every bugger else I know simply not reading the whole Order all these years? So, unless I was hallucinating recently, they must have sneaked in the subtle change?

 

To whit: You (as in england) are now allowed to use Other Than the tried and tested, brand stamped, sold by a given outfit! The only criteria being that they are 'materially' and what ever the same thing. I.e. Chink crap copies and sundry other rip offs!

 

But the (new) wording, IMHO, leaves plenty of scope for You to use a Belisle 116, every bit as much as a BMI or Duke

 

Of course; Only the few would choose to use Duke's Korean manufactured stuff. Equelly, only a complete raving lunatic would think about trying to fit a Belisle #220 in on that clause! But a Belisle #116 is about as near to a BMI Mag #116 as it gets. It's intrinsically the same damn trap. Just that - in my personal preferance, 'Bellies' do it for me every time. But a BMI will most definately do the work on the biggest mink out there.

 

Whoops! No pickies to back that statement. I must be full of shit yet again!

[Guest tawny]

it would be nice iff fenn or spinger,could produce a trap tayler made for mink.

a mk6 with an extra three inches in length and a longer plate would suite all who traps mink .

just a thought by myselfe though

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Tawney; You should see what Fenn first envisaged as his " Mk VI " trap, mate! I have one here. Prototype. It's a f*cking BEAST! In fact, it's one of the most Awesome traps A.A. Fenn ever produced, IMHO. And I've seen a few of his.

 

Sadly, I can see where it went a similar way to the Mink Terminator ~ the Juby: Cost of materials and, to a lesser degree with the Fenn, weight. But it really was a solid piece of work. Actually quite the antithesis of most of what Fenn has ever produced, when ye think about it.

[Guest tawny]

Tawney; You should see what Fenn first envisaged as his " Mk VI " trap, mate! I have one here. Prototype. It's a f*cking BEAST! In fact, it's one of the most Awesome traps A.A. Fenn ever produced, IMHO. And I've seen a few of his.

 

Sadly, I can see where it went a similar way to the Mink Terminator ~ the Juby: Cost of materials and, to a lesser degree with the Fenn, weight. But it really was a solid piece of work. Actually quite the antithesis of most of what Fenn has ever produced, when ye think about it.

mink can easy skip the pan on fens ditch,and sometimes get fouled caught, something they dont tend to do with bodygrips ?

maybe the bg is a better trap for them,and yet some like the fenn/springer type but i do think they need to be made a bit longer

to be classed as a trap for mink as well as the rabbit /squirrel trap

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Interesting view point, mate. Obviously, I've had next to no personal experience around mink. The one I saw the other week was one of the few genuine, wild mink I'd ever seen in real life. But even from that brief observation I noticed how its gait was quite unlike that of a ferret or stoat. So, ye reckon that rocking bound of theirs just tends to take them straight across the pan of a Fenn? That's intriguing.

 

Thing is, ye refer to the " Length " of pans? I suspect ye mean what I'd call their width? Distance equel to that which the creature has to clear in order to miss touching that pan as it crosses between the jaws?

 

Now, here's a thing; In US they get to use foot traps. And, out there, they have a device which ye pop onto the pan of such a trap, to make the pan area covered between the jaws that much bigger. These attachments are made specifically for mink trappers. Because mink - it seems - are renowned b*stards for skipping right over pans!

 

But, again; There's a well known case of a trial carried out. They set a Body Gripper and left a bitch mink with it. I can't remember the number of times - be it ten or thirty - and it hardly matters. Fact is, that little bitch Repeatedly hopped straight through the trigger of that trap all day long. Fact that she finally f*cked up and managed to fire the trap, almost by default, matters little in a field situation. Lesson demonstrated there is, surely; How many mink will one be missing with an un modified BG trigger? Like, oh; Ye may catch one a day. But how many did ye miss before one f*cked up? That's why they now tend to string a wire between the bottom, horizontal arms of the trigger. Maybe the mink just doesn't consider that obsticle enough to hop over?

 

They also, come to think of it, make pans for BG's. But, in view of the earlier considerations? I wonder how much advantage those would give around mink?

 

Anyway, probably the best example of all this coming together that I ever saw was on an Americam Fur Trappers forum. Guy had a sure fire mink run covered by a BG. There was snow or something, so he could tell every day that the b*stard had passed through his trap again. He had some top flight boys advising him on what to do next. But still it took him days to finally hit just the right bend and twist in that trigger to suite That mink.

 

Now, imagine you or I in a similar situation? We'd set our trap. Check it day after day. (No snow to show anything had ever been there). Then we'd decide it was a duff location and move on. And there could be a mink hopping back and forth through that trap, and us just never even knowing it.

 

 

Opener for further discussion, surely?

[TOMO 24,880]

with regard to missing the pan on the fenn in a tunnel, wouldn't a small jump stick set at the right distance from the trap sort that problem .

 

or a thin stick that will break easy, set above and acoss the inside of the tunnel, so the mink has to duck under. cow parsly would be good as its brittle but thik.

[Guest JohnGalway]

I'm happy to have started this thread now, it's generating a lot of useful info for me and others. Keep it coming folks!

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Well; As we're talking about BG's, I'd like to put my head over the parapet on an aspect that might well put another log on the fire round here. Bit of a " F*ck the Ban / Born to Hunt " one really. Yeppers; It pertains to the so often seen disregard for / taking the piss out of the law. " Tunnels "

 

See, it's all well and good to say that a wisp of grass palmed over forms " A Tunnel ". But a british court of law has already sorted that one out for us. Who else has heard of the " Professional " Pest Controller who pulled the grass stunt and caught a Heron in his Fenn trap? He wasn't laughing as he left that court ..... They 'f*cked' him. Anyway .....

 

The proper answer is, of course, a 'Proper' tunnel. To my personal way of thinking, this adds up to something with an entrance small enough and causing the trap to be set far back enough that only something able and willing to bodily go inside may practically fire that trap. Obviously, a BG will always need more room than it's target creature.There for we 'Fence' the entrance point.

 

Trouble is, Start messing about with wood and we imediately encounter some very depressing problems. Number one is the sheer weight and bulk of just a single, relatively short tunnel. Make four and that's more than enough to struggle off with. Two under each arm and every gate will find ye swearing and dropping.Picking up, swearing ... ye get the picture?

 

On top of that, and long before ye even reach that stage, the bloody slots ye need to cut are themselves a right royal pain in the arse. I don't have a Jig Saw or even a Rip Saw. Thus cutting a long slot down along the grain of a plank ..? Forget it. Been there. Tried that. Swore even more than usual! In fact, all that drama effectively did for my own interest in trying to use BG's.

 

Oh, I Know we may poke a hole with a Graft and then set one back into such a Blind Set. But I've never yet fathomed or come across a truly quick and simple manner of Supporting the wretched things. I can't Weld, so I can't knock up any of the little stands I've seen others talk of. In short then; I have a dozen or so BG's knocking about the place. And that, by and large, is where they bloody well stay. Except, on occassion, one.

 

Because I only own One of These. More precisely, the earlier, 'Mk 1' version, without the flap door at one end. And it's, to me, the best thing since sliced bread!

 

Sadly, they cost a relative fortune! I can't even remember where or how I aquired my single specimen. But I Love it! First and only time I tried it, I had a catch in no time. And that after finding the setting took moments. I struggle to actually prime BG's, as I have no Setting Tool for the small ones and simply lack the physical grip to crush the springs comfortably. But, trap primed? I slid it into position. Plonked the 'Cubby' down and sauntered off. If I had a dozen (and a Setter) I could have set them in no time. Carrying a dozen of these Cubbys under my arm would be no problem either as they fit inside eachother in a tight and tidy stack.

 

Oh well. One of these days my boat'll come in and I'll buy me a dozen or two of these fantastic things. Mheanwhile ....? Take it away, lads!