Giving old traps new life

[3175darren 1,093]

Right I know most people won’t bother, when traps get old they will remove trigger wires,and some loops for spares, but I have been laid up with that bloody virus, and god makes work for bored idle hands, also I have taken another fare sized farm, some distance away from where I live, I decided to try and revive a few older traps,that to me were getting to the end of there usefull lives, I know people will talk about speed dip, and other trap treatments, that I can never find, anyone who has any stock at the time I want some, anyway some one once mentioned on here about useing underseal, last year I tried it on two traps that were knackered, both caught consistently, through last winter, anyway blather aside, the ones I did last year I thinned the underseal with petrol, this year I bought a tin of areasol waxoyl thinking I wouldn’t have to thin it out, 

This is a old flat pack trap, before they made all the bodies stainless steel, traps about 4 yr old used in acidic soil, after spraying, 

after spraying I went over it with a blowtorch, to melt the wax down into the springs, and to even the covering out,  It made a huge difference to the trap, it fired a lot more smoothly, 

anyway I set 4 treated traps, and 4 untreated traps yesterday, behind the house were I walk the dogs, just to see if they were any difference, and I had three in treated traps, and two in untreated, in fairness the treated traps were in a busier area of the field, they did take a bit of re tunning after spraying, but who cares if the traps work, 

 

I know I am a tight Yorkshire man, I am ordering more traps, I have a good amount of stainless flat packs, but boredom does strange things, and I had to try, just to see for myself, and in my opinion it’s worth doing, all kills were clean quick kills, I did try and load a couple more pictures, but they wouldn’t load, I wasn’t going to post this, but then thought bugger it it may be useful to someone, 

[mackem 23,662]

Excellent write up and good pics,thanks 

[Rowan 308]

Nice one mate , glad i'm not the only one with a mend and make do attitude.

[earth-thrower 490]

3 hours ago, 3175darren said:

Right I know most people won’t bother, when traps get old they will remove trigger wires,and some loops for spares, but I have been laid up with that bloody virus, and god makes work for bored idle hands, also I have taken another fare sized farm, some distance away from where I live, I decided to try and revive a few older traps,that to me were getting to the end of there usefull lives, I know people will talk about speed dip, and other trap treatments, that I can never find, anyone who has any stock at the time I want some, anyway some one once mentioned on here about useing underseal, last year I tried it on two traps that were knackered, both caught consistently, through last winter, anyway blather aside, the ones I did last year I thinned the underseal with petrol, this year I bought a tin of areasol waxoyl thinking I wouldn’t have to thin it out, 

This is a old flat pack trap, before they made all the bodies stainless steel, traps about 4 yr old used in acidic soil, after spraying, 

after spraying I went over it with a blowtorch, to melt the wax down into the springs, and to even the covering out,  It made a huge difference to the trap, it fired a lot more smoothly, 

anyway I set 4 treated traps, and 4 untreated traps yesterday, behind the house were I walk the dogs, just to see if they were any difference, and I had three in treated traps, and two in untreated, in fairness the treated traps were in a busier area of the field, they did take a bit of re tunning after spraying, but who cares if the traps work, 

 

I know I am a tight Yorkshire man, I am ordering more traps, I have a good amount of stainless flat packs, but boredom does strange things, and I had to try, just to see for myself, and in my opinion it’s worth doing, all kills were clean quick kills, I did try and load a couple more pictures, but they wouldn’t load, I wasn’t going to post this, but then thought bugger it it may be useful to someone, 

like the photos, cheers,...

[3175darren 1,093]

1 hour ago, earth-thrower said:

like the photos, cheers,...

Thanks I am rubbish with a camera, normally 

[trappa 517]

Nice write up and great pics. Thanks

[j j m 6,478]

good write up mate and nice pics

[The one 8,393]

With the cost of traps its always worth giving a make over to older traps ,then breaking them down for spares instead of binning them these days 

[3175darren 1,093]

19 hours ago, The one said:

With the cost of traps its always worth giving a make over to older traps ,then breaking them down for spares instead of binning them these days 

definitely, the thing is It worked, just normal underseal, all the traps that were treated, are catching all firing smoothly, so nothing lost,